What is the tri and/or endurance sports scene like in Albuquerque NM? I would imagine the biking is great, probably a lot of trail running…marathons certainly. How about tri’s with the lack of H2O.
lots of swimming in pools
season gets going really early-
Southwest Challenge Series is all the racing in the area
used to have a Cochiti Lake tri but no longer-that was the only lake swim
there are a couple of coaches up there and tri teams
www.trisportcoaching.com has a list of races with one coming up April 11
all season training, altitude, on or off road choices always, close to AZ/Colorado too, for really intense competitive racing
I live down the road, love the area- up the road you have Los Alamos for fun times above 7k feet!
they had a draft legal race up in SantaFe which I missed but i think it was ITU
Albuquerque is GOLDEN for training. Lived there for 6 years, and miss it dearly. The altitude is higher than Boulder, many, many biking and running trails (Elena gallegos on the north east side of town is prime), and it almost never rains or snows, so you can train all year without cleaning your bike (too often, at least).
Regarding races, among my favourite were the Atomic Man duathlon in White Rock (Los Alamos) at the end of april, Jay Benson on the air force base at the beginning of may, milkman state championships in dexter (roswell) at the beginning of june, gallup triathlon in…gallup in mid-june, sportz outdoor offroad triathlon at the albuquerque academy right in the middle of albuquerque the day or week after gallup, and the los alamos triathlon in august. also, deuces wild, in show low arizona is an excellent half iron, xterra, or olympic, and it’s only 4 hours from abq. There is also an Xterra in four corners, and an awesome olympic in four corners. dunno what the dates on these are, though.
For running, there are many, many 5ks and 10ks, as well as some halfs and the duke city marathon. being an xc runner who was sponsored by the local race organizer in high school, I didn’t get to run in many races, as I had to help at water stops and stuff, but they seemed like awesome races. run for the zoo is the largest race in the city, and is at the beginning of may/end of april.
For biking, there are a few road races, many mountain bike races, and a few time trials. The double-eagle time trial series is held out on the west side by the shooting range/small airport just off I-40, and are a great training tool, as they show how your training is helping the progression of your time trial skills. put them to the test at the state championships at the end of august, or at the record challenge time trial in moriarty at the beginning of september (I always missed it because I had to go back to vancouver for school…)
For training, like I said, check out the trails on the east side in the foothills, and for the greatest biking/running workouts, bike up to the head of the la luz trail (steepest grade I’ve ever seen for 6 miles), and then run the la luz trail 3000 feet to the top of the sandias (take the tram down…or you’ll kill yourself).
Hope that helped! pm me if you want more info.
Like the others have said, the trainining enviroment is great. But if you want to do triathlons that aren’t pool swims prepare to do some driving.
For a lake swim there is also the Elephant Man triathlon down at Elephant Butte Lake in September. I am from Albuquerque but started my triathlon career in the past two years after I moved away. I still do a lot of training when I go back and enjoy training there. I do feel the altitude during training when I go back also. I have been meaning to do Elephant Man the past two years but haven’t been able to make it happen yet. I just try to race as many of the AZ races as possible. Here is the website for Elephant Man: http://elephantmantriathlon.com/
Yeah - what they said.
I moved away just as I started to get serious with my tri training… but the weather there is completely ridiculously good. Even in the middle of december, and at 5K feet I would do lunch hour runs in a tshirt and shorts. I trained my run and bike really hard - but swimming is the problem. There aren’t many good pools in town, and the hours aren’t perfect, but plenty of people do just fine.
The immediate race scene is mostly sprints with pool swims- but as long as you are willing to drive to Texas, Colorado, or AZ, you can train at altitude, in constant sunshine and warmth, and in a cheap town with a tolerably stable economy.
I loved it there, but my time there was just up.
PM me if you have any questions - Id be more than happy to help out in any way that I can.
I currently live in Albuquerque! Great altitude training with tons of great trails for running! Currently Paula Radclffe (Womens marathon world record holder) is training here amongst several other elite marathoners. There is also a fairly large cycling scene here as the Astana team has hosted some of their training sessions here. Only downfall is the majority of races have pool swims.
If you have any questions or need some suggestions, feel free to PM me.