Have I bonked?

Peddle Up! · July 2010

I went out for a 30 mile ride very early this morning. Like a complete idiot, I didn't have anything to eat first (last meal around eight the previous evening), and worse, I forgot to take any water. Around four miles from home I started feeling very tired and I couldn't get above 12 mph. For the rest of today, I've been feeling tired and listless and I'm only just starting to perk up.

Serves me right, I know.

stock · July 2010

I'd say it's a good job you haven't 'bonked' otherwise God only knows how tired you'd be feeling now

jgsi · July 2010

Did you see Alistair Brownlee last weekend Hyde Park?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/others ... -Park.html
I know we use Triathletes as 'easy' targets from time to time (hopefully in good natured jest) but that was
bonking on a grand scale.
Did you look like that?
Draw your own conclusion.

PostieJohn · July 2010

If you have to ask, the answer is NO.

kettrinboy · July 2010

probably more dehydration than bonking, on a proper bonk you wouldnt hardly be able to push the pedals round at all let alone do 12 mph.

Peddle Up! · July 2010

stock wrote:

I'd say it's a good job you haven't 'bonked' otherwise God only knows how tired you'd be feeling now

I think I'd remember.

danowat · July 2010

When I was running, I used to do all my long runs before breakfast (around 14-15miles), so no, you haven't bonked, you are probably just fatigued and tired.

markos1963 · July 2010

kettrinboy wrote:

probably more dehydration than bonking, on a proper bonk you wouldnt hardly be able to push the pedals round at all let alone do 12 mph.

Sorry but I don't think he's dehydrated either, unless he went for a spin across Death Valley, you're not going to get dehydrated on a 30 mile ride.

StillGoing · August 2010

If you raided the fridge and larder as soon as you got back for carbs, you've bonked. I've experienced it only once when I literally couldn't turn another pedal despite being only ten miles from home. Even with a 15 minute rest I could only manage another handful of miles before I had to give in. I'd of sold my wife for some carbs.

White Line · August 2010

kettrinboy wrote:

on a proper bonk you wouldnt hardly be able to push the pedals round at all let alone do 12 mph.

+1! 4mph was my top speed on the flat when I bonked once. Bad times.

psiturbo · August 2010

what was the temperature when you went for a bike ride?

Binking will be massive cramps, almost going to throw up, head ache and no faster than 5 mph on the granny gear on a flat with the wind on your back...

I

Peddle Up! · August 2010

Weighing the various replies, it sounds like I have yet to experience the dreaded full-on bonk. I was pretty hungry when I got home and wolfed down a breakfast and a half but no cramps etc. Maybe we should settle on a "bonkette"?

ColinJ · August 2010

Peddle Up! wrote:

Weighing the various replies, it sounds like I have yet to experience the dreaded full-on bonk.

Maybe you bonked if the answer to each of these questions was 'no':

Could you remember your name?
Could you still speak?
Could you add 2 + 2 and get the correct answer?
If there had been a bagful of free fivers across the road - would you have gone and picked it up?
In fact, could you work out how to cross the road?

... and the answer to each of these questions was 'yes':

Did you have to lie down for a 'little rest' at the side of the road?
Did you see those black speckly things flitting across your field of vision?
Were you having wild fantasies about food and drink?
Were you planning to take a hacksaw to your bike when you got home?
Were you in some doubt that you would ever actually get home?
Was there a crowd of anxious pedestrians gathering about you trying to get your pupils to roll back round to the front?

rick_chasey · August 2010

A proper bonk is a once in a lifetime experience - i.e. you'll never want to do it ever again ever.

White Line · August 2010

ColinJ wrote:

Could you remember your name?

Could you still speak?

Could you add 2 + 2 and get the correct answer?

If there had been a bagful of free fivers across the road - would you have gone and picked it up?

In fact, could you work out how to cross the road?

This too. Your brain sort of abandons the memory part. :shock: Both things that have previously happened and you probably won't remember much of bonking except that it's bad. Really really bad.

Buckled_Rims · August 2010

No, you never bonked, probably just a bit tired and thinked you bonked. Psychology can play a bit part in thinking you can't go on any further. Sometimes the psychological part of cycling is far harder then the physical cycling is.

It takes more then 4 or 30 miles to really bonk, even for an unfit person

must-tri-harder · August 2010

brownlee's bonk was epic, he was like the walking dead over that finish line.

30 mile bonk ? i doubt it very much, most people have the odd bad patch or whatever but 30 miles is pretty unlikely. unless it was horrific weather and mad windy which always take more out of you, or 30 miles solid climbing up mountains ..

the moral of the story is always take something with you just in case.

Have I bonked?

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