If you can find a cheap way to live there, St Moritz and the Engadin Valley in Switzerland is hard to beat. Dirt roads everywhere, no car needed, altitude, sporting culture.
If you can find a cheap way to live there, St Moritz and the Engadin Valley in Switzerland is hard to beat. Dirt roads everywhere, no car needed, altitude, sporting culture.
A guide to running in Quito. The best places to run in Quito are parks, including Metropolitano, Carolina, and Bicentenario, top sites in our Centro Histórico and El Panecillo tours, the Chaquiñán Trail just outside the city.
If you can find a cheap way to live there, St Moritz and the Engadin Valley in Switzerland is hard to beat. Dirt roads everywhere, no car needed, altitude, sporting culture.
El Alto (Spanish for "The Heights") is the second-largest city in Bolivia, located adjacent to La Paz in Pedro Domingo Murillo Province on the Altiplano highlands. El Alto is today one of Bolivia's fastest-growing urban cente...
Assuming you're training for track or XC or roads and not trail running since you mentioned wanting to have access to a track? If so, I don't know why people are posting about places in South America that are way too high to get the right benefits from training up there. I think 6000-8000 is ideal for track and roads, but higher than that only could make sense if you're pursuing trail/ultra running training.
Flagstaff is still pretty cheap as far as mountain towns go.
Park City is great as well, closer to airport and major city, but sometimes more air pollution in SLC. More expensive than Flag but more dirt paths, I'm sure there's lots of other comparisons to be made between these two by people who know more than me.
Dullstroom South Africa seems like a great place that hasn't been mentioned? A lot of European mid-d squads go there during the winter, get summer weather, lots of dirt, safe environment, track facilities, and at 7000 ft.
For a non-altitude option I'd throw in the northeast kingdom of Vermont. Rural and safe, probably harder to find housing, but some of the best dirt roads that go on forever, a small community and culture of people serious about endurance sports (running, rowing, XC skiing at Craftsbury), and a great place to be away from distractions and focus on just training a lot. Slightly cooler than the rest of New England in the summer too.
Mexico City would be pretty cool and cheap, get altitude AND humidity training, and have plenty of facilities. I think Nick Symmonds did some training stints in or around that area? Back when Flotrack posted good content
Font Romeu. You can get a studio or one bedroom apartment for well under your budget, there's basically an unlimited number of miles to do on the trails, with plenty of choice between flat or hilly, and there's a track and a gym. And you can head over to Les Angles to use the amazing mountain view sauna for your heat training. Plus good air quality and it's safe of course.