Joe Rahmanzadeh - The Austin Triathlon Olympic

Joe Rahmanzadeh Rockwall, TX Olympic Age Group M 30-34
Gun Time: 02:24:42
Chip Time: 02:24:42
Class Position: 18

Overall Place

Age

Zip

Country

Swim 1500m Rank

Swim 1500m Time

Swim 1500m Pace

T1 Time

Bike 40K Rank

Bike 40K Time

Bike 40K Pace

T2 Time

Run 10K Rank

Run 10K Time

Run 10K Pace

102

31

75032

158

28:13

1:53/M

03:25

192

1:08:46

21.6mph

02:11

65

42:05

6:47/M

Event: The Austin Triathlon - Olympic

Location: Austin, Texas (Downtown)

Class (yours): Olympic Male 30-34

Results: 102st Overall, 18th in AG

Local Knowledge and Conditions: This is my favorite triathlon course. Fantastic location and very spectator friendly. Very surprised and a little disappointed to see that the race was not wetsuit legal. Generally, in the days leading up to the race they let more water out of Lake Travis and Lake Austin to raise the water level in Town Lake a few feet. Apparently Lake Travis barely has any water in it so that did not happen this year. Water temp was around 82 and my hands grabbed rocks along the bottom of Town Lake several times...

Pre-Race Strategy & Warm Up: The hotel was just across the street from the race so walking over in the morning was nice. Use the swim as a warm up and keep my stroke long. Keep a constant effort level on the bike and try not to mash my way up hills. Leave it all out on the run.

Psychology: I was excited about wearing a wetsuit (now that I have one). Finding out at packet pick up that the course was not wetsuit legal threw me for a little bit of a loop. Also since they did not let water in from the damn there was really no current to speak of. Generally the 2nd half of the swim is "down stream".

Lessons Learned (Or Re-Learned): Practice transitions and stop traveling the day before this race! Last year I flew in from Sweden the night before the race. This year I drove in from Hot Springs, Arkansas the day before the race. The transition area is a rather long run over dirt which becomes mud when you add lots of racers coming out of the water. Usually I leave my shoes clipped into the bike and put them on during the ride. After talking with a few friends I decided to put my bike shoes on in transition. I used my water bottle to rinse off my feet in transition and put my bike shoes on there to avoid having muddy feet in my shoes. There was no dirt in my shoes but this process took too long. 3:25 T1... really...

Future Goals (include skills executed well and skills needing improvement): My goal was 2:25 and I finished just under that. New Olympic PR for me! Swimming is the focus of my training and has been for a few months now. Really happy with the improvements. Over the past year I've gone from just being happy to complete an Olympic swim to having a respectable time. Next area of focus will be the bike. My run times are holding up well despite running only 1-2 times a week.

Fitness (endurance, nutrition, hydration): Endurance feels great but I need to work on adding more speed, especially in the bike. Nutrition and hydration felt way off course the week before the race but I can't say it effected my race output.

Something funny that happened: After the race a guy running the relay wanted to borrow Billy's shoes. See Billy's re-cap for the full story.