Hitting the wall / bonking – any tips to prevent?

gonedownhill wrote:Martyn_K

gonedownhill wrote:

Martyn_K wrote:

Daveyraveygravey wrote:

Remember if you actually feel hungry you’ve left it too late, you need to be eating for 30-40 minutes time.

It is worth noting that the brain can’t tell the difference between hunger and thirst. You will only get feelings of hunger. So keep the drinks flowing too.

Sorry but can you expand on this please because it sounds a lot like bollocks to me.

The same part of your brain is responsible for interpreting both hunger and thirst signals. During periods of exertion it becomes difficult for the brain to differentiate between the two signals and will almost certainly mix them up.

Many people can mistake thirst for hunger and will eat. While generally this is not a bad thing, during endurance activities it can cause issues as the stomach needs a good mix of solids and liquids to work efficiently. I tend to refer to the stomach as being a like a cement mixer. Chuck in the cement and sand not a great deal happens, it will just churn about. Bung some water in there and the substance becomes something useful.

I’ve lost count of the number of people that will eat their entire stash of food on a club run but will get back to base with over half their liquid remaining and wonder why they feel sluggish.

Can’t believe it took so long
Can’t believe it took so long for malt loaf to come up!

Also, it may be worth seeing if it’s the type of gel you’re using, personally I found the torq ones a bit too sweet (although tasty), High5 Isogel makes me feel ill, High5 standard gels are ok but my preferred gel is SiS as theirs seem to work best for me.

Definitely mix it up on long rides with flapjack / malt loaf etc – gives your taste buds (and your guts) some variety!

I’m an advocate of trying to
I’m an advocate of trying to use normal foods instead of gels and energy bars. I’ve found the Feed Zone Cookbook extremely useful.

The rice cakes and baked eggs are so simple but also filling and kind on the stomach.

jstone1
[quote=jstone1]

http://www.samiinkinen.com/post/86875777832/becoming-a-bonk-proof-triathlete-fat-chance%5B/quote%5D

Was reading this thread and just about to post the exact same link! Great minds etc

Carb reliance isn’t healthy, especially if they involve consuming a huge amount of sugar in the belief we are doing it in pursuit of a ‘healthy’ activity.

Train yourself to be a more efficient fat burner and ride all day with the added benefit of lowering your weight, and in my own experience, recovering a whole lot quicker.

On the similar lines of
On the similar lines of others but a bit more pointed.

You are doing sportives, not races. Back off, enjoy the ride and focus more on getting to the finish. So what if after 4-6 hours riding you are 10 mins slower than you think you should be. We’ve all done it at some point, gone off far too quickly, put ourselves into red and never had chance to recover.

I would not stop for more
I would not stop for more than 5 mins to rest, maybe these should be at the food stations if doing sportive or half way if solo rides. Ideally you want really long distance rides to be done at zone 2 heart rate/power. The more you train the faster you will go at zone 2 whether that be 15mph or 20 mph. Vary your training by doing short rides at high pace for long as you can. Do intervals training aswell. This type of training boosts power, threshold capacity and gives you a greater capacity to go further aswell.

As mentioned above, fig rolls
As mentioned above, fig rolls are brilliant. They are the right dimensions to stick in a tri-bag, are an easy size to eat and have similar calories to gels but at a fraction of the cost.

However, again on long rides you get sick of sweet. I remember doing the Tour of the Black Mountains one year which was 120+ miles of fun in the Welsh hills. Got to the second feed stop and they had cheese rolls. Necked about 5 of these as I was sick of fig rolls.