Ok, did the Black Mountains Killer Loop yesterday, and with about 5k to go I hit the wall! I had ran out of food about 30mins beforehand, and I really bonked I mean seriously pooped, legs gave up and stomach was crying for good! I had the shakes, and was seeing stars. I had to push up every hill and even the flats were a struggle. Steak and ale pie soon helped the stomach situation, but today im feeling terrible.

It’s the hardest I have bonked (errhem), probably ever, and I was wondering what the recovery time is for a big bonk (errhem)?

Anyone had any experience like this? or advice?

Cheers in advanced

I’ve only bonked badly once, ’twas on a road ride and I had to stop as I couldn’t turn the pedals over on the flat. Ended up falling asleep at the side of the road for an hour or so then managed to ride to a petrol station and getting some sweet stuff – still felt crap riding back home though.

You’ll probably inhale all food in sight for a day or two, then feel fine.

Gentle ride to spin out the legs can help.

I’ve still never experienced this “bonk” phenomenon.

druidh – Member

I’ve still never experienced this “bonk” phenomenon.

You don’t want to, it’s truly horrible. You just feel empty, no energy whatsoever. As turtleheading and FuzzyWuzzy said, even turning the pedals on the flat is almost beyond you, the feeling of helplessness (because you can guarantee it’ll never happen when you’re in sight of your house) is all-consuming. It’s not happened to me for a fair few years now and, to be honest, I hope it never does again.

the bonk/wall is horrible. I’ve had the shakes, dizzy.. day dreaming about food

A few years ago i got it at 5am at sleepless in the saddle. I crawled into the changeover . Got to to tent shaking like a leaf not able muster any speech and proceeded to eat a a whole packet of biscuits, 2 twixes, malt loaf, fig rolls, packet of nuts, an energy drink and a plate of pasta. Oh and a cup of tea (it was the best cup of tea i’ve ever had in my life)

I’ve heard stories (from this forum i think) about some guy wanting to eat his brakepads halfway round a ride. 😯

because you can guarantee it’ll never happen when you’re in sight of your house

Only had it happen properly once. So bad I had to ring for a lift…

…for the last 5k 😳

One of my mates (boltonjon) on here tells a story of hallucinating that he was being chased by a polar bear as he was riding it was that bad!

I’m prone to the odd bonk (as it were). Even on quite short rides if I haven’t eaten enough during the day. Most recent one was a couple of months ago on a short blast with a coupld of mates.

I always have a bag of snacks with me, except sometimes I’ve been riding with the kids at the weekend and they’ve eaten them all and I’ve forgotten to replenish surplies. Such was the situation here. First hour I was rocking, then felt a bit odd and realised I didn’t have any food with me. I though “It’s only a short ride, I’ll be fine!”. 15 minutes later I was trying to follow a wheel through tight twisty “barely there” singletrack and realised I couldn’t focus, couldn’t keep my head steady, had lost contact with the ends of my limbs and a dark cloud was seeping into the edge of my field of vision. I some how made it to the bottom of that hill and needed a tow to get back to the car… a literal one, hanging onto a Camelbak strap!

A pint and 3 packets of crisps later and I could string a sentence together again. Next day I felt knackered, back to normal after that. I’ve had much more epic ones than that though, including one where I had an almost dream like experience of finding wild raspberries by the trail, just when I thought I could go no further 🙂

Did it a few months ago – someone turned the light switch off – I linked it to having a gut virus – was fine then within 5 minutes I dropped off the pack – chucked loads of gels and bars in then was back to about 75% – Just get you stores back up to normal – give it a rest for a day or two and you’ll prob be fine.

Just look at why – seems you didn’t eat enough so take a bit more next time?

Bonked badly on my 1st ride back from a broken collarbone about 4 years ago. Not a nice experence 🙁

As above i just couldn’t go on so mate who i was with had to call his Mrs to come out & pick me up.

Almost had it this weekend at Brechfa as well when we rode the Black & Red routes as one big loop but thankfully remembered my emergency flapjack which got me back to the car, just!

Still struggled on some of the minor gradients though 😳

I’ve had it a few times. It’s pretty unpleasant.

last time was at Dalby and I ended up losing concentration and going headfirst over the bars – not nice.

I went for a ride on the Quantocks on Saturday with my daughter’s boyfriend, one minute he’s kicking my arse up the climbs the next (furthest point from home) he’d gone and struggled to get back. He slept most of Sunday.

I bonked properly when I was about 13 on a coast to coast ride with my family….not nice.

I have a 100k loop starting from the marin car park (colwyd and penmachno included!).The first time I did it ,it took nearly 8 hours.I got back to the car in pretty poor shape,leant the bike against the boot and sat half in half out took take my shoes off.
I woke up about 40 minutes later still with one shoe in my hand.
Spent £10 on garage food before driving home!!
Quite perversely I enjoy it.I can feel the onset after about 4 and a half hours followed by the dip and dead legs and then I start to feel strong again and can go for ages after that.

In reply to the OP’s question, last time this happened to me (at around midnight on a wednesday night in freezing fog!), I took a week off the bike and ate meals like mousaka and chips with extra toast for the first 4 evenings. Also had a beer every night. I probably could have got riding again after 2-3 days but needed a little time to mentally recover and remember the joy of riding again.

Someone posted on here years ago about getting home and spooning energy drink powder into his mouth he was that desperate.

Dibbs, insert joke about your daughter’s boyfriend bonking here.

APF

Ahhh…Bonk.

I’ve fallen in the canal, nearly killed a swan, done a wee in the garden and received charity from American tourists feeding me Haribo like a performing seal.

That was a bad day.

Carbs are now my greatest ally.

Prevention is better than the cure, keep the bonk at bay before it consumes you.
That swan was pissed right off.

Had about 3 or 4 bad bonks when training (my own fault), and also a few during racing (again, my own fault). I should learn..

One such experience – When I lived in North Wales, I’d hardly eaten during the day, grabbed the bike and shot off for a few hours with some tunes blasting away ( I had one cereal bar/lots of fluid with me), over the border into Chesire, still blasting it (getting dark now..)…then I turned back towards home…started to feel a tad odd, began pedalling in squares..made it a further 8 or so (pitch black, aside from my light) miles to a CO-OP!

Walked into the CO-OP, nearly fainted, got crisps, doughnuts, cookies, sandwich. Looked a bit wrong me in all my gear in a long queue, anyway I gorged on that on the pavement, made it home. Had tea with about 6 sugars. The affect of that food was instant though..

Only properly bonked once I think. Years ago on my first ‘big’ XC ride. got about 75% of the way round and then the world went a bit odd – zero energy, cold sweats, really spaced out feeling on the verge of hallucinating (colours went a bit odd etc.). Scary but oddly endearing. Managed to ‘crawl’ back to the car but still had to drive an hour home which wasn’t looking like a good idea until I inhaled a large cod and chips and a couple of full fat cokes from the first food place I came across in the town I’d parked in. Got home and pretty much ate, drank and slept for a couple of days. All good.

Get the odd ‘dip’ these days but usually recover during the ride and never experienced anything like it since.

slainte ➡ rob

Had something similar hiking in the lakes once – though more of an insulin crash due to eating Seathwaite farmhouse Sticky Toffee Pudding and then a veritable sprint up Scafell Pikes. After ~40 minutes thrashing up, I nearly feinted; had to sit and eat for ~20 minutes.

Not proper bonked though. Would rather not.

Druid…you eat too much and ride too slow 😛

I’ve had the bonk many times, never taken more than the next day to get over.

Last time I got the bonk was at Ae. First nice day and first proper ride of the year and it seamed like everyone I met was on their first outing as well and everyone had forgotten to pack something important – forgot their jacket, forgot their pump, etc.

As I mused on these poor unprepared fools, in my nice warm jacket and my pumped up tyres, about halfway round the course I dawned on me that all my food and water was sitting on the front seat of my van. Having done all the climbing, ready for all the descents I got all bonky. Completeing the route was a nightmare, bad balance, bad perception of the terrain, couldn’t modulate the brakes. I’d never ridden Ae before (or since) so i didn’t know how much course was left to ride or how to shortcut back to the carpark, not knowing made it seem endless and I began to convince myself that I’d only covered the first 10th of the route and was riding away from, rather than towards the carpark. Never been so happy to see the end of the singletrack and I’ve not really got any memory of what the route is like.