Who has truly bonked?

That's not bonking ....... you were probably dehydrated and uber-hungry, but you did not totally deplete your reserves.

A "bonk" is when you cannot do anything at all.  You are so completely sapped that you cannot think straight, emotions are all over the place (crying, laughing, angry), and you almost always will have to stop.  And it is something that is going to be over 3 or 4 hours of exercise.

I have a few times in my "career."  The worst one I was about 8 miles from home, which was a flat route the whole way back, and absolutely could not pedal anymore.  I pulled over on the shoulder and just sat there in the grass shaking.  Luckily a lady with a bike rack stopped and was able to take me to the entrance of my neighborhood, but I still had to ride the mile back to my house from there.  Hardest mile of my life ........  When I got in the house I made my little brother call in for a pizza and get my check book and I just laid on the couch.  I ate the whole pizza and drank about a gallon of water ..... It sucked!!

I truly bonked at IMAZ last April:

I made it through the swim without issue. I made it through the bike and a little more than half way on the run. It was a tough day. The temp was predicted to be 92, turned out to be 97 and the light 6mph winds kicked up to 25mph gusts. Both contact lenses were blown from my eyes on the bike, the first one at mile 10, the second at mile 50. I am already blind without them, but just to make it fun, due to dehydration, my right eye totally clouded up and everything turned white and cloudy. So my bike speed decreased because I could not see 5 feet in front of me. I was blown off my bike from the wind at mile 65, yes, I fell to the ground. My body stopped digesting fluids and solids around 2:00pm. The bike aid stations ran out of water with more than 20 miles to go. I made the bike cutoff with 20 mins or so to spare. I began the marathon at about 6:00pm. After several pukings and 2 total blackouts, yes, I fell to the ground completely out. I was taken off the course around 9:45 near mile 17 on the run by the medics. I completed 132 out of 140 miles, 8 miles short of the finish line.

I will be going back to IMAZ this November to finish the thing. I want my medal and T-shirt.

This was the first, and hopefuly the only race to DNF for me.

BTW, do you know what you get if DNF at Ironman?

NOTHING.

Once, at the Bud Light USTS in Denver, circa 1989? 88?

A little undertrained, and pushed it really hard as I wanted to qualify for Nationals again (top 10 in each AG qualified at that time), I vaguely remember getting dizzier and slower, staggering the last 1/4 mile, and then kind of awaking on a stretcher covered in iced towels in the med tent.

Blegh. Worst feeling of my life, and finished 11th, the 10th guy passed me in the last 1/2 mile.

John 

WOW!  You should get this story to the RD for this year.  That story would sound great over some music and seeing you in pain on the run this year.  We would all be wondering..."can he do it?".  America loves an underdog.

With that said I hope to pass you.

My definition as well.

Similar to this, it happened to me, once (maybe twice).  But the one time I remember for sure was during a long run last year.  I was probably under nurished and dehydrated at bit, but I was about 2.5 hours into my run, pushing a little harder than I should, feeling great, then it was like someone 'flipped the switch'.  I suddenly had nothing left, barely enough energy to even walk.  I NEVER felt like I didn't heve enough in me to at least jog, even after my IM, but this time, I would try to pick it back up to a jog, get 50 yards, and was literally forced back to a walk.  I had to struggle the last 2 miles back to the house...

I started running about a year ago, from basically doing nothing aerobic, and I was totally naive about it.  About 4 months later, after I had built up mileage (much to quickly), I decided to try a 'long' bike (75 miles) followed by a 'long' run (16 miles, planned -- didn't make it).  I ate nothing the entire time.  Let's just say it didn't work out too well.  I had to call my wife to come get me.

That's when I decided that maybe I needed to learn something about training. 

i came damn close a few weeks ago.  I went out on a ride without much eating much of anything that day and didn't bring food with me.  I seriously underestimated the hilliness of the return leg of the course and the downhill on the way out was so fun, I pushed way to hard.

I sat in a left hand turn lane through 3 light cycles just watching the arrow change colors.  I was having a great time.  If a car didn't finally come up behind me and honk, I have no idea how long I would have sat there.  The final mile home was tough to ride.  I had zero reaction time.  It was like I was watching everything happen, but just didn't 'get it'.    Riding into the apartment complex, I actually had the thought that if I just fell over right here, it wouldn't be so bad.

I will say though, if you ever go through this, go out running or riding the day after.  You feel like a machine!

I have hit the wall to the point that I had to get off the bike and lay down, but I've never held and conversations with a bush named Steve.  That's classic!

btw, we are all having a bit of fun with this, but on a more serious note:

The reason that you get dizzy, can't move, stagger, etc. when you bonk is that your body has run so low on glycogen that it is shutting down external/peripheral systems to preserve the last of the glycogen to keep the brain running. It can be pretty serious.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled hilarity/flashback montage.

 John

that bolded section is what happened to me, I was trying to follow around a friend of mine last summer on my mountain bike and he can climb like a hill with ease.. only took 90 minutes of this pace (I was also dieting at the time so didn't start out with a full tank) before I had to finish the trail riding my granny gear the rest of the way. 

I was out riding by myself in TX one day.  Winds and heat had been more than predicted and I hadn't brought enough nutrition.  I was OUT of energy completely.  I rolled into a gas station about 40 miles from home cursing myself for not bringing my phone.  I was DONE.  I had to sit at that gas station in the shade with a snickers and a mountain dew for an hour before I could get back on my bike.

Fun times.  Not recommended.

I've had several near bonk experiences where I've had to stay at a convience store for 40+ minutes sipping on coke to make it back to the car. 

But my one true bonk experience was on the Silver Comet Trail.  (that's a path from Atlanta to Alabama).

I was very neive in the ways of nutrition and figured that I could ride to the end of the SCT and back for a long ride (80 miles total).  Nevermind that I was riding solo, it was hottish and I had never ridden more than 40 miles at one time in my life.

I prepared well.  I brought 2 water bottle and 2 powerbars.  Plenty for every other ride I've been on.  Things went great on the way out and I averaged about 20 mph all the way to the end.  The sidewalk ended and I was stoked I found the end of the SCT.  Feeling great, I finished off my first water bottle and noticed that I had about half of a powerbar left.  Plenty!

I head back and it's now about 1-2 pm and I notice that the trail is starting to get blurry.  I figured I was just bored so I picked it up a bit and started singing to myself.  Next thing I know I can't keep it over 15 mph no matter what I do.  After I almost slammed into one of the long bridges, I decided to stop and take a break.  I napped...yes FELL ASLEEP for about 30 min and ate the last bite of my powerbar.  Felt a bit better and continued on.  About 5 miles down the road...it happenned again and I fell off of the trail into the grass 2x before I stopped again.  Took another nap and realized I was about 5 miles from the Paulding County line where there is a Caboose.

I somehow managed to make it there and I called Nan to come pick me up.  We live about 45 min away.  The next thing I remember was waking up to Nan staring over me asking me if I was ok.  I had crawled almost under the train and was spread eagle passed out on my helmet with my bike next to me.  I don't remember anything other than calling her and I was about 100 yds away from the train when I did that.

Yeah..that was as low as I have ever gotten.  We went to the IHOP and I ate like a king and still felt like crap for a long time!

ETA:  The train is about 15 miles from the start of the trail.  This past year, I finally completed that ride End to End btw.  Averaged 21+ mph