Who has bonked?

If you are going to do endurance sports of any kind, you need to figure out your “rate of burn”.  In other words how many calories you actually burn, and at what point will your body “run out of gas”.  The thing you have to remember is that everyone is different.  What works for me, may or may not work for you.  I will let you know how I recover from “bonking”, but you will need to figure out your body and how it operates.  Let’s go back to some of my most memorable bonks.

I had just started to bike long distances to prepare for a multi-day bike ride to raise money for the Ali Fund to benefit the Boston Children’s Hospital.  I was getting pretty brave and was venturing out in the weekends at dawn for 30 or 40 mile bike rides.  One morning I was in Waterville Valley and rode down to Lincoln and back.  The return trip was all uphill and it was getting hot.  By the time I got to Waterville I was cross-eyed and not feeling very well.  I don’t even remember walking into the store, but I ended up in the candy isle and ate two bars and proceeded to the cold drink refrigerator and guzzled a 16 ounce coke.  Within seconds the fog began to clear and I went to the counter with the empty wrappers and bottle and paid.  I was lucky everyone in the store knew me and did not ask too many questions.

I was not real sure what had happened or why I had gone on a shoplifting expedition until many years later.

Another “bonking” memory was during a marathon that started at 1:00 in the afternoon.  Maria and I had gone to a wedding the night before and got up at dawn to catch a flight to the marathon city.  We skipped breakfast and lunch, and I literally got out of the rental car, put on my running shoes and started a marathon.  I made it to about mile 18 and bonked.  Maria found me lying on the grass on the side of the road.  She tried to convince me to give up and come back some other time to finish that state.  I got her to find me a snickers bar and a coke.  I laid there for about 10 minutes, sat up, picked off a few toenails (I will talk about those in another blog), and finally put my shoes back on and got up and finished the marathon.  It wasn’t pretty but it gives you an idea of how fast the body can recover from bonking, if you give your body what it needs in order to recover.

Now, this marathon was a little different starting in the afternoon as most marathons start in the morning. In morning marathons, your body has rested by sleeping, and if you eat a light breakfast at some point in the endurance event you will want to refuel your body.  Many running events encourage this by offering water stops with Gatorade, Gu, or some other nutrition.  When I first started running marathons I would rely on these water stops and nutrition, until the first time the water stop ran out of water and things to eat.  I now always run with a water bottle and on long runs bring some type of nutrition in a fanny pack or pocket.

Although I learned lessons about bonking the hard way, I now have a marathon regimen that works well for me, and one that I have updated and worked on over the years.  Here is my program for a marathon:

I am good for the first 8 miles.  I can run 8 miles any day without feeling run out.  I am presently using the “jelly bean”.  Before this, I used the “chomps”, and before that GU.  The jelly beans have 15 in a package.  I find that is too many to take all at once.  I go to CVS and buy “pill pouches”.  These are the little zip lock bags that grandma puts her pills each day.  I put five jelly beans in each pouch and make enough so that every two miles, after mile eight, I enjoy a pouch of jelly beans.  I usually make sure I have two or three extra pouches and put them in a belly or fanny pack for the marathon.  So, if you are counting, I need 10 pouches for my program during a marathon, and the extras are good to give to people who you come across who are struggling, or if you yourself are having a hard time.

Having told you all of this I want to advise you to try out the different products on training runs and see how your body handles them.  A race or marathon is not the place to be experimenting with new ideas and products.  It is also a good idea to use some type of electrolyte drink during periods of prolonged exercise.

Next time I will talk about hydration and how to handle running in the heat.