the best riding is in the west, south and north of tucson. gates pass, Sandario rd, Ajo road, the backside of gates through the Tucson Mtns, Mission road, up oacle to Biosphere or beyond, hill repeats on A mtn.

Places to stay, there are a few best western's, the Marriott at University, there is a sheraton, and someother hotels on the I-10 corridor. Really anything from Swan and going W either on Braodway, Speedway or Grant would work. There are bike lanes running throughout the city. Also anything near Star Pass is good.

For running there is the Rillito river path, the Santa Cruz river path, you can run Gates Pass and the Starr Pass Loop. Actually there are a ton of feeder trails you can add for distance. On of the hotels has a 25m pool, on the corner of St. mary's and I forgot, but it is off I-10 near downtown.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Near the University. I believe the University pool is open. Do not miss an early morning run in Sibino (sp) Canyon. Tucson is a great city, great food and great extracurricular activities. Check out Full Cycle, you may want to call TriSports and get their opinion. Great riding everywhere, plenty of hills. You will have a great time, have fun.

Full cycle is no longer. it became super go which is now performance. Call Rudy at trisports.com. you can ship a bike there, have them assemble, drop off and have them ship back. Plus you can get anytihgn you forgot. To swim PM fasttwitch, he swims at Hillenbrand with masters and they swim 3 times per day.

Also you need to ride Mt. Lemmon (but do not believe anyone who says the pie at the top is worth stopping for. It's good, but not that good and the service sucks)

115intheshade can also help you with places to ride/run/swim as he is now a native Tucsonian since he has been there so long.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

DD said "Also you need to ride Mt. Lemmon (but do not believe anyone who says the pie at the top is worth stopping for. It's good, but not that good and the service sucks)"

We had a great ride up last week and stopped for pie. Tim, the server could not get out of his own way...

Sweet ride down though.

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http://www.pbmcoaching.com
USA Triathlon Level 3 Elite Coach
USA Cycling Level 1 Elite Coach

Hey, I live here and still haven't ridden mt. lemmon. The pie is pricey...

Arizona Inn is very close to the University and is very nice, but not an incredibly great location for cycling. Make sure you do Gates Pass, and for a good long steady climb, take Oracle all the way up past Biosphere to the Oracle Circle K. Very cyling friendly up there (I live off of north Oracle). If you want to stay in the northern part of Tucson/Oro Valley, I would recommend the Oro Valley Municipal Pool which is outdoors, heated and empty. There are some decent and not expensive hotels in that area as well.

Rudy at Trisports is great (great customer service) and/or the guys at FairWheel across from the University.

PM me if you need more specifics. OH, and please come on our club ride on that Saturday if you're still around - tucsondesertheat.org .

Kurt,

next year if you have someon who descends slow. Pull off the side of the road, wait for them to go past, jump out of the bushes catch back up to them and scare the shit out of them by swooping past in the apex of a turn.

Great fun!

Sorry I could not catch up with you guys.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Thanks for all the good advice everyone. Is shipping a bike better than taking it on the plane with you? I am nervous about my bike getting damaged in transit. This sounds like a better option. I will look them up.

Is there a good online map with these cycle routes marked on so I will know where I am going?

I'm going to be down there myself next week, hope to do a lot of running, trails and roads, as well as swimming. Don't plan to bring the bike though. Question: is the Arizona Inn for a nice dinner worth it? It's my 9th anniversary and I need a special place. That spot comes to mind, but perhaps there are other good options.

How nice of a dinner do you want? I'd go with Hacienda Del Sol... very, very nice. http://haciendadelsol.com/

I have had some luncheons at Az Inn and haven't been terribly impressed, but luncheons are luncheons. Great bar though.

Not overly fancy (I don't want to have to dress up too much), but nice enough to qualify as a "special dinner occasion". I'll check the Hacienda. Thanks.

Last week I was at a camp in Tucson. We stayed at the Marriot Residence Inn that is on Speedway. The hotel was very clean and breakfast was included with your stay. The hotel was within walking distance to a pool and a bike shop. The riding from the hotel was good too. You could do the Gates Pass ride and the climb up Mt Lemon from the hotel. We also did a couple different trail runs that left from a park that we drove to. Not sure what the name of it was but it was about a 15 min drive to get there from the hotel. I remember one of the runs we did was called 7 falls.

Jill

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Jill

jill, were you with the peter reid camp?

i saw that group coming down from gates on sunday the 12th.

kurt

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http://www.pbmcoaching.com
USA Triathlon Level 3 Elite Coach
USA Cycling Level 1 Elite Coach

Serena, I just stayed a week at the Holiday Inn Express in Oro Valley on Oracle Rd, the northern area of Tucson. Not overly expensive and they include a great breakfast. There's a running trail along a wash right across the street and a public pool up the road a mile or two.

You can have a decent ride from the hotel to the Biosphere..or further for a good descent and climb back. Mt. Lemmon and Gates Pass are both worth the hassle getting to by car or bike. I also second running in Sabino Canyon...it was a beautiful area!

And (sorry Brian) you really have to go to the top of Mt. Lemmon and get pie (the cherry is great!)..or forget the pie and get a pastrami ruben...hell, forget the food, the scenery getting there is worth it.

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Nancy
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Two great bike shops:
TriSports.com - located on Grant Road west of I-10. Sabino Cycles is at Tanque Verde and Sabino Canyon.

Best running: hilly = Sabino Canyon; flat = Rillito river path.

Cycling: pretty much all over. Northwest is a slight uphill, southeast is flat / rollers, Northeast is up Mt. Lemmon, west has hills or flat. Basically, there is great cycling everywhere outside of town.

Swimming: Guest pass at UA student rec center is $5/day - beautiful pool, open from 7 - 9 every day.

Hotel: Lots of places are affordable, depends on what you want to be closest to.

Restaurants: lots of great places, all depends on your budget.

Be sure to go to TriSports - the shopping is fabulous.

Also, our club organizes runs/rides if you want company: www.TucsonTriGirls.org

Have a great visit!

Yes, I was there with the Endurance Specialists group. Peter wasn't at the camp this year. Paul Cross and his brother Jason ran the camp with the help of Chris Brown. Great camp I really enjoyed it.

Jill

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Jill

Mid town is a great place to stay...town isn't that that big so you can access everything from there.

Swimming...UofA masters or if you want to do your own thing Archer center ($3) is where I swim.

Bike...all the places DD suggested are great. If you go south on Mission you can go out through sahuarita and Green Valley and hit the frontage road for a great stop sign free ride.

Running...I prefer trails! The Tucson Mnts have great trails that I frequint a lot. Sabino canyon is great. Wasson peak if you want a hard climb.

If you have any ??? drop me a PM. Or if you need someone to show you the trails give me a holler. I know most of them very well!

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B.Oliver -My Blog...triguywithavx.wordpress.com
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Again, thanks to everyone for all your help.

This is a last minute trip and I am running around trying to get everything organised and I am still trying to get my head around some of the logistics. 115ITS, AZTriGirl and erinleigh thanks for the additional offer of help. I am not a great cyclist. Not fast. I just would like the opportunity to get some good practise going up long steady climbs. Once I get a little better organized I will definitely send a PM to get a better read on things. You guys are so great. Thanks again.

Serena

Anyone have any opinions on the Holiday Inn Express on West Grant? Is it okay. The other hotels seem really expensive!

Serena

If it is where I am thinking then it is fine. That would be right off the interstate up te street from Trisports.com to boot.

You are right on the Santa Cruz river path, which is a 9 mile loop. You can access the XC trails at Pima CC by running on the path to Speedway and tuning Rt. they are about 1 mile further.

You are in a great spot for biking, everything is accessible from that spot.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Awesome. Thanks so much for your help.

Serena

Hi Nance! Serena, if you stay up north, the Oro Valley Municipal Pool only charges two bucks per swim. And yes, the pie is definitely worth it! We're all training for next year's pieathlon....

Sharon

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Festina Lente

Hey Doc Peachy (and Oley)!

And the view from the $2 pool is priceless!

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Nancy
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