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

1) Boulder is out to begin with because you can't do hi/low there. That's why I went to Flagstaff in 2000. Boulder was the running mecca then and Kellogg told me to go to hi/low training.

My assumption is Flagstaff is way cheaper than Boulder/Mammoth. Problem with Flagstaff when I lived there was there weren't many good jobs if you didn't work for the University.

Doesn't flagstaff have the same things?

Big Red where do you live now?

I can see how the Mexico thing was appealing. I assume you're 100% fluent in Spanish? For a lot of people who aren't they can't do that.

Flagstaff is much much much more expensive than Silver City, NM. It is also much colder and snowier in the winter.

(We are looking for a poor mans alternative to Flagstaff, Boulder, Mammoth, Durango, Bend).

Obviously, everywhere in Colorado, Oregon, Washington and California is very expensive (and often crowded as well).

Montana, Wyoming, Idaho are very cold and often lack access to low elevations.

Southern Utah, Southern Nevada, and Arizona can be affordable. But the mountain towns in these states are expensive, and usually lack any type of culture as well.

Silver City has some jobs and some culture. It lacks an community of endurance athletes.

But if you want good jobs and a trendy location.....

It is NOT going to be a "poor mans Boulder or Flagstaff"....

Maybe we should define what "poor" is considered? Lets say right at the poverty level, which as of 2015 according to wikipedia is roughly as follows for household numbers:

1 person: $12,000

2 person: $16,000

3 person: $20,000

4 person: $24,000

So let's say you had a sponsor who put up $24,000 for you to live the dream for two years. Where could you do it? I'm assuming you'd have to have a car that was paid off and only drive it once or twice a week to go up and down the mountain on days you were training low.

Would it be easier for 1 person to live the dream for two years on a sponsorship of $24,000 or 4 people living together with $48,000 to budget?

We can all think of a million reasons this isn't enough money, but how COULD it be enough money? I'd guess most of the race entry fees would need to be comped or offset by winning a bit of money. Races with no purse would generally have to be avoided I'd assume.

I just did some research for those living in the east and midwest.

Snow Shoe Mountain Resort in West Virginia sits at about 5000 ft. above sea level, is advertising for help, has year round attractions, is reasonably handy to some bigger towns and could provide that affordable opportunity for that runner looking to reach the next level via altitude training.

Laramie Wyoming - 7165' above sea level.

Albuquerque hands down. You can easily get up to 10k+ ft of trail running in minutes or run at 4500ft (Sedona's altitude). The foothills are at 6500ft with loads of trail options. Cost of living is dirt cheap. Santa Fe is an hour away. Abq has a major airport. The weather is really mild, just windy as hell in the spring. Although it gets hot in the summer it is dry and nowhere near as intense as Tucson or Phx.

Best bet for year round altitude training.

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.

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.

From Cedar City it's only about 45 minutes and a 3,000 drop elevation to St George. Plus easy access to Zion and Cedar Breaks.

The biggest drawback (for some) is that it is mostly a Mormon town. But Cam Levins seemed to thrive there.

Salad-bar certified wrote:

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

No jobs in PMC and you're right on the San Andreas fault.

I'll pass

3rd shout out for Reno.

Good weather, lots of living and employment options, easy to travel from.

Carson City is smaller, less expensive and closer to Tahoe.

Gary, IN

/thread

broken arrow wrote:

Laramie Wyoming - 7165' above sea level.

Laramie is brutal...the winds will knock you off your butt and winter starts in Oct. And to think that the UW has to play their football games in an outdoor stadium.

potoe wrote:

From Cedar City it's only about 45 minutes and a 3,000 drop elevation to St George. Plus easy access to Zion and Cedar Breaks.

The biggest drawback (for some) is that it is mostly a Mormon town. But Cam Levins seemed to thrive there.

That's LDS country. When in Rome do as the Romans do.

Walden, Kremmling, Montrose, Gunnison, Buena VIsta, Leadville, Gypsum, Fairplay, Alma,

oh I forgot about Boulder and hi/low - I always assumed they went down to Denver to train but even Denver is at 5000 feet so that wouldn't work right? Is the current thinking still that you only need as little as 2500 feet to train high? Because that opens more possibilities, though you probably get more benefit the higher you go.I found this article which seems to sum up the state of all the research but it's not clear what year it was written:

after years of research, a general recommendation is becoming clear. A recommendation from a review paper stated 3 to 4 weeks at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters for using the live high/train high method (5). Interestingly, earlier investigators offered a similar recommendation, the minimum dose to attain a hematological acclimatization effect is greater than 12 hours a day for at least 3 weeks at an altitude, or simulated altitude, of 2,100 2,500 meters, (14). It is possible that live high/train low sessions require higher altitude than classical sessions of the same duration due to the reduced time of exposure.

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.

Poor people train high, live high (see Kenya). Rich fat people train low live high. Go find a cheap mountain in the Rockies. Or go to Mexico.

Don't come to LA.

You can get high af here (literally) but don't come.

Too many problems in the set, and I'm REALLY from the set!

Vernal, UT - KOA campground