Riding in the cold - How does it affect you?

MarkAshton

No idea what happened today (it could have been a combination of things).. but in short, I set out on a 3 hour ride. After an hour, I could feel I was getting low on energy (unusual for me). By 1.30 I had eaten the energy bar I had and I could feel a bonk coming. I dropped the effort a bit and this helped but was only short lived.

Classic signs of a bonk hitting.. colours starting to go vivid, cold sweating etc.. For the 1st time ever I had to stop at a corner shop and buy an orange juice and oat bar. This helped, but again, any time I pushed the effort a bit, I could feel the bonking symptoms coming back.

I am not unfamiliar with working out on minimal food, so I was shocked by this. Could the cold have changed things i.e. my body became less efficient?

Not a nice feeling knowing your 2 hours from home in the cold and your already feeling the bonk. Thank god I had that rotten £5 stashed in my saddle pack!

TakeTurns

It could be down to so many things. I'd just put it down to being one of those days where your body is being 'uncooperative'.

Do you warm up on the bike within Z2 for the first 10-20mins?

Gabbo

Sounds like glycogen depletion. Did you have a decent meal rich in carbs a few hours before?

Strith

One of them days probably. Maybe you're coming down with a cold. I've not had that sort of problem but I hate riding in the cold, and just hate the cold full stop. It seems no matter what shoecovers, socks and gloves I wear, I can't beat the windchill and my feet and fingers eventually end up numb.

danowat

Gabbo wrote:

Sounds like glycogen depletion. Did you have a decent meal rich in carbs a few hours before?

For a 3hr ride?, unless your diet is complete pants, you should quite easily manage a hard 2hr fasted ride.

As for the OP, probably just fatigue, all the cold does to me is make my HR lower, todays 2hr ride barely exceeded 110bpm

ShutUpLegs

Gabbo wrote:

Sounds like glycogen depletion. Did you have a decent meal rich in carbs a few hours before?

Absolute rubbish

Gabbo

ShutUpLegs wrote:

Gabbo wrote:

Sounds like glycogen depletion. Did you have a decent meal rich in carbs a few hours before?

Absolute rubbish

User above you established that. The guy did say he felt like he was bonking, which in fairness could well be glycogen depletion. Not saying it is, being that I didn't read his post properly and realised that this feeling came only after an hour which is highly unlikely.

phreak

Only a lay opinion, but maybe you're just a bit under the weather. Doesn't seem likely to be a lack of food, but an emerging bout of flu can knock your energy for six.

styxd

Gabbo wrote:

Sounds like glycogen depletion. Did you have a decent meal rich in carbs a few hours before?

This sort of stuff seems to get banded about alot on these forums.

You don't need to eat some sort of special high carb meal just to be able to ride your bike for an hour or two. Those that do, tend to be the ones that always struggle with "the bonk"

Gabbo

styxd wrote:

Gabbo wrote:

Sounds like glycogen depletion. Did you have a decent meal rich in carbs a few hours before?

This sort of stuff seems to get banded about alot on these forums.

You don't need to eat some sort of special high carb meal just to be able to ride your bike for an hour or two. Those that do, tend to be the ones that always struggle with "the bonk"

Yup, I quickly scanned over the original post hence why I came to that conclusion. Next time I'll learn to read a post properly.

For the record, I've done 2hr rides on very little. Also use to be a distance runner and have bonked (or as they call it - hit the wall) once. Not a nice feeling.

Okay, an 80kg man may typically store 500g of carbohydrate, with muscle glycogen accounting for the largest reserve, right? (say about 400g) with liver glycogen storing about 100g.

Each gram of either glycogen or glucose contains approximately 4 calories of energy, therefore the average person stores about 2000kcal as carbohydrate - enough total energy to power a 20-mile run at high intensity.

SBezza

You will only ever use 100% glycogen at threshold type powers and above, so unless you can manage to do 2 hours at threshold (by definition it is impossible), you can ride for quite a long time at a lower intensity without the body needing to eat. All intensities lower than threshold will used stored body fat as a percentage of it's fuel, the ratio will depend on how good you are at burning fat at higher intensities, how much glycogen you actually have stored, and at what intensity you are riding.

To the OP, it was probably just one of those days, and with the cold, it magnified how bad you felt.

Wrath Rob

You're all making some assumptions on his level of glycogen stores, something the OP has told us nothing about. The symptoms sound like bonk but I don't think we know enough about how the ride started to understand if that was the sole cause.

One thing people often forget is that the body is not like a car. If you run out of petrol you can simply fill up and carry on. For our bodies, it takes a reasonable amount of time to release energy from food, and if you start upping the intensity then the rate of expenditure can outstrip the rate of re-supply and you hit the same problem again. Once you've bonked, its going to take a little while to fully recover.

okgo

Disagree with that. I have bonked properly once, as in could barely walk off the bike. I ate a creme egg and it was literally minutes before I felt like I could ride again.

Wrath Rob

okgo wrote:

Disagree with that. I have bonked properly once, as in could barely walk off the bike. I ate a creme egg and it was literally minutes before I felt like I could ride again.

Hey Rob. When you could ride again, at what intensity were you riding at? That was the point I was making. There is no way that you'll fully recover from bonking in a few minutes. Be able to get on the bike and start peddling again, yes. Ride to a high level of intensity, no.

Unless you're some freak of nature. Oh, wait...

LegendLust

styxd wrote:

Gabbo wrote:

Sounds like glycogen depletion. Did you have a decent meal rich in carbs a few hours before?

This sort of stuff seems to get banded about alot on these forums.

You don't need to eat some sort of special high carb meal just to be able to ride your bike for an hour or two. Those that do, tend to be the ones that always struggle with "the bonk"

And complain that they can't lose weight

dg74

My body takes a whole lot more effort to get going when it's cold. And the effort is harder to go. However once I'm up to speed, I'm away. However my times are slower but I think it's totally psychological - i.e. Not wanting to ride in the cold and feeling generally low.

SPOC

danowat wrote:

Gabbo wrote:

Sounds like glycogen depletion. Did you have a decent meal rich in carbs a few hours before?

For a 3hr ride?, unless your diet is complete pants, you should quite easily manage a hard 2hr fasted ride.

As for the OP, probably just fatigue, all the cold does to me is make my HR lower, todays 2hr ride barely exceeded 110bpm

I also find this, I was quite surprised to find this coming more from a running background, as the cold never really seemed to affect my heartrate. But with cycling it can be a lot lower than normal on a very ice cold and chilly day.

In terms of overall cold, I find the first 10-20 mins are the worst, but once you are warmed up and if you are wrapped up properly I seem to get on fine.