Monday's bonk

On Monday, I went for a ride in the Bosque after school.  I learned some valuable lessons that I would like to share with you today.  I had to get my head back together after the disaster that was this ride. Focusing on sports physiology and the dangers of heat training, I'm going to endeavor into the world of the scientific. 

The conditions, yesterday, were actually quite favorable to begin the ride.  Temperature was about eighty-nine and the humidity was twenty percent.  A southerly wind was blowing lightly at around seven to ten miles per hour.  The sun was above partly cloudy skies.  Thus, we begin.

On Saturday, I received my new Bell Volt helmet from Easton, Inc.  This is a new concept of helmet for me, because I've never really used a Bell bicycle helmet. However, a year ago, I got a Bell Delirium mountain bike helmet and fell in love with it.  The Volt has massive vents to cool your head and flush the heat out the rear vents, which actually works and you can feel it, even with a coolmax cap on.  Bell helmets fit well, are lightweight and use advanced methods of manufacturing across a broad spectrum of proce ranges, which I appreciate.  That said, some helmets on the lower end are made of a lower grade styrofoam that is cut out in the manufacturing process to match the cheap plastic shell.  Then, they are bonded with an epoxy.  After a year's worth of regular use, these helmets need to be destroyed and thrown in the trash.  (Note: when throwing away a helmet, make sure you cut the straps and then step on the helmet to break it, so that someone can't dig it out of your rubbish receptacle and sue you when they try to run through the front door of a convenience store to rob it!)

As I was riding, I noticed that my head wasn't pouring sweat, like normal.  So, I guess the helmet was working properly, but the weird thing was that I didn't "feel" hot.  I used feel in quotations, because if you've been following the blg, you know how I "feel" abdout "feelings."  Anyway, I was a little alarmed.  It's like I said before that I have a really intact cooling system, so whenever I exercise, I expect to just pour sweat to the point that my clothes are soaked.  I'm sure you're thinking, "Ewwww, that's gross!"  However, if you're going to participate in endurance sports you NEED TO KNOW what your body does during periods of extended exercise.  On the course of this ride, I pass two banks ion the downtown area and their outdoor signs read ninety-five degrees.  That felt right, because I could feel the pavement releasing heat up the backs of my legs and the wind felt like it was coming from underneath me. 

Now, to make matters worse, I forgot my regular shoes and had to use my back-up shoes.  They are old Nike OCLV carbon-soled shoes and they are too small.  I got them out of a trade a while ago thinking I needed two pairs.  These Nikes are too narrow and too tight.  Normally, narrow is good for me, because I have narrow feet, but these Nike shoes suck ass, that's all there is to it.  So, I should have run down to Central and gone back to the parking lot, but I wanted to ride, damnit.  Anyway, so when all else fails, blame your shoes.

At this point, the afternoon heat is starting to peak.  I'm miserable and I'm not sweating.  My water is hot in my bottles and I feel like my legs have turned to wood and my smile has turned to a grimace.  As I turn of Edith onto Lomas to make the climb up to the bike trail, I relly feel strange.  I had to repair a mechanical problem, which threw me off the climb, so I had to go all the way back down and start over, because the grade on Lomas is too steep to start from a stop.  Here is where the fun begins:

I can feel this blistering heat and I KNOW it's not that hot.  All of sudden, I start to feel the euphoric sensation all over my body and the wind is tickling my skin all over.  I'm sipping my hot water and I feel it hit the bottom of my stomach.  So, righ then, I know that my body has gone into freak-out BONK mode and that something may happen.  If this is your first time to experience a bonk, you're going to freak out, because it's scary.  I was close to the end of the ride when the real bonk started happening.  I put my headphones back in and started tuning out the wind and the traffic and other riders so that I could listen to my breathing and heart beat.  NO MUSIC!  At this point, the heart rate monitor is my best friend.  I keep the RPM and the rate very low and just pump. 

It's ninety-five degrees...

I'm cold...

NOT GOOD!

When going into the bonk mode, your body shuts down its systems to protect itself.  Your sweat and renal systems go into hybernation, because they know they will need the water to function later on.  So, when I stopped sweating, I knew this was what was happening.  So, I calmly found a shady spot under a tree and just literlly chilled out for a minute while my systems came back on-line.  I drank my hot water and just watched the cars go by.  I monitored my heart rate and watched it just stay stable, which means that my .  As I began to recover, I felt the sweat beads come back to my head and the euphoric, tingling sensation went away.  After about ten minutes, I dragged myself back onto the bike and squeaked back to the parking lot.  I had a Gatorade in the car and I chugged it and it was the best Gatorade I ever had. 

The physiology of bonking is very insteresting and it can happen at anytime: in fact, you bonk all the time and just may not realize it.  The key so surviving a bonk is to handle it the same way you would handle a child in a dire emergency.  Just try to calm your body down: start with your fluids.  Drink a lot of liquid to tell your renal and sweat glands that everything is ok and that you're not back in the dark ages.  Then, listen to your heart, if it's pounding, do not continue activity, becasue you risk damage to your muscles.  Next, move into the psychological part of yourself.  If you're still experienceing the euphoria, then you need to wait until that passes.  The next phase of the euphoria is hallucinations.  If you're in that stage,you won't know it. 

In 1999, when I did the Santa Fe Century, I hit the wall hard.  I have no memory of the last 12 miles and when I arrived at the school, my friends said I hit a speed bump and crashed.  In the alst twelve miles, I was singing and laughing uncontrollably and just out of my head.  When I realized that something was wrong, my friends were shoving Ding Dongs and Dr. Pepper down my throat to get my sugars back up.  I recovered with no issues and now I laugh about it.  But, it's no laughing matter. 

I hope this helps and gives you some insight.  There is a threory of bonk exercise that says you should get up, chug a pot of coffee and exercise your face off to burn fat.  Then, go home and pig out.  DON'T DO THAT.   If you want to lose wight, do it right!  Eat well, eat often and eat carbs.  They're your friend!