Training in Escondido...info please?

Triathlon Forum
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Hello, i am a pro triathlete from Scotland… and i am keen to base myself in CA for a few weeks either side of the California 70.3 in March. I have a family friend who is more than happy for me to stay with him, if it suits me for training purposes. He lives at Crest Glen, Escondido. Can anyone please shed some light on what sort of training location this is? i.e pool access/bike groups/safe riding/run trails etc. I most likely will not have the use of a car, so is this going to be a sensible place for me to base myself?

Thanks guys

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I’m not familiar with exactly where Crest Glen is, but as far as biking and running I think you’d be good. And while I’m more familiar with the pools a bit closer to the coast, I know that there are at least 2 24 hour fitness (gyms) in Escondido with pools. And you could always ride to the coast (~15 miles) to do open water swims if you wanted.

Bottom line - as the price seems to be right, I’d say it’s close enough to anything you’d want to make it worthwhile.

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not really familiar with the swimming but shouldn’t be an issue from where you are.
the riding is where it’s at though, a few minutes and you’re in some of the best riding socal has to offer

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Hi, my mother-in-law lives in Escondido so I travel out there sometimes to get some warm weather in. Here are some tips off the top of my head:

  • You can ride from Escondido toward Mt. Palomar or you can head over to the coast. I saw a slowtwitch posting a week or so ago for a ride leaving Kit Carson Park going to Palomar and returning (~70 miles). Palomar is as big a climb as there is…

  • Riding over to the coast is roughly 15 miles and then you can go up and down Highway 101. Best bet to find a loop to ride is to jump into the Swami’s ride on Saturday morning. It starts over on the coast but gets within 5 miles or so of Escondido on the loop.

-Runs - I’ve run some of the trails around Escondido…the one I remember is SE of the Mall there. I just ran from the house that I stayed in. If you are going long, many people get over to the coast and some run on the trails through Rancho Santa Fe.

  • Swim - either open water or I’ve dropped in (for a small fee) at the UCSD outdoor pool near Torry Pines. Lots of good places to swim, I’m just not aware of any that are in Escondido.

  • Gym - there is a 24 Hour Fitness that you can try to negotiate a good rate with. But hey, the Pound is so strong against the dollar a pro triathlete might feel like they can actually make it in the States.

If all else fails, stop by Nytro or B+L Bikes in Carlsbad and Encintas, respectively. They’ve always been very helpful to me and I pick up the Swami’s ride from B+L once I’ve riden over from Escondido.

Good luck on your trip.

-marshall

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I was born and raised in Escondido (but now live in Carlsbad). You’ll be just fine for training, believe me.

For swimming, there is a YMCA in town (http://palomar.ymca.org/english/). Join up and you’ll have plenty of swimming opportunities. If you want a nicer pool, swim down the road in Poway (http://www.ci.poway.ca.us/Index.aspx?page=355) or do Masters in Carlsbad (http://www.carlsbadmasters.com/). You could easily ride to either pool. Both are 15-20 miles away. Also, if you don’t have a car, just get a buss pass for NCTD and you’ll be fine. You can get anywhere you need to go, and you can bring your bike with you on the bus.

For cycling, you’ve got access to some of the best cycling in the world. I grew up racing road bikes here, and there are tons of good athletes in the area. If you want to ride hard, meet up with the Ranchos crew on Wednesdays and also their other training days (http://www.ranchoscycling.org/). If you don’t mind riding to/from the group rides, there are also the Swamis rides on Saturday and Wednesday (about 20 miles away in Solana Beach and Oceanside), SDBC rides (Saturday and Sunday, about 25 miles away in La Jolla), TCSD rides early on Tuesdays and Thursdays (20 miles away in Solana Beach), and so on. For solo riding, you can head east out toward Valley Center and Palomar Mountain, Julian, etc. (big hills), or north up through Highway 395 toward miles and mile of roads (rollers and some big hills), or west toward the coast for plenty of riding (fairly flat). Riding south is a bit complicated until you learn the area a little better, but there are tons of options there, too (RB, Poway, down into San Diego, etc.).

For running, there are lots of trails at Lake Hodges (http://www.lakehodges50k.com/), and several neighborhoods have dirt trails next to the sidewalks that are good for running. My favorite sidewalk trail is the one off Country Club and Broadway in North Escondido. 2.5 mile loop, flat and fast. It’s easy to get in 7-8 miles by running loops around that. In general, you can run anywhere in town, though. Pretty much every road has a sidewalk.

In brief, yes, Escondido is a very sensible place to live and train while you are here. The weather is always good and the training opportunities are abundant. Let me know if you have other questions. I lived in Escondido for 27 years, so I know a lot about the area. Also, I’ll be doing Cali Half, so I’ll see you there!

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You could look at the Escondido Swim Club, they have a masters swim program according to their website:

http://www.escswim.net/.

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how could you forget to mention that Escondido (kit carson park) was the jumping off point for our recent ‘epic’ Palomar ride. Ok, it was epic for me…just a normal training day for you. :wink:

To the OP, seems like you will be in good shape…Lots of GREAT riding from Escondido. Head north and you have some of the best climbing on the west coast (the aforementioned Palomar and surrounding areas), south east into Ramona, Santa Isabel, Julian and beyond into Anza Borrego. Of course, you can head west to the coast as well.

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check out triclubsandiego.org. Opportunities all over SD.

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http://www.socalcycling.com/Group%20Rides/weekly/swamis.htm
.

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Hi Guys, fantastic info to get there, much appreciated and certainly puts me in a much better frame of mind in terms of getting out there and training in the area. I’ll have a good digest of all the links and info here already and sort myself out for March; maybe see some of you out there at the Cali 70.3.
Cheers again
Fraser