So this is what "bonking" feels like
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@Catseye3 said in So this is what "bonking" feels like:
@Klaus said in So this is what "bonking" feels like:
10 miles max and I’m toast.
Marathons come in different distances. You could do a mini-marathon, which is 5 miles. (I think.)
Alternatively, you could just cycle the 26 miles.
@Doctor-Phibes said in So this is what "bonking" feels like:
@Catseye3 said in So this is what "bonking" feels like:
@Klaus said in So this is what "bonking" feels like:
10 miles max and I’m toast.
Marathons come in different distances. You could do a mini-marathon, which is 5 miles. (I think.)
Alternatively, you could just cycle the 26 miles.
On an eBike.
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I bonked during the Elephant Rock Century ride in Denver, CO.
It was mostly due to muscle fatigue and altitude. We were nutrition and hydration obsessed back then. I don't think it's quite the same thing that you experienced, @Klaus but it was real and it was intense.
It was the 10+ mile climb right before the ~75 mile rest area. About 2/3 of the way up the hill, doing switchbacks just to keep the bike moving, I pulled over to the side of the road and fell over. I didn't even have the strength to twist my ankles enough to release my feet from the pedals. I just laid there and laughed and told my BIL Matt, I need to rest a bit. Altitude was messing me as well. Laid there for a couple of minutes to catch my breath and started back up the hill. It was rather interesting getting started on that hill. I actually had to go down a little ways then turn back up continuing to switchback to the top.
Coasted down a small hill to the rest area and collapsed in the grass next to a lake. It was all I could do to walk to the porta-potty. Then it was all I could do to remove myself from the porta-potty . I collapsed on the ground with my hamstrings just screaming in pain.
A person saw me writhing in pain and approached me. He said, you need to squeeze the lactic acid out of your muscles. Start squeezing your legs like this! And he showed my how to do it.
After doing this for about twenty minutes or more, alternating leg to leg, I started to feel like I could get back on the bike.
I was told, you have a couple more miles of climbing but then it's a 14+ mile descent, then pretty flat to the finish line. And remember to spin your pedals on the downhill. Don't coast. You want the muscles to keep moving but not strained to help rid them of the residual lactic acid. It seemed to work.
So I motored on and finished. At the end of the ride, I was incoherent. I could speak but I could not assemble a proper sentence and everything I said was just absolutely hysterical.
I remember nothing I said at the time.
