2008 Cherry Creek Sneak

Yesterday was the psuedo-official start of the race season with the Cherry Creek Sneak. I've run the Sneak several times and I've always had a fun time and this weekend was no exception. The main event at the Sneak is a 5 mile run through the Cherry Creek shopping district. The course has changed a little since I last ran it with the hill on York St being removed.

The sub-30 runners were given a five minute head start and then the rest of us were off. I lined up a few rows back from the start and was off and up to pace pretty quickly. My goal for the race was to hold 6:20, maybe a little below. That's my goal pace for the Loveland and Boulder triathlons and I wanted to see how my training is going.

I went through the first two miles around 12:06 and decided to pull back just a bit but not too much. Mile 2 saw the only climb and it wasn't really much. There was a slight breeze from the south so I pulled up behind a bigger runner for a little wind protection. Miles 3 and 4 are nice straight stretches down and back on Speer. Just when you're getting close to the finish line, you take a left and head into the shopping district, so close yet almost a mile to go. I tried to pass a couple people as we wove around the streets of North Cherry Creek but I wasn't able to get away. The last mile was a series of pass and be passed. There wasn't really a chance to sprint for the line. When you came around the last corner, you were twenty yards from the finish line.

Overall, it was a great race and things are looking good for the 2008 season. I finished fifth out of 205 in my age group and 32nd out of 3800 overall. My splits were pretty consistant according to the Garmin. I had it set to take 500 meter splits and they were around 1:50 - 1:55 with one at 2:15 and one at 1:40.

158

USAT posted the rankings for last year and I was ranked 158 in my age group. I know that doesn't sound too great but it's good enough to put me in the top 5% of my age group nationwide. There are about 3360 registered USAT members who raced at least three sanctioned races in the country. All in all, I think 2007 was a very good year.

Swim Test

After doing the same swimming workouts for weeks, I finally broke down and purchased Workouts in a Binder. Even though I've been on swim teams for years, I never really paid attention to the workouts, I just did them.

The first step in Workouts is to determine your pace. There are two fitness test: 3 x 300 and 3 x 100. Since I had plenty of time at the pool, I decided to do both test with a 200 recovery between sets.

My times for the 300s were 4:20, 4:15 and 4:10 which averages out as 4:15 for an average 100 pace of 1:25. On the 100s, I did 1:15, 1:14, 1:15 for an average of 1:15. I was really please with both paces, especially the 100s since I haven't been that quick in a while. I'll now have to see if the Workouts make me faster or just add variety, hopefully both.

Simplicity

With training in three sports, most triathletes don't have time for core or strength training. While it's not a great program, I've come up with a simple program that doesn't take too long and gives me some basic strength training.

Every morning I do three sets of ten crunches, situps, pushups, dips and curls. For the crunches and situps, I use a camping pad and for dips I use a chair. To do the curls, I purchased some elastic resistance tubing. Nothing fancy but it does help me build some strength and it doesn't take a lot of time.