I want to do a week to 9-day triathlon training camp within 3-4 hours of London (sometime March-May) and would very much appreciate any creative ideas.
The twist: I don’t want to fly, ferry seems too much hassle, and I don’t have a car. Train it is.
Priorities:
great cycling, esp for triathletes. In other words, scenic rolling countryside and decent roads rather than repeats up Hardknott Pass.
not a big city, but not a village either.
decent running options, but a few parks / trails would suffice, not top priority.
a decent pool, bonus points for 50 metres.
guaranteed sunshine and minimal rain. Ok fine maybe not.
My own ideas so far are Oxford (west for Cotswolds, flatter east?), Winchester (South Downs) or York (presumably some sort of moors / downs nearby?), but would welcome other ideas.
I’d avoid Winchester, not great TT riding around the South Downs imo.
Loughborough has some good TT roads, a great pool (tho I’m not sure if you can use it as a non-student, and don’t know what the town pool is like) and some brilliant trail running in beacon hill/the outwoods/bradgate park that can either be slow steady hills or hard rolling tempo. Few flatter options such as the brilliantly named Buthole Lane for efforts as well. Even potential open water swimming at racehub and a good bit of pro spotting available. Only 90 mins on the train from St Pancras I believe. Can even ride the 20?miles to Mallory Park for TT sessions on closed roads if you want.
The only cons really are a few main roads to get out of loughborough but once your out you can take lanes or good tt roads. and the traffic lights through town will drop 1.5km/h off of your average speed.
Here is a suggestion for you, if you can wait for the month of May !
Check out Divers Cove at Godstone for open water swimming. Its an old silica sand quarry now run by Thames Water - its basically the bluest and cleanest water around, opens in May ( need to check dates etc.) There are usually two or three one hour swimming sessions every weekday, five sessions per day at the weekend. You can also look at the Thorpe Park open water swimming lake, its brown water but relatively clean. Seaford or Eastbourne are other options, but no life guards and you need to have a bit of knowledge of the currents, tides etc.
Cycling wise, we have hills and more hills ! See if you can look up some previous cycle sportive routes. Evans ran a " King of the Downs " sportive a couple of years back, which went over the Boxhill climb and then over to Hever/Westerham, you have Dukes Hill, Toyes Hill and there is another Cat 4 climb near Sevenoaks that l cannot remember the name of ! You can also get to the Ashdown Forest via Hever to Hartfield and round the back of Forest Row. You can easily make a 100 mile ride with a 5000ft plus climb profile. Have a look at The Velo Barn in Westerham, they are running a barn stormer of a ride in February over a lot of these hills. The good news is, there are flatter routes as well !
Many bridleways and footpaths to run on, plus some decent pubs !!
You can also have a look at the New Forest as well, Wiggle do a very decent sportive cycle route ( you can look up the route etc.) and its a beautiful cycle in Spring.
I think with a bit of planning, you could make a great training trip out of this.
I live just south of Oxford in a place called Goring-on-Thames. It’s incredible round here for trail running, the ridgeway runs right through the village. The countryside is also great for cycling, there isn’t that much traffic, though the roads are typical UK roads.
Or if you want flat roads, Nottingham or to the East and South of Nottingham (so similar to the suggested Loughborough). There’s loads of quiet roads to use (similar to, and inc the roads on the Southern loop of the full Outlaw bike course).
Lucy Gossage is based somewhere near Nottingham, and it’s not held her back !
OR Here’s a different one… Matlock Bath, and specifically the New Bath Hotel at Matlock Bath. Right on the edge of the Peaks. Can ride South if you don’t want it hilly. Or can head North for hills into the Peaks (we don’t have Hardknott - but we have Winnats Pass , or Riber, Bank Road, Rowsley Bar, Monsal Head, and other National Hill Climb champs sites ðŸ˜).
So really got both lumpy and flatter, depending on whether you turn left or right.
A rails-to-trails High Peak trail on the doorstep (starts about 2 miles away, with a canal tow path between most of the two).
And the piece de resistance, the hotel has a 40 yard, spring water fed outdoor pool. No chemicals, just pristine water that flows in one end and out the other, being constantly replenished. Comes in about 18-19C and exits the other end if the pool either a degree or two warmer or colder depending on time of year. I swim there all year round, even when there’s snow on the ground in Jan or Feb it’s still no colder than 14-15C at the colder (deep) end. In May time it’ll be between 17 and 20 depending on the weather. Our tri club have a session there, and they have membership + day tickets (and obvs free for hotel guests).
(I have no financial link to the hotel or pool - but I swim there, and a friend was the guy who put a huge amount of unpaid time in to resurrect the pool from dereliction, and he and now runs the pool for the hotel).
I don’t think you’d go too far wrong with somewhere in the Oxford, WIndsor, Reading Triangle (includes Goring btw). Like you say, you have hills in the Chilterns, with flatter routes around Oxford or to the South of Reading. By the time you get to April, there’s a number of club TTs going to choose from on Mon-Thurs evenings
Lots of pools to choose from about, with a 50m pool at Wycombe (albeit not always set up as 50m), plus lots of 25m variants around. The heated 50m outdoor pool in Hillingdon at the east end of that triangle is also really nice. There’s open water swimming at Bray, Marlow, Taplow, Caversham, Datchet, Reading, Beale, and Dorchester. Or even Jubilee River if you are happy swimming solo, between Maidenhead and Windsor. Endless pool coaching if of interest in Henley. Synthetic Tracks in Reading, Marlow, Windsor, and Oxford. Dorney rowing lake also good for intervals (plus the odd race) Lots of good off road running along the river.
My First Choice would be Salisbury.
Excellent riding round the New Forest, longer routes to the coast or to Bath
Excellent running in New Forest
Great Parkrun on Saturday
Excellent Tri Club (Salisbury Tri), who will probably be happy to let you join for Swim training, club ride and run training
Excellent cycling club (SRAM) who will probably be happy to let you join their club rides
Next Choice, Weymouth. Some lovely coastal rides. Run around Portland or along the ridgeway. Sea is probably a little cold at that time of year. Contact Bustinskins (tri club) to see if they have anything organised
At that time of year, some of the local Tri’s may be running. Look at Ringwood Tri, Mad March Triathlon, Osprey Sprint
Actually, I’ll chuck another on in: Bournemouth. New Forest for cycling, or hillier towards Swanage and Weymouth. Running in the New Forest, or along the coast. Seas or Estuaries for swimming. Track. A few pools, and lots of accomodation options. I spent a few months staying at the Village Hotel in Bournemouth which had a 25m pool, as well as a decent gym
So basically anywhere that isn’t London!
Man I hated training when I lived in London- rubbish running from the doorstep. An hour to get out of London and back into London for decent cycling roads and pools absolutely rammed
So basically anywhere that isn’t London!
Man I hated training when I lived in London- rubbish running from the doorstep. An hour to get out of London and back into London for decent cycling roads and pools absolutely rammed
It’s certainly a lot easier when you’re outside London! I actually don’t mind when I’m working there, as I build it around a 1-1.5 hour cycle each way, and can get to the city on pretty much 90% Cycle lane,towpath, or back streets
I want to do a week to 9-day triathlon training camp within 3-4 hours of London (sometime March-May) and would very much appreciate any creative ideas.
The twist: I don’t want to fly, ferry seems too much hassle, and I don’t have a car. Train it is.
Priorities:
great cycling, esp for triathletes. In other words, scenic rolling countryside and decent roads rather than repeats up Hardknott Pass.
not a big city, but not a village either.
decent running options, but a few parks / trails would suffice, not top priority.
a decent pool, bonus points for 50 metres.
guaranteed sunshine and minimal rain. Ok fine maybe not.
My own ideas so far are Oxford (west for Cotswolds, flatter east?), Winchester (South Downs) or York (presumably some sort of moors / downs nearby?), but would welcome other ideas.
Thanks!
Oh and to add another feather to Goring’s bow- there’s a direct train from Paddington. Could be here in an hour, there’s some nice hotels, a few gastro pubs and awesome walks too.
Thank you all so much. There are exactly the kind of answers I was looking for, but better and more than I’d expected. I will look further into all of the ideas, consolidated here in case helpful to someone else sometime:
Bath/Bristol
Loughborough
Godstone / Surrey
New Forest
Tenby
Goring and that broader Oxford/Reading/Windsor triangle)
Nottingham
Peak District (New Bath Hotel looks amazing!)
Salisbury
Weymouth (done the 70.3 a few times so should have thought of that one myself)
Bournemouth
Might need to do more than one - thanks again!
On that side note, I find London surprisingly ok for training, for a big city. Two 50m pools within ten mins of my house (east London), endless traffic free running around canals / Lea Valley, not toooo bad for getting out on rides esp via train…
… BUT obviously not as good as hunkering down somewhere else for a bit when the opportunity comes up.
Maybe south of France?
Eurostar: London → Paris is ~2hrs I think
Then tgv as far (long) as you’re willing to travel to direction Nice? (either all the way to Nice, or maybe somewhere near Valance or Marseille?)
That’s good intel, thanks. I had toyed with Eurostar (getting to Lille is only 1h 20), but overall think hassles outweigh benefits, and will also save me sawing down the bike to length it seems.
