Yes it's yet another "one of those" threads. (Denver: home, camps)

[where is dawson?]

This is going to be a fairly unusual thread, I will admit this. I am a nineteen year old looking to possibly relocate in Denver, Colorado. This might seem rather unusual considering that I love my current city (San Jose, California). However, it's always been sort of a dream of mine to live in Colorado to do some altitude training.

Training? Yes, I am absolutely obsessed with the sport of marathons (and triathlons, actually). I would love to train in an area with some open roads to run/bike and nearby lakes to swim in. I'm incredibly fitness inclined in my ideologies. Now, I don't necessarily need to live in Denver, I would love to live 35-45 minutes outside the city to run fuel my need of hill runs. I just need an area that will feed my need of competition training.

I was hoping to gather some general advice and opinions from you awesome Denver people.

I'm bringing a few of my training mates with me (two other awesome runners). So, we don't mind spending up to $1700 max for two to three bedrooms with a relatively big backyard, although totally not necessarily. Living near a swimming-friendly lake would be fantastic but again, not necessary. We plan to move sometime after the fall this year. Possibly.

Thank you!

I'll be checking this hourly, so hopefully I'll get some responses.

[Nav]

Idaho Springs would be a good training base. It has the elevation and plenty of challenging backroads to build stamina. Its about 25 minutes west of Denver on I-70. Not sure about your lake requirement. If you want altitude, then the lakes will never be above the 50's in temp. However, a fast moving creek runs through town and you are only a few minutes away from the ski areas. You could snowshoe in the winter to keep up the regiment.

Nav

[vfrpilot]

Colorado Springs is the home of the Olympic Training Center and many athletes who have the same goals> training in high altitude to build endurance. It is also the home of the Carmichael Training System. Chris Carmicheal is Lance Armstrong's coach and has a state of the art facility to train and improve elite athletes.
Are you concerned about employment? Good jobs are hard to come by right now, and may be even harder in the fall.

[movementarian]

Colorado Springs and Boulder have big running communities and it would be good for your competitive level to get into one of those running/training circles. Boulder probably has better access to swimming resevoirs. They also have these Mark Allen (& others) triathalon training camps a lot. Boulder seems to steal a lot of the fitness press, but Colorado Springs probably has just as big of a running/cycling community (Carmichael & OTC mentioned above). And their "Incline" is brutal training itself.
Incline Club [Home]
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/sp...02incline.html