Now including myself in the ranks of what we politely call an aging athlete, I must admit my surprise at becoming so accepting of the once dreaded bonk. To simply run out of gas during exercise can be irritating. Having such a deficit reach the level of a full-on bonk where the body performance falls to a crawl, is alarming. You know you are in trouble and the usual remedies do not fix the problem.
“How is this a good thing?” you ask.
Like so many things that happen during a workout, what we learn from events is part of the recovery and growth processes that develop strength and resilience for subsequent performances. Or like the old saw that circulated through the peloton when I was learning, “No pedal stroke is ever wasted.”
Hitting the Wall
I will never minimize the seriousness of bonking during athletic performance. While I talk objectively about these events, there are some consequential physiological changes occurring.
The athlete is always pushing their physical and psychological boundaries. Sometimes a line is crossed, and the body responds with its own unforgiving wisdom.
The bonk, or hitting the wall, is when our body literally runs out of fuel, and we keep going. We run out of the necessary calories, electrolytes, and even water to keep the physiology working efficiently. The body does what it can to compensate for the lacking requirements but eventually these stopgap measures fail to keep the system working. The human engine begins to sputter and function eventually grinds to a halt.
Even having experienced bonking before, each event is awesome and not taken lightly. Continuing exercise without adequately addressing the problem will put you in an Emergency Department for treatment of the underlying electrolyte imbalances, heat stroke, or other life-threatening complications.
Bonking is serious business.
Getting Older Is Not for Sissies
As I learn to live in this “aging athlete” role (grudgingly so, I might add), I am developing a revised approach to athletic performance. No longer possessing many of the physical gifts that youth once bestowed, I am pressed to think more carefully what I am about and what I want to accomplish.
Once upon a time, swinging a leg over the saddle and riding out for back-to-back days of hard training would work. Now I pause, reflect, and plan. Having to schedule recovery days instead of just taking a day off when I was tired, is humbling.
I have come to understand the subtlety of the verbal exchange between Kevin Costner and Ray Liotta in Field of Dreams.
Costner, preparing to pitch to Shoeless Joe (Liotta), asks if they need a catcher?
“Not if you get it near the plate, we don’t.” he replies.
Practical, to the point, even cynical, I understand this kind of thinking now.
Using the Bonk as A Training Tool
Even after years of experiencing bonking events, they are still among the most awesome occasions. Piecing together clues from each occurrence gives me a working list of things not to do and most especially, clues that my body gives that I am coming up on another event.
Knowing where that line between maximal performance and blowing up is why we train. The challenge lies in that the line constantly moves, so getting cues about our location from body feedback becomes useful.
Paying attention to weather and riding conditions, while eating and drinking appropriately, demands that I be more attentive (i.e., I have been riding in humid warm weather for an hour. “Have I consumed enough fluid or am I behind?” “Do I need to eat yet?” You get the idea.)
As thirst is one of the last sensations to arrive when you are becoming dehydrated, the clues to a pending bonk are equally as subtle. Sometimes it is just a vague sensation but to recognize and respond to it is to keep performance up and avoid problems. It would be great if Nature would provide that easy-to-understand signal that you are headed for trouble but no such luck. Instead, we learn to pay attention.
Embracing a Bonk Perspective
The psychological aspect of pushing past your physical boundaries to almost failing is incredible. Pushing past the line, however, puts Nature in the driver’s seat. You have truly placed yourself on a threshold to depart this life and you know it at the time.
Some research has looked at brain chemistry during a bonk event, surmising that neurotransmitters are likely involved in our experience. But we probably already figured out that such an event is an all-hands-on-deck body and mind occurrence. Good to see the science including all the working parts though.
In embracing challenging events, removing the emotions from the events (even though they scare us) and looking at them dispassionately gives us useful perspective. The possibility of pushing too far is real but that balance of failure and reward is what we seek. To recognize the clues along the way makes us smarter in addressing them. Thus athletic performance (even among us, ahem, aging athletes) continues to be competitive. Even if the competition is now only with our own personal records.
I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena and I’m like, ‘My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don’t have it. I just want to chill.’ We all have self-doubt. You don’t deny it, but you also don’t capitulate to it. You embrace it.
— Kobe Bryant
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