San Diego is a great place. It has the beach for OW swims, amazing weather, and it also has some mountains to the east. A lot of pros come out to SD before Kona to prepare.

Boulder is another great area. Obviously there is some snow, but there are a lot of top pros out there as well as a lot of FAST people.

I've heard Austin is also a good area.

If you want the best weather for training for to SD. Most places are going to be pretty crowded.

San Diego, by far. It's got everything - water, great trails, hills, year-round great weather.

Good point. If I could afford it, I'd still be living in San Diego.

Detroit! Bad weather, crappy roads and angry drivers. I have more mental fortitude than those SoCal softies.

Kidding aside, there are a lot of tris in Michigan in the summer due to the abundance of freshwater.

Also, if you are an MTB'er too, Michigan has lots of singletrack due to the Michigan Mountain Bikers Association. And...we have the fastest marathoners in the country (that were actually born in the US) thanks to Hanson's Olympic Development Project.

Jon

Clermont, FL....triathlon capital of the world (near Orlando). They have several races every month plus you're within 2-3 hours of a race almost every weekend from March to November. At their HIM last month I spoke with several people from out of state who were astonished that Florida wasn't as flat as they thought (i.e., Sugarloaf Mtn hurts like hell). Better cost of living and less crazy people than California. And of course if the Gators play USC in a bowl game, Florida is going to dominate.

Austin, Texas pretty good weather all year round. Plenty of swimmer friendly open water. Many triathletes, runners, swimmer and bikers, and bike lanes pretty much everywhere. Hills, you name it! All around awesome training spot

Yeah...another vote for Denver/Boulder...but I think the "No Vacancy" sign is flashing...(KIDDING!)

What is so great about living here is that there are great biking roads and paths, great sunny weather (even in winter between intermittent snow storms... which does put one inside on the trainer at times), easy access to some kick booty hill and altitude training in the mountains, and getting to race along with (not necessarily along side) the pros in local races...Heck if you want to buy a house in Boulder I think Michael Lovato could sell you the place, and his wife Amanda could put together your mortgage package....

No Brainer... Honolulu...

HEY! another DC'er. What do you do for training? Do you train on your own, or with swim/biking/running groups? Yeah, Honolulu would be freaking awesome, lol

I live in Kona, HI and it is a great place to train plus when you're feeling down, you can always just run down Alii drive and imagine what it would feel like to finish an Ironman. The only problem is that it is pretty freakin hot all year round.

Having spent time in both San Diego, the Bay area, Seattle and DC, I just had to mention that the traffic in those cities has nothing on the DC traffic.

for that reason, I don't miss NoVa and DC...
they tell me to stop saying this...but you should come see Portland, OR...

Another vote for Colorado...I'm in Denver which is less expensive in most places, but Boulder is quite a scene unto itself. Either way, there are tons of bike trails and lots of events to choose from plus arguably better weather than majority of places unless you want sun and 80's every day.

Less traffic, better weather, good jobs,better than my previous haunts of Chicago and NYC

It depends on where you go in Oregon. I live in the middle of the Willamette Valley, which stretches on the Western side of the state from Eugene to Portland, about 100 miles or so. It's usually balmy, summers here tend to be about 85 with a breeze (ahhhhhh), so it's very nice summer training weather. Spring tends to be very rainy, late fall is the same though early fall is just stunning. I trained outside in beautiful weather right up through the start of my Ironman taper in mid-October. Only had one ride in the rain. Winter is usually colder rain, with an occasional dip into snow or temperatures in the teens.

You can easily run outdoors year round here, which I really like. In Eugene, there are lots of running trails (its not called Track Town USA for nothing) including the famous Pre's trail. Biking here is stunningly beautiful, I've been told by more than one Italian that the rolling countryside here is very similar to parts of Italy, and there are lots and lots of wineries here now. All we're missing is a nice little towns with cafes every few miles. Instead, we have a QwickyMart every now and then if you're lucky. I love riding here, I've got dozens and dozens of 20 - 100 mile rides at my doorstep. Drivers here are used to cyclists and are generally polite, with a few exceptions.

Biggest bummer about my town is not much open water swimming available. I used to live in the Seattle area and you can't throw a rock without hitting a beautiful lake. Not so here. I've got about a half hour to an hour drive to do open water swimming. On the other hand, in Seattle it would be raining and 65 degrees in August. I can't count the number of Tris I've done in the rain up there.

So overall, the PacNW gets a pretty big thumbs-up from me for year round training. But the cost of living here has really risen, and we've got far more running and cycle enthusiasts here than we have jobs. I think we have more PhD's working in coffee shops here than any other town in the country.

today? not very northwest-ish...a lovely snowy day!