Just moved to St Louis from Pittsburgh, and now I need to find my new training routine. I am leaving a couple of block north of Forrest park, so that will be my place of choice for running. I’ll probably go swim to Wash U once I get access. But there is a few things that the locals could help me with:
1- Master swim: is there any good master swim program in this area? I’m thinking of trying it this year.
2- Riding: I guess I can just ride on the bike path around Forrest park, it seems to measure about 7 miles. It also look very narrow and pretty busy at times, so is there any other place to just ride?
3- Group ride: I loved the group rides in Pittsburgh, so I am looking for another one here (don’t worry, I ride a road bike! No crazy triathlete showing up tomorrow at your ride). When/where are they?
4- Any running track near Forrest park open to public?
Of course, I’ll take any other advice you might have. Thanks all!
Just moved to St Louis from Pittsburgh, and now I need to find my new training routine. I am leaving a couple of block north of Forrest park, so that will be my place of choice for running. I’ll probably go swim to Wash U once I get access. But there is a few things that the locals could help me with:
1- Master swim: is there any good master swim program in this area? I’m thinking of trying it this year.
2- Riding: I guess I can just ride on the bike path around Forrest park, it seems to measure about 7 miles. It also look very narrow and pretty busy at times, so is there any other place to just ride?
3- Group ride: I loved the group rides in Pittsburgh, so I am looking for another one here (don’t worry, I ride a road bike! No crazy triathlete showing up tomorrow at your ride). When/where are they?
4- Any running track near Forrest park open to public?
Of course, I’ll take any other advice you might have. Thanks all!
Edit: Post Monster ate my post.
If you’re a couple of blocks N or FoPo, you’re probably in the near vicinity of Big Shark. I’d swing by and talk to them. They’re a great shop.
I’ve only been here about 6 mo myself, so, still sorting things out. But,
Saturday group ride from Big Shark in the loop.
WashU has a track but not sure if its exactly open to the public.
Check out Shaw Park if you have a connection to Clayton (outdoor 50M)
FP is great for running
I’m still figuring out riding routes but wouldn’t reccommend riding in FP, it is a little narrow and usually pretty full of folks just tooling around / walking / dog walking. Not that great for actual bike training.
I’m only doing sprints and Oly’s this year so I haven’t taken the time to head out and explore longer riding routes, but I hear folks taking Midland out from Delmar to get out west (the key for longer rides here, esp. now with the HWY all f’ed up for 6 more months.)
Feel free to shoot me a PM in you want anything more specific.
Cross the river and ride the MCT trails in Illinois. 85 miles of paved bike trails, no worries about traffic. You have to drive a 1/2 hour to get there, but it’s worth it for the quality of training you can get in.
Welcome. I have been riding in the area for about the last 2 years and running much longer. If you have a car, it will be fairly easy to get to most of these spots.
Master swims - they have one at Shaw park (center of clayton). If you contact the pool they can help you out there
Riding - there is actually a lot of spots to ride (Forest Park is not one of them). Creve Coure Park, Katty Trail (gravel roads), MCT trail http://www.mcttrails.org/viewer.htm (very flat, but rarely crosses traffic), http://www.bikestlouis.org/ good place to find out which roads have bike lanes or are the safest to ride on, then most of the local bike shops have weekly group rides (Big shark, Malpewood, ghisallo).
see #2
Wash U, Maplewood Highschool… i would assume most public high schools will let you have access as long as you don’t cause any issues
Finally, the st. louis tri club is a great place for information. It is cheap to join, which includes discounts at Big Shark and Big river running, group rides, monthly meetings (not mandatory) and members to ask anything.
STL Triclub usually does track workouts at washu on tues nights. Bigshark/stl tri club both have rides. Otherwise in ofallon theres a roadie group ride. I would join stl triclub 15% at bigshark is great(big shark has a tri club too). Coming in Nov/Dec time frame big shark has there annual tri club buy where you can usually get 20% or more on alot of big items. I dont really like riding in the city(I live on the IL side) so I just ride the country roads. If you are looking for a long ride, the bike trail that starts in collinsville goes all the way up to edwardsville so you can easily get a century in. Plus theres alot of races and stl tri club does half and full iron race rehearsals. Enjoy the scene I get to come back from the desert in jan.
Big Shark being a 10mn walk from where I live, this ride will be good. Hope it’s not only populated with badass roadies. Do you guys know how long is the ride? I’ll go and ask for details too.
Looks like riding will be a little more difficult to achieve but I’ll figure it out. I will definitively try the tri club though, some group, organized workouts will be great.
I live in St. Louis area, Chesterfield to be exact. There are some decent hills in Chesterfield, Eureka, Wildwood areas. It is about a 25 minute drive from where you are at. The roads are well traveled by cyclist and several groups rides.
I personally spend a lot of time training in a park out here that has some really good hills. It is called Babler Park. Basically no car traffic and if you hit all the hills once in the park it is about 17 miles. Do it twice and you get a really good, safe workout.
Sorry can’t be more help with what is available in the Wash U area.
If you are interested in learning more about the hills there is a great document in the Missouri section of the forum that give coordinates of several good hills in the St. Louis area. There is not very many really long ones but some do exceed 20% grade and up to a mile or two.
Thanks, I’m glad to know that there is some workable hill around there, I like to climb and I was afraid I would get frustrated around there. The Burgh was great for that, nasty hills back there.
What do you guys think about actually biking to all these places you talk about? Going by car is not going to do it for me, I just don’t have the time, so I want to maximize my time on the bike. Biking from where I live might be too dangerous, you think? How is the drivers-cyclists relationship here?
How is the drivers-cyclists relationship here?
Well, the ones that don’t hit you aren’t too bad Seriously, if you are new to the area and not familar with the traffic situation this year you are right in the area of a major detour (Hwy 40 closure). I would avoid any major road in your area during rush hour and Saturday afternoons. As a previous poster mentioned, ride where drivers are use to seeing bikes. Early Sunday mornings are prime time riding in the St. Louis area.
Forest park area to west county where the hills I mentioned are at would be a difficult ride. Lots of traffic. I don’t do it but sure others have. Guess you would ride Clayton road most of the way.
I am sure there are some hills that are closer. I don’t the area that well
I live in St. Louis area, Chesterfield to be exact. There are some decent hills in Chesterfield, Eureka, Wildwood areas. It is about a 25 minute drive from where you are at. The roads are well traveled by cyclist and several groups rides.
I personally spend a lot of time training in a park out here that has some really good hills. It is called Babler Park. Basically no car traffic and if you hit all the hills once in the park it is about 17 miles. Do it twice and you get a really good, safe workout.
Sorry can’t be more help with what is available in the Wash U area.
If you are interested in learning more about the hills there is a great document in the Missouri section of the forum that give coordinates of several good hills in the St. Louis area. There is not very many really long ones but some do exceed 20% grade and up to a mile or two.
Do you ride Babler with Shawnerrr O’Neal and do 100 miles there? I agree, West County Wildwood is the best for riding. Heading out to Washington, MO from there is great too, new pavement and hilly.
I would second stopping by Big Shark and asking them for some input. They are a good group of people that will have lots of info. I know the tri-team does rides in Columbia, IL, Kevin can provide you the details ont eh loop they use out there. There’s also a Wednesday night Trailnet ride with a couple different length loops, my brother in law does it and says they push pretty hard.
Dave
Most nights, lately, I have not been able to get out there until 7:45 and do 20 - 25 miles around Babler. I ride until it is dangerous with the animals, speed, and darkness. According to Google maps it is a little over 2000 feet of climbing. I question the accuracy but who knows. My Garmin Edge 205 and 305 forerunner do not have alltitude built in.
The best long ride is for me to ride from my house to Washington MO and back. I live on Wildhorse and it is about 65 miles and a fantastic ride. Challenging for me, I am old, very nice scenery. I feel like I really did something with that ride. There is one hill where two dogs are allowed to run free and have tried to bite me and my wheel right in the middle of the climb. The only real negative.
According to the Garmin Training Center it is over 1 mile of hills.
Most nights, lately, I have not been able to get out there until 7:45 and do 20 - 25 miles around Babler. I ride until it is dangerous with the animals, speed, and darkness. According to Google maps it is a little over 2000 feet of climbing. I question the accuracy but who knows. My Garmin Edge 205 and 305 forerunner do not have alltitude built in.
The best long ride is for me to ride from my house to Washington MO and back. I live on Wildhorse and it is about 65 miles and a fantastic ride. Challenging for me, I am old, very nice scenery. I feel like I really did something with that ride. There is one hill where two dogs are allowed to run free and have tried to bite me and my wheel right in the middle of the climb. The only real negative.
According to the Garmin Training Center it is over 1 mile of hills.
Little Traven? There are 2 dogs on that road and the owners are gonna get punched in their face next time I see them. One day the dogs were chasing me and I yelled, “GO, GO HOME!” 5 minutes later an SUV pulls up behind me and a lady said, “If you don’t want my dogs chasing you, find somewhere else to ride!” I told her she was ignorant and that she didn’t care about her animals to let them play in traffic and flicked her the bird.
It is out in the country but I would still bet there you are not allowed to let your dog run free. What makes it extra difficult it is right in the middle of a hill. So I am working to just keep up right. It really makes for a challenge. Maybe something they should add to the TdF?
I just pictured that dog getting hit by Burghardt in stage 9 2007 at TdF.
Did not realize. I actually don’t use it any longer when I cycle because I now have the 205 mounted on my bike.
The training center software does have altitude when I plug in the 205. I assume it is getting it from Google Maps or something similiar. I don’t know how accurate. Would be interesting to compare native GPS elevation from 305 with back-end driven elevation with the 205. I will do it this evening on my ride. I will wear the 305 on my wrist.
Hey, Steve, major congrats on your 1st place AG finish at RecPlex. Very competitive.
I thought more about doing a century at Babler. That is pretty major. That is over 5 hours of riding for me. Plus I think it is tougher when you are not really going somewhere but rather doing a loop. I hit every hill in such a way that it is about 20 miles. I have done it twice in a row for training but for a century it would be 5 times. But I still think my ride to Washington and back was tougher then the 40 miles at Babler.
Seriously, if you are new to the area and not familar with the traffic situation this year you are right in the area of a major detour (Hwy 40 closure). I would avoid any major road in your area during rush hour and Saturday afternoons. As a previous poster mentioned, ride where drivers are use to seeing bikes. Early Sunday mornings are prime time riding in the St. Louis area.