What? We dont care WHY, we dont need an EXCUSE - he bonked, end of story. We are human, we mess up, we suffer for that. I suppose if Obama was president then he would have sent Lance a “Bail Out” of “Five Hour Energy”. At the end of the day, he bonked…could give a shit why. I know that, but still - no excuses, he bonked. Dehydration can be “bonk”, there is no text book medical term…“Well Lance had his blood sugar at blah blah blah” or “Lance had blood as thick as peanut butter due to blah blah blah”…he bonked.
By the above responses, it is obvious that if my post is read alone and not in the context of the flow of the thread it may be thought of as an excuse for Armstrong’s poor performance in stage 12 of the 2003 TdF.
Reading the thread, it appears that some contributors (thesnail, & OP Miguelon) questioned Armstrong’s criticism of Contador’s performance as Armstrong himself has had similar poor performances in the past.
The questioning of Armstrong’s criticism implied to me that they (thesnail, & OP Miguelon) thought the causation of both Armstrong’s and Contador’s poor performance was the same.
My response was simply an attempt to lay the foundation by which Armstrong most likely feels justified in being critical of Contador - the different physiological mechanisms behind their respective poor performances.
The “We are human, we mess up, we suffer for that.” and "he would have sent Lance a “Bail Out” of “Five Hour Energy” suggests an incomplete understanding of the physiological differences as well. This comment comes even after my response and attempt to differentiate so I obviously failed to communicate effectively.
Please entertain my attempt at clarification:
Armstrong's poor performance Contador's
Time: ~1:00 hr ~4:45
Distance: 47 km TT 192 km RR
Temp: 104 degree 54 degree
Causation: dehydration / heat illness glycogen depletion + other causes.
Treatment: fluids / cooling carbohydrate
Armstrong lost ~14lbs or ~9% of his body weight.
Armstrong’s poor performance was due to dehydration and not due to glycogen depletion.
Contador’s poor showing was likely glycogen depletion.
The GI tract can absorb only a small portion of what is lost via evaporative cooling - eg. ~1 L/hr versus 4-6 L/hr.
In certain conditions an athlete will be in negative fluid balance even with great attempts at taking in fluids.
An athlete cannot control his/her evaporative cooling fluid losses - other than limiting exposure as Runguy hinted at, which may or may not have prevented Armstrong’s sub-par performance.
An athlete can in normal situations control what caloric intake he/she takes in before and after an activity and somewhat during the activity.
Thus Armstrong does have a position to be somewhat critical of Contador’s performance ------ my initial post purpose.
…“Well Lance had his blood sugar at blah blah blah”
Hypoglycemia rarely occurs even in the presence of glycogen depletion even though performance is being affected.
“We dont care WHY, we dont need an EXCUSE - he bonked, end of story.”
I don’t know if the “We” referred to is the entire Slowtwitch reader population but I can only imagine that someone on the Slowtwitch board can benefit from the distinction of the differences and perhaps take something away to better their own performance - the “WHY”.
The term “bonk” is generally used to describe the lack of energy and performance declination that occurs when glycogen stores are depleted.
Although one may not find a text book medical term it doesn’t mean that there is not a generally agreed upon usage among physiologist / nutritionist / medical professionals.
I would think that most on Slowtwitch have a general understanding of the term. Perhaps Dan can poll the readers as to their definition.
If we all want to agree to use the term to describe a poor performance of various etiologies that would be fine with me but would be somewhat confusing.
Does he “bonked” on the swim mean he lost 2 units of blood from a lower extremity shark bite? Does “bonking” on the bike mean he flatted and didn’t have a spare?
I don’t think that anyone can find a quote from Armstrong in regards to that TT performance in which he says “That’s it guys - I just flat-out bonked” and I would imagine one would be laughed at by Armstrong when asking him “hey, tell me about that time you bonked in the TT in '03”.
I would suggest that the generally accepted definition and usage of the term be accepted here at Slowtwitch as well, but if everyone decides otherwise please let me know.
-KLG