As the old adage goes, 'Older and wiser.' At least most of us hope that will occur, as we get older. As athletes, we hope that wisdom will, to some degree, help compensate for the loss of speed, strength and power that we normally experience as the years go on. Some people say that wisdom is the ability to effectively make choices based on previous experience. Based on the performances of at least one masters athlete recently, that appears to be a valid statement.

Fitness is Fitness

Joe Bonness of Naples Florida is 46 years old. Joe is not an inline skater; he is a high-level endurance athlete. But the fact that he’s not an inline skater shouldn't dissuade you from thinking that Joe's experience can help you. As I've pointed out in the Masters Athlete series articles before, being a good athlete is not necessarily sport-specific; if you are a good endurance athlete, you are a good endurance athlete - period. We can all learn something from someone with more experience than us, especially someone as successful as Joe Bonness.

Instead of trying to confer some level of legitimacy to this athlete by telling you how I feel about his performances, I'll let his accomplishments speak for themselves. Recently, in a span of only 5 weeks, Bonness completed 3 Ironman-distance triathlons, finishing each with an average time of just over 9 hours. For those of you not familiar with the event, an Ironman-distance triathlon consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike and a 26.2-mile run, and the average finish time is typically around 11 or 12 hours.

Last year, he did pretty much the same thing - a 'triple' - over a period of only 21 days. And 3 years ago, he did 3 in 3 successive weeks. At the age of 46, this masters athlete is helping to rewrite the books on how much we can do and how well we can perform as we age. The fact that Bonness completed the 3 races in such a short time span alone is impressive, but when you consider his performance at all 3 races this year, the scope of his accomplishments is even more staggering. He didn't do the races just to see if he could finish them, he raced them hard, and he finished quite successfully.

Progressive Improvement

At the first of the 3 races, Bonness won his age group, finishing in 10 hours, 1 minute and 30 seconds. The date was October 6, and the race was the Hawaii Ironman World Championships, the granddaddy of all Ironman triathlons. On October 20, (just 2 weeks later) Bonness competed in the Great Floridian Triathlon, and finished 1st overall, winning the race and besting his time of 2 weeks before by posting a 9:28:48 finish.

As if that wasn't enough for the endurance champion, just 2 weeks later he competed in the Ironman Florida Triathlon, placing 1st among the amateurs (not just the masters amateurs, but all of the amateurs). Bonness' overall finish placing (including the pros) was 14th - ahead of over half of the pro men. His finish time at this race was an amazing 9:11:13 - faster than the 2 previous races.

By the time Bonness had finished the Florida Ironman, he had amassed three 1st-place finishes in just 5 weeks, competing in an event from which most 'Ironman' triathletes take at least a month to recover before attempting even a 'short' triathlon.

Lessons

Believe

So what can we learn from this? First of all, we are now aware that something of this magnitude can even be accomplished. While that statement may seem obvious, don't underestimate its impact. Simply knowing that such a level of physical performance is possible for a masters athlete opens the doors for us to push our goals further than before, if we so desire. Perhaps one of the best illustrations of this point is the sub 4-minute mile. Before Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile, many said that no human could run a mile in under four minutes. But on May 6, 1954, Bannister ran the mile in 3:59.4, paving the way for others to also break the 'impossible' barrier.

The psychological barrier in sports has proven to be quite an interesting phenomenon. Many 'barriers' appear to be valid, but the truth is that we don't know the limits of human performance. Sports scientists continuously try to 'model' the ultimate performance, but athletes continuously appear to find ways to outperform those models. There are obviously some finite limits to performance. Ex: a sub 1-minute mile appears very unlikely. But why should we limit ourselves, especially when we see 'normal' humans like Joe Bonness doing extraordinary things?

Persevere

Bonness has done quite a few of the multiple-Ironman distance races, and as time goes on, he said that they get less stressful. "The first double that I did," said Bonness "took me 4 months to recover. Last year's got easier and easier." That is not to say that they don't take a toll; they are still a "tremendous shock on your body," he said, and "it takes awhile to recover" but he has learned to use even his negative experiences to his advantage. "You know you'll have low points; you need to know how to work through them," he said.

It is easy to imagine a point during a race when you're tired, your stomach hurts, your legs are burning or you just don't seem to have the motivation to continue. Thinking about what Bonness said about 'low points' may help you keep going, knowing that the feeling you're experiencing is sometimes just a part of the competition. If it's not a serious situation, deal with it. But continue.

Focus

One word that Bonness uses a lot when describing his race strategy is 'concentration.' While discussing the first race of his three-race series, Bonness said, "This year; Hawaii was probably one of the hardest races I have ever run. The wind was tremendous; it beat you up; you had to keep your concentration." During the Great Floridian Triathlon, Bonness said that he held such a big lead going into the run (over 30 minutes) that he had to concentrate on going at a "moderate pace and not bonking," but that he still had to concentrate.

The fact that an athlete of this caliber makes it a point to mention maintaining concentration at all times during a race should provide some sense of the importance of staying focused. Many athletes who feel good during a race lose their focus and end up getting dehydration or cramps, or bonking because they didn't pay attention to their bodies. Even with his years of experience, Bonness considers concentration a critical factor in successful racing.

Summary

There are advantages that come with getting older. It's not so much the age that brings the advantages, but the experience that we get as we age. If we spend a little time trying to find the lessons in our own, and others' experiences we may be able to improve our performance and take our athletic endeavors to a new limit.

Photos and Text © 2002, Frank J. Fedel, C.E.S.