If you love triathlon then you MUST swim. Relying on facilities to provide that for you can fail (pool closed). So the best place in USA for triathlon I learned during the full nationwide shutdowns.... is florida. Yes I still swam during those times. No worries about freezing your self to death all year. For some reason I personally cant live there. Too boring - lack of variety in culture through out the state, everything looks the same.

If you want a mild year round climate, and don't want to live near the CA coast, then southern NM and AZ (even some parts of SW Texas!) are the best. It's sunny (sunniest winters in the US), and the rainiest part of the year is the summer. Pretty dry all year though. Most of these are pretty small...

Town - Jan/July avg high temp

Alpine TX - 60/90
Ruidoso NM - 50/82
Silver City NM - 53/88
Las Cruces NM - 60/95
Bisbee AZ - 59/90
Sierra Vista AZ - 60/93

Las Cruces is a decent size (100k), has a university, and is close to a major airport and larger city in El Paso. Housing is cheap, and it's growing fast.

I was browsing your instagram to try and get an idea of where you were training in Tucson, but there's no real great indicators. In general, I'm curious to hear more about the areas of town you are riding in and the equipment you are using. To put it simply, there isn't a better place in the US than southern Arizona to be a pro triathlete in the fall/winter when taking into consideration cost of living, pool options, and running/biking options. Have you been doing the group rides or just riding solo? Do you have any networking there to connect you to better/different ride options? It wasn't until I started riding with a good crew that I really discovered the breadth of what Tucson has to offer (and I barely scratched the surface since I never rode more than 130mi).

This is awesome info and my wife and I will be strongly considering a move up there for a good chunk of this winter.

The group riding sounds awesome.

And you're totally right. We always try to explain that humidity phenomenon to our families and they give us looks like we're crazy.

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Road quality is good overall! Shoulders are ok but we have lots of country roads that have very little traffic. Sorry to assume you meant Greenville. We are on so many best places to live / retire lists, I just assumed. My bad. Sounds like Greensboro must be nice too. The southeast is pretty nice overall.

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I'll be honest. Bend Oregon shouldn't be on this list.

Yes, pros live there, but once pros move there, their focus is not on racing that much anymore. Bend is more like the retirement home for professional athletes.

The nearest lake is 50 minutes away. The only water in town is a river that hovers around 58 degrees. The local pool costs $7.

Training for swimming sucks.

There are no roads in town that are more than 1mile without traffic controls. Outside of town, there are 3 or 4 ridable roads. Two of those are just giant hills. The rest of the roads are all chipseal and travelled by diesel trucks still flying trump flags. The road riding sucks in Bend.

Trail running is excellent, but that is it.

There is no triathlon community in Bend. There used to be a club in central Oregon, but it doesn't seem to exist anymore.

There is only one in-town race and the swim is downriver and lasts 8 minutes. The other races that pop up all use the same courses and there is very little variety.

Everytime a triathlete moves here, their focus shifts from training to building a post-race career.

In juxtaposition, Just east of Seattle, you can get a 60 mile ride in with minimal street crossings on the burke Gilman trail, and you have three triathlete-used swimming lakes in 15 minites from each other. There are several clubs in Seattle.

Bend Oregon kills triathletes.

Not quite sure what trails you are referring to (Sammamish? Centennial? Some other?), but you aren't getting 60 miles on Burke-Gilman, unless you do multiple iterations. Per King County website, it's only 20 miles. And, from experience, your dodging lots of crowding (bikes and pedestrians) along the way...

This.

I'm from the east coast, did my first trip to CO last summer. Spent some time in foco and boulder, couple other spots. If I was gunna move out there I'd pick foco 100x out of 100.

I'll add another positive review of the Greensboro/Triad area. Decent to good weather all year, active local tri club, plenty of local running and sprint/olympic distance races, a great open water swim race series at Jordan Lake, non-Ironman branded 70.3s within short distance that are really well run (Belews Lake, White Lake), easy driving distance to a handful of Ironman branded races, and dirt cheap cost of living.

Add in geography (to the east you have lowlands, flat, and eventually the coast; to the west you have elevation and mountains; no more than 15 minutes until your biking on empty roads next to cows; plenty of options for trail running as well), and it's a great place to live and train.

Where in Florida were you? North Florida? That I can see. If you want culture, then you need to come to experience south Florida. Yes the terrain is much the same (flat, green, and palm trees). But there’s a ton of culture in south Florida (Orlando area and specifically palm beach county and south).

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The sammamish trail links to the burke Gilman trail the in Marymore park.

I used that trail regularly for 70.3 training. There were only a few congested areas that are a concern.

Swimming at Idylwood and doing an out and back to Bothell landing with a run is a great brick workout.

Compared to Bend Oregon chipseal roads, it is a godsend.

lifejustice wrote:

The sammamish trail links to the burke Gilman trail the in Marymore park.

I'm not sure quite where the disconnect is, but your statement above is not correct. The Burke-Gilman Trail runs from Ballard area to Bothell, passing thru UW, Northeast Seattle, Lake Forest Park, Kenmore, etc. It doesn't come anywhere even close to Marymoor Park or the general Redmond area. It actually does link to the Sammamish River Trail, but that link is up in Bothell, not at Marymoor Park. My best guess is that you are referring to the 520 (bridge) Trail, which runs from Seattle across Lake Washington, through Bellevue, and does link to Marymoor.

https://kingcounty.gov/services/parks-recreation/parks/trails/regional-trails/popular-trails/burke-gilman.aspx

That being said, I agree with the general point about the availability of cycling routes in the Seattle area that do not have vehicle traffic. Loops around Lake Washington, "bridge loops" (out via 520, back vis I-90), Sammamish River Trail and Lake Sammamish loops, Centennial Trail from Snohomish to the Red Barn and back -- and the much underused connections among the south Interurban, Green River, Sumner Link and Foothills Trails (which go all the way from Seattle to Buckley - and, hopefully soon, to Enumclaw and beyond...).

However, those routes get much less enjoyable starting around this time of year and lasting until late Spring (due to our weather conditions here). Most cyclists and triathletes I know spend the bulk of their time for those winter months on the trainer riding with Zwift.




Yes, we do have a number of fine options for OWS in this area. Eastside swims at places like Martha Lake, Beaver Lake, and Lake Sammamish. Green Lake for those folks wanting a convenient option in Seattle. And for folks down south there's Lake Meridian and Bonney Lake area. Not to mention Lake Wilderness, the swim location for IM 70.3 WA.


However, again, given weather conditions, those lakes area really only a viable option for most folks from May thru October. Of course, I do see the year-round OWS swimmers on Sunday morning in the Sound off Alki, but those folks are much hardier than most of us.


In my opinion, Seattle area is an excellent place for triathletes to train for 6 months of the year (say, May thru Oct) -- and a not-so-good place to train (at least outdoors) for the other 6 months. Nov thru April is mostly pool swims and indoor trainer riding for most folks (which is one of the reasons, now that I'm retired, that my wife and I head down to the warmer, sunnier climate in central AZ at that time). YMMV.

Tucson has pretty nice roads for the most part, although there certainly are some bad areas. The area I'm in by Marana has the best roads I've ever ridden on. The newer parts of the city tend to have better roads. Patagonia Lake is the closest place to swim. I swim there until Dec. and then start again in March. Lots of great running trails in the city as well as the more rural areas.

When the Mayo Clinic said they'd be permanently remote for genomics I bought a 2nd house in the Tucson and really love it here. I suspect that more places will have to be remote when they realize how large of a competitive advantage it is in terms of attracting employees. I still go back up North for the summer, but Tucson is a great area for about 7 months. I've lived in the upper Midwest most of my life and can't really stand their winters for more than 2 weeks at a time now.

My advice would be to prioritize a city you think would be enjoyable to be in outside of triathlon though. The triathlon criteria should be the lowest on the list. I suspect that if you don't enjoy the city you'll regret your decision to move somewhere. I had already visited family in Tucson so I knew I'd like the city. If you're looking for just 1 spot central coastal California is likely your best bet that would meet your criteria. Super expensive, but pretty moderate weather as long as you're by the ocean. The traffic isn't as awful as what you'll get in LA/San Diego. In AZ, Sedona is a little hot in the summer but the area is beautiful. Winters are mild and snow only stays for a short period of time since it's pretty sunny.

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Beautiful put. I would add that the pros have the advantage of not working so they can benefit from training during not peak hours on weekdays. (Also, the flexibly employed who do not really need to work.) The smoke is affecting most of the summer now. Winter is unpredictable but most trails are snowed in and roads could be icy. Few roads to train on that allow for consisten pacing. Most local road races are run on sidewalks. And yes, as seen on That Triathlon Life, they spend their time on two roads with wider shoulders but benefit from weekday riding to avoid the hordes that head towards the lakes or the falls. I also would add that gravel may allow for safer miles in the future to avoid the inconsiderate compensating giant trucks that may sure to not give you three feet and speed up as they pass you on your bike.

I think there are two sources of the disconnect:

1). I did my approach from the east to the west
2) I haven't lived there in a decade and did not know I would be quizzed on the exact trail names.

That said, I regularly rode from Issaquah to Redmond on the East Lake Sammamish trail. I would take the Marymore connector trail through Marymore park to the Sammamish river trail. This trail goes from Redmond all the way to Bothell where it connects to Burke Gilman trail to the UW stadium.

Now...You'll see that this is all kind of moot because in Bend, the longest paved cycling Greenway trail is Skyliner trail which is .3 miles long. I hope you understand that I didn't consider the names of the Washington trails to be important when I am comparing them to a .3 mile greenway.(and I don't consider Old Mill ridable greenway)

There are two safe roads in Bend to ride. Two. One of them is only 9 miles long. The other is 20+miles, but comes with ~3000'+ of elevation gain.

I guess in short, Bend Oregon is pathetic for road riding compared to other places.

Alright. I'll bite. Many great places mentioned. As said earlier, not much mentioned in CA due to cost BUT I didn't actually see that listed in the criteria.

1.Great cycling roads and routes. Road conditions must be really good.
2. Swimming pools.
3.Variety running routes.
4.Good vibe town and culture.
5. Road safety obviously.
6.Nice people.

Sacramento - particularly the suburbs east such as Roseville, Rocklin, Loomis, Auburn, Folsom, and El Dorado Hills.

• Epic trail running (Western States course to name just one)
• About 8 months of OWS at Lake Natoma (no motor boats) and when full, Folsom Lake as well as the mountain lakes not too far away
• 70 miles (out and back) of paved bike path
• A lot of steep hills
• Many paved community running trails as well as the 12 mile paved running trail around Lake Natoma (single track as well if you choose)
• Gyms with outdoor and indoor pools to choose from
• Weekends definitely have that triathlete, trail/runner, outdoor enthusiast vibe.

Cons:

• Smoke-Season (particularly the last 8 years or so)
• Hot Summers
• Drought/Flood cycles
• Significant growth (like everywhere)
• Sometimes inconsiderate equestrians out on the trails ;-)

As I read this thread I realize my home up in the great white north is a pretty damn good place to do triathlon.
Plenty of reasonably priced public pools. I have three within a 10min drive from my front door.
Good trail and road running.
Huge amount of quiet country roads to train on with mostly good road conditions. The gravel is top notch too.
Several local triathlons and clubs.

Yeah, half the year is under snow, but that's what skiing is for.

Ha! We are under snow too for a huge chunk of the year! I live in the rural northeast of Vermont and I've learned to be content and happy here with 6 months of reasonable weather and 6 months of cold/snow. But I embrace the snow and snow sports. My home sounds similar to yours but I don't have close by pools, triathlon clubs and safe/good quality paved roads to ride. So I adapt. My pain cave is being overhauled in our new off-grid home. Our EP should be swimable next week (had it installed recently to find out a few parts didn't work UGH!!!), have trails being fixed and developed on our property, have a glorious mountain pond for open water swimming just over a mile from our mailbox accessible via mountain bike, good gravel roads and mountain biking. This wild landscape is not for everyone, but it's good for me.

I think many US pros are smart to live in places like Boulder in the spring/summer and head to Tucson or other warm places in the winter. But for those of us who can't or don't want to maintain two homes, I believe you can make it work anywhere if you really want to be a triathlete. Sometimes you just have to be creative and adaptable. (like put in an EP, build your own trails, get a fat bike/skis in the winter)


ETA: just thought of something, maybe a bit random. When my husband and I lived in the San Diego (Encinitas) area in the late 1990s we did miss the change of seasons and even a bit of snow after a couple years. Not everyone will feel this way but it affected my husband the most growing up in snow country

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