Medical School for triathletes

[oobie]

Hey guys,

One thing I really want to continue to do during med school is keep up my triathlon training and compete every once in a while. I was wondering, which med schools have a good amount of bike trails/rides and atmosphere for it? (I know I can probably run most places and swim indoors). I am from Arizona, so I'm going to apply to the two schools here, but where else? CU-Boulder? Oregon (though they take mostly in-state)? Any others? Thanks, y'all. I appreciate your help.

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[premedbrah]

Just a fyi Boulder doesn't have a medical school. UCDenver does though. But why don't you just google and try searching for competitions based on regions? Then you can coordinate Medical School applications based on those particular states/areas.

Btw, how difficult is it to compete? I have been interested for some time, and I'd love to get into the sport

 

[alpinism]

UC Davis, U Minnesota, U Wisconsin, U Arizona, U Michigan, and OHSU are all known for having tons of bike trails.

http://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-u-s-cycling-town/

 

[claduva94]

Rochester, Minnesota has quite a bit. Of course they are only accessible when there aren't feet of snow on the ground.

 

[WaterPog]

Penn state appeared to have a good number of biking and running trails around it, especially rails to trails stuff.

 

[hellanutella]

Shameless plug for UCSD. Year-round phenomenal weather, awesome beaches, safe surrounding area, and plentiful hiking trails. Can't speak on the biking/running end, but I'm an open-water swimmer and you can't beat training under actual competition conditions. Going from a warm, current-less pool to cold, current-ed lake/ocean water (where you can't see the bottom!) was very jarring for my tri friends.

From the other schools I interviewed at, it seemed that UVA and Vanderbilt had very active student bodies (and both had gorgeous places for jogging/biking). My hardcore tri friends live near UCSF, but they have to drive to access long-distance biking trails. They dragged me along on one trip and oh my goodness... the scenery was unbeatable. 😍

Such things may seem silly, but I'm starting to realize how important location is for my med school choice. "But you're going to be studying most of the time!" Well, yeah. But sometimes having weather conducive to outdoor activity or living in an area safe enough to workout at odd hours can make a huge difference.

 

[karayaa]

A location in the south where you can train outdoors all year, near hills so you get that burn, near a lake, not in the middle of city.

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

Triathlons are huge in NYC. Although, you're obviously not gonna get much in terms of bike paths

 

[wholeheartedly]

I'll second Mayo Medical School and the U of MN as well (Duluth too but they have a restrictive mission so if you aren't from MN and into rural med or primary care don't bother there)

There's obviously the snow issue in Rochester, but the bike trails in and around the city are great, one of my favorite things about the place actually. There also seems to be an abnormally high proportion of endurance athletes in Rochester, so you'd definitely be in good company.

 

[Great White Buffalo]

Lots of back country trails in Ann Arbor and the outskirts, Michigan, but swimming would have to be indoors 9 months of the year. I mountain bike quite often on the Potawatomi Trail (google it). Great ride, but about a 15 minute car ride from campus. U of M has lots of pools on campus (at least 3 off the top of my head). We also have a good life/work balance (just took off 1 week to go kayaking in the middle of the semester, got permission to delay a weekly exam). Life if good here, even if weather isn't year round.

 

[karayaa]

How about Hawaii? Hard to get into, but home of the Ironman.

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

Colorado. Hands down no comparison. Other states, like Oregon, may have a general fitness culture similar to that of Colorado, but Colorado is THE triathlon mecca in the US.

The Olympic training center is in Colorado Springs. CU, CSU and other small colleges are powerhouse NCAA endurance sports programs. Boulder/Denver have an absurd number of long distance bike trails. You have the competitive advantage of training at high altitude. We have 300+ days of sunshine a year so training outside is not a problem. There are plenty of outdoor reservoirs with organized open swim sessions. We have a ton of triathlons throughout the year, including Ironman and half-Ironman. There are good reasons serious triathletes come here to train.

With that being said I am obviously biased toward CO since I live here, but within the triathlon community you would be hard pressed to find an equivalent.

Seriously though worry about applying broadly and effectively before you begin to consider these things.

I've heard this about CO from hardcore triathletes in my area.

 

[bruwin2011]

Did you compete in triathlon in college? I competed in college, and I know many schools that had teams also have medical schools. UCLA, USC, UCD, UCI, Uconn, GW, Georgetown, FIU to name a few....I would check out the schools that have teams that compete at nationals every year and then look and see which ones have medical programs. Although... I would have to say that to choose a school based on triathlon training might be difficult because of how competitive it is to get into medical school (many people only get into a few medical schools and don't really have a choice).