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

Sloetry in Motion wrote:

Brevard NC

Underrated post

Hurl wrote:

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.

Green Valley Lake is about 20' further up the road and nearly 1000' higher, plus the homes are even cheaper, but for southern California standards Running Springs is dirt cheap. GVL is almost free housing.

What kind of work would you be looking for? What type of training? Base work? Marathon, 800m, ?????

Sloetry in Motion wrote:

Brevard NC

Are the places in the east at about 5000 ft. high enough for significant training benefit? And, what are those locales?

east of the easties wrote:

Sloetry in Motion wrote:

Brevard NC

Are the places in the east at about 5000 ft. high enough for significant training benefit? And, what are those locales?

Lotsa dudes j/o in Pisgah, I'll grant you that; drop,a load for me bruh but I'd rather stay high in Asheville or bang Atlanta cougars in Highlands.

Durango, Salida, Gunnison, Ouray and Glenwood too expensive.

There are no/few long term rentals: people can make more money off of short term rentals to tourists.

I vote Alamosa. Your meager wages will allow you to pay rent.

Tallahassee Florida. Heat and Humidity is the poor mans altitude.

Uhh Yuh Think wrote:

Tallahassee Florida. Heat and Humidity is the poor mans altitude.

This is the correct answer!

With a pair of sweats you can heat train anywhere.

jorvack wrote:

What about Charleston NV :

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

Casper Wyoming 5k ft

Winters in Casper probably suck but I visited Casper recently and thought it would be pretty cool to live on Casper Mountain at 8,000 feet with miles and miles of trails and then head into town at 5,000 feet for track workouts.

this and this wrote:

Durango, Salida, Gunnison, Ouray and Glenwood too expensive.

There are no/few long term rentals: people can make more money off of short term rentals to tourists.

I vote Alamosa. Your meager wages will allow you to pay rent.

Actually, Durango is a college town (Fort Lewis College), so there are a lot of long-term rentals available. Not as cheap as you would find in Albuquerque, but there are a lot of apartments and townhouses for rent all the time.

As for work, this is a tourist town, so there are server jobs available all over town. Even with a population of just 18,000, there are more than 100 restaurants. Durango is more of a cycling town (road and mountain bike), but there are a lot of professional athletes and sub-elites living here. The only real drawback is paying a little more rent than you would in other places. And although there is snow in the mountains, the actual city of Durango gets very little snow.

Look up Prescott, AZ. Less than 2 hours from Flagstaff, and 1.5hrs from Phoenix, in the middle of the National Forest. Base altitude at 5,500ft but most trails above 6000, and up to 8,000ft. Hundreds of miles of trails within downtown, kinda like Boulder but even better. Trails are never congested, although there's a great community of runners and bikers.

Temps are mild year-long, with average temps of 70. We get snow in the winter, but only about 5 days on average, much better than the 120 inches in Flagstaff. If it gets too cold in the winter, drive to Phoenix, too hot in the summer, drive to Flagstaff. Sedona is beautiful and within an hour drive, so is the Grand Canyon.

I moved her 3 years ago from Florida and took my half marathon PR from 1:30 to 1:16. Training is awesome at this altitude and yet doesn't kill you like some of the 8000ft locations. You can still push hard and recover quickly.

These pages have cool info about Prescott and the area.

https://azaltitudetraining.com/high-altitude-training-camps/summer-running-camp-arizona/

https://www.singletracks.com/blog/mtb-trails/everything-need-know-mountain-biking-prescott-national-forest/

Here is my incorrect answer. It's not in the U.S.

I lived in Oaxaca, Mexico 2007 - 2016. A beautiful small city at altitude of 5,000 ft. I'd run from my house to a ridge above 6,000 ft. 2 - 4 times per week. It's a 30 minute drive to 7-8,000 ft. runs. There is a new track in the city, open to the public, for intervals etc.

I was living the "digital nomad" life. Freelancing for clients in the U.S. and Canada, doing just fine working about a 25 hour week. The wife was doing the same. Cost of living a bit more than 50% or what we spent in Oakland or Portland, our previous home towns.

I'd still be there but my pesky teenager wanted to go to highschool in the U.S., so now we are back in the states. The teen is pulling straight As, so you can see the schools in Mexico are decent.

The caveat, can you handle the digital nomad work style?

You can rent a 2 bedroom place in a good neighborhood for about $5 - 600/month, lower if you move a few miles out of the city.

The open air markets sell produce at less than half the U.S. price, more like a quarter of the price. The cuisine is unique to Mexico, and amazing. Bla bla bla, you can see I love it there. Hey, I love Portland and Oakland too. But Oaxaca is a runners paradise. There is a great local scene. A bunch of second tier Kenyans live and train there.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g150801-Oaxaca_Southern_Mexico-Vacations.html

messi wrote:

[quote]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?[/quote

Good point. There is no clear dominance. Where was Lindgren from? Hall, Webb, Ritz only Hall was at Altitude maybe it got him to where he was? Wow bringing back memories of Foot locker when (no altitude Michigan) Ritz gapped this field by 15+ sec. in last 1.5 miles!

Oh yeah and pulled away in last mile from 3 Africans in Manchester 10k

plenty of high elevation spots in SoCal from which you could drive down to train and work (if you're willing to do a long commute). Idyllwild, Big Bear...

S A N T A F E

A

N

T

A

F

E

Silver City is the best answer....

High Elevation

Access to Low Elevation

Trails and tracks

University Town

Affordable

Jobs (not great)

Never too cold or too hot for outdoor training.

There are NO other towns that meet all of these qualifications.

Pine Mountain Club, California. Elevation is about 5400 ft.

Velocibuddha wrote:

Silver City is the best answer....

High Elevation

Access to Low Elevation

Trails and tracks

University Town

Affordable

Jobs (not great)

Never too cold or too hot for outdoor training.

There are NO other towns that meet all of these qualifications.

Springfield does!