Bonney Family Blog

Well the Caesar’s Creek Sprint was today and it was a horrible disaster! It was my first ever DNF (did not finish) in a race. The swim went awesome, best ever swim for me by far actually. I came out of the water in just over 13 minutes which is really flying for me, but then the wheels started falling off the bike…literally.

I had a great transition from swim to bike and then about 4.5 miles into the bike by back tire popped! Not a huge deal, I carry an extra tube just for this reason and all the required tools to change the tire while out on the course. I knew that my sub 1hr 30min race time was going to be shot but at least I would change it and still finish the race…or so I thought. I get every thing safely changed and tucked away and start off again and POP! I was like you HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME! At this point I am out of tubes and out of CO2 to pump it up also, so I am now officially out of the race. Had to get someone to drive me back to the transition area and turn in my chip.

So the official results haven’t been posted yet but it was something along the lines of a 30 minute race for me…

Next race isn’t until August 3rd I think so I will be getting the bike into the shop and having it looked over very well tomorrow…what few pictures Spring took of me will be posted today or tomorrow.

Just in case anyone is actually keeping track and might even have a thought to come out and watch one here is the final schedule for the rest of this summer.

July 6th – Caesar’s Creek Triathlon (Sprint Distance)
July 20th – Columbus International Festival Triathlon (Olympic Distance)
August 3rd – East Fork Lake Triathlon (Sprint Distance)
August 17th – Vermilion Harbor Triathlon (Sprint Distance)
August 24th – The Great Buckeye Challenge Triathlon (Sprint or Mini Distance)
September 3rd – Portage Lakes Festival Triathlon (Sprint Distance)

The Portage Lakes race is the big race of the year. This is the final race in the series championship and the point totals are all doubled. I don’t expect to place in the series, but hey stranger things have happened in life.

Currently I am in a tie for 16th after two races. (I didn’t participate in the first race, but will be doing the last 4)

Well the race is over and the results are in. This weekends race turns out to be the fastest race I have done but a few seconds, but it was by far the best race I have ever fun.

Total time: 1hr 30min 9sec
Overall: 121/199
Age Group: 8/13

Swim (820yds): 16min 12sec
T1: 1min 4sec
Bike (14.29 miles): 44min 12sec
T2: 1min 15sec
Run (3.1 miles): 27min 26sec

Overall I was extremely happy about this race. Again going into the race I was really hoping to get a sub 1hr 30min race, but my transitions just stunk for some reason. Had my transitions been sub 1 minute like normal and I would have easily had my sub 1hr 30min and I would have moved up one place in the standings to 7th place. I need to get my speed laces into my running shoes so that I don’t have to mess with tieing them.

The swim was a beach start, meaning that everyone in my wave started on the beach and when the horn sounded, we all raced into the water and then started swimming. Yea that was fun to say the least. Ever try diving into water with about 45 of your closest friends attempting to do the same? One of these days I will post an article of what it is like to do an open water swim in the race, suffice it to say that is very similar to a wrestling match, except it is under water and if you forget to breathe you could be in trouble.

After thinking about the race over the past few days, I took a very aggressive route in the swim, sticking very close to the buoys. This has two side effects, one it is the shortest route on the course, but two, everyone else wants this route also. So it gets a “little” bumpy.

The swim started out ok at first, but then about 50 yards or so into it I started to panic for some reason and I started having breathing issues. I just couldn’t seem to slow my breathing down, so I popped my head out of the water and did the breast stroke for a few seconds to calm down. Once that happened I was able to get my head back in the water and get a good stroke going and I didn’t have any issues during the rest of the swim. I would pop my head up out of the water every 10-15 strokes just to make sure I was still on course and not headed in the wrong direction.

The entire swim I had the biggest smile on my face. Yes you can actually smile and swim at the same time. See for those who may not have read all of my other race reports, less than a year ago I could not “swim” the swim portion and they where taking me somewhere around 25-30 minutes for a 820 yards swim! That is a very long time in the water incase you where wondering. I was so tired after the swim that it was amazing that I had any energy left to even complete the other two legs. So to be able to actually swim and to complete it in about 15-16 minutes was fantastic! I even passed a few folks on the swim, which would never have happened last year.

The bike portion I spent a good portion concerned over my back tire. I had gone out to pre-ride the bike course with a friend on Saturday morning and I suffered two flats in less than 7 miles! I didn’t have any other tubes or CO2 cartridges and ended up having to call Spring on my cell phone to have her come pick me up on the course because I couldn’t ride the bike. We then had to take the bike to a shop in Toledo that afternoon and have it looked at and the tube changed out. So for the first 6-7 miles of the bike I was worried that it was going flat again. Once I figured out it was holding up fien I was able to settle in and get going.

The bike course was flat, flat, flat!!! There was not a single hill anywhere on this course. This meant three things, 1-It was going to be very fast, 2-There wouldn’t be any hills to wear you out on and 3-No hills means that you NEVER stop pedaling! We where on country roads for the most part and they where very exposed and there where a number of spots where we got some cross winds or head winds. I really rode this course way to conservatively. I really could have pushed a lot harder and probably had an average speed of 20+mph, but for me an average of 19.4mph is pretty fast anyways. Problem is that most of the folks where averaging around 24-26mph.

I almost had yet another first in this race for me. I almost wrecked on my bike going around a corner! This guy was coming up on me and he was taking the turn pretty sharp, so sharp that he cut on the inside of the cones (against the rules) and I went wider than expected to give him room. At the speed I was going I wasn’t going to make the turn so I had to either lean and try to turn sharper and risk hitting one of the many pebbles on the road and dumping the bike, or slow down and go off the pavement onto the shoulder and risk dumping the bike in the ditch. I opted for the second option and hit the sand and grass. Luckily I was able to keep the bike upright but it did give me a scare. It was the only issue I had on the bike for the race.

The run was absolutely the best run I have had to date in a triathlon, both in time and how I felt. I just felt strong coming off the bike still so I just ran. Usually I will look at my computer on my arm to see how fast I am running and I will hold back early if I feel I am going to fast. Today I just ran, I know this sounds simple, but at this point in the race you are tired, you are in pain and you don’t really want to push to hard to early for fear of walking 3 miles. So I just ignored my computer and I ran as fast as I could until it really hurt, then I tried to keep it at that pace. The course was setup great for fan support. Normally the run is a pretty solitary leg of the race with no fan support on it, but today we passed all the fans a total of 4 different times. Let me tell you the energy coming from the fans was fantastic and really helped keep you going. Seeing Spring during the run portion for a changed really made things that much more fun.

My 2nd mile was a bit slower than the first and third miles. I actually lost about 30 seconds there again because for some reason I slowed down some, had I kept the same pace again I could have reached my sub 1hr 30min mark easily. I did have another bout with my left calf cramping up again right off the bike. I got about 1/4 mile into the run and my left calf just locked up on me again. This is two races in a row this has happened and it is getting old. I had to stop for a few seconds and rub it out before I could continue on. Once I rubbed it out I didn’t have any issues with it the rest of the run.

Over all this was the best race I have done to date, both in speed and how I felt I did effort wise. I left a bit out on the bike course I know and mabye a little bit on the run, but not much. I just need to get my transition times down under 1 minute and push harder on the bike and I know I can get that sub 1hr 30min that I am wanting. My next attempt at reaching that goal will be on July 6th at the Caesar’s Creek Sprint, stop number three on the Wheelie for Fun Series by HFP. I am getting this mark that race no matter what!

Pictures will be up on the site here soon.

My second race of the season is this Sunday. I will be doing the sprint distance race again and this will be my 4th overall triathlon. If all goes well in this race with the swim, I plan on attempting my first Olympic distance triathlon on July 6th.

This race distances are as follows:

Swim: 750yds
Bike: 16 miles
Run: 5k (3.1 miles)

The goal again for this race is somewhere near 1hr 30minutes. From what I have heard the bike course is very flat which should help out my times. Pictures should be posted from the race along with a recap sometime either Sunday night or Monday.

Well yesterday I completed my third sprint distance triathlon. I crushed my previous best time by over 15 minutes and finished the race in 1hr 30min 12sec. The biggest difference for this race was the swim. Looking at last years races my swim times where right about 25 minutes for that leg of the race and this year I came in at 14:20. It’s great to see all the hard work I put in during the winter on my swim paid off. It could have been a lot better though. This race I had to swim in a wet suit for the first time ever and it was really really different. The water temps where about 63F so the wet suit was almost a must.

Anyone who wants to read the race report can find it at Beginner Triathlete along with a few photos.

Although the time was super low for this race for me I am keeping it in perspective. The total distance was a little less than the other two races and had it been closer to that distance, the time would have only been about 5 minutes faster, which is still an improvement.

Here where the splits for the race:

Swim (880yds): 14:20
T1: 1:39
Bike (13miles): 46:36
T2: 1:08
Run(3.1miles): 29:17

Well it has been a while since I posted anything so this one will be a bit of a general catch up.

As anyone who has checked here in the past you know that I started training and doing some triathlons this past spring and summer. When I first started back in May I was unable swim more than 50yds at a time and then I was wiped out. I did get to a point where I could swim 100yds late in the summer but I then had to take anywhere from a one minute to two minute break before I could start out again. Even at this schedule I couldn’t do any more than 3 or 4 sets before I was done for the day. Back in the middle of October I started making a serious effort to get better at swimming and get better conditioned. I started swimming 4 – 5 days a week. Slowly it started to come around and in December alone I will have swam close to 20,000 yards. I am routinely doing 1000+ yard workouts and I actually did a fully 1.5 mile swim in the pool a couple of weeks ago without breaking.

Around the September or so I also started running about 5 days a week. The goal was to get ready for the Flying Pig Half Marathon that is in May 2008. I had built up to the point that I was running 20-25 miles a week regularly and then it happened. My right knee tightened up on me and it kept me from running. I took a few weeks off and tried it again. Well I got to about 2 miles or so and again it happened. I haven’t run in about three weeks now and the physical therapist has said that I need to wait one more week before I can try again. When I do start back it will be very slowly. Starting at no more than one mile per run the first week and adding maybe 1/2 or 1 mile per run each week.

The issue is this: I am stiff as hell. That is a direct quote from my PT. They have me stretching like crazy and the biggest issue that I have is my right leg has IT Band problems. I have started using a foam roller to try to stretch it out, but man it is seriously painful. We will see how things come along over the next few weeks.

I will be ordering a bike trainer in the next few days, so I should be able to at least start riding my bike again inside and start getting that back in shape.

I will be setting my goals for distances and hours training for 2008 here shortly and they will be posted here. It will be neat to see what I hope to do and what I can actually do.

Well I completed my 2nd triathlon back on August 26th up in Springfield, OH. This was a little shorter than first race that I did. The swim was only 750yds, bike was 14 miles and then the run was 5k again. The swim once again did me in and was the only area that I really was upset with. I went into this race trying to improve on two areas, my swim and my transition times. I was able to really improve my transition times, but I really need to break down and get some swim lessons and actually put some time in at the pool to get better here. Even if I only took my swim down by 10-12 minutes over all, it would move me from a back of the pack to middle of the pack person and in some events it might even move me closer to the top.

Official results:

Total Time: 01:45:18
Age Group Place: 11/13
Overall Place: 191/256

Swim: 00:28:36
T1: 01:56
Bike: 00:43:33 Avg Speed: 19.3
T2: 01:16
Run: 00:29:57 Pace: 09:40

Well I finished my first tri on Sunday. It was awesome and I can’t wait for my second one! I did much better than I had anticipated to be very honest. I knew that the swim was going to kill me and it did. I finished the race in 1hr 46min 12sec which was better than I had hoped for. My time was good enough for 8/13 in my age group and 112/173 overall!

Swim: 25:12
Bike (16 miles): 48:17
Run (3.1 miles): 28:06
Transitions: about 5 minutes or so.

There was a glitch with the timing stuff at the race so our transition times where lumped in with the bike times. I had a computer on my bike that recorded the time I was out on it, so that time is an estimate, but pretty close I think. During the swim I perfected the “barrel roll”. I would swim freestyle for a little bit, then breast stroke for a little bit then “barrel roll” over onto my back and swim on my back for a bit. Then I would “barrel roll” over to my stomach and start the process all over agian.

I felt great on the bike and the course was fairly flat with just a few rolling type hills. I was able to run almost the entire run this time. I did have to walk for a few steps just to get my legs under me, but I felt very strong on the second half of the run.

I have my second triathlon “Buck Creek Classic” on August 26th and I can’t wait for it to get here!

Well I finally completed my first multi-sport event on Sunday. It was an Olympic distance duathalon (run, bike, run) that covered just about 35 miles or so. (6.2 run, 24.8 bike, 3.1 run)
I had high hopes of completing the event inside of three hours. My plan was pretty simple and solid. A one hour run, 90 minute bike and 30 minute second run. Well I pulled the first leg of the race off without a hitch and right on time at 56:48. I felt really strong still heading out for the bike portion. Again did everything to plan and finished this leg under the goal at 1:29:28. Not by much but I made it! This is where the wheels fell off and the shit hit the fan!
My legs just would not work after the bike. My calves started to lock up and my ankles where killing me. I ended up having to walk then run the last leg. My run that I wanted in 30-35 minutes was done in 39:20 giving me my final time of 3:10:12.
The final leg of the race was the most painful thing I have ever endured. That being said I can’t explain how much fun I had and I can’t wait for my first Triathlon coming up on the 12th!
I did have one scary part during the race when a car did not stop at an intersection when the police officer waved her to stop. At the last minute he waved for me to stop and I had to bring my bike from 20+mph to a quick stop or hit her stupid car! It really broke up my momentum but everything ended just fine.
Pictures of the event will eventually be posted once I get some time.

Ok so the first week of training is just about completed. Who would have guessed that training twice a day could be so rough? I barely remember the two a days back during football when I was a kid, but I don’t remember them being like this.

As I was afraid of, swimming is the worst part for me. I can barely swim 100 yards without being completely wore out and needing to rest. The race requires about 825 yards, so I have alot of work to do there. Hopefully with about 3 months still to go and getting 3 swims each week in, this will get better.