Comments on: Cycling and hitting the wall http://www.francethisway.com/wp/cycling-and-hitting-the-wall/2008/07/ Living in France and daily life for a UK expat in the French blog! Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:42:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: TomM http://www.francethisway.com/wp/cycling-and-hitting-the-wall/2008/07/comment-page-1/#comment-16356 TomM Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:02:59 +0000 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/?p=284#comment-16356 Interesting, Iv only started cycling in the summer, i row and that lasts only about 1 hour inside on a rowing machine or 1 hour 20 in a single scull on a long outing so ''the wall'' was until this afternoon alien to me, not anymore. One hour thirty minutes into my ride, after only eating porridge and two dougnuts in the day and with no energy food on me im sure i hit the wall, all of a sudden bang! nothing in me. My heart rate dropped from 180 to 140 and i couldnt manage anymore than probably about 13mph on the slight incline i was going along, it was a nightmare i felt like i wouldnt make it, I looked at my HRM afterwords and it estimated around 1600 callories burned, so i guess i must have 'bonked'. Next time il be sure to take some food with me, im sure that would have perked me up no end. So Im glad i read this post il be sure to have an energy bar with me next time and it makes me feel much better about how pathetic the last half hour of my ride was today, thanks! Interesting, Iv only started cycling in the summer, i row and that lasts only about 1 hour inside on a rowing machine or 1 hour 20 in a single scull on a long outing so ”the wall” was until this afternoon alien to me, not anymore. One hour thirty minutes into my ride, after only eating porridge and two dougnuts in the day and with no energy food on me im sure i hit the wall, all of a sudden bang! nothing in me. My heart rate dropped from 180 to 140 and i couldnt manage anymore than probably about 13mph on the slight incline i was going along, it was a nightmare i felt like i wouldnt make it, I looked at my HRM afterwords and it estimated around 1600 callories burned, so i guess i must have ‘bonked’. Next time il be sure to take some food with me, im sure that would have perked me up no end.
So Im glad i read this post il be sure to have an energy bar with me next time and it makes me feel much better about how pathetic the last half hour of my ride was today, thanks!

]]> By: Boris http://www.francethisway.com/wp/cycling-and-hitting-the-wall/2008/07/comment-page-1/#comment-14876 Boris Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:28:05 +0000 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/?p=284#comment-14876 Funily enough Mrs B likes to do an hour of gardening before breakfast (before it gets too hot) and she tells me she has been losing weight, which might just be the same diet principle. I think you are right about the timelag - I don't know why it took me so long to remember I had an energy bar in the toolbag, think I was in a trance or something, perhaps not a very safe way to be cycling... Funily enough Mrs B likes to do an hour of gardening before breakfast (before it gets too hot) and she tells me she has been losing weight, which might just be the same diet principle.
I think you are right about the timelag – I don’t know why it took me so long to remember I had an energy bar in the toolbag, think I was in a trance or something, perhaps not a very safe way to be cycling…

]]> By: Jean Halford-Thompson http://www.francethisway.com/wp/cycling-and-hitting-the-wall/2008/07/comment-page-1/#comment-14874 Jean Halford-Thompson Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:43:54 +0000 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/?p=284#comment-14874 Putting aside the Mars bars - the Atkins diet (you know, the really trendy one "everyone" is doing at the moment) follows the same principle as your bonk exercise. From memory it is a totally carbohydrate free diet (and that includes no fruit) but NOT a fat free diet. The idea is that your body will use up the fat for energy when you exercise. A friend of mine was part of a team to walk to the North Pole - they ate a packet of butter, each, per day as their energy. I checked this out with a medic friend and he said that fat was a really good energy sauce. As a non-medic I can't confirm this or otherwise but I'm sure there is a bit of truth in it. On the subject of energy bars though I had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago in a tennis match. I was losing and tiring fast. I started drinking my energy drink in copious quantities and immediately felt more mentally alert. The physical side was still tired but I could organise my game better. Result...I won to my opponents total amazement! There is a period of time, in my view, between tiredness setting in and the ability to know what to do about it vanishing. If you can catch it in time you're ok (probably) but if you don't see it coming you've had it - hence the marathon runners ending up beside the road. Putting aside the Mars bars – the Atkins diet (you know, the really trendy one “everyone” is doing at the moment) follows the same principle as your bonk exercise. From memory it is a totally carbohydrate free diet (and that includes no fruit) but NOT a fat free diet. The idea is that your body will use up the fat for energy when you exercise. A friend of mine was part of a team to walk to the North Pole – they ate a packet of butter, each, per day as their energy. I checked this out with a medic friend and he said that fat was a really good energy sauce. As a non-medic I can’t confirm this or otherwise but I’m sure there is a bit of truth in it.

On the subject of energy bars though I had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago in a tennis match. I was losing and tiring fast. I started drinking my energy drink in copious quantities and immediately felt more mentally alert. The physical side was still tired but I could organise my game better. Result…I won to my opponents total amazement! There is a period of time, in my view, between tiredness setting in and the ability to know what to do about it vanishing. If you can catch it in time you’re ok (probably) but if you don’t see it coming you’ve had it – hence the marathon runners ending up beside the road.

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