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.