Training & Nutrition - bonked close to finish, recommendations?

Hello guys and gals,

This summer I have been riding very regularly (3-4 times a week), my weekend rides have gone up from 13 miles to 17-24 miles. I now climb a lot more hills with moderate effort than I used to, I have also lost 17 pounds in about 50 days. Today, I decided to push myself a little bit and did a 30 mile ride, but at mile 28, I bonked. I could not push the pedal any further. This happened very quickly, I was doing pretty good until then. As for food, I had half a clif bar before I left, the other half midway, and one bottle of GU2O throughout, and several refills of water along the way. After I bonked, I had to eat half a clifbar and as much water as I had left, and waited 5 minutes before starting again, but I still did not recover well until after I had come home and gulped down 12 oz cold GU2O.

I was out a total of 3 hours, total riding time was 2.26 hrs and mileage was 30.55. I would like to find out how to avoid bonking. Apparantly, any solid food will take some time to digest and give you energy, but its not possible to carry a lot of GU2O, and even if I carry the powder with me, water is not always available midway. Must I buy those gooey gels; dont think I will like those, moreover dont want to have to spend 5 bucks on every ride.

Bring on your suggestions.

Did you get hungry at any point during the ride? You say you had half a clifbar before you left. Was this on top of a regular meal? When was the last time you had really eaten? If I am going to do a long ride, I make sure to have a sizeable meal about an hour before the start of the ride, and then I have a small snack (like half a clif bar) right before I start.

Also, how hot was it? If it was hotter than it usually is when you go riding, that may be the entire answer.

You say you do 17-24 mile rides. How do you usually feel at the end of those?

I had eaten a two egg omelette, 8oz milk with whey half an hour before the ride and just before the ride I had half a clif bar. It was indeed very hot around 95, so I think you're right about the temperature thing. I dont get very tired or hungry and never bonk on my longer rides that are done in the morning. I went out around 10 and got back at 1pm, so I got a lot of heat.

There you go. I have had this exact same experience, but the cause was a little more obvious for me. A buddy and I started our ride around 10am. It was a 50 mile ride, and the first 35-40 miles were done in two hours. Then, we broke out of the trees into full noon sun with a heat index over 110. It took us another hour to finish those 10 miles, and to this day, I think they were the hardest 10 miles I ever rode.

Damn it! I hope I did not lose too much muscle, there was a 10 minute interval between bonking and when I got home and had 100 calories worth GU2O and a meal soon thereafter. I should just stop being conservative and start eating more on the ride. Thanks fryth and mothra for your insight into this.

You didn't bonk. You were probably suffering from heat exhaustion. It would be unusual to bonk after only 30 miles at the speed you were riding. But 2 hours exercising in the heat can cause problems if you are not used to it.

You didn't bonk. You were probably suffering from heat exhaustion. It would be unusual to bonk after only 30 miles at the speed you were riding. But 2 hours exercising in the heat can cause problems if you are not used to it.

This is what I was thinking. I usually ride at night or in the early morning when it is cool. I once did a ride with no shade and it was over 95 degrees in mid-day. I could feel the heat coming off of the pavement. So even the breeze was really hot. The distance was quite doable for me, 18 miles. But, less than half way I just died.

Fortunately I found a garden hose at a local school and hosed myself off. Previous to this, I was going through water at twice my normal rate. The hosing did the trick and I finished the ride.

I find that true bonking is more gradual. You know its coming for quite a while before you hit the wall.

Thanks for the perspective supcom and slowandsteady. I plan to do a similar ride this saturday, only very early in the morning before it gets any hot. Let's see how I do it this time.