-Where to swim

Plenty of places to Join. Wisconsin Athletic Club, YMCA etc.

-Where to ride on the road/b-roads

Good riding and lots of glacial terrain to be found, as well as many nice converted rail lines.....oak leaf trail, glacial drumlin trail

-Where to ride MTBs

Northern and Southern Kettle Moraine State Parks....some of the best you will find.

-Where to run

Milwaukee Lakefront

-Good races to check out (tri, road, mtb, running, whatever!)

Plenty of Races....Lake Front Marathon (Badgerland Striders), Dousman Dualthon, IM and HIM in Madison in September and June. Door County Triathlon

-Good group rides/runs or tri clubs

Badgerland Striders

-Where to eat/drink/get coffee

Collectivo, Mama D's (on the Glacial Drumlin Trail)

-Good LBS's

Good LBS, visit em all and find the one you are comfortable with:

Wheel and Sprocket, Emery's, Bike Dr (I go to Bike Dr most of the time, on Glacial Drumlin Trail)

-Any other neighborhoods to look at other than Wauwatosa?

Assume she is a MCW, Tosa is closest. Brookfield, ElmGrove also close, little further west.

-Should we both get fatbikes an xc skis?

XC sking is good west of town. Lapham Peak has lighted night skiing and makes snow

Send Heather Haviland on Facebook. She knows the ins and outs of MKE training groups for everything. She's a great resource to have.

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Inside The Big Ring: Podcast & Coaching

You should read the book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Mathhew Desmod. Nothing about triathlon but a fascinating and (for me) shocking book about Milwaukee.

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Andrew Inkpen

I lived in MKE for ~5yrs, lived in Shorewood for a couple years and Cedarburg for a few. I'd highly recommend Cedarburg although it might be a bit of a drive. The Kettles are pretty good for mtb. If you're into mtb racing, check out the WORS series. There are some pretty good trails all over the state if you don't mind a drive. I also agree that the lakefront is great for running, probably my favorite place to run in MKE. Lots of good LBS's, races, and clubs. My go-to LBS was Wheel & Sprocket North Shore. Definitely get ski's and do the Birkie. Lot of good rails to trails for commuting, I wouldn't use them for training though. Lakeshore Drive is pretty popular for roadies but zero elevation and it can be fairly busy. Holy Hill is a must do MKE ride and you can get some decent climbing in. If you want some really good roads, go to Baraboo for a weekend. If you're into hiking, check out Devil's Lake while you are there. If IM is your thing go ride the IMWI course, it is a great course and it's mostly marked. I would not recommend riding in Milwaukee proper... ever (ie if you live in Tosa don't cut over to the lake on North Ave, you won't make it). Tons of great places for beer/coffee/food (Lakefront Brewery, Collectivo, Estabrook Beer Garden, Hollander). In my opinion, MKE is one of the most underrated cities in the US... you will enjoy it

-Where to swim
-> Wisconsin Athletic Club, YMCA, Princeton Club (New Berlin), Elite Fitness (all depend on where you live, time of day to swim, etc). Wisconsin Athletic Club (WAC) has a location right across from Childrens/Froedtert/Medical College on Water Town Plank Road. Clean, great hours (I'm always hoping for a 24/7 place - for the pool - but that's rare. Their hours are good and the pool is one of their better ones.)

-Where to ride on the road/b-roads
-> old train bed trail systems. Oak Leaf Trail, Hank Aaron Trail, Menomonee River Trail. I grew up in rural Wisconsin and now live in Tosa (Wauwatosa). I can ride year round and do upwards of 80+ mi without spending much of any time on streets. Depends on where you start and where you want to go.

-Where to ride MTBs
-> not my area of expertise - someone mentioned Kettle Moraine (that's a good start)

-Where to run
-> Same with biking. You have tons and tons of choices. This really depends on where you want to start. The lakefront is awesome. People who aren't from Mke or didn't grow up here have no clue how much shoreline is accessible on trails and such. It is very similar to biking.

-Good races to check out (tri, road, mtb, running, whatever!)
-> See other posts. I offer the same advice.

-Good group rides/runs or tri clubs
-> In addition to what others mentioned: P3 (Peak Performance Professionals). Great coaches and great programs. I do one-on-one with Bob Hanisch and it is (hands down) the best investment that I have ever made.
-Where to eat/drink/get coffee

-> Colectivo, Stone Creek are probably the better of the roasters in Mke. There are a bunch of other ones. Valentine, Anodyne, etc. It really depends on where you live and what your preference is.

-Good LBS's
-> Missing from one of the other posts is Ben's Cycle and Erik's. Erik's is a chain from Minneapolis (I think that's where the founder started). My fave is Ben's for a lot of reasons - mostly a few mechanics who work there and the owner. "Good" is defined religiously. I've gotten to know a bunch of the owners of the various shops. What is nice to find out is that most of them are friends/friendly toward one another and have their own skills/foci. (Also, Johnson's in Tosa is awesome. The owner is really friendly and helpful. He doesn't focus on tri bikes, though, and I go elsewhere for work on that type of equipment - namely Ben's.)

-Any other neighborhoods to look at other than Wauwatosa?
-> Another religious question. I live in Tosa, so clearly NONE. If you want to be close to MCW or the health complex, Tosa is probably the best. If you're young and want to get out a lot, 3rd Ward. If you're a hippie and never really left college, the East Side. It all depends. Milwaukee's worst traffic jam is about 15 min. So, everything depends on perspective and what you're looking for.

-Should we both get fatbikes an xc skis?
-> Fatbikes are fun, but also just depends on how much you're really going to train outside vs on a trainer. XC Skis ... dare I say: I've lived 33 yrs in southeaster WI (and years in other areas of the world). I could probably count on my hands and toes the true number of days where XC is good in SE WI. You're better off saving your money and spending it on another bike or gym membership. We really don't get enough snow to make use of XC unless you're die hard and want to go north.

Where to swim - WAC (Wisconsin Athletic Club) multiple locations through out the Milwaukee Suburbs all have nice enough pools.

Where to ride road bikes: Lake Front / Oak Leaf Trail / Glacial Drumlin Trail

Where to ride MTB: Not sure
Where to run: Lake Front
Races: Elk Hart Lake Tri, Pewaukee Tri, Lake Geneva Tri (Use to be Tri Rock, Then Escape and Now something else) Door County Tri

LBS: Wheel and Sprocket is my go to, great staff at all locations but I go to the North Shore one. Heard good things about Emery’s as well, just haven’t had the need to go.

Eat: Local Staples - Benelux, Bel Air, Cafe Hollander. Foodie Area: Bay View, 5th Ward, Walkers Point.

Coffee: Colectivo

Neighborhoods:
I live in the north shore, when my wife and I were looking for a house we wanted to be close to the lake, but Tosa is great.

Downtown: Third Ward
North Shore: Whitefish Bay / Shorewood
West: Tosa / Brookfield / Elm Grove

Hopefully that helps.

Milwaukee is such an underrated City, feel free to send me a PM if you want any more information:



-Where to swim
Depends where you move, plenty of highschools have masters groups. If you're more solo person the WAC has plenty of locations also one at the Medical Center


-Where to ride on the road/b-roads
Oak Leaf Trail takes you downtown up to Sheboygan, Hank Aaron will get you out west, Bug Line is more North west side. Once you get out west to Menominee Falls or Waukesha you're pretty much in Country roads. For long rides Holy Hill is great.

-Where to ride MTBs
John Muir, Emma Carlin, Greenbush

-Where to run
Lakefront, join the Original Milwaukee Running Group and the Badgerland Striders.

-Good races to check out (tri, road, mtb, running, whatever!)
Toughman Wisconsin, South Shore half, Estabrook Half, Lakefront Marathon

-Good group rides/runs or tri clubs
Tri Wisconsin has a couple a week, not sure on other places

-Where to eat/drink/get coffee
Welcome to Wisconsin, there's a pub on practically every corner... Coffee Stone Creek, Colectivo

-Good LBS's
Wheel and Sprocket, Emery's, Ben's, The Bike Fixers

-Any other neighborhoods to look at other than Wauwatosa?
Depends if you want to be in the City or Suburbs, I love the East Side as it is both quiet and has the amenities of a City within walking distance, Bay View is also great in that regard. Shorewood if you feel like having a kid. Waukesha if you like to have a big plot of land and like chain restaurants.

-Should we both get fatbikes an xc skis?
Depends where you move, if you move west of the city the Ski trails at Lapham are easy to get to, if you move within the city it gets to be cumbersome to get out to Lapham.

Thanks all for the recommendations! The more we research about the area, the more excited we're getting to move. It seems like there's great food, running, and beer in most parts of the city and it's not too hard to get out to some great riding. We're still leaning towards Tosa since my wife will be at MCW for the most part.

How is traffic in general in the city? I'm looking at jobs in the city, but also some stuff farther away to the west. Those options would already be a long commute though so I don't want to do that if there's regularly traffic that adds 20 minutes each way. For reference, we're coming from the Baltimore/DC area which has pretty terrible traffic.

One of the absolutely BEST things about MKE that everyone so far has forgotten is............

https://www.kopps.com

Koop's Frozen Custard! New flavors every single day! Check website for amazing flavors.

Also, Summerfest is the largest music festival in the US ( perhaps world?).

I'm in Madison which is extremely good riding and eats so come on over!!! I think you may really love it here in the Milwaukee/Madison area.

Traffic is non existent compared to what you are used to....

Adding to my last post.....

I have ridden with this group, see calendar and links to rides. Probably a 30 minute drive from Tosa to get to the bike shop:

https://www.bikedr.com/

If you are in to velodrome this is fun, I have gone for a couple events:

http://www.kenoshavelodrome.com/

I did this ride last year and it was awesome:

http://wisconsinbikefed.org/...de-across-wisconsin/

And if you like Criterium racing, or spectating:

http://www.tourofamericasdairyland.com/

I'm jealous as I just moved away after 10 years in that fine city.

If you end up in Tosa, and are looking to ride with a group, look up Tosa Spokesmen.

Regarding traffic, I had a few coworkers commute to the eastside of the city, or by the airport, from Delafield - out near Lapham Peak. Commute was around 40 minutes - better if work hours are somewhat flexible.

Speaking of Lapham Peak, in addition to making snow for XC skiing, one of the bike shops puts on weekly fatbike races across the street from the XC ski trails.

I think the city added 10+ breweries last year. Most are good. Some have already failed/changed over.

If you are looking for open water swimming, check out Lake Michigan Swimmers blogspot. They usually start around Memorial Day. They are in Whitefish Bay. Good group, not too serious, but they'll accept you if you are. Killipitsch is excellent.

If you are looking for a fun ride with some beverages, check out Fat Tire Tour of Milwaukee.

Check out Bennos in West Allis. the local MTB crew drinks there.

As far as running groups - Badgerland Striders, The Milwaukee Running Group - OMG, and Glacial Trail Runners, along with Lapham Peak Trail Runners are all good in their own ways.

As far as where to live - agree with the others - 3rd ward, walkers point, bay view. If you are looking to stay in the city. Walkers Point is still gentrifying, there are still some sketchy spots. If you are feeling adventurous, check out Riverwest - known as 'where art meets crime'. The usual game in the neighborhood is fun - it's a name that sound game. Gunshots or Fireworks?

Tosa is a great area, good freeway access all directions, largest regional mall in the metro area and plenty of biking and running trails. If you are looking for rental housing there are a number of nice new projects in the area, one within 5 minutes of the Regional Medical Complex with secure dedicated bike storage, great workout facility and owned by a member of the Tri community. OK, it's me. Welcome to the neighborhood!