Bonk Stories!!!

[Dekonick]

OK - time for a new thread.

Lets hear about your best (or worst) BONK!

[djg]

heat stroke. But I'll never forget this crit years back in Virginia where I just completely folded. Went off the back, toodled along, and then just fell over. I don't mean I laid it down. I mean that I got so slow and wobbly that I toppled over. Near the line too--lots of folks around. A very proud moment.

[William]

This first time I “bonked” was on my first 80-mile ride. I didn’t take enough food. About 5 miles outside of town I just ran out of gas and barley hung on into town. I didn’t even feel like I could make it the last mile or two home so I stopped at a health food store managed by a friend. As I stumbled through the door, my friend gave me a hearty “hello”. I just mumbled walking past him as I went straight to the cooler, opened it up and grabbed a bottle of “Carbo Fuel” and chugged the whole thing down right then and there.

The second time was at one of the MT. Tabor series races. It was 105+ degrees out that day. I had placed 2nd in the previous weeks race so I wanted to nail this one. By the last couple of laps I was starting to see colors. I pulled out the win, crossed the line and rode straight to my car. I was getting pretty loopy so I started up the Subaru wagon, blasted the AC and lay down in the back nursing water and carbo fuel until I stopped seeing all the pretty colors. I think I just sat in there for about 30 – 40 minutes.


William

[CNY rider]

Hi all, this is my first post here. I'm waiting to take delivery of my new Legend next wek and figured I would join and share pix. Then I saw this thread and couldn't resist.

Three weeks ago I was cycling in Northern Vermont. I did a 70 mile loop through Smugglers Notch on a blazing hot day and was doing the big bonk at the end. As I neared my brother's home and the end of my ride I recalled he said there was a cut through behind the Ben and Jerry's factory that would spare me a hill climb to his house. So I pull in there, surrounded by hundreds of tourists. I don't see a cut through so I need to go ask one of the workers. I ride right up to her, then my brain in its decimated state forgets I am still clicked into my pedals. Next thing you know I'm in the turtle position, bike up in the air, me on my back in front of who knows how many people. The minor hand and elbow abrasions healed quickly. The ego, still recovering.
:confused:

[shinomaster]

The only time I ever "bonked" was with an British girl in art school..

[alembical]

The only time I ever "bonked" was with an British girl in art school..
Poor shino! :p

[shinomaster]

Hey! thats only cause American girls call it something else...!! :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

[LowCel]

I believe my worst bonk was two years ago when I was under the impression that I was a pretty good rider. It's amazing how good you think you are when you are only riding with other slow riders. Anyway the ride started out nice and slow so the guys could warm up, I think they were doing around 25. By the way, this was nice and slow to them, not me. I stuck with them, I didn't want anyone to know that the "warm up" was hurting me. This was my first mistake. By the time we got to the first climb I was already hurting. I did everything I could to stay with them up the climb, after all, I was a "good" rider. This was my second mistake. After this climb I lost the pace line but I still tried to keep them in sight distance. Third mistake. Well, this was about a 60 mile ride, about 40 miles into the rider the cramping began. It sucked but I figured that I could just ride it off. This was my final mistake. The last ten miles I hurt like I had never hurt before. Luckily for me the last five miles was flat, however for some reason I was still in my small chainring.

Once the ride was done it took everything I had to load my bike up. When I got close to my house I called my wife and told her I would need her to open the front door, I wasn't sure if I would be walking in or crawling in. I was dead serious by the way. Once I finally made it home I went straight to the bed. For the next day or so I experienced the worst leg cramps I have ever had. Oh yeah, is there any cramp that is worse than the ones that you get when you are sound asleep at 2:00 in the morning and you wake up to cramps that you can't even get out of bed to walk off?

I learned a lot that day. Mainly, I was not nearly the rider that I thought I was.

[scottcw]

My one and only bonk had nothing to do with lack of food or dehydration. I mixed my sports drink too sweet and, combined with an incredibly hot day and a wicked climb, I came very close to vomiting and passing out. I had to get off my bike at the top of the hill to lay down under a tree. Took me about 1/2 hr. to recover. I am pretty sure that this was the result of some blood sugar anomaly. I was fine for the rest of the ride.

[Too Tall]

(hehe) 1984 In was racing in Cannan Va. in one of Laird Knight's infamous muck-fests where you do a LeMans style start, slog thru chin high water and smash into stinkin' festering peat bogs....oooooh DAT's fun. Anywho, I was racing for a top 10 finish and chased down 4 places in the last mile and was seeing double crossing the line. I literally crawled over to a big tree and lay down and started to cry, it was overwhelming. Somebody I don't even know to this day sat me up and started feeding me little pieces of raisin bagel and water. Yesh, NOW THAT's RACIN' BABY :)

[Tom]

One time on a training run I started getting a little weird about 4 or 5 miles from home. I had quit sweating (it was really hot that day) a few miles earlier, now I was having real difficulty holding a straight line. For some reason I decided I need to take a shortcut home, the next thing I knew I was trying to climb the fence behind the old Alco plant. When I did get home I drank an entire gallon of water, fell asleep and when I woke up the next day I had what was exactly like the worst hangover imaginable.

Better, though, was my first century ride. "I'm a marathoner!" I thought. "I know how to do endurance events, this oughta be a piece of cake." I led the second group for a long time. Then they slowly pulled away after about 30 miles. Never saw them again. I finished my bottle of water. Rode on. I started cramping at about 50 miles. Rode on. I started cramping so bad I lay by the side of the road for a while, assuring everybody that went by I was just fine. Got up and rode on. It got bad. I started cramping so bad I couldn't get off the bike, I sort of had to steer to a soft spot and fall over. Rose and rode on. Got to a convenient store, bought 3 quarts of Gatorade and chugged them. Rode in as fresh as a daisy. Some guy says "Did you see it? Some guy lying in the ditch?" Why yes, yes I did.

[Dekonick]

Heh. All good stories! I must add this just out of concern for yall... if ever you STOP sweating you need to STOP riding and pour alot of water over yourself. Thats a classic sign of heat exhaustion leading to heat stroke.

Myself... I bonk every time I ride with my A friends! Bastads! I think they do it on purpose just to watch me wobble.... :D

As far as wanting to throw up, my favorite, and most hated hill, still taunts me daily. Sometimes I see spots near the top. Sometimes I see black. Sometimes I just want to curl up and die... yet I swear one day I will be able to climb that bugger at 14mph and feel fresh on top! Mmmm where is the nearest Ducati dealership? <mumbles something.....> ;)

Had a really slow day today - (after yesterday I needed it) averaged 14 mph (wow - that gives you an idea how wasted I was yesterday) for only 19 miles on rolling hills. Know whats odd? It was actually really pleasant to ride this slow! I saw things I never noticed before. :D

Well, Ill never be a hammerhead... Hey BOB! when do ya wanna ride?!?

[lithiapark]

Summer before 4th grade my friends and I collected flying grasshoppers/locusts, of which there were a wide variety in southern Oregon. The 'hoppers were skittish and quick, and very hard to sneek up on and net. I discovered that if you chase them long enough and make them keep flying, pretty soon(30 minutes?) they tire out and you can net 'em. After about 8 hours of this one day I returned home triumphantly with 5 or 6 new specimens. Got a glass of Kool Aid and passed out. Took a while to cool me off and rehydrate me from what I understand, all I remember is feeling a little woozy. But I had the best grasshopper collection, the competition had been dispatched(my buddies at least, didn't seem to put a dent in the grasshopper population). I have little doubt that cockroaches will inherit the earth.

[Matt Barkley]

I'll keep it short.

WHERE: Boston out around Concorde and back.

WHEN: Late Feb. early March 1996

WHO: Me and a 3 other like-minded knuckle-head training partners.

WHAT I was wearing: A bunch of layers up top, booties, and RIGHT!, my newest purchase, my first pair of knickers from Performance!

WEATHER: I called weather and they said 47F - Man, that is almost, like 50F! YEEEHAAW! (Oh, yeah and light drizzle - there was still snow on the ground in places outside the city)

WHAT HAPPENED: 1.5 hours out, and really starting to drizzle, my best friend flats. No biggie. He rides tubulars, though. Well he always carries 2 spares. So- NO PROBLEMO. Mounts spare. Pumps it up. 50 meters later BAM! Mounts second spair. Meantime we are all getting a bit cold standing there. Sarts to rainn. A bit of wind accross the snowed over fields. We remount and DAMN, the spare is a slow more like FAST leaker. We make it 300 meters per ZephelXP pump-up. The tubular rolls off in the wet if not pumped up...
We are screwed. We passed up a ride from a pick-up - they looked suspicious as on their second pass they offered a ride. We couldn't abondon our friend. We were on Conant(sp?) not too far out of Beantown - and we were really getting cold. I wished I was wearing more clothes..... / We ended up breaking into the garage of my frineds ex-wife / Nat. Champion and he borrowed (stole) a tuby as I stuffed torn plastic trash bags down my knicks and into my jersey and wet booties. (It was really raining now and the temp had to be hovering around 40F) We all do not feel well. One of the guys takes off on his own back toward town. The only smart move made so far.
Remounted - hauled-*** with super concentration faces - little talking back on Mass. Ave into Cambridge and we all split up. I had already eaten and drank everything I had - now being out over 3.5 hours in cold wet nastyness. Barely able to shift or use the brakes I made my way back along the path along the Charles River to the BU bridge to cross the river. Before I make it to the bridge I am crossing a section of path in 6 to 10 inches of standing water with icebergs floating and I GO DOWN... Delerious, half my view is above water, half is below. I am drenched in ICE WATER! I get up and keep rolling trying to clip in - but keep missing and rake my entire shin down the pedal. Ouch! (Nope, I didn't feel a thing)
Finally make it back to the vestibule of my apt and start to feel the pain of warmth mess with my face/head/hands. After 1/2 an hour (amount of time I take to try to use my hand to get key out of pocket - my neighbor comes along and opens door anyways) I make it to my room where my feet and legs start to feel like they have been amputed but I can now feel a horrible pain like ice-fire. It is bad. I actually don't remeber much beyond that. That sucked. You can never be too prepared or over dressed or have too much food.

[pale scotsman]

Late July of '02 I headed out at 7AM for a one hour mountain bike ride through this 44,000 acre hunting camp near the house. Well anyway I fueled up on a couple cups of coffee after a night of frosted barley pops, and took one water bottle for the ride.

Getting to the fire roads you go up a one mile or so hill and the horseflies were in kamakazee mode so I booked up the hill and continued on the ride. At the turnaround point I decided to try a shortcut back because it was getting hot as hell and I was hurtin'. I mean I know this place. Heck, me and a buddy mapped the dang thing for the family that owns it. Well guess what... an hour later here I was down to no water and my heart racing and my mind zooming. I was supposed to be back at the house by 10 for church and I was LOST.

I finally made it home a little before 11. The wife wasn't too happy and I felt like death warmed over. A four hour adventure ride coupled with piss poor planning can be brutal down South.

[shaq-d]

lol, great stories.

my big bonk was my first big ride (80km, which at that time was more than i had ever done) this april/may, when it was still cold. i went out with 2 bottles of water and a little food. i stick with the fast guys as long as i can for 35km or so, then they leave me in the dust.. i do the rest of the trip alone, and at around 60km mark i bonk all alone on this country street lined with big houses and leaves on the pavement.. i start to feel no pain and muse that the Hand of God is pushing me.. then it starts to get colder and i feel the pain and realize there is no Hand of God.. and then i pass a farm but it says it's closed till next month. the next 10km, i stare at every single house and contemplate if i should stop and knock on the door (at 8am or whatever it is on a sunday morning) and ask to be fed and kept warm. finally i ride in to the end-of-ride meeting point, a bar, and order a huge hamburger and water, and i feel like i'm on top of the world.

sd

[RichMc]

I'm feeling real fiesty one Sunday so I decide to do a ride from Kailua to Waikiki & back, about 50 miles. By the time I'm getting close to Waikiki I'm still feeling real good so I say let's stretch it some and go an extra 5 miles over to Mt. Tantalus to do that hill climb. The climb is 5 miles up and 5 miles down with an approx. 1800 ft. altitude gain. I'd been drinking water like crazy and just about the time I reach the top my hands and feet go numb. My hands are so bad I can barely use the brakes on the way down. Scary. Made through town to the nearest McDonalds to get the biggest ice water I could get. From there to an LBS where I downed two Clif bars and got a third one for the road. Then it was 30 miles back to Kailua. Made it about 25 miles before I pulled over at a 7-11. Got more water and had to sit down for a half hour. Seriously contemplated calling home for a ride but got going one last time but stayed on the main roads instead of going on the scenic side roads. Lesson learned -- eat better before and during the ride. Not nearly the same problems on subsequent similar rides.

[csb]

do you know about CNYC (central new york cyclist_s)?

just over the hill in new lisbon?

[csb]

i had two paper routes (52 papers in am + 52 in pm) did the
route riding my bike _ maybe i should see if i am a bike rider?
meet up with the local wheelmen, resplendent in my dark brown
corduroy cut offs (fringe baby), clean cotton t-shirt, and last
but not least sans socks in my most favorite moccasins.
looks and nods all around, ok let the kid come, so we're off...
forty miles later my tank is empty. very nice fellow rider slides
off back to talk to me, makes sure i have $ for coke and a candy
bar along with ability to navigate way home _ yup i say and watch
the group pixelate. stopped @ the local junk food stop got high
on processed sugar and eased my way back into town.

all this on my pride + joy _ metallic orange with chromed lugs
raleigh international with suntour superbe.

[ericmurphy]

This happened about 14 years ago. I hadn't been riding in any serious way for long, but I did have about a 1,000-mile base. Anyway, I was about 40 miles into a 55-mile ride, and I was climbing this moderate hill (moderate by east-coast standards, which means by Bay Area standards it probably wouldn't even register as a hill). It was a gorgeous summer day, warm and sunny, but as I was climbing this hill I suddenly felt unaccountably sleepy. Like I could barely keep my eyes open. I was passing this open field that was surrounded by a classic New England-style stone wall (except this one had actual mortar in it). My, I thought, that looks like a good stone wall to stretch out on and take a little nap.

So I pulled over, got off my bike, hefted it over to the other side of the wall, and lay down on my back on top of the wall. I think it took me less than five seconds to fall asleep.

I think I napped for about 20 minutes. (I wonder what passing cars thought of me.) Presently I woke up, got back on my bike, and limped home, probably averaging about 12 miles an hour.

That certainly was curious, I thought after I got home. Then I did some thinking, and realized I hadn't eaten in about 30 hours.

I never did that again.

[Elefantino]

Was riding one day in early 2001 with a group that normally averages 22-23, on a 53-miler. From the start, I had trouble keeping pace and kept dropping off the back, at which point the ride captain would drop back and pace me back. About halfway in, though, I lost it. Dropped off the back and just died. Could barely make 12. Could barely breathe, too.

Somehow, I managed to limp home, but continued to feel awful. Then I began to cough. Then a couple of hours later I began to feel a great pain in my chest. Immediate trip to the E.R.

Turns out I had pneumonia and pleurisy.

I never do anything halfway. :banana:

[tch]

Since some of you are including your worst overall experience.... Back in the mid-80's, I had done a couple of triathlons and was feeling pretty competent and interested in bettering my time. I was not re-fueling and only drinking water when a friend told me that I would run stronger if I drank a sports drink supplement. Being cheap, I held off using the stuff until race day when I thought it would give me the "edge". I don't know if I mixed it wrong, if it was just the wrong stuff for my body, or what, but I began feeling a bit sick as I finished up the bike leg and headed out for the run. Took a few more hits each time I came around the 2-mile loop, feeling worse each time ("it must be that I'm dehydrated; I should drink more of this stuff"). Exactly as I crossed the finish line it just came up spontaneously and easily -- a pink arcing rainbow of undigested sports drink forever captured on film by the official photographer and all my gathered friends and family. It looked like an audition for the special effects in The Exorcist.

[CNY rider]

csb, I'm not familiar with the group but I love to ride out that way. I don't mean to threadjack, so could you email or msg me? Thanks.

[csb]

google CNYC, theres a web site.
peter martin in new lisbon is the head honcho.
unfortunately for us, dave the owner of velosophy
in cooperstown moved to madison (wisc) so the
store support is gone. theres a good variety of guys
, and a couple gals that wear champion stripes for tandem
time trialing, another member rode the tour on his bike friday.