Where do I train in Montreal?

Summer is an exciting time of the year for everyone. Especially those who reside in Montreal. After the long cold winters of Quebec, the change of seasons is cause for celebration.

Montreal is a great place to visit this time of the year. So, if you find yourself in Montreal or you live there, here is a guide to places to train in Montreal.

Training in downtown Montreal is quite accessible and comfortable.

For the swim, there are numerous pool locations, including the McGill Gym (Sir Arthur Currie Memorial Gymnasium), which is home to the McGill Triathlon club. The club is a great training group for all abilities and ages. Many triathletes and clubs go to Parc-Jean Drapeau to swim in the outdoor pool, as well as Plage Jean-Doré. Plage Jean-Doré is a human-made swim area in the middle of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, under the shadows of the Montreal Casino.

For the bike, there are a few quick options; Mont-Royal and Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The hill located right in the middle of Montreal, Mont-Royal, is a favourite spot for cyclist and triathletes to train. The main roads triathletes train on to work on their five-minute power efforts are Camilien Houde and Mount Pleasant. For more punchy efforts, 30 seconds to two minutes, look to hills in the Notre-Dame and Mont-Royal Cementary, Polytechnique, Rue Clarke, Rue Vincent d’Indy, as well as the numerous streets up the hill in Westmount and Outremont.

For the run, Montreal has many large parks in the downtown core and surrounding area. A great central spot to run is Parc Mont-Royal. Here you can get in a tempo run, short run, long run and mix it up with some trail running. Across Parc Avenue is Parc Jeanne-Mance, with a circumference of a mile, you can hammer out those mile repeats. Other large parks to check out are, Parc Maisonneuve and Lafontaine.

For those longer bike rides, Strava is a great platform to research trips, segments and accessible routes. A club that has a significant presence in Montreal for all abilities is McGill Cycling. A student-run cycling club affiliated with the university, they host weekly in town rides and some long rides on the weekend. Favourite routes outside the city are to the West Island (Beaconsfield), Laval, L’Île-Perrot, Rigaud, Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Saint Remi, and Oka.

With access to a car, you can leave the busyness of the large city and head to the Laurentians (Laurentides). The Laurentians offer some great swimming, riding and run locations. Mont-Tremblant, the host of both an Ironman 70.3 in June and a full Ironman in August, is a great place to go to train for all three disciplines.