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I'm a newbie, trying to prepare for long distance courses.
Last weekend was my longest trainer ride to date....3.5 hours followed by a 30 min brick.
2hr 15 min into the ride, I suddenly lost ALOT of strength on the bike. The resistance remained the same, but I just couldn't spin anymore. My cadence fell to the 70s and my HR went up by 10 beats!! It was in the 130s...and suddenly I found my HR at the 140s!
I tried to spin up but I couldn't last at the higher cadence for more than a couple of secs before I had to slow down again.
I'm REALLY new at all this nutrition stuff but I did take 2-3 bananas and water for the past 2hr+.
I was really frustrated and just pedalled along at the lower cadence. Continued to drink water and eat.
Strangely enough, half an hour later, my strength returned and my HR fell alittle and I was able to increase my cadence again!
I've ran 2 marathons with nothing but water and some gatorade at the aid stations and never experienced ANYTHING like this before.
Are the calorie requirements on the bike higher than the run? Can someone explain to me what happened??? Did I bonk?!?
THANKS!!
Sure sounds like a bonk or an energy crash in the middle of your workout. I find the energy requirements higher while running. Take a look at how you slept, what you ate the night and morning before your workout. You could have been running low already on energy and the ride just exposed it. Sounds like once you ate and the food entered the bloodstream then you came back around.
Had a friend tell me one time that when he bonked that even the grasshoppers on the side of the road started to look good enough to eat.
okay....that SURE didnt happen....grasshoppers.....man......
i am an expert in bonking.
most likely a bonk. a banana has ~80 cals (if I remember right) and general wisdom is to take 250-600 cals per hour, assuming that were well-fueled at the start. So you were quite low on calories. I think it is best to eat more than you think you need to and then learn from there. This case was pretty dramatic, you'll be surprised how subtle a bonk will occur other times, when you only recognize it after the w/o (and then can never be quite sure if it wasn't just a bad day).
As the resident bonking expert it does indeed sound like you bonked. But not as spectacularly as some episodes i have witnessed and taken part in. And once you bonk it's generally quite difficult to get out of it in a hurry. Drinking pop or other kind of sugar laden liquid substance brings you back down to earth, but your workout is pretty much done at that point.
The human body stores roughly about 2000 cal worth of glycogen in the muscles and liver. Depending on how hard you were going, you can breeze through all that real quick (2-3 hours). You should probably eat more than 3 bananas in the course of your workout (1 banana ~ 150 cal). Sports drink instead of water helps too.
Another factor is what time of day did you do this workout. Was it first thing in the morning with little or no breakfast? If so, then your glycogen stores may have already been a little depleted.
Yep - the bonkaroo like the others said. At least you were on your trainer and not in the middle of nowhere on the road. Generally, a breakfast of 300 - 600 calories an hour or two before you workout then 300 per hour works well. Some like to try to train themselves on running low on fuel, but I subscribe to the stay fueled camp, which helps with performance and recovery. 300 per hour is the general rule of thumb as it is unlikely that your body can absorb more than that. I love bananas but they are tough for a lot of people to digest. With longer rides you have to experiment with what works for you. I like Carbo Pro mixed with cytomax that Francois turned me onto - mixes well and is easy to digest. I am also in the Carbo camp vs. a mix with protein. No hard evidence that protein helps recovery during a long event and it is harder on your body to digest. Try to use what ever you think you will use in your race. I watched a lot of poeple mix foods they were not used to and get stuck with nasty GI problems. I am guessing you are training for at least an Oly or half if you are hitting 3 hours + on the bike. Good luck!
Thanks guys.
And I did the ride in the afternn and I had BREAKFAST AND LUNCH. which is why I was so surprised. I didn't expect myself to run out of glycogen nor have I EVER ran out of it before.
Seems like I did bonk......how exciting...my first BONK...ahhaha.....now I gotta start spending MORE cash on NUTRITION....man......
How much water did you drink? How much did you sweat? I would wonder what your blood Sodium was, especially if you were drinking a bunch of water.
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Dick
Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I know nothing.
I thought for sure that you were going to tell us that those Vitruvians that you are pushing prevent bonking.
Hmm...I didnt consider that. I don't sweat buckets like some of the guys in the Spinerval videos....but is there an EASY way to measure blood sodium level without going to a Lab???
interesting...I never thought about that...
[reply]Hmm...I didnt consider that. I don't sweat buckets like some of the guys in the Spinerval videos....but is there an EASY way to measure blood sodium level without going to a Lab???
interesting...I never thought about that...[/reply]
No! but if you drink a lot of water, which many of us are prone to do, your sodium levels can drop and this can cause all sorts of problems.
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Dick
Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I know nothing.
[reply]I thought for sure that you were going to tell us that those Vitruvians that you are pushing prevent bonking.[/reply]
HA! HA! They do, but only if you know the magic word. HA!HA!
I push beam bikes, too, but only because like them. And, like Vitruvians and Rodney 'they don't get no respect.'
Dick Feuille
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Dick
Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I know nothing.