Training & Nutrition - bonking after the ride?

weather was fabulous today in chi town so i headed out. i managed 27.5 miles and felt great doing so and immediately after. however, an hour to two after the ride i was dead and crabby. i was totally zapped of energy. i have noticed this feeling before after my other 20 mile rides this month? am i bonking after the fact? i expect to be tired, but totally wiped out? background: pre ride meal was oatmeal, cliff bar, a coffee, and 40 oz water. during ride it was two polar bottles with diluted gatorade (half water/half gatorade) and two gels. post ride it was 2 cups pasta with meat sauce, cheese and crackers. also had some yogurt and popcorn later. the ride was 1 hr 40 mins. any ideas how to prevent the post ride bonk? later.

weather was fabulous today in chi town so i headed out. i managed 27.5 miles and felt great doing so and immediately after. however, an hour to two after the ride i was dead and crabby. i was totally zapped of energy. i have noticed this feeling before after my other 20 mile rides this month? am i bonking after the fact? i expect to be tired, but totally wiped out? background: pre ride meal was oatmeal, cliff bar, a coffee, and 40 oz water. during ride it was two polar bottles with diluted gatorade (half water/half gatorade) and two gels. post ride it was 2 cups pasta with meat sauce, cheese and crackers. also had some yogurt and popcorn later. the ride was 1 hr 40 mins. any ideas how to prevent the post ride bonk? later.

You sure your body wasn't just having a brief blood sugar drop?

What you describe is NOT bonk. Trust me on this one.

If you bonked after only 27 miles then there is something bad wrong.

One note. From what you have described I would say you over ate. That is a lot of food for a 27 mile ride.

I normally only drink water on anything < 40 mile rides and never eat during a ride < 40 miles.

protein after the ride. Put pasta first, some chicken and a whey shake after.

Sounds like you bloated instead of bonked.:D

That is a fair amount of food during the ride. Most people can only tolerate 350 (ish) calories per hour.

But my guess is that you ate too much and the wrong type of stuff right after the ride. I've found that something liquid and sugary after the ride helps a bunch, and then I'm not really hungry after that.

I suggest eating less after the ride.

You are definitely NOT bonking. Bonking is when your blood sugar drops really low, and with all that food ... that should not be happening!! Also bonking is a whole lot more serious than just feeling tired.

Besides the eating suggestions others have offered here (i.e. eat less), I'll make two suggestions:

1) Sleep - how much sleep are you getting each night? Perhaps you are just over tired.

2) Ride more - if 27.5 miles is your current limit, start gradually upping the distance on a couple days each week. After a month or two, when you're doing 40 and 50 and 60 mile rides, you'll come home after 27.5 miles and feel like you've hardly done anything. :)

thanks for setting me straight on the terminology. as far as miles traveled i am new to the game and working my way up each weekend. next time out the plan is for 40 miles. so what i gathered stick to the 250 cals per hour for rides over 1 hour and eat better after the ride. thanks.

thanks for setting me straight on the terminology. as far as miles traveled i am new to the game and working my way up each weekend. next time out the plan is for 40 miles. so what i gathered stick to the 250 cals per hour for rides over 1 hour and eat better after the ride. thanks.
I would eat something that provides sustained energy 1-2 hrs before the ride also. Something high in long burning carbs (i.e not pure sugar or simple carbs). A bowl of oatmeal or a bagle work well. Both contain some protein also.

If I ate as much as you described I would be laid out on the couch not moving for hours.

Just a clarification on bonking, it's when you run out of muscular glycogen as well as blood-glucose. Measuring blood-glucose alone isn't a good indicator of how much energy you have stored up. You can have high blood-sugar and be 5-miles away from a bonk or 50-miles. Same with low blood-sugar. It's a differential-equations problem where you have to model rates-of-change in cellular-glycogen vs. calories-ingested vs. calories-burnt vs. blood-glucose concentrations.

From the OP's report, it sounds like just a dip in blood-sugar due to the big meal after the ride? The big rush of insulin after the big meal makes your cells suck up all the glucose and convert it to glycogen for storage. This can make the brain, which operates only on glucose, feel tired. However, testing have shown that actual performance isn't hampered by this. If you were forced to, you could go right out and do that ride again, it's a mental thing. Better to eat just 1/2 as much after the ride, then the rest an hour or more later. :)

You're probably just tired. Take a nap, see if ti helps. bonk shmonk.