What Is Bonking and How to Avoid It in Cycling?
What is bonking?
So if bonking isn’t the fun we might initially imagine it could be, what is it? In simple terms, bonking is when your body feels as if it has completely run out of energy, bar the absolute minimum needed to turn the pedals at the slowest possible pace. In scientific terms, bonking comes about when your body’s easily converted glycogen energy stores are depleted and instead your body has to resort to solely burning fat for fuel.
How do I avoid the bonk?
Step 1
The most obvious way is to eat glycogen-promoting complex carbohydrates (such as rice and potatoes) in the time leading up to a ride. However, it’s actually a relatively fine balancing act. If you spend the days before a big ride gorging on pasta, you’ll almost certainly take on more carbs than you’ll burn on the ride itself and will therefore put on fat. So simply make sure you have a sensible amount of complex carbohydrate foods in meals during the two days before a big event.
Step 2
Once you’ve started your ride, it’s not really practical to be chomping on potatoes, but you can try to maintain glycogen levels in other ways. The most obvious is to sip a carbohydrate drink while you cycle. Do this from the start of a long ride, not just when you begin to feel fatigued, and don’t use too high a concentration of carbohydrates as that may affect your body’s ability to rehydrate. An isotonic drink with 6% to 7% carbohydrate tends to be about the best balance. Also experiment using sports drinks that combine carbohydrate with protein or a small amount of caffeine, as some research suggests these additional supplements may also help delay glycogen depletion.
Step 3
Pace yourself. The more slow-twitch muscle fibres you use — those muscle fibres that are worked in steady endurance exercise — the longer you will delay glycogen depletion. The more fast-twitch muscles you use — which are utilised in more intense efforts — the quicker your glycogen levels will be used up.
Step 4
If you know there are some big challenges towards the end of a ride, ingest an energy gel or energy bar 30 minutes or so before you reach them. This will give you one final glycogen boost to help reach the end without bonking.
Is bonking a mistake made only by amateurs?
Not at all. Watch any mountainous stage of the Tour de France and you will be able to spot countless riders bonking on the most important climbs. However, often this is not a ‘mistake’ as such. In many cases the riders who have ‘blown up’ will have been tasked with spending the first part of the day using all their energy to support their team leader. In some cases, these riders will reach a predetermined point and pass their pace-setting and protection duties onto a colleague, rather like a relay race. In other cases, they will simply do the job for as long as they can until they bonk and can’t physically provide the service their team leader requires.
What should I do if I find myself bonking?
That’s a tricky one because by the time you realise the bonk has hit you, it’s too late to do much — prevention really is the best medicine. The hard truth is you have few options other than to grin and bear it. Put your bike in the easiest gear you can and spin your legs, trying to put as little strain on your body as possible.
In the slightly longer term, there is something practical you can do. During the four hours immediately after vigorous exercise, carbohydrate is converted into glycogen at three times the normal rate, so use this period to refuel and recover. Research suggests that the type of carbohydrates you consume in this period will affect your recovery, with low glycaemic index (GI) meals being particularly beneficial.
If I want to lose fat, will I have to bonk on my training rides?
That’s a good question. If bonking only happens when your body’s glycogen stores are used up, and your body’s fat stores are converted into energy when your glycogen stores are depleted, it must follow that burning fat and bonking go hand in hand.
Actually, that’s not true at all. As we mentioned above in the case of pace setting, one of the most effective ways to prevent bonking is to use your slow-twitch muscle fibres, which come into play with steady endurance and aerobic exercise. Crucially for those wanting to lose fat, the reason this prevents bonking is because slow-twitch muscles are able to burn fat as well as glycogen. To give a guide as to what this means in practice, the ideal fat-burning heart rate ranges from 60% to 70% of your maximum heart rate (you can determine your maximum heart rate by taking your age away from 220). Exercising at this intensity, your body converts fat stores into energy, giving you the double whammy of reducing body fat while preventing the bonk.
So if bonking isn’t the fun we might initially imagine it could be, what is it? In simple terms, bonking is when your body feels as if it has completely run out of energy, bar the absolute minimum needed to turn the pedals at the slowest possible pace. In scientific terms, bonking comes about when your body’s easily converted glycogen energy stores are depleted and instead your body has to resort to solely burning fat for fuel.
How do I avoid the bonk?
Step 1
The most obvious way is to eat glycogen-promoting complex carbohydrates (such as rice and potatoes) in the time leading up to a ride. However, it’s actually a relatively fine balancing act. If you spend the days before a big ride gorging on pasta, you’ll almost certainly take on more carbs than you’ll burn on the ride itself and will therefore put on fat. So simply make sure you have a sensible amount of complex carbohydrate foods in meals during the two days before a big event.
Step 2
Once you’ve started your ride, it’s not really practical to be chomping on potatoes, but you can try to maintain glycogen levels in other ways. The most obvious is to sip a carbohydrate drink while you cycle. Do this from the start of a long ride, not just when you begin to feel fatigued, and don’t use too high a concentration of carbohydrates as that may affect your body’s ability to rehydrate. An isotonic drink with 6% to 7% carbohydrate tends to be about the best balance. Also experiment using sports drinks that combine carbohydrate with protein or a small amount of caffeine, as some research suggests these additional supplements may also help delay glycogen depletion.
Step 3
Pace yourself. The more slow-twitch muscle fibres you use — those muscle fibres that are worked in steady endurance exercise — the longer you will delay glycogen depletion. The more fast-twitch muscles you use — which are utilised in more intense efforts — the quicker your glycogen levels will be used up.
Step 4
If you know there are some big challenges towards the end of a ride, ingest an energy gel or energy bar 30 minutes or so before you reach them. This will give you one final glycogen boost to help reach the end without bonking.
Is bonking a mistake made only by amateurs?
Not at all. Watch any mountainous stage of the Tour de France and you will be able to spot countless riders bonking on the most important climbs. However, often this is not a ‘mistake’ as such. In many cases the riders who have ‘blown up’ will have been tasked with spending the first part of the day using all their energy to support their team leader. In some cases, these riders will reach a predetermined point and pass their pace-setting and protection duties onto a colleague, rather like a relay race. In other cases, they will simply do the job for as long as they can until they bonk and can’t physically provide the service their team leader requires.
What should I do if I find myself bonking?
That’s a tricky one because by the time you realise the bonk has hit you, it’s too late to do much — prevention really is the best medicine. The hard truth is you have few options other than to grin and bear it. Put your bike in the easiest gear you can and spin your legs, trying to put as little strain on your body as possible.
In the slightly longer term, there is something practical you can do. During the four hours immediately after vigorous exercise, carbohydrate is converted into glycogen at three times the normal rate, so use this period to refuel and recover. Research suggests that the type of carbohydrates you consume in this period will affect your recovery, with low glycaemic index (GI) meals being particularly beneficial.
If I want to lose fat, will I have to bonk on my training rides?
That’s a good question. If bonking only happens when your body’s glycogen stores are used up, and your body’s fat stores are converted into energy when your glycogen stores are depleted, it must follow that burning fat and bonking go hand in hand.
Actually, that’s not true at all. As we mentioned above in the case of pace setting, one of the most effective ways to prevent bonking is to use your slow-twitch muscle fibres, which come into play with steady endurance and aerobic exercise. Crucially for those wanting to lose fat, the reason this prevents bonking is because slow-twitch muscles are able to burn fat as well as glycogen. To give a guide as to what this means in practice, the ideal fat-burning heart rate ranges from 60% to 70% of your maximum heart rate (you can determine your maximum heart rate by taking your age away from 220). Exercising at this intensity, your body converts fat stores into energy, giving you the double whammy of reducing body fat while preventing the bonk.
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