I’ve lived in New York (Long Island) my whole life and within a year my girlfriend and I are going to be moving toward her family in Los Angeles/Orange County. I’ve been doing triathlons here for several years and enjoy the Montauk, NYC and hamptons tri’s and soon enough in July 08’ will being doing IM Placid. How is the training in SoCal? What I won’t miss here is the humidity, but possibly what will be missed is the cooler temps. I figure I can train year-round there, are there any tri-clubs? Any mountains/hills to climb? Is it too hot to train after a certain time of day, fill me in as I dont have west coast tri experience!..yet Thanks…
I grew up in Ocean City, Maryland, and have lived here in south Orange County for 20 years and love it! There are TONS of posts on this same topic (I’m moving to SoCal…where are the places to train? Where are the tri clubs?, etc.). Just do a search. If you want cool weather, just drive 2 hours up to Big Bear and you’ll have snowball fights and skiiing/snowboarding, and then drive 2 hours back and go to the beach. Plus, you’ll get nights in the 30’s in mid-winter, but it warms up during the day.
A lot depends on where exactly in the LA/OC area you are. Weather-wise, the coastal communities have milder temps, the further inland you go (and in some of the valley areas), it can get hot in the summer (90+). Access to some of the better places to ride also depends on where exactly you are…as you will soon discover it takes an hour to drive anywhere in LA, even if its only 20 miles away. Coming from NY, you’re probably used to a fair amount of population density and traffic so that will be nothing new.
Overall, its a great place to live and train. Good riding, some great riding in the San Bernardino Mountains to the north, tons of very good riding to the south in Orange County as well. More if you venture towards San Diego…which is you are in South Orange County is doable. A huge triathlon community with 3 very active triclubs…LA Triathlon Club (latriclub.com), OC Tri Club (octc.com), Inland Inferno (inlandinferno.com) are all big.
The weather is great…can get hot in the summer, but mild from fall to spring. You can ride, run and swim outdoors year round. Pretty tough to beat.
I’m in Baltimore, MD right now and please know that I hate you all…Snowball fights and then to the beach. Dammit…
Bob
watch out for bro’s and bro ho’s when riding because they drive like crap, aka lifted ford rangers, skin stickers on the car, long black socks, baggy pants, arnett sunglasses, metal mulisha hoodies, etc. I live in temecula, the bro capital of the world.
Others have alread commented on the training here. Year round, with good climbing in the mountains. And it’s not that bad in the summer when it’s hot, since it’s still dry. So I’ll just leave it at some unrelated comments:
- Moving to be near girlfriend’s family. P-whipped.
- You’ll fit in better if you refrain from constantly inserting into every conversation the fact that you’re from New York.
awesome feedback guys, obviously love that comment on the P-bird…haha, I have to live more than one place in my life, and why not Cali! seriously though, all your feedback is huge…preesh, good things
Justin
I’m from Valley Stream. I moved to Orange County in 73. Just come and enjoy. As others said, we have a little of everything. You can do a search, lots of posts. Let us know when you get here.
Hey how about telling him the truth like you will feel like you are living in a different country and the freeway traffic will resemble mid town Manhattan! Just kidding…have to admit the beaches are nice and as long as you don’t breath the air you will be fine. 
watch out for bro’s and bro ho’s when riding because they drive like crap, aka lifted ford rangers, skin stickers on the car, long black socks, baggy pants, arnett sunglasses, metal mulisha hoodies, etc. I live in temecula, the bro capital of the world.
Ha, ha. AKA “Flatbillers”! Check this site Xterraguy: