Road Cycling - Ran out of fuel

Today I went on a longer ride than normal. At about the 55 mile point, I could feel something happening. I was basically out of energy. I was struggling to maintain 11mph on a flat I would normally cruise comfortably at at least 18mph with no wind. I deduced that I needed some food. I managed to make it to a grocery store after about 3 miles of this, and went in with wobbly knees feeling dizzy. I bought some granola bars, and ate several, waited, and was soon feeling better.

After my experience, I'm assuming experienced riders eat regularly on long rides. Anyway, my real question is: is it dangerous to be in this condition? If I had attempted to continue riding, could I have done some real damage? (is it possible I did already?)

you didn't do any real damage, but you could have. this is called bonking, and happens a fair amount to people, especially on longer rides. Short term, you could have passed out or over exerted yourself and gotten pretty sick (i.e. throwing up like when you get dehydrated under exertion). If you do this on a regular basis, you could, possiblly, but unlikely, end up with diabetes. search for bonking in the trianing and nutrition forum and you'll turn up a lot fo good info

One thing I have learned for longer rides is to take your energy bars and cut them in half. I usually eat a banana before a ride and take four "halfs" of energy bar with me for a ride over 30 miles. Under 30 I usually only need two "halfs".
As for damage, you seem to be logical in your typing AND able to hit a mouse correclty so I wouldn't say any long term damage but I am not a doctor nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn last night. Short term you could have blacked out as I have heard some riders hav done and hit the ditch.

So next time listen to your body! BTW you didn't say much about the fluid intake on the ride. How much do you drink? Water, gatorade?

This glycogen deficit causes a miserable condition that's known as the bonk or hitting the wall, which feels like you've run out of gas. Your legs feel incredibly weak and small hills become Mt. Everest. You may experience a pins-and-needles feeling in your arms and lightheadedness, even nausea. If you stop for a while, you may get back on the bike and feel fine, only to have the bonk return in just a few minutes. You can even become disoriented and dizzy, which can lead to a crash.

you might have run out of fuel or you might have depleted your electrolytes... or both.

Either way, it's immediately dangerous cuz yo brain no work too fine at dat point and maybe yous forget to, uhh, yeah, pay atttttenstion. Mistakes happen when you're bonked and that can lead to immediate danger.

If you were simply bonked and are okay now, I wouldn't worry about any continual damage.

Don't forget kids, electrolytes are your friends just as much as carbs and protein and water.

you didn't do any permanent damage. i suppose if you really, really pushed it, you could do dehydrate yourself and do something permanent, but you just ran out of juice. happens to the best.

you're burning carbs, sweating out fluid and losing electrolytes. you need all of these things to continue to exert yourself.

at some point in my cycling life, i figured out that i could pretty much ride indefinitely (well... not really, but for a long time) if i just kept fueling myself.

i'm far from a nutrition and sports med expert and caloric burn rates vary from individual to individual and heart to heart, but i determined that when i'm distance riding at a good clip along varying terrain, i'm using around 1,000 calories an hour.

consider that the average USDA caloric intake is 2500 calories. this is for your average, more sedentary individual, of course, but with a couple hours of riding, i can burn all the calories most people consume in a day. a century can burn off 5,000 calories (two days worth for most people). i've done saturdays consisting of century rides followed up by intensive interval training in preparation for a race where i probably burned off close to 10k calories.

replace these and you can keep riding.

search the site for info on energy bars, drinks and gels. they're made specifically for the purpose and are designed to deliver nutrients at the proper level. fuel up in advance (a good high carb, high protein dinner the night before!) and consume proper nutrients while riding and you'll be fine.

(people who are experts in this stuff can now debunk my post)

I used to experience that playing racquetball in college. I'd get lightheaded and spacey and had to stop for the day or for rest. I don't know what was my deal back then but I'd be very sensitive to this condition if I didn't start out on a full stomach. Maybe a few extra pounds stabilized me (?). I think it was hypoglycemia, which as explained to me was not a permanent condition like diabetes, but rather a condition of the moment when blood sugar dropped.

I recently had my first bonk in a long time. I was riding the back half of a ~50 mile ride, and in short time I went from feeling fine and strong to feeling spaced-out and floaty. I told the gang that I was going to drop off here, but they said no such look, we won't leave you behind. Then one guy said here, have an energy bar. I wolfed down his Clif Bar (you preferably shouldn't eat this fast) and felt well enough the rest of the ride.

I started paying more attention to bringing backup food. Powerbars are easier for me during the ride than Clif Bars. Now I replenish my food regularly, although obviously not nearly as frequently as water.

I had another near bonk the other day -- just felt myself quickly running out of gas -- I whipped out a Powerbar, and in that condition it was amazing how quickly I gulped down what is ordinarily a very bland, dry, and tired tasting food.

One thing I have noticed -- the GU does not seem to sustain my blood sugar like more solid stuff like Powerbar. The GU makes me feel fine at first, but then the bonk returns more quickly.

Thanks for all the info. I will definitely attempt to avoid this scenario in the future.


BTW you didn't say much about the fluid intake on the ride. How much do you drink? Water, gatorade?
On the roughly 60 mile ride, (this incident occurred, with just a couple of miles to go, but I didn't know if I should risk trying to make it without stopping at the store) I was set for hydration, consuming about 100oz consisting of gatorade and water.




You may experience a pins-and-needles feeling in your arms and lightheadedness, even nausea.

And now that you mention it feltdude, I thought I was getting static electric shocks on my hands for the last couple of miles. It didn't occur to me until now that that doesn't make any sense at all. Hmm... Impaired judgement indeed.

yea, I bonked today. really bad. you see, I had a powerbar in my pocket, but my bottles were out. I couldn't find a place to refill them. so I was out of water, and i didn't want to eat my powerbar, because they have electrolytes in them, and further dehydrate you if you eat them w/o water. so basically, I was in a paceline going 20 or so, then the wind picked up...and the guy on front of me slowed to like 16...and he slowly pulled away from me. I just couldn't keep up. so bad. I can decend really fast, though, so I would almost catch them on the dowhills to keep them in sight. they stopped at a gas station for me, where I refilled water and whatnot, but i was too far gone to fully recover. I tried to stay on the paceline, but I was just like, "dude, just drop me, I know where I am", cause I felt bad about them waiting for me. technically, it was a drop ride, but they were waiting for me out the kindness of their hearts. so on them went, like I was standing still. I've never felt so bad. still, 66 miles in 3:23 isn't too bad, especially since the last 5 or so were at like 11 mph...

gels are great for backup if you keep them in your seat bag. You never want to eat them because they are nasty but when you are about to bonk there the best things going. I have only bonked twice, once for lack of carbs and "fuel" and one for lack of electrolites. Totally different feeling. With a lacking of fuel I just got off the bike and sat down, then got up again after 15 min, I felt totally spent mentally and physically. With a lacking of electrolytes I cramped up on a hill and just fell over. I wasn't all that tired feeling but my body was like "hell no child!"

Milo

One thing I have noticed -- the GU does not seem to sustain my blood sugar like more solid stuff like Powerbar. The GU makes me feel fine at first, but then the bonk returns more quickly.

Yup, that's a gel for ya. They're designed to be quick, easy energy. Bars are more for long term energy. Gels are great for crits because they get metabolized so quickly. I have one about 20 minutes before a crit starts, then one right before the gun goes off, and perhaps another during the course of the race, depending on length. They don't sit as heavily as bars and, as I said, provide their energy awfully quickly.

Only bonked once. It was on a little 30 miles ride too. Weird.

For 55 mile rides I never needed to bring any food with me.

I always bring food for something as long as 55 miles. Bonking far from home is one of my big riding fears (another is getting a flat when you need to get somewhere on time!).

I tried gels for the first time during the NYC Century this year. I was really amazed at how quickly they gave a boost, even with a fairly constant flow of Accelerade coming from my Camelbak.

On long ride I ALWAYS carry food.

I once got talked to by a guy at the performance bike since he smelled the sandwich i kept in my bag...he was thinking I was eating in the store....nope the guys at teh sandiwch shop just wrap them in a paper sheet and rubberband them.

I always carry two of those cheap sandwiches, and plan my routes around water stops. I keep a spare bottle in my pack, and one on the frame. When the frame bottle runs out, I make a quick stop to switch bottles, and start figuring out where I am going to refill the bottles at.

the worst cycling-associated feeling is getting hungry when you're out of food and money and knowing you still have a good 30 miles before you're home.

worse than rain.

The best bonks are about 20 miles from civilization in the winter. You end up riding so slow you can't generate any body heat...so then you start freezing... you get the chills.... it starts to get dark... your mind is not working...

This happened to me one time. I had only about 5 miles to go but after just crawling up a hill out of the reservoir, there was a mountain-bike dude loading up his bike in the back of a pickup truck. I stopped and asked if he was headed my way. He said 'yeah...you look like hell'.. and gave me a ride in.

Then there was the time my buddy had to stop by the side of the road 1 mile from the store after a 100 mile ride. I had to go to the store and bring him back a coke....

The bonk list goes on...

you didn't do any real damage, but you could have. this is called bonking, and happens a fair amount to people, especially on longer rides. Short term, you could have passed out or over exerted yourself and gotten pretty sick (i.e. throwing up like when you get dehydrated under exertion). If you do this on a regular basis, you could, possiblly, but unlikely, end up with diabetes. search for bonking in the trianing and nutrition forum and you'll turn up a lot fo good info

With all due respect, and being diabetic, letting yourself go low on Glycogen reserves can cause all sorts of unpleasant things, but you don't "get" diabetes like that. You can screw up your heart, kidneys, and liver...

Funny thread this one for us Kiwis as "bonking" has a totally different connotation here, as in "hey I had a greak bonk in the back-seat of my car with Sally on saturday night!". I cannot imagine having a bonk on a bike!
I had two long rides this weekend and it felt like my tyres were filled with lead, this may a similar thing??

In the U.S., that would be "boinking."

Eat.

Hmmmm, I picked up some gels from my LBS as samples he brought back from Vegas. The downside for me is when I read through some of the literature that comes with them. You need to drink a lot of water when you do gels just like with the bars. I really don't want to down a whole bottle just to take a gel. I see people pop them on rides all the time. I wonder how many realize the need to drink and that it will make things worse in the long run if you are already a little dehidrated. I also see folks eating the power bars like they were a snickers. If you're in that club I suggest you read up on them. That isn't the way the manufacturers will tell you to use them.