MrCrassic 

I don't think that I've ever felt a solid bonking experience, but today I definitely did, and realized that I have felt that several times before...

I was riding particularly hard on the flats (holding a 20-21 mph pace, in a small headwind), and I notice that after a small climb, my left side of my stomach really begins to hurt. I was already hungry, but now it was getting pretty bad. My power went down soon afterwards, and when I stopped at a supermarket, I felt totally wasted, like I had nothing left in me. I wasn't riding that long, but even then I shouldn't have felt what I felt.

Eating only half a Clif Bar and then drinking a Starbucks Vivano smoothie (had a phone meeting) did the trick. No problems several miles later.

When was the first time you remember bonking out on a ride?

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RacerOne

Two weeks ago. I was going for my longest ride of the year (just really started again in June), 60 or so miles and did not plan ahead. My previous long ride for the year was 45 miles and I did that no problem. This time though it was a lot hotter, I didn't bring anything to eat and I ran out of water. I drug myself into my parents house for a pitstop and a water refill and started sucking down a little food and water. I was about to head out and a huge thunderstorm started to roll in so I called it quits, threw the bike in the back of dad's truck and rode home the rest of the way in the a/c.

I did get that first 60 miler in this Monday though, with the help of 2 water bottles and a granola bar!

grolby

If half a Clif bar brings you back, it wasn't much of a bonk. A good, hard bonk is like a judge's definition of porn: you know it when you feel it. A real bonk makes you want to eat, puke, cry and faint all at once. It's a real spectrum of miserable feelings, and it can take a while to recover if it gets really bad. Someday you'll experience it, and you will know.

scotch

i've bonked once, and it was truly unpleasant. i was on a hill about 4 miles from home. pretty suddenly, i couldn't get enough air in my lungs, my legs were totally shot, my head was swimming and i felt shaky and just really not good. even though i had nothing left in the tank, i wasn't hungry until about an hour after i got home. once i had a smoothie and a few snacks, my body started to recover...then the big hunger/thirst hit like a wave.

MrCrassic 

If THAT'S the case...


When I did the Montauk century ride a few months ago, at around mile 120 I had started to have issues breathing right (I was breathing harder for a much slower pace, and doing a lot less work). At mile 132, I had horrible breathing issues, couldn't go faster than about 10 mph, and my body felt like a train wreck (along with a numb left hand, which I still have problems with). The SAG van picked me up, and I wasn't quite OK until I got to the end.

A few years ago, I was doing some exercise on the spinning machine, and when I was done, I had the HARDEST time walking. I felt like I was going to die; everything was just in a weird state of pain...and I couldn't walk. Had to walk UP to the main building (I forgot why, but I had to do it) and then walk back to my suite. I couldn't even talk right; I was barely whispering when I tried to ask someone to help me get inside, as I forgot my key. Drank LOTS and LOTS of juice, and I think I ate something heavy afterwards. Horrible experience...

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Creakyknees

Sounds like the OP had a "stitch" from going hard. This is not a bonk. Heck, I had 3 separate stitches during the Tuesday night crit tonight.

A "bonk" as mentioned, typically happens on a longer ride, and can literally take weeks to fully recover from. It's not a good thing.

RacerOne

Hmmm.. I guess I haven't bonked then either. I just got tired.

JF1

I've only truely bonked twice if I understand the definition correctly. Both times I was poorly prepared and didn't eat much before the ride. I now know when the bonk is coming on as my first symptoms are sweating and feeling a chill at the same time. Then the bonk and I have to lay down.

recursive

Voice of dissent: A single granola bar got me home after a pretty tough bonk. 9mph on the flat and all that.

shoerhino

Whatever it was, I've had the same thing happen. The first sign is typically a deep hunger followed by a dramatic lack of energy. It's not that I collapse but I can't ride hard and feel like I could stop and take a nap on the side of the road. Normally if I stop, eat a little something, and rest for 10 minutes, I'm good to go.

It seems to really only happen when going full out...

orcanova

Yep, you bonked...

I don't remember the first time I bonked but I do remember the first time I tried to drink a fifth of Southern Comfort all by myself in high school. I couldn't finish it, but I could make it all the way to my front lawn before I passed out on it. My dog started licking my face sometime around dawn.

hanksake

The only way to know that you've bonked is when you wake up in a place you didn't get to on your own with a dog (or other animal) licking your face. Otherwise, you didn't really bonk.

end thread

Tourmalet

If you think you bonked, you didn't. When you do you'll know it.

aloysius

Oh lord, Southern Comfort of all things...

Randallissimo

The last time Southern Comfort touched my lips was in about 1976. I drank a pint and ended up passing out and puking on a hill of red fire ants at a Florida drive in theater. Got my ass bitten to the point of swelling up like a Sharpei.

Haven't bonked yet, tho.

aham23

when i was 18 i had a run in with souther comfort mixed with dr pepper. it totally bonked me. for sure. later.

ehidle

Yeah +1 to all the folks who don't think you bonked. I don't think you did, either. I think you were more likely just tired and dehydrated.

That's just awesome.

I bonked a few weeks ago and I just wanted to get off the bike and throw it into the woods and call a cab, go home, burn down my house, and live as a hermit in a van down by the river. My typical solo ride average is about 22 mph, but it was all I could do to muster 10 on the climbs up to my house from where I was riding. I hated every second and didn't look at, touch, or think about cycling for a whole week after that.

EGreen

I bonked yesterday. Maybe I was bonked to begin with- or predisposed to bonking. I was midway through my daily 35 mile ride and found myself suddenly depleted. I had to drop my speed and spin home. I realized in retrospect that I started out tired, under-nourished, under-hydrated. This combined w/t the midday heat made for one of those rare days when I should have stayed home.

FlashUNC

I've felt like crap a lot on the bike in my time, but I consider only having bonked once.

I was on a pretty tough metric century ride, me and two buddies were climbing two mountains in N.C. and by mid-morning of the ride, it was incredibly hot, mid-90's, high humidity, no wind, the worst.

By about mile 45 the legs started feeling weak and the hunger came on. By about mile 50 my vision started tunneling and graying out. We stopped for a good 45 minutes to an hour at a church when I started weaving in the lane, and soft pedaled home after I'd recovered a bit.

Not fun.

fasterTHANyou

i bonked your sister

merlinextraligh

You can't bonk in 35 miles, unless perhaps its 35 miles up a volcano in Hawaii.

Your body stores enough muscle glycogen to ride about 2hours (or 35 miles)

Truly bonking is when you exhausted all the muscle glycogen, all the energy available from glucose in your blood stream, and you're running solely on fat metabolism.

If you're in any kind of shape to start, you can exhaust yourself, you can dehydrate yourself, and you can get your blood sugar out of whack,but you can't truly bonk.

orcanova

^party pooper.

Now share your Southern Comfort experience. Everybody has one...

Super Guanche

If half a Cliff Bar and a smoothie solved the problem, you didn't bonk. A real bonk and you'll be so weak that you can barely turn the pedals to get over a railway bridge.

MrCrassic 

Then the other experience I mentioned was definitely a solid, true bonk.

Perhaps I was depleted that day.

BTW: Is there an alternative word to "bonking," or is that the technical term for it too?

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recursive

False dichotomy. Both can occur simultaneously.