If you got a mountain bike, a CX bike, a gravel bike, a road bike with wider tires, or a bike like this, I've found this trail system to be very impressive. The network is actually bigger than pictured. It is worth trying. In my experience, it has many many long stretches, loops, etc. (great for intervals). The trail system works, it's practical, it's rarely crowded, and it's safe. Because, weekends or weekday rush hours, it is totally protected from folks texting while driving, or who knows what else ...

---

Advanced Aero TopTube Storage for Road, Gravel, & Tri...ZeroSlip & Direct-mount, made in the USA.
DarkSpeedWorks.com.....Reviews.....Insta.....Facebook
--

Awesome!

Hopefully you can find some friends in Naperville who can hang with you.

---

___________________________
Mac McEneaney

I live up in St. Charles and ride those trails almost every day. Fantastic to ride hard efforts with the cx bike but 23mm road tires will work just fine for most of it if the ground is dry.

Plenty of preserves in north Naperville (Herrick Lake, Danada, Blackwell, St. James, Morton Arboretum) as well as south (Springbrook, McDowell, Greene Valley, Knock Knolls).

Lots of fast group rides as well, especially a bit north and west. Depending on what you're looking to get in for training, you should be able to find many options! Let me know if you have any other thoughts. I lived and trained in Naperville for 6 years before moving northwest.

---

Alex Arman

Strava

If you don't have cold weather gear make sure you get some.

Trails and paths around Chicagoland are rarely(never) plowed. If the path is near a road, snowplow wake tends to bury it all winter with a sheet of snow and ice.

My hands get really cold and with the loss of daylight I pretty much stop riding at the end of September.

I'm from the NW suburbs so I have no specific advice other than http://solemnoathbrewery.com/ is in Naperville and has some very nice offerings and a happening taproom.
http://www.twobrothersbrewing.com/ and http://penrosebrewing.com/ are also fairly close and of high quality.

---

Swim - Bike - Run the rest is just clothing changes.

There's a pair of guys near St. Charles/Geneva that are pretty darn fast.

You can always ride with Starky... I hear he's a pretty good rider.


You can just go through the USAT Nationals and Rankings and find guys from IL.... then stalk them on the internet.

---

TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

haha thanks again, Mac! You sold me on the area.

There's a pretty nice paved trail that goes from Whalon lake (Border of Bolingbrook) through downtown Naperville. I use the gravel path in Green valley forest preserve for short runs. For "trails" you'll need to go to Palos Heights for some mountain biking. For tri/cycling groups there are a few, my favorite in the Naperville area are Spokes and Endure It. Both groups start in town and ride out to Fermi lab. If you're looking for a running store I can't recommend Naperville Running Company enough. Do visit Two Brothers brewing, good food and beer.

thanks for the input. excited to get there and start exploring

OK, its been 17 years since we lived there (near Fox Valley Mall on Rt59) so this is WAY dated info...

• Downtown Naperville had a good group ride. On weekends there was a good group ride on Sat and Sun mornings leaving from one of the parks around downtown Naperville. We'd have 20+ riders with a nice leisurely roll out working our way SW out of town. As we got on more rural roads the pace would pick up. Would work our way to Oswego, then south and eventually circle back.
• The area in and around FermiLab was OK riding
• Going offroad on the PrairePath to avoid traffic
• Off of Cass Ave south of I-55 had some good mountain bike trails with a little bit of roll to it
• I used to ride up to St. Charles just to do some hill repeats west of "The Bike Rack" bike shop
• I used to ride to Lemont and would ride a circuit (again for hills).

Again, this is all dated info. I know there's been a lot of development in the western burbs...one of the big reasons why we left the area (suburban sprawl, Chicago traffic, lack of hills).

---

Tad

It took awhile, but I finally discovered that its not the destination that's important, but rather the journey.