Moving to SLO

Triathlon Forum
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I’m making a move to SLO starting in Sept which will likely be permanent some time over the next year. I’ll be renting a place downtown (Palm and Broad) unless I find something to buy sooner. I know the town quite well since my son goes to school there but I have never done any serious training in the area.

I’m hoping some locals are willing to provide me info on the following:

  • great bike routes (2 - 5hrs)
  • best pools or any organized OW swimming
  • local tri clubs
  • anything else that might be helpful

I can be reached at chris@chriswhyte.net.

Thanks, Chris

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Ride north on 1 as far as you want to go.

Swim at Sinsheimer.

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Welcome to SLO. I’m just a few blocks from Palm and Broad - you’ll love being downtown.

There is a loosely organized, but consistent, OWS group - usually 1,500 - 3,000 meters per session, lots of distance options, usually an A and B group. http://swimavila.blogspot.com/ We swim Wednesday at 6pm and Sunday at 11am (toes in water). This is year-round. Free!

There are a lot of pools here (ranked by my personal preference):
Cal Poly Rec Center - always empty, no restricted lap swim times, no lane sharing (in 15 years I have never, ever shared a lane), but you need to be an alumni, student, staff, or family member of such $40/month. I think you can drop in for $10. Parking can be a bitch or there are parking meters ($2.60). Just ride your beach cruiser bike. There is a masters swim group.SLO Swim/Sinsheimer - limited lap swim times, always lane sharing, usually circle swim, but they do a good job at seeding speed (slow vs fast). $3/day. There is a masters swim group.Kennedy - club membership, no restricted lap swim, always lane sharing, a swim team uses 1/2 of it in the afternoon. Bonus: Hot tub. There is a masters swim group.Cuesta Pool - limited lap swim times, but always empty. Almost no lane sharing. $4/day or buy a semester pass.
If you go just a few more miles north or south there are even more pools.

Bike - a lot of options. Flat = Highway 1. Hills = Away from the Ocean. During the summer, avoid going north of Cuesta Grade (Santa Margarita) after 11 am. Too hot. During the winter, avoid going north of Cuesta Grade before 10 am. Too cold (and possibly icy).

My frequent routes:
Hwy 1 → S. Bay Blvd → Turri Rd → LOVR (25 miles)Cuesta Grade (1,200’ sustained climb over 6 miles) → Santa Margarita/A-Town → 41W → Morro Bay → SLO (50 miles) - make it longer by going up to Paso/46WWildflower Loop (40 minute drive north) (50 miles)Anything east of Santa Margarita (Parkhill Rd) (you could ride to Bakersfield if you want)Lopez (25 - 30 miles)
Oddly, I never go south of SLO… no reason, I just don’t. The wind comes from the north so I guess it would mean a headwind on the way back. We get crazy wind in the spring time. This last spring I went up Hwy 1 and my average speed headed out was 12.3 mph. My average speed headed in was 27.1 mph. It is flat.

Runs Groups:
SLO Trail Runners Group. https://www.facebook.com/SLOTrailRunners/ This group runs a couple of times/week.San Luis Distance Club. http://sldc.org/ This group doesn’t group run a lot, just some speed work 1x/week, sometimes.SLO Road Runners. https://www.facebook.com/SLO-Roadrunners-Running-and-Triathlon-Club-61293843513/ This is a coached group and the closest thing we have to a Tri club.In Atascadero there is Team K-Man Tri Club. I just don’t get up to A-town much. I keep hearing about this Central Coast Tri Club, but can’t seem to figure out who they are. It is like they are invisible. And I never see them in any local races.
Frequent runs:
Montana de Oro is a running mecca. You can go flat and short (5 miles) along the bluff or you can summit the two prominent peaks and get 30 miles in.East Cuesta Ridge is a great long-run, but it is uphill for 7 miles and downhill for 7 miles. Long fire road.West Cuesta Ridge and the trail network is another great long-run. More up and down hills, longer distance options.Poly Canyon - nice 7-8 mile run - add 2 miles if running from downtown.A lot of people run out Orcutt Rd → Biddle → 227, but you are running with the cars on a country road.
There are other run options.

If you are trying to plug into the social tri scene, Roadrunners is probably your best bet.

Our next local race is the Morro Bay Tri (OLY). That is a fun one.

Local Races:
MTS (Sprint/OLY) - MarchWildflower (hopefully) - MayFt Hunter Liggett (Sprint) - JuneSLO Tri (Sprint) - JulySLO Gran Fando (bike race) - OctoberMorro Bay Tri (OLY) - November
There are more if you head south - Santa Barbara, Goleta, Lompoc…

Happy moving!

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Perfect. Thank you so much, Hillary.

5

Everything SLOgoing said plus some.

Swim:

Cal Poly Rec Center-has a respected coach doing its Master’s on M/W/F mornings. And yes, drop in fees are $10 as of a couple days ago (with some random $5 days throughout the year).

Bike:

Turri is my common “Just ride it to say I rode today”. There is always a debate on whether the ‘proper’ way is clockwise or counter-clockwise. When going counter-clockwise, its easy to extend it by hitting Montana del Oro for a little out-and back or going through Morro. Be careful riding MdO as sand can get on the road and I have seen a few crashes (and one broken collarbone) there.

Check out Hi Mountain when going to Lopez. It is a right hand turn just before the ranger station that heads out for another 8(?) miles cumulating in a super steep 1/4 mile pitch that sucks before you turn around to head back.

Prefumo to See Canyon is also a classic. From downtown, head up Santa Rosa to Foothill, take a left onto LOVR, a mile and a half or so later is a right onto Prefumo. Prefumo is a chunk of a little climb, then take the gravel (usually in good condition) down and up to See Canyon. From there turn left onto Avila Beach Drive (or right to Avila for a longer out and back) and take Avila Beach Drive to turn left on Ontario which feeds to S. Higuera.

Off of Lopez Dr, you can do an out and back on Huasna Road to see the dinosaurs.

The furthest I go south of SLO for rides is AG, with exception of riding to Santa Barbara (easy self-supported day, the the Amtrak back) or doing the Foxen Canyon out and back.

Hwy 1 is the staple for long rides.

Random:

Agreed that Roadrunners is your best bet.

Central Coast Tri Club (if I’m remembering correctly) was just the Facebook group name for the CP Tri athletes to use during the summer when official practices were not going. Unless SLOgoing is thinking of something else than I am.

SLO Gran Fondo is not happening this year, but they are doing a two day MTB/Trail run event in Early Sept in Diablo.
Tour de Donut in June: https://www.slotourdedonut.com

Bike Shops:
Art’s Cyclery (Suburban off of S Higuera): Specialized retailer, they have everything on their website in the back, so not everything you see is on the floor. 5 for $22ish tube deal. Recommend asking for Josh Job to work on your bike if its anything detailed-everyone else is fine, he’s just the best there.
Foothill (Foothill Plaza): Trek retailer.
CBO: Santa Cruz… Idk. Mostly mountain bikes there.
Wally’s: Where you go for random pieces no one else has. Pinnacle retailer.
SLO Bike Kitchen: Co-Op kinda deal for commuters.

6

I cant believe no one has mentioned Old Creek Road or Santa Rosa Creek Road for some awesome climbs on the bike. I am probably biased because I am part time in Cayucos but still. Love those roads. I know Old Creek can be a little sketchy, even a death this year, but man that is a great road. I just avoid it during the busy times. Perfumo/See Canyon is awesome. You’ll love that.

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Central Coast Tri Club (if I’m remembering correctly) was just the Facebook group name for the CP Tri athletes to use during the summer when official practices were not going. Unless SLOgoing is thinking of something else than I am.

This makes sense and explains why they are ghosts. I thought there was some organized effort by Pruitt (the lady who organized SLO Marathon/RaceSLO)? Maybe it is a Poly thing. I’ve always been confused by it.

I don’t ever see any of our local tri clubs (Poly aside) making much of a team showing at races (except at Wildflower).

Great additions for epic routes. How could I omit those!?

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Paso Robles has some superb cycling too. It’s a bit of a drive from SLO, but riding there is a blast. I love the routes around highway 46 (Vineyard to Adelaida or Chimney Rock or Peachy Canyon).

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I did the Prefumo to See Canyon ride today for the first time. The last ~1/3rd of that climb was pretty relentless for someone who’s 20 lbs over race weight. :wink:

It’s not the kind of ride you want to take your tri bike on though, which I did. The gravel road threw me off a bit since I was expecting something that was more like 100 yards as opposed to something that seemed like ~2 miles. It was a little dicey considering most of it was downhill. It was certainly not what I was expecting as multiple “WTFs!!” came out of my mouth.

Rode out to Cayucos and up Old Creek last weekend on a perfect day. That was awesome.

Btw, do they ever string the pool for long course at Cal Poly Rec Center?

Thanks, Chris

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Taking your bike Prefumo->See teaches you how to handle your bike though!

And I have never seen it set for long course unfortunately, only Mott in spring (swim team pool which you would not have access to)

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next time you are out by cayucos go hit Santa Rosa Creek. awesome. both ways are fun. you can climb old creek and then cross over the 46 and descend Santa Rosa to the town of Cambria and fill up there, and take the 1 back to SLO. or take the 1 all the way out to Cambria and climb Santa Rosa. you can then take the 46 or Old Creek down and back to the 1. I would avoid old creek if its a busy time of day.

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When I saw the username, I thought someone resurrected an old thread :wink:
.

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I’ve always loved that area when I raced there or just drove through, so this thread got me to looking on Zillow on home prices in the area.Sheeeitttt! Could hardly find a built home for less than a million, and there is a lot of junky condos(I suppose for the college kids) that are not exactly cheap.Lots of land for sale, but even that is 400 to 600K for decent plots. I had envisioned that some of the outer areas in the country would be cheap, guess not…

How bad is the arroyo grande area, seems like some cheaper homes there but thinking that a lot of the farm workers must live there too…

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When I saw the username, I thought someone resurrected an old thread :wink:

Yeah, back from the dead. Just took some time off. Needed a break after 10 consecutive years of IM. Now I gotta drop 20 lbs.

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I’ve always loved that area when I raced there or just drove through, so this thread got me to looking on Zillow on home prices in the area.Sheeeitttt! Could hardly find a built home for less than a million, and there is a lot of junky condos(I suppose for the college kids) that are not exactly cheap.Lots of land for sale, but even that is 400 to 600K for decent plots. I had envisioned that some of the outer areas in the country would be cheap, guess not…

How bad is the arroyo grande area, seems like some cheaper homes there but thinking that a lot of the farm workers must live there too…

Yep, it ain’t cheap but going outside of SLO/Avila will certainly save you money. I’ve been looking for a home in SLO/Avila for about 8 months now. If you’re persistent then you can find a nice 3+3 for as low as ~$800k but anything under that typically requires some work. Of course, we all have different ideas for affordable and move-in ready but the biggest challenge for me is that the good ones go quick.

It’s awesome place to live though. I’m a remote employee in tech (based in SJ) so I can mostly live wherever I want (within reason).

Thanks, Chris

16

You definitely need to become best friends with a realtor to get anything reasonable around here. There are reasonably priced homes (for around here), but you have to be quick and creative on the offer. It is cheaper to go north than it is to go south of SLO.

The laborers tend to live in Oceano, Grover, Nipomo, Santa Maria, North Paso, and San Miguel. Arroyo Grande has some very nice homes and sections of town. If you are going to drive a car and live in South County and work in SLO, the traffic is a bitch. Daily.

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Living in Cambria I can tell you that you can get some good buys up here (relatively speaking of course). It’s a 35 minute beautiful drive along the coast to SLO if you need to commute. And traffic is nothing like it is south of SLO. You might also think about Moro Bay or Cayucos which are between Cambria and SLO. There are ocean view homes that sell for way less than $1M in Cambria.
There is really nice riding along the coast north of Cambria to Ragged Point and south of Cambria all the way to SLO. Mostly wide shouldered highway in good condition.

Some terrific climbs around Atascadero and Paso Robles on very low volume roads (some are in better shape than others) such as Las Pilitas, Adelaida, Chimney Rock, Peachy Canyon, etc…And if you like to drink wine you really need to think about Atascadero or Paso Robles. Lots (hundreds) of wineries.

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Couple of questions/requests:

  1. Nobody recommended SLO Bike & Run, which happens to be a Tri shop downtown. It’s two blocks from my house so it’s clearly the most convenient place for me. However, I’m definitely interested in hearing anyone’s feedback about the shop. If you feel more comfortable sending it privately then please just PM me or my personal email is in my original post.

  2. Recommendations on a good sports doc and/or PT? I’ve been dealing with patellar tendonitis for the last 5 years so this would be my primary area of interest.

Thanks!

Chris

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Dr. John Hannon taught me how to fix my IT band problems in 1987 and some of my breathing problems in 2015.

He also worked with Chris Hinshaw (Ironman Kona 2nd place 1985).

Leslie White was a Division II national champ from Cal Poly SLO in the 5K and 10K on the track who received some work from John.

Dr. Hannon isn’t cheap, but you might want to check him out.