I visited LaCrosse, WI last summer and loved it. Its a beautiful little town. Long long hills that go up from the Mississipi River, I saw people riding up them and running up them. Trails just outside of town in the hills, And a very long flat paved rails to trails with mile markers for when you need flat runs. The university campus righ tthere for swimming, and even the river had a patch roped off on the other bank for swimming (its very shallow there). I thought I could live there and be happy training (if it weren't for the fact that I hate winter).

Having been in El Paso for nearly 8 years now, indeed, the winters there worry me a bit...I might need to get XC skis.

Ellensburg is nice but very sedate and pretty conservative. Great location though, close to everything.
They host a pretty awesome little race: The Whisky Dick Tri: 1 mile swim in the Columbia; 26-mile bike (with about 1,500 feet of climbing in the first few miles); 9 mile run. Definitely feels like a "1/3 iron" when you are done.

That was my impression too. By the way, youtube has a video of a snow storm in Ellensburg...ouch...

in the end, i think it is really worth your time to visit both places, even if briefly.

about La Crosse, i don't live there, but spent many days and overnights there. the terrain there is really quite impressive, some very serious hills. pretty nice pool at the YMCA and they have a masters group. didn't see it, but i would imagine the university has a great pool too. yes, it is cold in winter. but with the advance of global warming beating every single prediction made so far, you'll be planting palm trees before you know it ...

---

---

Where would you want to swim ?

I am...going Ellensburg saturday until tuesday, then thursday through saturday in LaX. Now the thing is, a 2-3 day visit does tell a bit but not tons either. Extra info is always good.

La Crosse is a pretty good place to live. It is a college town, 50,000 people, but 2 universities and a Community College. Theres the mall with everything you'll probably ever need in Onalaska and the La Crosse's downtown has one or two bars to fit more than just the college crowd.

As far as being active, there are trails in the bluffs, paved trails from the campus to downtown, and all sorts of other runner friendly routes. The hills there are probably the biggest in the Midwest. The University has a tri club.

As far as the race scene goes, Minnesota has a big series called the midwest multisport series, with a lot of races within a few hours of you, Rochester now has a few races which would be about an hour away, midwestsportsevents.com is the larger wisconsin series, and La Crosse itself has at least one or two triathlon/duathlons a year.

Most of those races should be on the all inclusive midwestevents.com calendar.

Francois, I used to drive SEA-SPOKANE frequently and from what I recall Ellensburg smells like a cow pasture. P-U doesn't begin to cover it. I almost vomited just getting gas there. It probably has great biking on the country roads but I can't imagine you living there. Sorry!

I currently live in and grew up in the Appleton area, due East of Lacrosse. My wife's family is from there. We lived in Minneapolis for a number of years as well. Lots of friends from high school went to UW-LAX for undergrad. Good biking area with great terrain and decent farm roads to enable milk collection all through the winter. Close to Madison, Minneapolis, Rochester, etc. if you need to get to things in those cities. Pretty nice old river town with lots of history. Was once known as the capital of phy ed teachers for the state as the local college really focused on that. Good education for kids and undergrad in the area.

Used to be a pretty decent local cycling team but I am not sure what is going on these days.

Good collegiate athletics through the UW System conference so there are good facilities for swimming and track on campus. All DIII teams andusually there is at least one national champion team from the WIAC each year. UW-LAX is a powerhouse in track and was this year's national co-champ with UW Oshkosh.

Running would be great as well, low areas and along the river for flats and the aforementioned hills outside of town. Not sure about the local tri scene but with proximity to Minneapolis and Madison, you will find lots of events. Rochester is a center for Randonneuring in the area and runs a full Brevet series every year I think. A number of half irons are within easy driving distance.

Winter can be long and cold but you can pretty much always get outside and run and the limits on cycling are only gear limits, not physiological ones. Better gear = lower temps. Decent amateur cycling series throughout the state through WISport, both TT's and road races, about 20 events over the late spring, summer and early fall. Many of the events are located near LAX. Decent multi-sport series through Midwest Sports Event as well. Big offroad statewide series through WORS, some of which include trail runs over the same terrain the day before the bike race. Decent Cyclocross in the region but more centered toward either Madison/Milwaukee or in the Twin Cities.

My wife's uncle is emeritus at UW-LAX and still teaches almost a full load in the Comm Arts department.

Could tell you more but what do you want to know?

ars

---

Alan Stewart

Columbia Missouri. Home of UltraMax tri series . 400 in the Columbia MultiSport Club. University of Missouri, Good roads, Cheap living .

I know you are French ----I think they might want you to bathe IF you go to the club meetings. Other than that I thinkl you would love it : )

Hmm...now that sounds a lot less fun suddenly...

I probably shower a lot more than all of you, rednecks from Missouri :P

No job offers in any of the schools there though.

I've never gotten that from my drives over to the east side of WA. Like Texas there isn't a state income tax for WA either, I'm not sure about WI.

It is a SMALL town!

I lived in La Crosse for 13 years. Started off going to school at UW-L and then just ended up staying there. As far as the city goes, you probably won't find a more beautiful all around city in the midwest. I think someone said there were two colleges there, but there is actually 3 if you count WWTC. Running and biking are top notch there. Like others have said, you have a lot of hills if that is what you want to do some days and you also have a lot of flat ground down in the valley. Can't beat the views either. There are some pro cyclists that come there to train as well.

As far as everyday life goes, you have a bit of everything just on a little smaller scale. No shortage of night life, plenty of shopping in Onalaska (connected city to La Crosse, one in the same actually). Lots of places to eat and really nice areas by the river. Only real downside is that it is a bit of a drive to get to a bigger city. Rochester, MN is about 50 minutes away and Madison, WI is a little further. All in all, if I win the lotto, I will be building a house around La Crosse with maybe a condo down south.

I'm surprised no Seattle peeps have responded to the Ellensburg question..

I'll give it a shot.. I just moved back to Pdx from Seattle, so I have some context:

Weather: It's sunny, even when it is cold.

Tri lifestyle: Proximity to Nordic skiing is good: Cle Elum (I-90) pass provides passable skate/classic. Leavenworth Nordic areas are really great, not sure of drive time & Winthrop/Methow Valley is pretty heavenly.

Lots of racing over the summer out there, plenty of tri, road racing, mtb and nordic stuff in the winter; it may not be *right* in your backyard.

Cost of living: It sounds like you made a visit out there. It's dirt cheap for the most part.

I haven't lived there but I did a little investigating when there was the faint possibility of a gig out there, so I just can't comment on quality of life..I suppose it's how you measure that.. If you rank/weight "quiet" high then it may be an ok place.

I'm in Ellensburg right now actually. The place is really small, and extremely quiet. Even around campus.

I can't remember which had the highest per capita bars per student...UW La Crosse or UW Eau Claire. La Crosse has an awesome track that has hosted DIII nationals several times (as well as WIAA championships almost every year). The healthcare system is great (my parents go their for all of their major health issues). It's also a very, beautiful, affordable locale. The weather sucks though, but it's not perfect in the Seattle area though...;)

---

"Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps"
Blog = http://extrememomentum.com|Photos = http://wheelgoodphotos.com

I started college at the University of Washington, which is in Seattle (west side of the state). Our rival was of course washington state university, which was on the very eastern edge of the state. Ellensburg (besides being home to Central Washington University - smaller conference) is roughly midway between the UW and wsu.

We all learned that "Ellensburg", properly translated, means "stop here and pee".

The track is even better than you remember it...just back from La Crosse. They've built a new stadium and new track. Top notch. Indoor facilities are great. Really good exercise physio program...heck I met the guy and he mentioned ST's Dr Phil! ;-)
Winters look ROUGH...