Hi all,
My wife and I would like to plan a week’s vacation in Jan 2005. Can anyone recommend a resort or cruiseship that would facilitate the multisport lifestyle (you know what I’m talking about - morning swim in a lap pool, great riding, group rides/runs/swims, maybe even a seminar and coaching, healthy food)?
Thanks
Well, for January, I give my absolute highest recommendation to Doug Stern’s Triathlon Training Camp on the Island of Curacao in the Dutch Antilles.
I think this will be my 6th year there. I love Curacao and the training camp is absolutely killer. There is also an EXCELLENT olympic distance race on the last day of the camp, super cool.
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St. Maarten has a tri shop near the airport. It’s run by a cool Argentinian guy who moved there, I think he married the boss’ daughter. They run several sprint races on the island, swim in the bay (warm!), mt. bike (I saw some roadies, but the roads are pretty pot holed), finish up on the beach with a barbeque, very nice.
Club LaSanta, in Lanzarote, Canary Islands. This is as good as it gets if you want to vacation and train in tri sports. There is also a whole whack of places you might want to go to in the Southern Hemisphere, like Aus Gold Cost, New Zealand (South Island, Christchurch) or South Africa, Cape Town.
Perhaps Smartasscoach can also comment on training in the Azores or Madeira.
How are the roads?
The roads in Curacao are on par or slightly better than any U.S. municipality. They have been well maintained and are relatively new. The terrain is mostly flat with almost no hills, although there is a hard step-climb that is very steep (10%?) in the RBTT/Fatum Bank Triathlon that you ascend 4 times.
The swim to bike tranisiton goes through a beautiful resort beach where one piece of a two piece is de riguer.
The best training on the bike in Curacao is to be had just outside Willemsted past the new French built water de-salination plant. Pavement is pristine and traffic is light and tolerant. It can be brutally windy as with all Caribbean islands.
The swimming is nothing short of the finest anywhere in the world, with a fine 50 meter outdoor pool and the Caribbean for our open water swims. It is incredible.
There are two daily runs through town and it is a fun place to run.
Perhaps not what you are looking for, but it worked for me.
My Off Season training always involved a one week cross-country skiing trip/vacation/camp where a group of us would get together and ski 20 - 50K a day for 4 - 7 days. Outstanding training and base building for the following tri-season.
For a number of years we did this at Silver Star Resort in the interior of British Columbia. It’s an outstanding location for both xc skiing and alpine skiing right out the back door of your chalet and it’s high enough to get some altitude training effect in.