I think there was a thread about this before, but I can’t seem to find it.
Right now I live in a town that is around 20 minutes from a big city. Around us (in all the other directions) there are roads with nearly zero traffic. It’s like paradise. You can ride for kilometers upon kilometers and not stumble upon a single motorist. 30K from here there is a HUGE (I’m talking 40k) hill. I’ve never climbed the whole thing, as it is around 12% steep in most places (some go up to 15%, some around 5%). We have the 2nd largest Triathlon club in the country, and the Sprint Distances National Champion trains with us.
And now because of my dad’s job (doctor) we have to move an hour drive from here. This sucks so much I can’t put it in words.
I found a swim team to train with, and a running team too. But my biggest concern is cycling, and I can’t seem to find a way. You have to drive around 30 minutes to find a place that you can ride in (without getting killed by motorists).
I have a spinning bike and a trainer, but I can’t seem to bring myself to sitting on one for more than 60-90 minutes.
I live in NYC and do all my training there. Even your new situation sounds pretty good to me. That said, I understand your disappointment. The bottom line is that being disappointed is a waste of calories. You can and will find good places to ride in your new area. People in Manhattan ride in Central Park and New Jersey, both good places to train.
When it comes to traffic, you can’t beat the streets of Manhattan. It stinks, both literally and figuratively. But I try to look at it like this:
Your bike handling skills will improve, whether you like it or not.
You’ll be surprised at how many athletes live and train in big, urban areas. My guess is that if you look around on a Saturday morning, you’ll find a group ride heading out to somewhere.
Hope this helps. And remember: You can train anywhere. Good Luck!
I feel your pain. I was banned (by the wife) about 5 years ago from riding in the city (Chicago) as I’d had one too many incidents with imoveable objects (usually the ground). This usually resulted in blood flowing from some body part. Although we find it macho that is not something that the women in your life (wife, girlfriend, mother) find particularly funny. My only advise is to find the safest riding route out of your city and use it as a warmup or get used to the fact that you’re going to have to transport the bike somewhere to ride.
I live in London which is just as bad as NY for training (I lived there too for a while). To get out of the urban area and away from traffic lights every 50m takes 45 minutes from where I am so that really wastes your training rides.
I tend to cycle on the roads when I am going for a long ride (4+ hours) and for the shorter rides spend up to 2 hours on the trainer or in the gym on the spin cycles. Doing 3 spin classes in a row is a good training ride!
I feel for you. Several years back I decided that big city urban life sucks and made a move to the boonies. I know live in a rural village with a pop. 1800 in farm land. The closest city to me is forty minutes away and it only has a population of about 50,000.
I’ve got great country back roads to ride and other than dodging the odd redneck in a pick-up truck traffic problems are small.
Sounds like you might be commuting back to your old area to do your bike rides.
I also live in the suburbs of a large city (Detroit) and unfortunately more often than not end up on the trainer during the week. I usually have to ride around rush hour times before or after work and it just isn’t too practical with traffic at those times. However, sometimes during the week I’ll put my bike in the car and drive about 30 minutes to a large metropark to ride. I do get out weekends when it’s warm and dry (as in no snow) which has only been 2 times so far this year. Since I do a lot of riding on the trainer I tend to adopt quality vs. quantity approach to cycling training since I can only tolerate about 90 minutes tops (although right now the time goes by quicker with the Red Wings in the playoffs)
I actually did 3 or 4 centuries last year and the year before without leaving the urban nightmare.
Was hit off of my bike once, was involved in countless encounters with cars / trucks especially as there is one road that is horrific to ride on out of the city.
Get used to the idea of road rash and not being respected.
Its totally doable you find routes that work, in Chicago it would be Ravenswood not Sheridan etc etc…
Not sure how close it is to you, but Saturday morning a group of tri-geeks and I are riding in/from Ann Arbor. We are meeting at Wheeler Park at 8 AM and heading out Huron River Road out to Chelsea, Waterloo, Munith. The park is on Depot Rd off Main St., take the Main St/Business 23 exit off M14 (exit 4 or 5 I think).
you really only need one long ride a week. Drive out of the city on the weekends for this.
Have a look around in the city. You may find a nice little circuit that you could do repeats on or a hill to do reps on. You may be surprised at what you can find. There was a couple of places I found in Toronto such as this that I could ride to and get in a decent cycling work-out in outside. It was not perfect, but it was effective.
Wether you like it or not the indoor trainer is a good alternative for high quality bike work-outs.
An indoor trainer is one of the best training tools you can have. I live in a rural area of south Georgia, and we have lots of nice country roads on which to ride. Yet I still find myself on the trainer at least once per week, sometimes more. Weather has been a factor of late (lots of rain), and it is also more convenient to throw the bike up on the trainer and “ride away.” If you have trouble finding a place to ride during the week, use a trainer. With a little creativity you can break the monotony of trainer riding very easily.
The Irony is that I lived in downtown urban areas through the bulk of the 20+ years that was training seriously for triathlons. First Toronto - not the best, as you noted and then Vancouver - a bit better than TO. Now I live in the country ( Aurora) with great cycling roads almost at my door and I don’t have much time any more - different life focus.
Toronto was awesome for running, so-so for swimming and definately below average for cycling. Fortunately I own a cottage in Muskoka and that was my great weekend cycling escape. Vancouver was awesome for running, lousy for long bike rides, but great for short rides and swimming was fantastic at the outdoor 135m Kitsilano pool.
I could have written this myself. I feel like commiserating now.
After spending a number of years in Ann Arbor with it’s wonderful training opportunities in all three sports, My wife and I were compelled to move to The Royal Oak area for financial reasons. The move was made less painless by the fact that it took place after the season was done. I couldn’t swim like I used to, but I had ample opportunities to play hockey over the winter and keep myself otherwise occupied.
Now that the weather is getting nicer though, 530 am drop in sessions and frequent tour de Trainer rides are getting more difficult to bear.
I am easily a 45 min. ride from good training roads. As it takes me not quite an hour to get home from work due to traffic, and the fact that I would like to see my wife for a few hours before I go to sleep I am resigned to trainer seessions during the week. As for the weekend I must look forward to hauling my butt out of bed fairly early so I can throw my bike in the car and make the drive to either Dearborn or Ann Arbor and hop on a group ride there and then drive back home once finished.
I’ll explore some of the roads around where I live, but I’ll save that for an early sunday morning when traffic dies down to a low roar.
I know this doesn’t help much, but I think I feel a little better now.
Marty, you should look into a Fenton ride. I have done it from Bevery Hills with no problem, so from RO it should be fine also. Obviously, getting out of RO will be a little tough but you could follow the route to Cranbrook that the Wolverines take on their Wed. night social ride and eventually get on Lone Pine Rd., you’ll be all set. Once on Lone pine you head west to Orchard Lake Rd, take a litte jaunt north to Pontiac Trail, take a right on Old Orchard (beautiful scenery, not so hot road). You’ll end up at Hiller and Commerce, go north a little and take Willow to Union Lake, a short shot on Union to Wise. It gets a little tricky here, you have to take Canal and cut through the neighborhood, eventually ending up on Cooley Lake Rd., take a right then a left on Round Lake Rd, another left onto Cedar Island Rd. This will get you to Oxbow Lake Rd, then Elizebeth Lake Rd., then Teggerdine. You should be good and warmed up by now, and ready to hammer. After you cross M-59 there are a lot fewer stops and turns. Take Teggerdine to White Lake to Ormond to Davisburg to Milford to S. Fenton. S. Fenton turns in to S. Holly Rd., take that into Fenton and look for the Paris Laundry for a snack. The whole route should be about 100 miles from RO.
I find there are many ways to train in a city, I live in Toronto during the summer, and I’ve found some pretty decent roads for short cycling, I hit up the park system, which works well. I tried cycling on the roads, but after a little incident with a car, I now totally stay in the parks unless i’m going for a long ride. For longer rides, it takes ~30 min to get out of the city, but once out i’m golden. I also know alot there are alot of clubs who have rides during the week and on weekends, so while I don’t know what city you are moving to, I’m sure there will be ways to get out and bike. And beside… if it comes to this, you will be able to improve your bike handleing skill by playing chicken with buses and cars, and just think how much your sprinting ability will improve ;).
Try Bangkok. Oh my god! I have lived here for six years and along with Bombay there can not be much harder places to train. I sadly have to get out for 90 minutes in the car before I can train. It sucks. I went 3km to the bike shop yesterday and got a puncture in a drain and nearly killed 10 times.
I have had enough. I am off to Northern Italy in August. Change of scene. The only problem is my legs will not be used to it. They only know how to ride once a week.
