Where to train in Australia?

"Steve Dannenbaum" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:6Pdrc.1645$7y5.34@fed1read03...

Quoted message said:

My girlfriend wants me to accompany her to Australia for
two weeks (one

week

Quoted message said:

Sydney, one week Cairnes). This happens to be two months
before my first Ironman (Florida). Does anyone have
suggestions regarding places to train (especially bike)?
Any suggestions would really be appreciated (by all!).

--
Steve

Steve,

Maybe I've gotten too old, or forgotten how obsessed I was
about my first Ironman. So take that into consideration when
I suggest leaving the bike at home.

Here is my reasoning:

- Your "clock' will be all screwed up from travel - -
both ways.
- The time you are there will be fragemented by a
relocation.
- Presumably, you can run and swim for two weeks. If you
HAVE to ride, go for a light ride with a rental - - maybe?
- Trying to be careful here... Make sure girlfriend doesn't
have expectations of how the time will be spent. If you
are like most people, you will have more opportunities to
do another Ironman than to see that part of the world.
- Maybe you need a break from the bike? Two weeks would not
be overdoing it - - depends upon you goals, I guess.

Last, from someone who has had some serious wipeouts, check
your insurance coverage. Not all HMO's treat your coverage
the same overseas as they do in the U.S. They drive on the
wrong side of the road over there. : )

Just getting you outside-the-box.... Think about making the
best of it without the complications of a bike.

Good Luck,

rsquared, "prophet of doom" : )

Steve Dannenbaum said:

My girlfriend wants me to accompany her to Australia for
two weeks (one week Sydney, one week Cairnes). This
happens to be two months before my first Ironman
(Florida). Does anyone have suggestions regarding places
to train (especially bike)? Any suggestions would really
be appreciated (by all!).

You might check in rec.running for Sydney. There's at least
1 or 2 people from Sydney, and they or someone might also
know something about Cairns. There's nearby national park in
Sydney, iirc from some posts.

You might check the following link for Cairns (googled
"Cairns Australia bike" to find it, and there's other
seemingly good links) cairnsbug.orgcairnsbug.orgOpen ↗

The pictures there are typical of the streets in the main
part of Cairns. There are *many* intersections (including
roundabouts / circles that are "backwards"😉 so whatever
running I did was on the esplanade (out the door from my
hotel) since I didn't have a car. I depended on well-
selected small tours, mostly 4-12 people, to get to the
areas I was interested in and left the driving and logistics
to the pros (I have to deal with logistics to sometimes
remote study areas in Alaska so I didn't want those hassles
on this trip). The town isn't all that big so it's not too
difficult to get out of it by bike, I'm guessing.

For riding, you might try the Atherton tablelands (some
hills) to the west (lower traffic, but minimal shoulders,
iirc, at least where we went for wildlife tours) or the north-
south main highway (more traffic, but better shoulders,
iirc) that connects the coastal cities. If you go north into
the Daintree area, my recollection is the traffic is less
than downtown Cairns, but shoulders may not be as wide
(absent?) as the main coastal highway.

I was in Cairns for about a week post-conference 3 yr ago.
I'm from Alaska (field ecologist) and wasn't training for
anything at the time so my priority was on seeing tropical
things on a once-in-a-lifetime trip
🙂 I had minimal time or energy to do much else besides a
:few short
runs. I had already been in South Australia for 2 wks
(including 1 meeting week), so I had pretty much adjusted
from the long flight by then.

rsquared makes some good comments. If your gf rides and
runs also, you might consider a ride and/or run together
somewhere although that might not be an intensity you need
for training, but it might be a way of at least logging
some miles.

Oh, yeah, the swimming part should be obvious but there's
not much in the way of beach at Cairns (mangroves), and I'm
not sure where people swim locally. I snorkelled a few days
on the GBR off one of the boats. It is most definitely open
water out there 😉

Enjoy! I had a blast.

Dot briefly de-lurking

--
"Success is different things to different people" -Bernd
Heinrich in Racing the Antelope