I didn’t see Mammmoth Lakes California in any of the posts. Not the easiest place to get too but has most of what you’re looking for.

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Train safe & smart
Bob

https://soundcloud.com/user-198147103/faster-podcast-by-flo-episode-18-how-to-train-and-race-at-altitude

Worth a listen as you are thinking through where to stay.

Surprised no one's mentioned Leadville. Highest incorporated town in US at 10,200 ft. Enough to do and see in and around town so your family won't be bored.

If you want to unplug, I’d go to Mammoth Lakes!

How is the off road/single track there ?

Another vote for Mammoth: sleep at 9000ft and 30 mins drive away train at 4500ft. Beautiful trails and roads. All you need in town.

Mammmoth running.

http://monicaprelle.com/...th-lakes-california/

Cycling
https://www.visitmammoth.com/...s/top-rides-eastside

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Train safe & smart
Bob

Mammoth is pretty good, and it looks like they have a decent outdoor pool: https://www.townofmammothlakes.ca.gov/493/Whitmore-Pool

My first thought before finishing your post was Breckenridge but that might be too high for me to do effective training.

When you were there how were the roads?

Dillion, Co, is in the same general vicinity as Breck, but won't be as crowded & hectic. Condos are pretty cheap in the summer off-season. The biking in the area is phenomenal; whether you want to ride road, gravel, or trail. If you want long climbing rides, that's the place. Want single-track trails that go on forever? That's the place. It's a bikers heaven. Last two times I was there on vacation, I swam laps at the Silverthorne Rec Center pool. It was never crowded; usually had my own lane the whole time. There's supposedly a Masters group at Breck, but I never swam with them. There's a track at Summit Middle School in nearby Frisco. The bike path goes right past it, and I don't think there's any impediment to access.....as long as it's not being used by the kids, anyway.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

Most of our trips to Breck have been in the winter, but we were there September 2015 as part of a self/slowtwitch guided ‘tour of Colorado’ encompassing Denver/Boulder/Estes Park/Grand Lake/Breckenridge/Colorado Springs.

I got several rides/runs in but can’t remember how the road quality was.

I think the only road I questioned myself on during the trip was riding on the highway to get to Pikes Peak from our hotel in Co Springs.

Based on the podcast, Park City seems to be the perfect location for getting a training adaptation from altitude. On top of that, PC is a beautiful place. I've been spending a lot of time there lately and would gladly call it home.

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Chris Thornham
Co-Founder And Previous Owner Of FLO Cycling

Park City does look like a good bet.

Good info, thanks for sharing. I could definitely consider park city/salt lake. Will check into weather pattern there in August.

Looks like tour of Utah will come through PC in August, which would be cool to catch part of.

Let me know if you know anyone that will be based out there in August of 2019. Would be nice to have a crew to link up with.

 
Spend two weeks at Philmont with a 60 pound pack hiking up Baldy at 11,000 feet. When I came back, I was setting all kinds of PR's.

Never actually did any "training" during the trip, just the backpacking which was o-plenty.

What limited our rate of ascent was our breathing, not heart rate. At one point we stopped to rest for about 5 minutes because we were all breathing so hard. Checked our pulses, and mine was only 86.

I’ll second Winter Park/ Grand County if you want to be that high.

The mountain biking is world class - 2 lift served areas and hundreds/ thousands? of miles of amazing single track. To be honest I have never brought my road bike - but I assume it’s good. The gravel riding would be crazy if you just want to spin up crazy long forest service roads.

There’s a good lap pool.

It is very unplugged (like don’t forget to pack your underwear - there are not many options to backfill)

There are more playgrounds than anywhere else I’ve been. The kids could go to a different one every day of the week. They could go horse riding or mini golfing at the mountain. There are good beginner mountain bike trails to get them out on too.

Grand lake is just down the road for paddling around and great hikes into Rocky MountainNational Park.

I'd suggest looking at Salida Colorado. Cheaper and way less crowded than the Dillon area. There is a pool, and great roads. Plenty of cycling in the area so you can ride with about any type of rider and any terrain you want.

The pool has good lap swim available, and there are several breweries in town. Tough to beat.

Any ski town would fit the bill really. Tahoe, Mammoth Lakes, Sun Valley, etc...

Evergreen, Colorado is my first pick for altitude. Find a place around or just above 8,000ft, take the first week easy and then start to ramp it over over the next 3 weeks. If you go too hard week one, you will put yourself into a hole that you won’t like climbing out of.

https://www.53x12.com/training-at-altitude you can thank me later for this one but take it with a grain of salt because it was written by an infamous mad scientist who is now banned from the sport. Scroll to the bottom for the important points.

Good stuff, thanks for posting. Consistent with what others mention 7-8k ft. My plan is for one month with some rest/pure fun days built into program. Will hydrate and acclimate week one.

Interesting comment about Evergreen, I live down the road in Conifer, at 8300' and go every day down into Denver !

Based on wanting to unplug, ride MTB, and run trails and that you really enjoyed Breck and Aspen one my absolute favorite towns is Crested Butte. Absolutely beautiful, smaller town that makes it feel less touristy than Breck or Aspen and the trails for bike and run are tough to beat. Local high school track is open. Not sure about a pool. I spent a week there last summer and my brother was there for 6 weeks. Very, very tough to beat.
Enjoy wherever you end up.

https://www.53x12.com/training-at-altitude you can thank me later for this one but take it with a grain of salt because it was written by an infamous mad scientist who is now banned from the sport. Scroll to the bottom for the important points.

Too funny, most of the athletes he is touting were notorious dopers, so using high altitude training and their most probable EPO programs, well there is nothing to be gained there, unless that is your program too..

And what he actually discovered, but probably did not realize, is that people are very different when it comes to altitude. From what I have read lately, there are 3 groups, those that get worse, those that stay even, and those that benefit. And far as I can tell, the only way to know which group you are in, is to go and do the work up high and see what happens. I'm one of the lucky benefiters, and it only takes about a week for me to start seeing gains. I did bloodwork one year before and after a 10 day trip to boulder, and it was drastic what happened. My own bodies EPO production went up around 35%, so concurrently I was also getting a lot more red blood cells. My HCT% also went over 50%, but I have a normal range of 46 to 49% at sea level, so what one would expect, small gains.

And I have always thought that training high for me, and sleeping low was the best formula. I think it got into the lexicon that sleeping high was somehow good for you, probably a spill over from the marketing of altitude tent makers. This guy in this study did find out that sleeping too high is not good for you, unless you actually live at that altitude and it is normal. But this is about training camps, not folks that live high all the time..

I guess that is why we get so many varied theories and stories about training high, it is all about the point of view of the writers, of which, we can not be sure what group they fall into for our comparisons..

You're welcome. Like I said, the source is shady, but there is a lot of good things to learn on that website.


In my Jelly Belly days, there were a couple of us that stayed around Evergreen, with fans of the team, as much as possible during the summer. You will find a lot of talent lower in elevation along the front range, between COS and Fort Collins, typically where housing is "affordable".

I loved riding around that area. I'll trade riding in Phoenix for that area any day. Most rides I would drop down into Morrison or Littleton and climb back up or I would head up Squaw Pass for some extra fun.