I think Albuquerque is under rated.
It is flat, but has the Sandia mt range right next door. You can escape the summer heat by going north to Santa Fe or Taos. Its a university town with an accessible University track. And the community has a banked indoor track in the winter.
Boston. Best city in the country hands down. And it's pretty good for running too.
Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University.
Very hilly region of the state, so it's easy to get in a challenging run. In fact, there are only a few really flat routes for recovery days, but there are enough. The hills around Griffey Lake are borderline stupid in their incline, but the route through Cascade Park with rushing stream is about as good as it gets. (Jim Spivey once dropped a 3:59 mile in the middle of an eight mile run on one of the flat routes. That was how the workout was designed, btw. We had two other runners on the team who would eventually break 4 that next spring, and they ran 4:12 and 4:14 in that workout, so we think Jim's 3:59 was legit.)
There are a number of good facilities to both train and race. Obviously more if you are associated with the university, but you can join the IU Club to get access to most fitness facilities.
The weather is . . . well, hell . . . no prize. Bloomington is in that region of the country where there's a 110-degree temperature change from the highest high to the lowest low each year, but that just make you tougher (right?)
And the university has had 173 Olympians (2 of whom were my roommates. I lost a lot while I was there). More on that:
https://blogs.libraries.indiana.edu/iubarchives/2012/07/18/olympic-greats/
So there is a lot of tradition in the community for Olympic-type sports.
Lastly, here's a Runner's World feature on Bloomington:
http://www.runnersworld.com/where-to-run/bloomington-indiana
If you're in the area, enjoy a run there! But don't even search for the Griffey Lake run. It's the Valley of Doom.
Carmel, Indiana
Milford, Michigan
Lehigh Valley Gorge Trail. Didn't Catherine Ndereba have a training group that spent part of the year training there? The trail is 26 miles of dirt road with no vehicular traffic at all. It is a very slight uphill or downhill depending on which way you go.
with jog as my witness wrote:
Bisbee, AZ. At 5400ft, considered to have the best year-round climate in the U.S., highschool track at 3000ft for workouts, mountain roads, trails, cheaper to live than Flagstaff.
Considered by whom?
fadsfasfsdf wrote:
NOP goes to Park City, it's not "underrated"
Yeah, some of the Nike athletes occasionally spend time there, but aside from that, AFAIK there are no big time road/track runners living there even part time (unless you count saarel or something). aside from december/january the weather is usually good, easy to get runs in from 10,000-4,000 feet, city near by etc. So yes, I'd say it's still underrated. Whoever mentioned Cedar City is right on, access to high and low elevation with nice weather in St. George year round, but while I'm sure it's a nice enough city (I've driven through but never spent time), it's not a place I'd want to live even semi permanently.
Mike Jones wrote:
As far as training locations go, I would say St. Louis is definitely under rated. I lived in U city when I went to college there and cost of living is incredibly cheap compared to any other decent size city,
forest park has a 6 mile dirt/gravel trail around the perimeter as well as a ton of grass ad dirt trails inside the park,
Grants trail is a 15 mile trail
There is a new riverfront trail that goes from the arch area out to Alton, Ill
Castlewood state park is about a 15 minute drive away for a nice secluded training area with a vast network of backwoods trails.
There are a lot of post collegiate athletes hanging around as well as some fairly competitive training groups for the area.
Sure St. Louis has great parks and trails. Two words though: winter and summer.
RFRA-Supporter wrote:
Carmel, Indiana
That's stupid. 1 park and 1 trail.
Redding California... Over 200 miles of trails within a 30 min drive. Easily accessible. Trails not technical, good footing. 20 mile road trail along Sacramento river for tempos. Public access to Dirt and rubber track. Temps 30 - 70 degrees during winter. Summer its blazing hot but is typically in 60s b4 10 am.
Plus there is NEVER traffic! Sac river is great to ice in after run.
Shut up, democrat/fairy.
Rank #1 - Buffalo, NY.
Rank #1 - Buffalo, NY. wrote:
Rank #1 - Buffalo, NY.
Yup.
Alan.no. there is sometimes snow on the ground in Southern Indiana, it's too hot and too cold. and no actual elevation (above sea level) access.Bay Area is the answer. Shorts and t-shirt weather every day of the year. hundreds of miles of trails, elevation in Tahoe/Yosemite/mammoth all within 2.5-5 hours where you can go from sea level to 7500'+ before lunchgreat running clubs, tons of hills in the city, Golden Gate park (20% larger than central park) marin headlands, mt tamalpais, on and onif there's snow on the ground or extreme heat, it's not ideal
Runningart2004 wrote:
Southern Indiana/Louisville.
The knobs provide quite a few steep hills upwards of 1-2 miles st 10-15% grade.
Knobstone Trail and Jefferson Memorial Forest provide trails for days. City parks of Iroqouis And Cherokee are also hilly gems that provide some trails.
Wheather is typical Midwestern.
Alan
pittsburgh
Chattanooga isn't looking as good as it used to.
B-lo FTW wrote:
Rank #1 - Buffalo, NY. wrote:Rank #1 - Buffalo, NY.
Yup.
Rochester > Buffalo
run in DC wrote:
Washington D.C.
Best place I've trained.
DC is fantastic.
C&O canal - 100+ mile dirt road along the Potomac river
Rock Creek Park - 10+ miles of dirt trails/hills, 10+ miles of paved flat trails
Capitol Crescent Trail - 7 mile flat paved trail
Not to mention all the sites to run around in the downtown area
By far my favorite city to train in