Training & Nutrition - Fear of Bonking

I have really started uping my mileage well at least for me and I have a fear of bonking... had some bad experiences back in the days of football and heat issues..(heh that was 20 yrs ago:D )

Anyway can I over hydrate myself? yesterday on my 40 mile ride I had a nice breakfast before hand and plenty of water.. on the ride I had 1 banana and 1 trail mix bar. to drink I had 24 oz of Accelerade and 12 oz of Gatorade. that was about 2 and 1/2 hours of riding.

Thanks

Bonk is a place that should be revered, not be feared. You need to visit bonk from time to time to fully appreciate cycling. If you haven't been to bonk in over 20 years, you are due a return trip. Enjoy! :D

It is possible to over hydrate to the point that you can die, but to do so takes some real effort and serious over consumption of water. It isn't something a normal, healthy, person, is likely to do on a whim.

To avoid bonking, just eat frequent, small, servings--snacks. Listen to your body and you'll be fine.

Paul

On another BB I learned that in Australia "bonking" has a completely different connotation and is nothing to fear!

Originally posted by chaztrip
on the ride I had 1 banana and 1 trail mix bar. to drink I had 24 oz of Accelerade and 12 oz of Gatorade. that was about 2 and 1/2 hours of riding. Thanks

Seriously, what was the weather like? Today, I rode about 30 miles and drank only 24 oz of Gator-Ade. The weather was mild, about 80 degrees and low humidity.

Last Saturday, I rode about 50 miles and consumed three 24 oz bottles of Gator-Ade and two 24 oz bottles of water. The temperature was in the low 90's and the humidity was in the mid-90's.

Listening to your body is a good idea both on food and hydration.

Unless you ride fasting or on a daily basis more than 30mi a day bonking is difficult to do. Assuming adequate fluids (1-1.5oz/mi) bonk is unlikely to occur
before 40-50mi and is caused by the depletion of muscle glycogen stores. The leg muscles are largely fueled by these stores, and for most people they are
depleted between 40 and 60mi. Training and attention to nutrition will push
you toward the 60mi end of this range. A few athletic oddities will have physio-
logic capabilities to exceed this, but for us normal variants bonk will set in between 50 and 60mi. If you ride daily and don't compensate nutritionally it
will occur sooner. Steve

Any ride over 1 hour 30 minutes, I eat a granola bar every 30 minutes. I also eat 2 cups of Go Lean Kashi Crunch since it has more carbs than oats. If I'm going over 2 hours, I'll add 1 cup of Gatorade to each water bottle. I carry 2. To overhydrate so bad that you die, you have to lose so much sodium and intake so much water that it's really difficult to do. You probably over did it with that much sports drink.

Originally posted by chaztrip
Anyway can I over hydrate myself?

Nope.

Originally posted by TrekRider
On another BB I learned that in Australia "bonking" has a completely different connotation and is nothing to fear! It is true in New Zealand as well...... you should of seen the look on my mothers face when I said "I bonked today, Mum!" lol it was intended in the cycling sense :D

you don't really need to worry about hyponatremia unless you're doing ultramarathon or double centuries.... when people tell those stories of people dying of drinking too much water, they don't realize how foolishly these people had been drinking.... drinking only water without replacing electrolytes

last summer i used to do 40 mile rides with nothing but 3 liters of water, which was all gone by the end of the ride. you can do your electrolyte replacement when you get back home, but the way you describe your eating and drinking, you are nowhere near at risk of bonking. and i agree with what was said.... it is ok to bonk every once in a while, so that you are better at "reading" your body. it feels like crap, but you're not really doing any damage....

for a normal ride of the distance/intensity you described, i just bring 2 bottles of water and an energy bar.

oh yeah and i second what threadend said.... revere the bonk, don't fear it! it is a cyclist's holy rite of passage!

Thanks for all the replys. I guess I should have stated that I have a slight anixety issue and the thought of feeling like I am going to pass out or getting really dizzy is not something that hmmmmm i need to have happen. So hopefully I can get my rite of passage by something other then bonking becuase I dont intend to have that happen:D I hope:)

Thanks
chaz

Don't fear the bonk... respect it, and try not to visit too often.... I did a 41 miler Sunday with my club... about 85-90 degrees, lots of hills in the first few miles, including a 3 mile hill at about 6-8% (that sucked !) All I had to eat was a peanut butter and Jelly sandwich for breakfast, and a Balance bar halfway thru... I also drank one water botrtle of gatorade on the way in,. and just drank water on the way back... I felt fine afterwards... maybe a bit hungry.. well acutally pretty hungry.. but far from bonkville... I averaged 17.1 mph for the whole ride.. pretty good for me !

Jeff

What is called the *bonk* is just glycogen depletion.

Your body can burn carbohydrate (glycogen) or fat. To get energy out of fat takes a lot of oxygen (twice as much as carbohydrate). Exercise is oxygen limited - that is it is hard to get enough oxygen to your muscles.

If you ride at an easy pace, your body will burn some fat and carbohydrate. If you ride hard, you will burn almost only carbohydrate. Your body can store about 2500 calories of carbohydrate in glycogen. At 50 calories per mile (a very crude estimate), you can go about 50 miles really hard before you BONK.

Usually it takes longer to BONK. Most people hit the BONK about 70-90 miles into a century.

Now there are 2 things you can do. BONK. All that means is now you can burn only fat. Cause that is all you have left to burn. So you are now stuck at half you maximum power which can be tedious. Or you can pace yourself and burn fat and carbohydrate during the ride and pass all your BONKED friends late in the ride.

Your choice.

You asked about water. But hydration has nothing to do with the Bonk. If you get dehydrated, you will suffer heat exhaustion and in extreme cases sun stroke.

It is possible to die from water intoxication but it is very very hard to accomplish.

You can die from sodium depletion (hyponatriumia) which is caused by losing sodium through sweat and drinking water but taking no sodium to replace your losses. This is not really a problem for most people. I get this if I ride long and hard here in central Florida in the summer time and I eat NA Cl to stave this off. But I am the only one I know who has this problem (I perspire profusely).

Of the above three, dehydration is easy to get if you don't drink enough on a ride. Sodium depletion is very rare but it happens some. And I have never known anyone who had problems with water intoxication.

Pat good points maybe I was and am confusing heat sickness, heat stroke with bonking. I guess then to really avoing the BONK is to keep my glycogen up?

Thanks