Google Earth + determination = dumb

Once again on Monday night I found myself writing up another new training route for a long ride. This time I wanted some aerobar time, so the route was going to avoid the mountains. A few hours of planning and I had the perfect 5-6 hour ride.

I woke up kind of late due to not getting finished with my planning until 12:30am. This wasn't a big deal due to the mild weather forecast: mid to upper 70s with scattered t-storms. I topped off my water bottles and headed out. The route takes me north past Boulder, through Lyons, around Longmont, back through Boulder and then back to the city. My long planning session was time well spent. All of the roads had a bike lane or shoulder, which in terms of sanity is vital on a long ride.

I stop in Boulder to fill up my bottles, and so as to not run out in the middle of the farmlands, then continue to pedal to Lyons. The 70 mile mark flies by and the legs are feeling great. Then, suddenly, at mile 85, out of the fucking blue I hit it...a wall the size of Everest engulfs my body and everything is hurting. To this point I'm cruising, averaging in the 22-23mph range; now I'm spinning at 16-17mph and every hill hurts...I've bonked.

When the bonk comes there isn't too much you can do about it besides start over. Get in a lot of calories, rest a bit, hydrate, and wait. Once you get the calories down it takes about 30-40minutes for your body to react, if it reacts at all. You know that you've bonked when a few things happen: you suddenly slow dramatically (yup), your desire to continue the current activity is finished (sure thing), and the majority of your thoughts revolve around food (donuts, hamburger, and fries specifically).

The first gas station I come across fails me, only prepackaged donuts and that's not on my list. Did I mention that you get stubborn when you've bonked? I keep riding with the alertness of a turtle, but somehow I spot it...a donut shop. I swing in and pull up to the door with 30 minutes to spare until closing time. The pickings are slim and I settle on a chocolate long john for $2; I wasn't aware that donuts could be so expensive but by the time I actually realized what I paid, the donut was already in my stomach. The donut lady kindly fills my water bottles with ice and water, which makes the $2 donut even more worth it. It's 3:40pm, I'm still 30 miles from home, shit.

Those last 30 miles were really slow and painful. The time on the bike did allow me to reflect on the day that had been and the mistakes that I made leading up to that day. Primarily an increase in training volume combined with a lack of sufficient calories. Starting off with a half tank makes a long day in the saddle a big challenge. It's not like I haven't been trying to eat a lot, it's just really hard to eat 5-6,000 calories a day. For example, my typical Chipotle burrito (standard burrito fare just without dairy) nets me about 855 calories. To get in 6000 calories I'd have to eat 7 burritos in a day. Imagine how rough you'd feel after 4 of those things in a day, now add 3 more; that's a lot of food. So you see that I'm fighting an uphill dietary battle.

Luckily on days that I ride long I know pretty well how many calories I need to get in due to my Garmin telling me the amount of calories that I burn during the ride. It uses my weight and height combined with my heart rate throughout the ride to calculate the approximate calories expended. On yesterday's ride-130 miles, 7hrs 15min of ride time, and over 8 hours out on the road-I burned 7891 calories or 9.23 burritos. It's time to eat.