Conference noted::bicycle

    
    
    I had pretty much the same experience last year when I ended up riding
    further than expected. At about 40 miles into the ride I started
    feeling light headed and my body was tingling. My leggs were dead,
    luckly we rode past a farm stand and I ate 3 bananas in about 15 sec.
    It made me feel better but my leggs never fully recovered. Once you bonk
    the damage is done, moral of the story I always carry peanutbutter
    crackers and granola bars in my saddle pack just in case.
    
    
    Joe
    

>    A person who has much more experience than me in riding (I've been riding
>    two years now; Centurian IronMan Master) told me I "bonked".  If any of 
>    you have had this experience I'd love to hear how got "unbonked".

    It sure does sound like you bonked, but don't worry,  you're unbonked
    by now.  (Ohhh, you mean how to avoid bonking again. :-)

    The key is to anticipate your body's needs.  The dictum is:
    "Eat before you are hungry, drink before you are thirsty."
    Some people also add "Stop eating before you are full.".

    I'll bet a piece of fruit and a pint of water would have made all the
    difference.  Banana : cyclist :: spinach : popeye .

    -Jeff

If you had only one bottle of water it was probably due to dehidration.(sp)

The best thing to do at this point would have been to drink COLD water. 
Cold because it is asimulated (sp) faster.

Or an electroletic replacement fluid....

    	I've gotten the bonk more times that I should admit.  I should
    know better than to go on long Shroyer ("I didn't PLAN on 90 miles
    of climbing") Death Rides without some good base mileage.
    
    	Energy drinks help some but at some point, the cure is food,
    and lots of it.  One day last fall, I barely made it to a bakery and 
    proceeded to eat almost an entire loaf of sourdough, and a very large 
    frozen yogurt.  I may have had a cream pastry too.  That worked
    for the 20 miles that it took to get home.   The sugar kicks in almost 
    instantly, but I seem to need the starch behind it to sustain the
    energy.  That day, I bonked on a descent and could barely sit there
    and steer.  Most times, I get some warning and can back off a little,
    but this time I had full power until the last minute - it was like
    flipping a switch.
                                                               

    I'll (hopefully) NEVER bonk again unless its in a race and theres
    no way for me to avoid it. I bonked about 15 miles from my home
    with no money on a rainy day. It seemed like every thing was uphill
    with a head wind when in fact I was in the flat and cycling with
    a slight tail wind. EVERYTHING HURT! When I got home I ate everything
    in sight including JELLO SHOTS (package of jello open and pour the
    crystals directly into your mouth.. this is from my competitive
    swimming days as a kid). The sugar helped my get to the store to
    buy more food to eat.
    If I were in your shoes that day I would have pulled over taken
    my jersey off kicked back and gone to sleep. Upon awakening I would
    have gotten to the nearest store and if penniless would have begged
    for any thing with some sugar to get you home where you could have
    gotten some proper food into your system.
    I now carry at least $10 and some fruit and granola for my long
    rides and of course I drink plenty.
    
    NEVER AGAIN 
    ERIC

    
    RE: .3
    
          Actually, too little to eat is the most likely cause. Your
      muscles burn as fuel a sugar called glycogen. Your body converts
      dietary carbohydrates to glycogen to supply your muscles. Any
      excess glycogen is stored in the muscle tissue. When endurance 
      athletes practice "carbo-loading" they're trying to build up
      the glycogen reserves in the muscle tissue. If you should use up
      your glycogen reserves, your muscles want to stop working. If,
      however, you force your legs to keep turning, your body will
      divert the fuel (glycogen again ?) meant for the brain, to the 
      muscles that have an immediate need. This is why you tend to
      get "stupid" as well as running out of muscular energy.
          As someone pointed out, by the time you "bonk" you've al-
      ready done the damage. Not permanent physical damage, but your
      body will need some time (and carbos) to replenish it's glycogen
      reserves. The recommendation is to eat something sweet (Hostess
      Twinkies happen to be my favorite 8^) ) and take it real easy on
      the ride home (you probably won't have any choice). A short rest
      before you start the ride back may help as well.
          I don't mean to de-emphasize the importance of water at all,
      in fact, you'd probably be better off without food than without
      water on most moderate rides. As Tom Dawson mentioned, some studies
      seem to indicate that cool or cold water is absorbed faster than 
      warm. Personally, I happen to think it tastes better aS well.
          As far as electrolytes go, the jury still seems to be out on
      this. The manufacturers of the sports drinks like to tout the
      benefits of the electrolytes in their products but, to the best
      of my knowledge, nothing has been proven. One study even showed
      a slight decrease in performance when athletes used these drinks.
      I believe that the suspected cause was that they actually in-
      creased the concentration of electrolytes in the blood to the
      point where water was drawn from other tissues to compensate for
      the increase in concentration. I still use Gatorade in my water
      bottle for long/hot rides, but I use a dilute mixture.
          Oops, looks like I got a little long-winded here. This is 
      how I understand this portion of the metabolic process. Please
      feel free to correct me if I haven't been accurate.
    
    
                                                          Steve
     
      
    
    This glycogen is
      stored in the muscle tissue and is metabolized to provide energy
      for your muscles. At the same time, your body is converting 
      dietary sugar to glycogen to help replace

    Thank you all for your responses.   I appreciate the advice you
    offered.  RE: .6, it was a very helpful description of how this process
    occurs.  Thanks.  As an aside, to verify that I hit the proverbial
    wall, I was talking about this note with my riding buddy.  He said
    everything was right on the money except one thing, the distance.  I
    said we had ridden 50 miles when, in fact, we just made 40.  Of course,
    it felt like one hundred and fourty.  Again, thanks.
    
    Gary

I just saw a couple notes in CYCLE_RACING (forgot what node C_R is on,
check your EASYNOTES.LIS) on this very topic. Try dir/title=bonk....
                              ken

     I can't help but to reply to this note since I find bonking an out of
    body experience.... It is a very strange thing to me. And guess what,
    It happened again yesterday. I've been able to almost always tie it to
    a food/eating problem and yesterday was no exception. The situations
    that brought it about were 1) Up at 5:30 AM to travel to race site,
                                  breakfast in the car on the way.
                               2) 8:00 AM 70K hilly road race.
                               3) Hang around the race all day with little
                                  to eat.
                               4) Then on a short ride to get the race
                                  kinks out - BONK.
    When I bonk my whole body feels numb and its like my soul is above my
    bike watching me ride. Coffee and sweets get me back to normal
    quickest.
    
                                                      Wayne V 
                                  P.S. Anyone ever BONK at -10 C. 
                                                             

Ever notice how certain things eaten before a ride can cause the BONK to
happen with much more force. Such as things a lot of refined sugar in them 
or caffine. My mother is hypoglicemic (has Low blood sugar problems) when her
sugar drops too low her hands shake and she gets light headed. She then will
have a glass of OJ if it's not a bad, if she really feels bad she'll have a
candy(no chocolate). Then within a few minutes she is fine. She has fainted a
couple of times before she new what was going on and how to fix it. I guess
bonking is exercised induced hypoglicemia.

Tom

Being a diabetic, I can clearly relate to this BONKING thang !!

Reply .9 sounds just like I would feel before passing out from
a low blood sugar.  There is a product available for such
situations.  Can't remember it's name but I was given some
of it once in an ambulance by a paramedic.  

It's a gel containing a sugar solution.  Because of the way
it's formulated it will start to be absorbed by your system
as soon as you put it into your mouth.  Kind of expensive,
but may be worth it for ememrgencies.  It comes in boxes of
5 for something like $5.

Trick is - based on experience, without needing to cycle to
induce it !! - you need to get your blood sugar up to a level
where your brain starts to function.  Then you'll get the
excessive hunger and eat MEGA amounts.  Best to drink something
sugary cause it starts to get absorbed in your mouth.  Then eat
some complex carb products (bread, cookies, etc.) to give your
body something else to work on.

Re: .10  When you eat refined carbs you can cause your blood
sugars to oscillate wildly, which is probably what happens to
your mom.

As someone mentioned earlier, when you're exercising your
brain is being deprived of its sugar supply.  If you get
desperately low of sugar, your body starts to break down
your fat for energy - course this doesn't happen very
quickly, at that stage you've probably passed out.  Good news
is that once you get the sugar down you, you'll recover
remarkably quickly.

Just a general thing (sorry to ramble).  I've known of cases
where diabetics have passed out in the street and have been
ignored as drunk when all they needed was some sugar.  I carry
a card that says "I have Diabetes.  I am not intoxicated...."
Something to bear in mind if your ever see someone staggering
around yet they don't smell drunk.

Bernard.

    re: 1527.11
    One product is named GlucoTABs.  They are composed of glucose so it
    will immediately enter the blood stream.  Cost about 1.19 per 6.
    
    steve
    (another biking diabetic)
    

Re: .12

Hi Steve.

Looked up the name of the gel, I keep some by my
bed.  It's called Monoject Insulin Reaction Gel.

It's a little handier than tablets cause it
doesn't start to crumble in the bottom of your
pocket or wherever.

Bernard.

    RE.12
    Have you used any of the high energy mixes to stabilize blood sugar on
    a long ride?  I have used them, taking 2 oz every 15 min, and have had
    great success on long, hilly rides.
    
    steve

Re: .14

Steve,

I visited with an exercise physiologist in the Joslin clinic earlier
this week who gave me an information sheet about what to eat and when
based on blood sugars before taking exercise, length of expected 
exercise and amount of exertion expected.  Haven't had a chance to
try it yet, but will probably do so this weekend.

If you want a copy, send me (via e-mail) and DTN mail address and
I'll get one to you.

Bernard.