Wow, I bonked HARD today. :-(

[wackyjacky1]

I went for my usual Sunday bike ride today. It's the Mission Trail ride, a mostly flat 35-mile roundtrip ride that I've done most Sundays for the past few months. Started off feeling nice and strong (even had some cute dude call out, "Looking good!" as he whizzed by me on his bike ). Took a break at the halfway point (16 miles) -- ate a Luna bar and a couple of Shot Blocks, and drank some water -- then started back home. All of the sudden it seemed like I could barely turn the pedals!

After a few more miles, I felt like I was barely moving. Sure enough, a glance at my cycle computer showed I was only going about 8 mph! The only way I could keep turning the pedals was if I shifted into a super easy gear, the kind I would normally use to climb a hill. Ugh!

At the 25-mile mark, I just couldn't go any further, so I pulled over and called my sister to come pick me up. I felt like such a failure, LOL.

I suspect I wasn't properly hydrated -- we had a dinner party last night and I probably drank a wee bit too much. I sipped on water during the ride, but probably not as much as I should have. I had a little bit of breakfast (a piece of whole-grain toast and a poached egg), but nothing else 'til my break at the halfway point. Also, we're having an "air quality alert" day, so maybe there was too much ozone or whatever in the air? And on the local news just now they said mold and other pollens in the air were in the heavy range; mold really does a number on my respiratory system. To top it off, it was pretty warm (about 95) and quite humid.

Based on all that, I think I know what I did wrong, but any advice from you all would be super helpful 'cause I sure don't want to ever repeat what happened to me today!

PS I sucked down a Gu gel and a couple glasses of Gatorade when I got home and feel much better.

[mudmucker]

Gosh, don't feel like a failure. Consider this a learning experience and will therefore be very helpful for you. You already seemed to have targeted where things went wrong in addition to an air quality alert day. As for pre-ride food and during the ride food it will just be trial and error with protein/carbs. I typically carry some sort of gel and at least one bottle of electrolyte with nutrition such as Cytomax for rides 40 miles or less and another bottle of just water or electrolyte. But this seems to be an atypical experience for you - you did say you ate, and that you might have had too much libation the night before so maybe your system was just off. We certainly all have those days. Or the timing of your eating wasn't quite right after that kind of a night.

[fatbottomedgurl]

I don't think you did anything wrong at all. It was just a bad day- all those other factors. You certainly fueled enough for 35 miles.

[tctrek]

Do you drink while you are riding? Or was your stop at the 1/2 way point the first time you drank? If it was 95 degrees, you should be sipping sports drink with electrolytes every few minutes and drinking about 20 ozs every hour (I drink about 32 ozs every hour).

I also drink a bottle of sports drink about 45 minutes before I take off. I have found that if I start out early in the morning after only having maybe a cup of coffee or tea, I dehydrate very quickly in the first hour.

[redrhodie]

Are you sure it's not the flu?

[tzvia]

I bonk hard if I don't get enough good quality sleep and then eat a carb breakfast with no protein or fruits. By the time I get to the trailnead I already feel tired and it's downhill from there.

If I balance my carbs with some protein (nuts, meat, cheese...) and drink some dark berry fruitdrink or add some berries to my breakfast, I do much better and enjoy the ride much more. When I hit the hills, they don't hit me back as hard. I also try to eat something more than gel on longer rides. Yesterday I rode for about 3 hours with hills and headwinds; I really should have had some Hammergel about a half hr in but forgot, and got that low blood sugar feeling that means I'm gonna crash soon. I hit the minimart for some OJ. Had a few Lunamoons, a banana and some water too and rested a few minutes. What a difference. I continued to alternate the gel/energy drink every half hour and kept up the water intake (it was hot, mid 80s to mid 90s as I gained elevation) and managed to get back to the car feeling really good.

[Crankin]

All of those things combined conspired to make you feel badly, but the air quality alert should not be taken lightly, especially combined with the high pollen count. We had several days of this around here, and I rode, despite the fact that I know it will make me feel sick and can start an asthma incident. Even if you don't have asthma, it's just not good for you to be exerting yourself when the ozone is high.
Hopefully, a storm will come and blow that stuff out of there!

[kjay]

Now I know what it means to "bonk," too. I was at the 15-mile point on a very hot day and I couldn't believe that I could barely pedal when going DOWNHILL! I shifted into granny gear to go downhill and still had a hard time. It's amazing how the body tells us what's going on. Anyway, it helped to know what it feels like to bonk. :-)

[Tuckervill]

Sure you didn't have a brake rubbing?

It's not a failure--for sure. It just is. I'm going with the dehydration theory. The best part is you get to ride again!

Karen

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

A hangover is very dehydrating to the body. Best not to bike long distances when feeling that way.

[wackyjacky1]

Sure you didn't have a brake rubbing?

LOL, I actually did stop and check for that!

Initially I was just going to do a short ride, maybe 15 miles or so, because I knew that my imbibing the night before was gonna have an effect, but I felt so good in the early part of the ride that I kept on going. Ironically it was around the 15-mile mark that I conked out.

I just dragged my bike out of the back the car (I didn't have the energy to pull it out yesterday) and checked my cycle computer -- looks like I ended up doing 28.65 miles. Only had about 8 miles to go to get home, but that just wasn't gonna happen, especially at a whopping 6 miles per hour!

[indigoiis]

That happens to me when I get my period. And yeah, it helps to hydrate during those times (and especially if you were drinking the night before!)

[Cataboo]

I've been bonking pretty hard on any ride for the last week or so - I'm blaming it on not being completely over a cold that I had the previous week and a half... But it's pretty irritating being so SLOW and having things that I can usually ride without a problem just wipe me out.

[kenyonchris]

I bonked today too. I did 25 miles Friday, 25 on Saturday, 30 Sunday, 20 yesterday plus 8 HARD and fast miles on the mountain bike with someone who wanted to hit the trail, and set off to do 60 today (yeah, I know, what was I thinking?). I wound up doing 40 with a friend who is a weaker rider, so I pull the whole way. At 32 my back started bugging me. I stopped and he rubbed it for me, then we set off and it was much better. With 8 miles left I fussed at him to chase me a bit, and I stood up and took off...until 1 mile left, where i totally hit the wall.
Good thing only 1 mile left. My back was killing me and my legs were shaking. When we stopped I stood there for a bit and my friend finally came over and rubbed my back again until I could swing my leg over. He then sort of held me up for a bit until I didn't feel like I was going to just topple over (and I got a little more back rub out of it) and then put the bike on top of the car without being a pansy.
Another friend called to ask if I wanted to hit the trails again...uh, no. I am biked out. Tomorrow is run and lift day.

[wackyjacky1]

kenyonchris, I bonked just from reading your post, LOLOL! Dat's a lot o' biking for sure.