Kirkland area

I live in Juanita, about 0.5 miles from the main park.  I just moved there from Totem Lake area in Kirkland a few weeks ago.

Pools - I know Columbia Fitness has a pool (right by the park, 116th and 100th), but I looked into it and membership is about $96 month.

Bellevue YMCA isn't too far - kind of by Microsoft

I go to Gold's Gym in Redmond, which used to be close to where I used to live.  Now it is about 15 mins w/o traffic, not too bad.  It's an awesome gym.  Not sure what the rates are, but probably somewhere in the vicinity of $50-$60/month.

I don't like the running available in Juanita - too much traffic during the week.  For weekends, its fine, and I head south towards downtown Kirkland, and up more towards Lake Washington HS.  That area up there is much better (Bridle Trails Area), as there are more sidewalks, more paths, less stoplights.  It's also on the way from my commute, so it's pretty easy for me.  Oh, and I hope she likes hills, because there is NO way to avoid them in Juanita!! 

Biking - I know people ride up and down Juanita DR and it connects to the Burke Gilman at Bothell way in Kenmore (probably 4-5 miles?).  There is also St Edwards park about 2.5 miles from Juanita park that has decent mtn biking.  Personally, I much prefer biking out east of Redmond in the country, but it's a PITA to get out there during the week, so I usually ride the bike paths during the week. 

Wow, it actually sounds like I know the area these days. . I'm proud of myself   

The nearest "open" pool I know is Redmond-Hartman pool, up by Redmond HS.  It's about a 7 mile drive from Kirkland.  The drive is not too bad early in the morning but make sure to go before the high school traffic.

I had a membership last year but I don't know what the status of the pool is or who's running it right now... see here:

http://www.nwcenterpools.com/contact_redmond.html


Otherwise I think she's looking at a gym membership somewhere.

OK I did some more scrounging for you.

The Redmond pool was closed for repairs last summer and I'm not sure on its current status.  I emailed them so I'll find out soon.

But!  There's the Juanita Aquatics Center which has lanes open for lap swim.  I haven't been there but I'd check it out.  Any pool you can find without a gym membership is likely to be cheaper.  Also in the summertime people do OWS on Lake Washington or Lake Sammamish.

Redmond pool is back open as of about 2 weeks ago under management of Wave Aquatics (same as the Juanita center, linked above).

Sorry for all the extra posts - hope that helped

Thanks for your help. We have a few things now to go take a look at.

I'll add to this also.  If you want to go east, ride up 116th, then you can pick up the Sammamish River trail (paved) which will take you straight to Marymoor Park:

http://tinyurl.com/2akro46

That trail also connects to the Burke Gilman in the other direction but the pavement gets annoying out that far - broken up by tree roots quite a bit, that sort of thing.

If you get to Marymoor, most of the roads from there have bike lanes.  Marymoor Park also has a velodrome if you're into that.  I often ride through Marymoor then up and down East Lake Sammamish Parkway or up the plateau via Inglewood Hill Road - various options there if you like climbing

West Lake Sammamish Parkway only has a bike lane going southbound and it's a rougher ride.

Hope that helps.

I live in Bellevue and train all over the Eastside.  Lots of rides past Juanita Bay Park. 

For training groups on the Eastside, I've been a member of JFT2 for 4+ years.  Friendly triathlon team with people ranging from "first time sprint" all the way to 21 time Ironman (actually, the 21 timer is a woman).  There's an annual membership fee, and a lot of group activities and races.  The team "owner" so to speak is local triathlon coach; a woman by the name of Jill Fry.  Lots of women on the team.

For a triathlon / running store, there's a good one in Juanita - Everyday Athlete.  I know one of the owners (Wade Praeger), he also is associated with the Eastside Runner's group.  He was the coach for my first triathlon with Team-in-Training back in 2003.

I train around all the places mentioned so far.  Sammamish Valley Trail is one of my favorite places to run, starting at Marymoor or even Redmond Town Center.  You can fit in a 20 mile out and back on the flat trail, no problem.  It's easy to do a 62+ mile ride around Lake Washington using trails like Burke Gilman and riding though Kirkland.

Not to hijack the thread, but I raced with (sort of..) Wade back in the '90s... fast guy. I always wondered where he went.

There's an Eastside running group that meets Wednesday nights for a track workout at Lake Washington high school.  Thats pronouced eL-Dub.  The lights are turned from 6-9 on while they are working out. 

I have always considered the City of Kirkland to be very runner friendly.  They close the downtown for races several times a year,  Theres the 12k of Christmas, a couple of sprint tri's, and a downtown crit that is very popular. 

Cascade Bicycle Club is the largest club in the United States, serving over 11,000 members and the Puget Sound community.  They have a free ride group that rides on the eastside and meets at Marymoore Park in Redmond a couple of times a week.  It's not unusual for them to ride thru the Juanita area.  She might like riding with them, and become familier with the area.

Cheers,