The horrible feeling of bonking

[ColinJ]

How did THAT happen - I copied the photo from the original thread and it has turned itself round by 90 degrees!

Let me try again...

Odd - re-uploading it turned it round!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Steep, it's vertical in my browser!

 

[screenman]

I would say if you can still pedal then you have not hit the lowest point.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

If you haven't been overtaken by a jogger, 5 miles from home - you haven't bonked.

Its when you're still twenty miles from home and you're at the nearest train station trying to get a train home because you've come to a stop.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I remember a 100 mile reliability trial many years ago, I got into a group that was far to fast for me on a route I didn't know very well, in the day's before we had Garmins. I hung on for the first fifty miles, and did a two and three quarter hour fifty, then drifted of the back, by the time I got to the last ten miles my pace was down to single figures, I hadn't got anything left. I finished it, had a fuel up at the HQ then crawled home.

 

[si_c]

I remember a 100 mile reliability trial many years ago, I got into a group that was far to fast for me on a route I didn't know very well, in the day's before we had Garmins. I hung on for the first fifty miles, and did a two and three quarter hour fifty, then drifted of the back, by the time I got to the last ten miles my pace was down to single figures, I hadn't got anything left. I finished it, had a fuel up at the HQ then crawled home.

Closest I've come to bonking really was a couple of years ago on a fast 100miler, I'd done about 90 miles and was 12 from home when I decided I needed to stop for a cup of tea and a slice of cake as I passed Eureka. I'd done the 90 without getting off the bike and that's what made me decide to add a sandwich/sausage roll stop in every three hours or so in the future.

 

[AuroraSaab]

I hadn't heard of bonking until I read this thread. But as a new, old, unfit biker, I think it sounds like it is one of the things I am most worried about. Being hit by a car is worry no.1, worry no.2 is getting 5 miles down the canal path and being so knackered I have to ring a taxi to get home.

 

[cyberknight]

How did THAT happen - I copied the photo from the original thread and it has turned itself round by 90 degrees!

Let me try again...

View attachment 479312

Odd - re-uploading it turned it round!

This was a bit of a drag
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?p....839212929130656!3f0!4f0!5f0.7820865974627469" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0" style="border:0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[rogerzilla]

It happened to me a couple of times decades ago, both in cold weather. In warm weather, I seem to run fine on empty (or, to be more precise, body fat). Two flapjacks get me through the Dunwich Dynamo. I find it difficult to digest food at night.

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning,

Seriously, it's not something to worry about for two reasons.
......It's a sporty cyclist's affliction......

Generally I would agree, but, and isn't there is always a but? :-)

A few years back I used to commute to work 17 miles there and another 17 back and once or twice I recognised the signs of low glycogen, but knew what they were so I never got to total depletion.

If you commute/ride/exercise 5 days a week plus some other exercise it is fairly easy to hit depletion on Friday morning especially if you don't have breakfast.

You only need to be short by a couple of hundred Calories a day of carbs/protein to wake up on Friday morning to find that all of your liver glycogen was used up keeping you alive over night and some of you glycogen capacity being in upper body muscles is not available to your legs.

So you get half way into your commute and oohps all liver glycogen gone as well as the not completely replaced glycogen in you legs as you weren't eating quite enough for the last five days.

The old solution was a can of Coke and a Mars bar, but Mars bars are much smaller nowadays and a lot of places have stopped selling fizzy drinks with sugar to keep the price down. Thanks sugar tax.

Bye

Ian

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Good morning,



Generally I would agree, but, and isn't there is always a but? :-)

A few years back I used to commute to work 17 miles there and another 17 back and once or twice I recognised the signs of low glycogen, but knew what they were so I never got to total depletion.

If you commute/ride/exercise 5 days a week plus some other exercise it is fairly easy to hit depletion on Friday morning especially if you don't have breakfast.

You only need to be short by a couple of hundred Calories a day of carbs/protein to wake up on Friday morning to find that all of your liver glycogen was used up keeping you alive over night and some of you glycogen capacity being in upper body muscles is not available to your legs.

So you get half way into your commute and oohps all liver glycogen gone as well as the not completely replaced glycogen in you legs as you weren't eating quite enough for the last five days.

The old solution was a can of Coke and a Mars bar, but Mars bars are much smaller nowadays and a lot of places have stopped selling fizzy drinks with sugar to keep the price down. Thanks sugar tax.

Bye

Ian

Most people I used to ride with reckoned that dolly mixtures or jelly babies were better than a mars bar, as long as you worked you're way through them at a steady rate you avoided the massive sugar hit that the mars bar gave and the following massive drop in energy that followed once the sugar had been used up.

 

[Sharky]

Good morning,



Generally I would agree, but, and isn't there is always a but? :-)

A few years back I used to commute to work 17 miles there and another 17 back and once or twice I recognised the signs of low glycogen, but knew what they were so I never got to total depletion.

If you commute/ride/exercise 5 days a week plus some other exercise it is fairly easy to hit depletion on Friday morning especially if you don't have breakfast.

You only need to be short by a couple of hundred Calories a day of carbs/protein to wake up on Friday morning to find that all of your liver glycogen was used up keeping you alive over night and some of you glycogen capacity being in upper body muscles is not available to your legs.

So you get half way into your commute and oohps all liver glycogen gone as well as the not completely replaced glycogen in you legs as you weren't eating quite enough for the last five days.

The old solution was a can of Coke and a Mars bar, but Mars bars are much smaller nowadays and a lot of places have stopped selling fizzy drinks with sugar to keep the price down. Thanks sugar tax.

Bye

Ian

Ahhh the Mars bar! Remember well.
One of my commutes was quite long and on the way back, there was a little corner shop. I often stopped and refueled with a Mars bar and it helped to get me over the last 10 miles.

 

[Blue Hills]

I had similar last year on a sportive,got into a fast group and blasted around till the last 15 miles when my on the flat speed dropped to about 15 and i couldnt even stand up at the end.

If you're still doing 15 you aren't bonking.
(or was that a barely disguised brag?)

Bonking is far more serious.

First time it happened I was struggling, feeling oddly sweaty, looked down at the speedo and I was doing something insane like 5mph on a flat road. I went for a lie down on the grass verge and my guardian cyclist angel took care of me - as I looked up in a daze I saw that blackberries were dangling above my head. Lay there for 10 to 15 minutes snacking on them and was then fine.

More recently had done about 90 miles massively loaded up heading for a campsite. Even though it was dark and I knew I was within two miles of the campsite there was physically no way I could carry on. Pulled over into someone's driveway and rummaged for the Lidl wine gums. Then was fine-ish and made it to camp.

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning,

Most people I used to ride with reckoned that dolly mixtures or jelly babies were better than a mars bar.

I really like Kelloggs Nutri-Grain bars nowadays and have a couple in my toolkit.

They are a bit like a big fig roll that has been soaked in a small amount of water, which is more attractive than it sounds.

The big upside is that each bar comes in a sealed packet, you probably do not want to eat a fig roll that has been sitting in a plastic bag soaking in a little bit of rain water and spray from the front wheel for a couple of month...regardless of how desperate you might be. :-(

The other problem with them is that they taste so nice that you just eat them because you want to and forget to replace them for when you need them.

Bye

Ian

 

[Deleted member 1258]

These days I usually use malt loaf if I need to carry rations with me.