Downtown Columbia Race Report

My second sprint tri in as many weeks and first collegiate race of 2011 was the Downtown Columbia Triathlon. Since last weekend’s race down at Parris Island (http://www.teamsportfactory.com/2011/03/nick-sykes-parris-island-triathlon/) I’ve been suffering from an unfortunate cold, while at home in Connecticut for spring break. Needless to say, I was not feeling so great heading into today’s race. Last year at this race I did moderately well, finishing 18^th Overall in 56:58 (10:22, 0:59, 26:58, 0:50, 18:00). I knew I’d have a good chance at beating that time this year but I didn’t think it would be by very much.

This year the start time had been moved to 1:30pm, making for a long day as we decided to forego a hotel and drive to and from Clemson on the day of the race, a 2 hour drive each way. I woke up to miserable weather and the forecast in Columbia called for showers and thunderstorms most of the day. Setting up transition the rain was light, but steadily falling and the roads were clearly going to be slick for the 3 loop bike course (3.2 miles per lap). My main concern before the race was staying warm, rather than actively warming up, but by race time I felt somewhat focused on the task at hand, at least it’s just a sprint!

I started 22^nd in the open section so I could have a mostly clear bike course to ride like last week. I quickly got dropped by the person I started next to and 3 others caught me after about 200m into the 500m pool swim. I stuck to their feet for a while, and which may have slowed me slightly, but jumping out of the pool at 9:40 was a clear indication that my swim was not on form today. I hit the timing mat at 10:13, just 9 seconds faster than last year when I was much worse at swimming. Onto the bike after a 54 second T1 that included putting bike shoes on, I pedaled away up the major hill on the course. As expected the roads were slick, but as the laps went by I learned how best to navigate the turns and they didn’t seem to be too terrible. I came around after lap one in 8:45 and began the big climb a second time. Fortunately for me, I can climb fairly well on the bike, so it helps when I can aim to catch someone ahead of me. In this case I saw athlete 24 just ahead, one of the 3 that had passed me on the swim. I passed him going up the hill on the second lap but heading down he rolled right back taking full advantage of his disc wheel. I passed him again on the flat after the tight turn at the bottom of the downhill and finished lap 2, which may be slightly shorter because there was nothing added from or to the mount/dismount line, in 8:30. Onto the 3^rd lap and up the hill for the final time; by this point I knew that my bike time would probably be faster than the previous year by a fair amount, the goal remained to hit about 26 minutes for the bike. By the time I stopped my computer I was just under 26 minutes for a 3^rd lap of about 8:45 again, this time including the extra part to the dismount and taking my feet out of my shoes, which proved somewhat troublesome with frozen feet. Regardless, into transition I ran, hitting the timing mat with a 7^th best official bike split of 26:22. Off with the helmet, on with the running shoes, and out to the run I went after a quick T2 of 37 seconds. Assuming the first mile marker was correct (because the second was certainly not) I split 6:17 out of transition, and slowly tried to pick it up again as I did last week at Parris Island. I was running almost entirely alone in about 10^th place on the road again and unfortunately began to cramp fairly badly after about 12 minutes of the run. That, however, was short lived after I got a quick drink of water, but must have impacted my run to a certain extent. I crossed the line with a run of 17:36 for what a teammate measured unofficially at 2.82 miles (6:14 pace) for a total time of 55:40; a minute and 18 seconds quicker than last year. That improvement cannot be attributed to any single area of the race, however, as I went 9 seconds, 5 seconds, 26 seconds, 13 seconds, and 24 seconds faster for each split in comparison to last year.

Overall I finished in 20^th place out of a deep field, and 12^th in the collegiate category which many teams used as their warm up for Collegiate Nationals in 2 weeks time in Tuscaloosa. The Clemson Triathlon team did exceptionally well placing 1^st, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 8^th, and 12^th in the men’s collegiate division. In addition, Anna Battiata used a race best 18:04 run split to win the overall women’s race in her first race representing the Sport Factory!

Parris Island Triathlon Race Report

As written here: http://www.teamsportfactory.com/2011/03/nick-sykes-parris-island-triathlon/

I began the pool swim 18th having entered myself in the open section – which benefits me a lot more once I get on the bike so that I don’t have to pass people every other pedal stroke. I swam a PR 9:05 in the water, although I had hoped for a little faster, and got into transition fairly quickly. Since it was my first race on my triathlon bike I chose to put my shoes on in transition. The transition area was also a little rocky so I didn’t really want to be barefoot on it during both transitions. Heading onto the bike I was shooting (rather ambitiously) for the course record of 25:12 for 10 miles. I quickly picked off some of the cyclists just ahead of me and probably made my way up to inside the top 10 on the road. With the staggered pool start, though, I could have been anywhere. My first 5 miles took 12:18, a little slower than the pace I thought I would ride but still well under the pace that I thought would break 25:12. The next 5 miles took us out to a golf course and back. Coming back it was evident that there was more wind than I originally thought. I battled through the wind and came through 10 miles in 25:06… unfortunately, the course turned out to be 10.63 miles. I got into transition with a 6th best bike split of 26:58 and hit the run start 44 seconds later. By the time I was running, the day was beginning to heat up. I was surprised that there were no aid stations on the run course at all but I had, at least, had some water on the bike. I’m not sure I changed position at all on the run, but I did close the gap down in front of me slightly. I started out rather slow on the run, hitting 1 mile in 6:28 – well off my goal pace of sub-18 for 5k. I knew the course was going to be short of 5k anyway, but I just couldn’t make my legs want to go faster. I slowly picked it up with a 6:15 second mile and managed to cruise home in 5:18 for 0.85 miles (6:14 pace) to finish the run in 18:01. Overall I finished 14th of 430 athletes in 56:02, and would have been 2nd in my age group if I had not raced in the open division.

Going forwards I can definitely improve on my swim a lot more, my bike has some room for improvement too, and I just need to learn how to push myself off the bike. I know I can run sub-6 miles in a sprint.

Parris Island Triathlon Race Preview

So I'm cutting it fairly close to race time with this preview - 4 hours and 12 minutes away from my start time right now but I somehow woke up way before my alarm for once. Funny how messed up my sleep schedule is right now, 3 nights ago I wasn't even asleep by this time!

I am itching to go for today's race. My week hasn't been particularly great with workouts but last weekend I put in 11 workouts over the course of just 4 days (Saturday through Tuesday) so I think the weakness this week has just been a little residual fatigue. To add to the quandary, yesterday I woke up with a sore throat completely out of the blue! Fortunately it felt fine during yesterday's pre-race workout and feels much better now than it did, hopefully it was just a one-day cold thing.

Yesterday's workout went extremely well. Lauren and I biked easy in circles around our hotel for 25 minutes before quickly transitioning and completing a moderately paced couple of miles (also in circles around the hotel). It turned out to be a fun little criterium type duathlon workout - but most importantly of all, everything felt fantastic!

Today's race is on Parris Island, a marine training base just north of Hilton Head, SC. The most important feature to note is that the course is completely flat. As fast as I frequently am on the bike, I actually think I perform even better relative to other people when the course is flat. I can just put the hammer down in a big gear and see what I can do. The goal for today, however ambitious, is to take down the course record on the bike. The current record for what is said to be 10 miles (but I believe is slightly longer at 10.3 or so) is 25 minutes and 12 seconds. My goal for today is to break the 24 minute mark (25 mph for 10 miles), and also have a strong 5k run that should place me fairly high overall. My swim is, and always has been, my biggest weakness but my coach, Eric, and I have been working on my swim a lot and since last year I have dropped a solid minute off my 500m swim already. Today I'm hoping for somewhere in the 8 minute range that should concede little more than 2 minutes to my main rivals - 2 minutes that I can hopefully get back on the bike. If I swim well, under 9 minutes, have a good bike split (24 minutes), and follow those with a strong run (sub-18) then I should definitely come away with a great overall finish today. Based on last year's results, a sub-54 minute total should comfortably put me in the top 3 overall. I will likely have trouble catching one of my teammates though (Justin) which should make things interesting. Justin begins the pool swim just 1:40 ahead of me, but will likely compete for the fastest swim split of the day. If I can keep within 4 minutes coming out of the first transition I'm still in with a chance, but it'll definitely take a 24 minute bike split as well as a solid run. But at least that means I have someone to hunt down. The run is almost entirely an out-and-back course as well, so I'll see my competition during that stage of the race. I just hope my recent performances running carry over to triathlon.

I'm ready to race, and I'm more motivated than ever to give it my all in a triathlon. The goal is simple: swim my best, don't hold anything back on the bike, run like I have been recently, and transition in less than 90 seconds total. If all goes well, I'll end up in the top 3 overall!

T-3 hours and 40 minutes to race time.

Reedy River Run 10k Race Report

Last week I wrote the following couple of statements in view of this morning's Reedy River 10k in Greenville, SC: "Last year I hit the 5 mile mark just 7 seconds behind my best 5 mile time from November of 2009 of 29:41. Last November, I ran 29:07 in that same 5 mile race, but it is unlikely I head through 5 miles in this year's 10k within several seconds of that... Realistically, anything under 38 minutes would be good news heading into the triathlon season... On the other hand, my last two races were both huge PR's, why not extend the streak to three?"


I honestly could not have predicted what came this morning. My 29:07 PR for 5 miles was, until today, the 2nd best road race I had ever run, and I had felt great finishing that race with three straight 5:51 miles. The only race I would say was better was the Miami Marathon in January; until now. Through 5 miles I obliterated my PR by 13 seconds, more on the splits later, en route to a 10k personal best by a full minute and 21 seconds!

The morning started early, and the weather appeared ominous as I left Clemson with other members of the running club at 6:45am. We arrived in Greenville and got to packet pick-up just before the line got unnecessarily long. Time seemed to move fairly quickly and before I knew it the start time was just 30 minutes away. A short mile or so jog with some strides seemed sufficient to warm up in the intermittent drizzle hanging over Greenville. The start seemed to be fairly easy but peaking at my Garmin after half of a mile gave me some frightful news, the time showed 2:45, 5:30 pace per mile... my PR for 10k was 37:23 (at 6:00/mile). Heck, my 5k PR isn't even as fast as 5:30 pace! By the mile I had slowed slightly to 5:36, now it was time to relax and settle into my race. I passed through 2 miles in 11:30 (after a 5:54) and after a short incline I was heading down the hill to the Swamp Rabbit Trail. Despite the downhill my third mile clocked in at 5:50, 17:20 for 3 miles and I passed through 5k in 17:53. My first thought at 5k was that I'd break 37 minutes, even if I slowed to a little more than 19 minutes for the second half of the race. But why not shoot for 36 minutes? My dad's PR from his prime is 36:02 - I had my new goal; and it meant continuing to run fast. For the next couple of miles I hung onto a runner who had caught me on the downhill, we ran the 4th mile in 5:44 (23:03 total) and after losing contact from him slightly I came through 5 miles in 28:54 after another 5:50 split. Just before 5 miles I passed a few recognizable faces, Fleet Feet athletes who had been among the few to beat me in the Greer Earth Day Half-Marathon last April, that provided me with even more incentive to run fast over the remaining 1.2 miles. Last year the final mile had left an impression on me, having slowed to 6:29 and foiling my plans for a sub-37 race. This year I dug deep, my legs were still feeling fairly good, strengthened by 3 months of marathon training, and I kept thinking to keep my turnover high. Supposedly my heart rate hit its maximum of 197 beats per minute just after having passed through the 6 mile mark in 34:57 (a 6:02 split for the uphill mile) but 65 seconds later I crossed the finish line with another huge PR of 36:02. Exactly tying my dad's 10k best as well. My second 5k had been a strong 18:09 to finish with a positive split of just 16 seconds - very similar to my positive split ratio in Miami (+1.49% today & +1.71% in Miami).


Back to my comment from last week then, "why not extend the streak to three?" - Mission accomplished, with another race that I can call my best race on the road ever. Today's age graded percentage comes out to 76.11% - Miami is now second with the 74.86%. Here's hoping I can run that well coming off the bike in my next several races!