Bonking is running out of glycogen. Your body is forced to switch to fat for energy stores, which reduces the level of effort you can exert. No matter what you do, you just can't pick up the pace, your heart rate drops, and you really, really want to eat. Anything.

You know you have bonked when all you can think about is food.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

running out of energy due to not eating enough....in laymans terms, feels like shit.

This is bonking...my budrow Jekyll on his Trek...

"I'll trade you this bike for a fucking Snickers bar...."

That's bonking.

Spot

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

feeling good...feeling good...feeling good...BAM!!...you hate the world and everything in it. That's a bonk.
The previous posts are a bit more precise, but this conveys the "feeling" of a bonk.

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Brian Grasky
Grasky Endurance: World Championship Triathlon Coaching; Professional Training Camps
RETUL fitter, Biomechanist, USAT Level 3 Coach, USAC Level 2 Coach

When I'm getting dropped and start to cry. Really, it's happened twice. For no reason, riding up a hill, can't hang on, start to get all emotional, hate everything about cycling, start to cry.

When you're running and not in pain, but you just can't run anymore. Your heart rate is low and everything seems to be in slow motion.

Hmmm...my wife seems to bonk about every 28 days!

Hmmmm . . . based on the descriptions so far, it doesn't sound like I bonked.

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Mike Sparks


I have competed well, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

You know you have bonked when you pull into a gas station while on a ride, weakly stagger in and buy a king size snickers and eat the shit out of it as if you hadn't eaten in 4 days.

Bonked during the run of my last half IM, as others have described, couldn't get my HR up to run. Also become very apathetic. Next time I do a race sponsored by HEED I'll bring a fuelbelt.

Another bonk during a long (175 mi or so) ride last summer, 15 miles to go and the bottom of the barrel dropped out of my energy reserves. Couldn't get HR up, felt dazed and numb rolling along. Out of curiousity I 'hammered' up a short climb and got my HR up to 145 (my LT HR is somewhere in the 165-170 range), practically threw up. When I got back my friend said I looked pale and that they had just finished eating a huge stack of grilled cheese sandwiches.

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All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. ~Gandalf

Bonking is when your fuel stores are low, and either your legs or your brain quit. It's like your car running out of gas. There's only way to remedy the situation, and that's with calories. High glycemic index foods like snickers and coke are my food of choice in such circumstances.

But what it really means is that you totally screwed up your nutrition plan. Now it's possible that something like gastric issues were to blame, but most people just make poor choices.

I once called for a ride from a rest stop 1 mile from my house; I just flat couldn't cycle another inch.

Interesting article from RW here: http://www.runnersworld.com/...-301--6263-0,00.html

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Steen Rose
http://www.athletesontrack.com

Only REALLY bonked twice in the last few years, both due to undereating.

First was on a training ride, was going to do a quick hour ride and was feeling good, went further than I should, an hour turned to 3+ without anything but water and I was tired from a run earlier in the day. Had trouble holding 15mph on the flats for the final miles home, only thought about eating, barely made it up the hill home and collapsed in the kitchen eating everything in site and drank a 2 liter of coke.

Second was at a half this summer, wasn't taking in as much as I should during the run, was on a decent (for me) pace to run about 1:3x and then bonked hard at about mile 11.5. Lost 10+ minutes the last two miles, including a spot where I stood by the side of the run course and almost just laid down despite being less than a mile from the finish, then made it to the finish only to crest a small rise about 200yds from the finish (which was all downhill) and just stopped and stared at the finish line for what felt like forever. Almost laid down there and just rested for a while, saw a guy coming around the bend and somehow ran to the finish slightly ahead of him only to collapse in the grass after they got my timing chip off begging a volunteer for cokes and gatoraide. After laying there for about 20 minutes and eating I finally could get up.

Lots of people through out the term bonk all the time, and there's plenty of times I've slowed down or tired in races or training, but those are the only times I truly 'bonked' and felt that awful, hungry, just plain dead etc...

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Your lucky mine seems to bonk every 14 days!

Just Google "bonking" and see what comes up...

Should be fairly informative.

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Pain is the pruifier...

Don't google bonking at work; it came up with an inflatable sheep.

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Steen Rose
http://www.athletesontrack.com

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...r%20alberto;#2249030


If you read the above thread you can see that not everyone defines "bonk" as complete glycogen depletion -but most of everyone does.
The "bonk" occurs at complete glycogen depletion, at which time your energy substrate for working muscle becomes almost entirely fatty acid metabolism via beta oxidation. Glucose is still produced via gluconeogenesis within the liver - to the level to support vital tissues aka the brain. You can only produce a limited amount of calories per unit time via beta oxidation which (probably among neuro-hormonal controls) forces you to throttle back and produces all of the symptoms.

If you have never had an overall lack of energy at the IM distance you most likely haven't experienced what everyone describes as the "bonk" and you are either really lucky, or have a gifted GI tract and metabolic system of a combination of both.

A good recipe to experience what everyone is describing would be to do a 3 day carb depletion while maintaining the intensity and duration of your workouts.
For safety I wouldn't suggest you ride the third day though.

Report back, because I'm pretty sure that you are missing out on something that 90 some odd percent of IM finishers have experienced - and we would like you to experience it too.

Kevin

It's a fast progression, but if you keeping pushing:
Legs get really, really heavy, KK doughnuts seem like the best thing man has ever invented
Holding a correct line becomes difficult
Turns become rediculous because your judgement is clouded (begin to feel like drunk driving) & you can't figure out where to brake
People will tell you this is when you begin to look like a rag doll
Tunnel vision sets in & focus is difficult
Just turning over the pedals and remembering why you want to turn them over is damn near impossible
It's over Johnny

I have also lost time & memory. Not a good place to be in. Only gone beyond 3rd on the list once, bad, bad news.

Mainly it's because of stupidity. I like the idea of a "central governor" but an honest to god bonk seems to be a problem. You do shut down before you die, but you are pretty far down the curve.

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Brawndo's got what plants crave. Brawndo's got electrolytes. And that's what plants crave. They crave electrolytes. Which is what Brawndo has. And that's why plants crave Brawndo. Not water, like from the toilet.

Oh yeah, and then there was the time that I stopped at a light and could not clip back in for about 3 blocks. Took me another mile or so to figure out that I was bonking.

The feeling is something like how you would feel after 36hrs w/o sleep....i.e. just no energy, hard to focus, irritable, etc.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Do you guys find that sometimes you bonk hard & deep, and other times it's a bit quicker and less energy sapping?
Like, there are those times..it's hot & wet, you're in there for the hard yards and you're like "oh man here we go again...", all the
rest is a blur and you come out the other side with your shirt on inside out and backwards and someone elses underwear on.....
Other times it can kind of sneak up on you and you're thinkin' "oh man i reckon i might be in for just a quick one here" and you're in and out of that
bonk like Tiger in a LV cocktail waitress..........
Just seems to me like sometimes you bonk deep, like all the way and hardcore...and other times you're just like, in-out-in-out, repeat if necessary...

Capiche?

I almost never bonk in a running race or triathlon, because I normally taper the week before and carbo load, especially two days before. I've run 13 marathons (5 under 3 hrs) and did Kona in 13:07 23 years ago...never bonked.

Last Saturday I ran a half marathon. I had run 10 miles the Wednesday before and biked Thursday. Didn't carbo load until the day before...Friday. I hit the wall at 11 1/2 miles. Had to walk twice in the last mile and felt wobbly. Staggered across the finish line at 1:57. Not a good feeling. I grabbed a bagel and started gobbling it. Never did that before. Usually I don't feel the need to eat for a while. So, I learned a lesson.

Part of this may be due to age. I'm 63. When I was 40 I could run a fast marathon on a bagel eaten 3 hours before. At Kona, I only sipped a little Exceed a few times on the run. (I had eaten on the bike) We didn't have gels, etc., back then. I was strong to the finish. Now, I need to eat during a bike as short as 50 miles.

Once bonked on a ride 40 miles from home in the desert. Went from 25 mph - 6 mph in a matter of a minute then could not keep the bike upright, literally fell over. I must have had a little food on me cause I made it back but I can't remember how. Learned my lesson.

From that description it sounds like the difference between running out of muscle glycogen vs running out of blood sugar. During the former your pretty much hosed until your calorie intake exceeds output for awhile. The latter is reversible faster via sugar. Blood sugar is the only form of energy your brain can use, how lack of it affects you might vary from person to person (I get really apathetic and wonder wth I'm doing, some people get irritable).

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All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. ~Gandalf

As others have said, the low hr and low power or pace is a really good indication.

it feels like slow motion, it does not hurt, but you just do not seem to move forward anymore. With extreme bonks you can start shaking uncontrolable, feeling dizzy and you can even faint. If you stop and eat or drink a bit of sugar you are feeling normal in 5 minutes. But that normal feeling usually disappears quickly if you start to move again.

My only 'hard bonk' happend on a century ride that I was completely unprepared for. I went out hard, really hard, and burned up way too much muscle and liver glycogen too early. At eighty-six miles it felt like I ran into a mountain - it was that sudden and that extreme. I went from clipping along in a pack to falling off the back for no "apparent" reason, like going from level ground to a 20% grade. As hard as I told my legs to pedal, the cranks just would not turn in any gear...it wasn't a lack of focus or mental acuity, it was just physical failure, an inability to generate force anymore. It was surreal, and a bit freaky to my fragile state of mind at that point.

Fortunately, I was about 10 feet from a gas station/mini mart. Apu inside hooked me up with gatorade, candy bars, peanuts - I really wanted salt/sugar/fluids in a way I can only describe as desparate and uncontrollable, like I needed a fix. After sitting on the curb for about 10 minutes after inhaling everything in sight, I just clipped back in and happily motored it on to the finish - the absorption rate was crazy fast. Fortunately, I learn from mistakes.

i think it is not the lack of glycogen that causes the severe bonk symptoms, it is low blood sugar levels. Therefore eating sugar gets you back in 5 minutes, sugar goes into the blood really fast. Especially with something like cola or candy bars.

Refilling the glycogen stores takes a bit longer.

Yeah, the sitting on the crub in front of 7-11 and scarfing down $5 worth of junk food in 60 seconds or less is pretty standard. You're so desperately hungry you can't possibly chew and swallow fast enough, while still sucking in a breath every now and again.

Worst bonk I ever had, I actually recall thinking to myself - seriously - if I could squeeze to the left juuuust enough to get grazed and knocked over by a passing car, I could score a free ambulance ride back home... but didn't want to risk drifting over too far and wrecking my bike. Out in the middle of nowhere, no money. Finally found a pay phone (back in the day) and called a buddy collect to come fetch me. Promptly got a large pizza figuring I'd split it with him as a thanks for bailing me out, but he said he'd already just eaten, so I went ahead and ate the whole thing all by myself in one shot.

ive bonked once. it was on a group ride. i had only ever ridden like 10 miles before and I found myself on a 70 mile group ride with some ironmen, without enough food in my jersey.

about 40 miles in I was reduced to 5mph cycling, stopping every 5 minutes to rest

dreaming about coca cola

awful stuff

was a lot more bike fit after that though!

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

That was my gig, too. Longest ride up to that point was about 35-40 miles - decided to do my first big group ride with options of 35, 60, 75, or 100 miles. I felt pretty good hitting the 35 mile mark with the draft pack, so I figured I'd just keep on hanging on for a century and put that notch on my belt. Not enough nutrition/hydration on-board, poorly conditioned for the effort, too fast of pace (for me); a perfect storm. I vowed to be smarter from then on, and have kept my promise - I only do stupid things when I've got a safety net of cash/cell phone and know that someone on the other end of the line is prepared to pick me up :-)

Yep, I sugar bonked bad last century I did. I got dropped at mile 65 and had to ride in solo the whole way in. At mile 98 I had to wait for a train so I put my head down on my bars and actually dozed off for a minute until a friend caught me and woke me up. When I got back to the finish line 2 large cokes and I was good to go.

As I've read more of the posts, I'm wondering if maybe I did bonk some on the bike during the 2 IM. My power did drop off on the second lap at each race (Vineman 08 & CDA 09), but I attributed it to the heat at Vineman and less than ideal bike training leading up to CDA. Is extreme hunger a tell tale sign of bonking? I am wondering because I never had that feeling during either bike rides, and I had quite the opposite feeling on the run, i.e., I couldn't stand the thought of eating anything because of the nausea.

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Mike Sparks


I have competed well, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

drop in blood sugar levels beyond what you need to continue your work at rate X. How do I feel? Like shit.

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�The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.� -Michelangelo

MoodBoost Drink : Mood Support + Energy.

did power drop off or did power drop off a cliff and you were weaving back and forth and wishing you were dead?

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Gradual drop off in power. No weaving, just felt like I wanted to be off the bike around mile 90 (not so much physically as mentally) . . . but, I suspect most people feel that way. ;-)

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Mike Sparks


I have competed well, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Its pretty rare to completely bonk, I think its only happened to me once.

At any rate, its easily the worst cycling experience I ever had. I went out for a solo 100 mile training ride that goes through about 5 small towns so ample opportunity to re-fuel. Since I wasn't "hungry", I only re-filled gatorade at the first 4 towns ~65 miles. Around Mile 75, shit got bad....real real bad. The only way home (that I know of) is to continue on course. No cell phone coverage and the next town is at mile 85. It took me 1.5 hours to cover the next 10 miles, all of which were flat w/ very little wind. Not only was I starving, but also dehydrated and had cramps in both quads and 1 calf. I would pedal 3 times, unclip let my legs hang and repeat.

At the gas station in the final town, I sat there for 45+ minutes eating donuts, potato chips and 2 or 3 16oz bottles of Pepsi. I called my wife and started crying for her to pick me up, but she was 3 hours away in a totally different direction. I still contemplated waiting mind you. I finally got enough strength to finish off the last 15 or so miles to my folks house. All-in that 100 mile ride took me 9.5 hours. I never wanted to see a bike again. Within a couple hours after finishing I felt pretty normal with just some stiffness in my legs from the cramps. While I was out there, I was 100% sure I was minutes from death. No joke.

nah, thats just getting tired =)

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

that pepsi was good wasn't it?

i remember a gas station guy let me steal a coke, i promised to drive back and pay him (I did)

saved my ass. man my body absorbed that coke fast.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

My first bonk was after about a 6-hour ride, and I had maybe a 25-min. drive home and drank about 300 calories of recovery stuff, so I thought I was good for maybe an hour or so. I get home and start preparing dinner, even ate some sauteed mushrooms, when I felt like I was going to pass out. I grabbed a handful of Swedish fish, stuffed in mouth and laid down on a couch. A few minutes later I was fine.

My best bonk story: had biked earlier in the day but didn't replace burned calories, didn't want to eat lunch before I ran, work meetings, blah, blah, blah, went running anyway, knowing it was going to be dicey. Had some Gatorade with me, but still not many calories.

1.5 miles from home and I am out of fuel! I got all light-headed and wobbly and knew what was happening. There were people picnicking in this park, and I ran (such as I could) up to a stranger and tried to explain what was going on and could I have some food? She offered me an assortment of cookies...I took 2, stuffed them in my mouth and immediately felt better and ran home.

Thing is, I knew I would have passed out even if I had tried walking.

Like others have said, you know it's a real bonk when you just know you can't go on without getting sugar in you. Nothing else will work. You may or may not be 100% out of glycogen, but you are definitely out of circulating glucose, which is what your brain needs. Brain decides it's in jeopardy, so it sends signals to muscles to SHUT DOWN NOW, because hey, brain must go on. Once your brain is happy and feels you are not trying to kill it off, it resumes letting your muscles do some work.

Bonking is actually kind of a neat feeling as long as you have some sugar nearby to fix it. If you don't, then I imagine it's torturous.

That's not "bonking", roadies call that "cracking"....As in "under the pressure", but that just means you can't handle the tempo. In addition, if you're on the rivet and not only do you "crack" but you just can't turn over the pedals with any force you've "exploded".

"Bonking" implies insufficient caloric intake.

Was out for one of my first long-rides when getting into the sport. The other two guys had two bottles of sports drinks with powerbars...I had one bottle of water.

At the end of the ride we were riding downhill (slight) back to the store and I was dropped. The LBS owner came back and got me because I was having trouble pedalling anymore (despite downhill gradient)...That was a bonk!

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"Chrissie wins because she trains really f'ing hard and races really f'ing hard and was blessed with a huge f'ing motor" Jordan Rapp

x3. In 22 years of cycling, I have truly bonked once. Needed food/drink many times, but only one real bonk. Home one summer from college, I talked to a guy at the local bike shop. He said they were going out for a group ride. 35 miles or so. So I joined them. No big deal.

2 bottles of gatorade, nothing else. Turns out only the guy I was talking to was doing 35 miles. The other 6 folks were Cat 2s and 3s doing their weekly 80 mile hammerfest. I broke off from them at mile 60, completely drained. Almost no power to the pedals. Hard to push a 42x23.

Stopped at a gas station and pounded down a large mountain dew. That gave me just enough juice to get home. I would cramp when I pedaled, I would cramp when I stopped pedaling.

That was 20 years ago. I will never forget that ride.

youre trying to say it was the brand of sports drink that made you bonk? it was because you went out to fast

Overall I've had better results with gatorade and the occasional coke than heed. Went out a bit fast but nothing ridiculous compared to other races.

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All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. ~Gandalf

Where is the fanny during all this? Were you wearing thongs? I'm rooting for you bro.

nectar of the gods at that point, I couldn't drink it fast enough. If I had a beer bong I would have taken it in that way.

bonking is a truly unique experience.....almost peyote like. Your mind is so in tune with your body regarding exactly what it needs at that moment. Baptism isn't even as spiritual as bonking.

My hardest bonk was on a 120 mile ride. The longest ride previously was about 80 miles. I thought I was pretty fit though. At about mile 100 I noticed my pain tolerance was next to nill. I puked a few times, and just felt lethargic. I couldn't think well either. Not too weird I guess.

When I got home, the fun began. For the next two hours I couldn't catch my breath and my HR wouldn't drop below 100. I freaked! I think I just didn't drink enough water. I ate a ton of bars and gus. So maybe hypernatremia. Uh yeah.

When you lay down in an aisle of a longs drug eating a whole box of kudos bars and cytosport...you bonked.
When you roll into a hotel to ask for an apple from the breakfast bar and the guy opens the back room and lets you take whatever you want based on your zombie, incoherent like condition.. you bonked
When you curl up under a soda machine eating a box of mike and ike and drinking a coke at a gas station... you've bonked.

Sometimes i think i can do the extra 30 miles without any calories, it never ends well, but i have gotten progressively closer!

Worst bonk i ever had was in south carolina.

Everything was going great, i was in the zone, fully expecting a big session and had a gatorade and a couple of gels on standby for that extra energy
and hydration mid-session...

next thing you know there's a knock on the door and it's her ugly cousin.... it all went downhill from there..... turn out the gatorade was spiked and when i finally came-to in the morning i practically had to chew my arm off to get out of there (and pick the lock on the handcuffs)

apparently that's normal for SC ???? loco....

Some years ago...

Training for 1/2 IM. Did 56 mile ride. Then drove up to the state forest to do an out-and-back 6 mi hilly run on a logging road.

Got exactly to the turnaround at 3 miles and felt like the blood had drained from my body. Was 3 miles from my truck and worried I wasn't going to make it back. Had no water or nutrition with me.

Started walking and felt better as time passed. Guessing my liver was recharging the depleted blood glycogen.

Dinner that night was the best tasting ever.

I bonked at Kansas 70.3 during the run last year. I couldn't get my heart rate over 140 and it felt like I was wearing cinder blocks for shoes. I finally started grubbing on the pretzels and power bars they had at every aid station, which finally gave me enough energy to pick it up my pace on the final 5K.

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Straightenin' the curves; Flattenin' the hills
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Coached by Mike Plumb @ TriPower MultiSports
https://www.strava.com/athletes/1149072 - https://www.instagram.com/thoswoods/