Off season goals -- Personal Trainer, Strength

Why hire a personal trainer? For less money you could hire a tri coach and I suspect you'd improve your tri times more than working with a personal trainer. I guess it depends on your goals.

Big difference in viewpoints here on BT if strength training is helpful or not.

I'm a women over 45 and think for me it is good. I was in a bike crash and seperated my shoulder. My PT commented to me that I recovered probably more than twice as fast as I was strong at the time of my crash so I was able to build more strength quickly and recover.

I have a tri coach and he has me do all sorts of different strength training and probably 85% of the stuff I could do at home with weights, bands and the like. I don't use machines as they work one muscle group not helping me move better and coordinate the movement. 

In being a member of my Y for 5 years and seeing the personal trainers and talking to the head of the fitness department who is a personal trainer, honestly I don't think many know much about tris and I wouldn't trust them at all. Ask about their credentials often they don't have any. What experience do they have with triathletes? 

Just a couple of my thoughts... 

your goal for the off season should be only two... Rest and Recover!

however IF you are talking about the base phase AND one of your goals is to do strenght training because you enjoy it, then yes you could join a gym for sure for the reasons you mentioned. If you are looking to improve your tri perfomrance next year you could focus on other stuff such as working on your limiter(s), improve technique/economy, increasing your base, etc.