where is the "poor" person's flagstaff/boulder/mammouth

get high literally wrote:

If you are sub-sub-elite and just want to live somewhere simply but still take advantage of "live high, train low" where can you move in the USA that doesn't require a high income and you can still work for a living?

I suspect it will be the kind of unglamorous place that never makes magazine or web articles hence unknown in general.

The problem with most places that are cheap to live in is that the economy is bad. So you could have a hard time finding work and a harder time finding work that will pay decently. Boulder became a mecca in the 70s because it was fairly easy to find some sort of job there and if that failed you could always find work in Denver. I think a "poor" person might be better off in a place like Denver or Albuquerque and figuring out how to minimize expenses. Otherwise, I think university towns might be a good bet as there's usually work tending bar or delivering pizza and relatively cheap apartments.

Running Springs, CA: 6250'

20' drive down HWY330 to 1500'

20-30' west of Big Bear via HWY18

Horse with no name wrote:

That's a remote desert outpost isn't it? I don't think there's any cellphone service out there either?

At Furnace Creek there is good cellphone service and solid data coverage.

Remote? Kind of. You are about 2 hours from Las Vegas. 4+ hours from LA. Only 1 hour from Pahrump, NV, which has everything you need.

Plenty of wide open spaces. 364 days of sunshine. Wide open spaces. Beautiful scenery.

Western Adams State wrote:

Alamosa or Gunderson?

Were you referencing Norm "Son of a" Gunderson?

sbeefyk1 wrote:

The real question is why do you people think altitude matters... Top runners live a running life style. Doesn't matter where you live.

Totally agree. Biggest myth in running. Altitude acceptance was the perfect storm of the emergence of Africans (it was going to happen anyway) and the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.

Yes, altitude is great......if you are racing at altitude.

Why doesn't Flagstaff High School produce as many elites as Iten, Kenya?

Payson, AZ.

Considerably cheaper than Flagstaff and just as pretty (Mogollon Rim is spectacular), but the town itself is Hicksville.

On the bus wrote:

Wenatchee WA, Golden or Ft Collins, CO, Reno NV, auburn CA, Los Alamos NM

Auburn in only around 1,200 feet.

Others:

Cedar City Utah (pop 29,000, home of Southern Utah State) - 5,800

Montrose CO (pop 19,000) - 5,800

Farmington NM (pop 45,000) - 5,400

Prescott AZ (pop 40,000) - 5,400

All of these places have lot of trails close by at higher elevation.

Running Springs CA was the right answer, though you may have to buy or rent in the high desert instead to not spend too much. Either way, there are all sorts of areas in that part of CA/LA where you can get from 1000 ft elevation to 6000 ft easily, and have summer and winter an hour or so apart.

Bishop is too remote. Furnace Creek you'd be insane. Anywhere not in California, well, good luck.

http://i2.cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/130630204224-02-heat-0630-horizontal-large-gallery.jpg

Go west young man wrote:

Challis, Idaho is perfect. Mean elevation of 5,253, although many parts are much higher, average temperature of 63 fahrenheit, very little rain, and you can stay in a studio or 1 bedroom apt. for $500 a month.

Checked this place out on Google maps and it looks pretty awesome. Beautiful mountain scenery. Maybe a future vacation spot.

alabama runner wrote:

I was in another thread about this earlier and I remember someone mentioning Cloudcroft, NM. It's at 8700 ft. elevation (1700 higher than Flag, 2300 higher than Boulder), and Its a 25-30min drive to Alamogordo at 4100 ft for workouts. Cloudcroft has a lot of nice trails as well. I assume that it's cheaper because no one ever talks about it.

I don't know about that...isn't that Billy the Kid & the Regulator's territory?

Leadville

Iten or Addis Ababa.

The Robertsons have trained there for 10 years and it barely costs them a thing. They also haven't worked a lick in that time.

Mexico.

Reno, Nevada

No Respect wrote:

Mexico.

Was going to say this. The caveat being you won't make much money, but cost of living is dirt cheap anyway.

John Cook's athletes used to do altitude training at a camp in San Luis Potosi

í_City

Aldebaran wrote:

Leadville

Maybe Montrose or Grand Junction.

Also, a story last week said the the two counties around Breckenridge, Vail, et . have the lowest unemployment rate in the country.

orca wrote:

On the bus wrote:

Wenatchee WA, Golden or Ft Collins, CO, Reno NV, auburn CA, Los Alamos NM

Auburn in only around 1,200 feet.

All of these places have lot of trails close by at higher elevation.

At the foot hills, 30 min drive to 5000 feet and an hour or less to 7000 feet.

What about Charleston NV :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Charleston,_Nevada

Casper Wyoming 5k ft

jorvack wrote:

Casper Wyoming 5k ft

One bonus of Casper is the resistance training you can get in there. The wind blows there like no other place in the United States. Laramie runs a close second.