My first 'bonk'

Because of the server outage I’ve not been able to get updated but I thought I better post this about last weekend, if only to remind me what went wrong and how to learn from your mistakes.
Anyway the post, last Sunday I experienced my first Bonk!
For those common with English slang this is not what you think, it is actually a symton of excercise or more precise a nasty experience due to over excertion in excercise. If you are really interested Wikipedia have a good article about it.
So how did this all happen?

It started as usual with my Sunday morning club run. Just like every other weekend for the past few months I rose, looked out the window and thought about the cold ride ahead. This morning was not too bad with quite a bright outlook, also the weather had been good so I knew road conditions would be dry and just a bit more stable. So after a quick cuppa I popped on out and met up with the crew, of course Dave was there (who from this moment forward will be known as ‘Daddy David’) and we set off. Within the first few miles Daddy David infomed me he had forgotten his wallet so the tea stop was on me, cheers! During the stop where I treated myself to a bacon roll he mentioned that he was going to cycle to Clacton after the ride. Clacton is a local coastal town about 30miles from Sudbury where we started from, would I be interested? I made a quick call to Lucy and arranged for transport for her to and from Clacton. After tea and bacon we set off again back towards Sudbury, after about 4 hours riding we were back were we started with 40miles on the clock, time to set up for round 2. David and I quickly popped back to mine for a drink and just to make sure Lucy and Serina were happy with the plans, once sorted we set off on the Clacton trip. Now this time there were only two of us and part of me was trying to impress David as I feel I have a bit to prove with this whole End to End thing. So I set off at a good pace of about 20mph, not fast for a car but on these roads not a bad one and I was doing everything to keep that pace even uphill. Around 10miles in I was beginning to feel the burn in my legs as my body could not shift enough lacate acid to keep my body moving, I dropped the pace and tucked in behind Dave. I noshed down on a crappy little musili bar thing and washed that down with a bit of water; all I had on the bike. As we came into Colchester I felt a bit better with having a touch more energy, I let David take the lead through the town and out the other side, on the step part light was against us so I took the lead and David acted as a rear light (well he was the only one with a red light on his bike!) After a gruelling climb on a nasty road we turned off towards the last stretch and I totally lost it.

Bonking is not something I’ve ever done, I’m sure we’ve all pushed yourself so far that you go a bit faint, and feel a bit wobbly. Well this was like being on some mad ass acid or something, I did not realise how bad I was until I noticed I could not read road signs, I could not see to the side. I had tunnel vision or something. Then my legs noticed it, I was no longer pushing, I had no power behind my legs. I started to get cold sweats and then hot flushs, what the hell was going on? My whole body was as the point of giving up, even my riding had changed, I was slumped over the bars trying to read the road but just bouncing along in my own way.
David obviously noticed this and came along beside me, he forced some carb drink into me and kept me talking and focusing on the ride. Not long after we found a village store (handy to be open at 4 on a Sunday afternoon) were I was stocked up with a Mars bar, quick fix energy!
Feeling a bit more with it I climbed aboard and set off on the last 10miles of the trip. David kept me talking and I was soon climbing hills and back to a better riding style, eventually we rolled into our finish having travelled 72miles.

Now the re-cap. 72miles is not a big distance to ride, in fact I’ve done more but what I should have done was prepare for the ride. Your body needs energy and I did not give it enough, I went off like a bullet to start with and failed at the end, sounds a bit like Lance to me. Despite the fact that I’m pleased I made I think I’m more pleased that I learnt the hard way now and not when it’s too late. As people have said “it happens to us all at some point” and once you’ve done it you know you don’t ever want to be there again. Although if you could bottle it up and sell it you could earn a fortune!