I live in Austin.

Are you going to work while living in Austin, or just train full-time?

This is important because traffic is bad, so a long commute every day will waste training time. If you have to work, do you already have a job or are you going to find one after you get here?

did you live here before traffic got bad? The city has quickly outgrown its infrastructure, but that's a different discussion altogether. You are correct that its not LA traffic, but traffic sucks way worse than it use to. I lived in austin, moved to NYC, and now I'm back....so I get big city traffic.

Anyway, the above is correct in that traffic can eat up a lot of your training time. I commute via bike to/from work several days a week to offset. I'm lucky enough that i can ride mostly traffic-free, in bike lanes, and on wide shoulders almost all they way to/from work.

If you are looking for a mostly traffic-free ride, the dam loop is NOT it. I like riding it, but there's a lot of traffic out there. I ride parmer a lot b/c after you get north of 1431, the traffic starts to thin out. Plus, the extension is done all the way up to 35, and there a plenty of routes you can split off to add mileage.

I like Pure Quarry lake, alot. Its expensive for austin, yes, but it is cheaper than any gym I had in NYC. Access to the lake/pool and fairly easy access to the Dam loop and Parmer from that location make swim/bike easy. I have several good (very hilly) routes from the gym to run as well. Doesn't take long to get away from traffic. You can even get to trails fairly easily from Pure too. I live up north though, so its convenient. If I lived south, it wouldn't be useful.

Austin Training Logistics
I am moving to Austin in 1.5 months, leaving the cold winters of the northeast behind, can't wait. I am moving 2 months prior to racing IMMD, not the best time to move but trying to make best of it.
I have read through some threads and talked with some of the bike shops down in Austin. Any further help is appreciated, thanks in advance.
Things i already know:
-- Barton Springs has great spot for outdoor swimming and swimming pools don't seem to hard to find.
Barton Springs is great, but every time it rains, it has to close for runoff flooding. It is currently closed indefinitely I believe until floodwaters return to normal levels. It does rain here actually. Other pools are Deep Eddy (33 1/3 yards), Big Stacy, and several gyms. I swim at the YMCA on Town Lake and its pretty good as well as indoors and open year round. A lot of community outdoor pools are free when they open for the summer.
-- Driveway series looks really cool.
Fun but dangerous. Lots of fun. Make sure you know how to handle in a pack or you will crash and people will be angry.
-- Downtown river trail seems to be some of the best running seems to be about a 12 mile loupe?
Lake is a great place to run. The entire loop is 10 miles, but you can make smaller loops by crossing back at Lamar, Congress, 1st, I35. Also connects to Shoal Creek and the Barton Creek Greenbelt.
-- Parmer Lane to the south gives a nice out and back and cars thin out after a few miles.
Parmer is actually north, but a good ride regardless. Kind of rolling hills, not too much traffic, huge shoulder, and a pretty long road start to end.
What I am trying to figure out and am looking for:
-- Bike routes that are as car free as possible (don't mind driving to a starting point).
Riding up north is usually less crowded and can give you a good mix of really steep climbs, rollers, or flat straight roads. Take your road bike out on some group rides. Look up the Austin Tri Cyclist blog and there is a recent post about every group ride in Austin.
-- Bike routes 60-120 miles, don't mind doing loupes.
Parmer, anywhere southeast past towards the airport and 130, way south, way north. The trick is just getting out to a lot of these rides. Riding on 360 is hairy and lots of traffic.
-- Any spots were you can get a bike and run in from the same starting point.
See bellow.
-- Any spots were you can get a bike, run, swim in from the same starting point.
You can swim at Walter E Long lake and bike and run from there (Northeast), Barton Springs you can do all 3 if you don't mind riding out from downtown or on a lot of hills. The Pure Austin Quarry Lake is good (northwest). Technically you can bike/run anywhere if you're not picky on running locations :)

Other notes:
-get on group rides, its a great way to learn the city layout for cycling as well as meet other people
-there are a lot of running groups to choose from as well
-Austin Tri Cyclist (ATC) is an awesome triathlon specific bike shop (also does road, mountain and cross). Good group of guys pretty close to the cycling and triathlon community. They have good group rides and runs throughout the week too. I also work there but of course I'm not biased. Its also right down the street from the Zilker area since you said you were probably living there. Also beer Friday.
-If you do strength training (and you should), I work at a small gym downtown called Driven Performance Training where I do personal training and also do triathlon coaching (drivenperformance.net, drivenendurance.net, robert@drivenperformance.net). You should check it out :)
-its a cool place to live for endurance athletes. Lots of people to train with, lots of good local races, good places to train, and tacos.

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Robert Dao
ATC Racing - Austin, TX
Gold's Gym Triathlon Coach
@speedao1
@daotraining

its a cool place to live for endurance athletes. Lots of people to train with, lots of good local races, good places to train, and tacos.