In the last couple of days there have been a number of you guys talking about the great training sessions you have gotten in with the improvement in weather (sorry to those in the East coast rainstorms). With Khai’s photos of Kitsalano pool, Monk talking of group rides on the A1A and Tom’s El Mercado ride I thought it would be good to see where other people train.
Let’s see urban and country shots of your usual pools, weekly ride routes and run courses that we all take for granted and look at them with fresh eyes. Let’s avoid the obvious like Heather posting CN tower, Cathy the Golden Gate Bridge, Ashburn the pentagon etc. I want to see TriBryGuy’s Vermont Forests, Marisol’s Cincin, CG’s Ontario route, kittycat’s mid section, triaussie’s bush (!) and the like. I want to see what Louisiana, Texas and Maine etc have to offer.
So come on Guys, post four pictures, one swim, two bikes and a run. Let us know where you are based and show us. I 'll start you off from the other side of the Atlantic: This is my local pool. Like Kitsalano pool it is salt water but a little long than 137m lengths, it’s 7 miles per length and only 100 metres to walk from home. We have a good 30 mile bike loop that delivers variety in terrain all based in the New Forest in Hampshire near the South Coast. You can climb up and up amongst the trees avoiding the ponies and cattle that the commoners set out to graze. Or get down in the aero position and battle into the everpresent headwinds on the heathland near High Corner. Once you are off the bike I like to run around the Christchurch harbour shoreline and over the headland at the views stretching below me. Unlike the day in a life of thread or the legs thread there are no prizes or voting, just letting us so where you train and other parts of the world. And if it promts Monk to get his camera out at the beach, so be it
I live in Phoenix, Arizona and my swimming is in my backyard pool for most of the year.
For most of July and August I head north to Canada and swim in the Atlantic in front of my cottage (south shore of Nova Scotia about 30 miles from Halifax).
Most of my cycling in Arizona is off road. This is the desert about 5 minutes north of my house in NW Phoenix. The view is loking north towards the Bradshaw Mountains.
I mostly run trails. This one is a few minutes south of my house on a flood plain that cannot be developed.
THere’s something very right on a primeval level about sea swimming, don’t you find, Andrew? You have some beautiful trails in Phoenix to enjoy, nothing beats hitting the trails in the day with no-one around, is there?
Thank you for posting these, this is what I was looking for. Previously Phoenix meant barren desert to me, I now know better.
There is lots of stuff on ST about the dangers of ocean swimming but I love it and do not plan to stop, although I would prefer it if the water was 85 rather than 65. Swimming through crystal clear water - nothing beats that. As to Phoenix being barren, not true at all. We get two rainy seasons (when we are not in drought condition). Barren is what you see on the Arizona-California border. That area is at sea level and not much grows there.
I wish I could take credit for these shots, but none the less they are where the majority of my workouts occur. These photos are from the Boulder and Golden area of Colorado.
South side of the Chicago bike / run path. Great views of the city for the return trip home. The wind along here can make this flat course seem hilly.
Ohio St. Beach for the swim. Also the sight for the big shoulders 5k swim. The Chicago park district marks out the distances in meters on the wall along LSD in bright orange paint so you know where the 1500 M. turn around is.
I’m not a huge fan either, but I didn’t want to presume you didn’t know that he coined the nick name for the City of Chicago, AKA City of Big Shoulders.
Actually I didn’t know, or remember, that he wrote the peom and I live here. Learn, or relearn something new everyday.
Sure you can ask. No, I am not retired. A few more decades to go. I am a university professor, which means lots of flexibility in lifestyle. BTW, my sister-in-law lives on the side of Mt. Seymour. A place there would kind of complete things, I would say.
Beautiful scenery, indeed, jt. But what state/province am I learning about here? Also, don’t you swim?
The pictures are all from various parks near my house in the Boulder and Golden Colorado area. As far as swimming, for me it is 90% in my local outdoor pool (opened yesterday btw!). There are a few open water places to swim, but growing up in Michigan, I can’t really call them lakes, more like ponds.
I do a lot of my road biking north of boulder where there are more bikes than cars… Here is my typical road ride view (Longs peak)…
Nice ocean scene, Gary. Not sure I would want to run along that highway, though. What is a correct American phrase for the highway, where you have two lanes in each direction separeted by a central median? It’s known as a dual carriageway here.
not visible is the running/bika path off the roadway to the left, that is the silver strand, which connects Coronado island to Imperial Beach in the south - my main running course (6 mi one way - flat with some dirt path)
bike course is fiesta island for TT training and racing locally, and then either HWY101 for a 6-7 hr ride up the coast, or head inland - I also use my trainer for strength and easy days
swim is the 6 lane 25 meter Y, or off Coronado in the ocean
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South side of the Chicago bike / run path. Great views of the city for the return trip home. The wind along here can make this flat course seem hilly.
