The Big Bonk
 

Boy, did I screw up. Went out for a 40 mile ride after work yesterday. I knew I hadn't eaten well all day, or, rather, hadn't eaten hardly anything (2 pieces of chocolate cake and a Cliff bar). But I went out anyway.

It had been 3 days since my last race, but I soon found out that my legs and glutes hurt when I had to dig deep. "Oh, well," I though, "I'll just take it a little easy."

I arrived home just as the bonk arrived. What was worse? I was badly dehydrated and sick to my stomach. I took a shower and went to bed. I couldn't bring myself to eat or drink anything - the next mistake.

I had chills and sweats, rumbly stomach, severe exhaustion and felt terrible. I eventually choked down some rice, but couldn't manage even a half-bottle of water. I slept fitfully at best and awoke with a bad hangover.

I'm a little better this morning, but not much. I got half of a bagel down, a can of Coke and I'm working on a bottle of water. I have a feeling it may take a day to get over this.

Any similar experiences or advice?

Sounds more like heat exhaustion than bonk.

You need to get some potassium in you...bananas, morton litesalt, gatorade anything that will help get your electrolites balanced again.

And it could last for three or four days before you feel like living again.

It took 5 minutes on the 'net to confirm my heat exhaustion symtoms.

This is no fun. I suggest you stay hydrated and listen to your body.

My symtoms are flu-like, right down to the aching mucscles, which is consistent with heat exhaustion.

Ironically, it wasn't that hot as I rode in the evening and the temp was about 75 to 80 degrees. I expect that dehydration played a major part.

Woody!

I experienced the same symtoms as youself on Saturday!

This was on a century ride.

I believe my big mistake was not to take any drink with me (to save weight) foolishly, and rely on stopping at stores to purchase drink.

Stupidly, as it turned out, i failed to stop in time at any where i was passing through, until it was to late.

About the seventy mile distance my legs just gave out, every uphill for the final thirty miles was sheer torture, I felt light headed and nauseous.

I Had previously completed the same circut on 3 previous occasions, but i think this time I did not make allowances for it being at least 10 cent`ade warmer.

And to compound my misery, 30 miles into the ride i was stung by a wasp!, this was sore and irritating for the remainder of the ride(three days laterand it still is)

Guess i`ve learned my lesson the hard way to make sure you keep yourself well lubricated with fluids, on long hot rides.

Take care
Willi`c

I recommend frozen OJ. OJ has tons of potassium plus vitamin C.
Over 10 times the potassium of Powerade and natural, too.

(Did I mention it's much cheaper?)

The wasp might have had a little more to do with your feeling bad than you think. Last year I was out on a short 40-mile ride. I was going down a steep hill, just broke 50 MPH, when a wasp went into my jersey. I was stung several times in the chest while I wrestled the bike to a halt, but I guess that's better than crashing. I stopped, got the wasp out, and continued on. I was riding well that day and keeping a pace well above 20 mph. With about 10 miles to go, I flatted. After fixing the flat I started pedaling again, and felt very sick to my stomach and very achey. I could barely keep 15 MPH. I arrived at home and felt that way for the rest of the day. Later I shared my story with a friend that has some medical experience, and he thought my feeling sick was most likely a reaction I had with the sting more than any thing else.

To those in cooler climates, please be aware that just drinking water will NOT prevent heat exhaustion (or as my grandfather called it "heat prostration").

You have to keep the required minerals of potassium and sodium in your body that you sweat out.

There are plenty of ways to replinish the minerals, but you have to do it or it can and has been fatal.

If you do go down with heat exhaustion it takes several days to recover.

Please be careful in the heat, there are too few good people out there to lose a single one.

I saw a poster in a bike shop once that very simply put said,

HYDRATE...OR DIE!

I've never experienced heat exhaustion before and from what you've described, never want to. Thanks for the heads up....I'll pay closer attention to getting the fluid in me before it's too late.

I did a 33 mile ride yesterday and like you ate very poorly (2 pieces of toast) before heading out. I had a feeling I'd pay for that mistake at some point - the 27 mile mark to be exact. I stopped at a roadside fruit stand and 2 apricots and an orange later, made it home. Thankfully it was only 20 degrees C and not the 35 degree C temps we had last week or I'd sharing your misery.

Hope you have a speedy recovery! By the way, beer is an excellent source of potassium...making it a natural post-ride beverage! :D

I take potassium tablets and also ingest natural potassium on a daily basis. I take a daily vitamin (Shaklee), Vita E, Vita B complex, Zinc, & Vita C. I eat fruits and veggies on a daily basis. The thing is, in Missouri, for the past 22 days in a row we have had a heat index of 105 degrees or more. The temp has been above 95 degrees. The humidity has been awful, often above 75%, which makes it unbearable. We have had heat warnings and I still ride, I just have to be really careful. One day I felt so dizzy I had to stop and walk it off a bit. I drink a ton of water and obviously watch what I eat. When the heat is that bad, it doesn't seem to matter.

The next day I had what felt like a hangover, but I didn't have alcohol, so I guess I had heat exhaustion. Now I know.

Just one question, what is "The Bonk"?

Bonk is the body running out of fuel, it has burned everything that it can and shutsdown until it can convert fat (or muscle) into fuel.

Bonk is a temporary thing...at least it is if you can sit on the side of the road and eat something, anything to replenish.

Heat exhaustion is something else entirely, but with similar first sysmptomys (SP).

Can someone more educated than me, help on this?

OK, I get the idea, I have never heard of it called "The Bonk". I just call it running out of steam or sudden death.

To bonk....AKA: hitting the wall or running out of gas. I think those are the technical terms. :p

Even Lance did it last year (2001) on one of the mountain stages!

Bonk: A slang term for sex, if you live in Australia!
Rooting: A slang term for sex, if you live in Australia!
Fanny: A polite term used to explain a woman's anatomy to children.

The first time I saw the word bonk on the internet was in the question: Have you ever bonked on a ride? I nearly fell off my chair.

Isn't English a funny language.
:roflmao:

CHEERS.

Mark

To put it simply, that was never going to be enough. If you haven't eaten properly, I'd advise simply not riding until you have. Another thing you probably didn't do is drink enough water through the day. During summer around here, it's not unusual for me to go through 10 litres of water in a day. Drinking before the ride means you've got more in reserve when you start.

Two days later still suffering badly. Tired, so tired. Sweats then chills. The body simply cannot regulate temperature. Can't eat. Going home from work.

Is it possible that you simply have the flu??

Sscyco!

I think you could be right about the wasp sting having an adverse affect on me.

By a strange coincidence a friend i have just seen was full of a disturbing inccident on Sunday also.

She was at a local open air show and they bought Icecreams as it was so hot.

Whilst licking her Icecream she had not noticed a Wasp had landed on it, for its share, you will probably guess the next part,

The wasp stung her in the mouth, almost immediately her tongue and cheek started swelling immensly, they found the first aid centre, who seeing her predicament summoned up an Ambulance to whip her post haste off to hospital, by this time the swelling was so bad she was starting to choke and unable to breath.

Fortunately quick treatment at the Hospital reduced the problem and she was soon o/k to go home.

This is kind of scary . From now on at this time of the year I am going to keep my mouth firmly closed while on the bike .

I get the exhaustion feeling everytime I ride lately!! Last night was the worst, my eyes felt puffy, I had a headache, and I was guzzling down water but it didn't help. And I know I was hydrated to start of with because I had been fasting all day and water helped keep my mind off food. Maybe my fuel stores were to far gone from not eating all day( I did take in a cookie before the ride and a gel during).

Mark,

South Africa has the same slang terms. when I first got
there I went into this very respectable shop and asked
the proprietor for a "fanny pack", got this really strange look
but eventually settled on a "moon-bag". When I told this
story to the locals they were falling all over themselves
laughing.
". . . 2 peoples seperated by a common language. . . "
Churchill?

Marty

I would never leave the bathroom! I'm doing good to get 1.5 litres, of course, I'm probably only doing 1/10th of the workout you do. I can tell a difference when I haven't had enough water. The last few days I have been drinking less because I haven't felt that thirsty and my head is paying for it this morning.

Same here, about 1.5litres of water plus coffee, tea, juice etc. Even then I feel like I spend half the day going to the loo. It isn't anywhere near as hot or humid as Queensland down here. When I went to Queensland I noticed that I was always sweating.

CHEERS.

Mark

Doctor said NO to heat exhaustion, but rather food poisoning or an intestinal virus. Still can't eat, but fever is under control with Advil and Tylenol.

Losing weight, but how much of it is muscle? I feel like I'm watching the racing season slip through my fingers.

Ah man, that no good. Praying for you.

You gotta cook that roadkill before you eat it!

I'm praying for you too. It's not West Nile Virus is it? South Carolina is the only state on the east coast with no reported cases so far. We have bad mosquitoes around our house. I haven't noticed it as bad in other parts of the neighborhood, which is weird, but the little buggers will even get me with bug spray on. The other day I thought I was covered from head to toe, but two of the perverted beasties flew up my shorts!!! Anyway, Get well soon!