It was easily the most beautiful day in Pittsburgh in 2009. Temperature a perfect 70 degrees, little to no wind, sunny skies, and a group of riding buddies all psyched to ride. The beauty though was not limited to just the weather. My daughter Nina was riding as strong as I’ve seen her. Her “Cycling Fusion” training – of 70% indoors and 30% outside – was proving to be the secret sauce we’ve been talking about for months now. She was fast on the flats, solid on the descents, and a monster on the climbs. I was a proud pappa.

For myself, I was feeling great during the first two hours…then it happened. The dreaded BONK. It wasn’t all of a sudden, but a bonk it was. Despite stopping to take on some light “fuel”, I continued to get weaker and weaker. By the time we hit 50 miles and 5,000 feet of climbing, I knew I was full-on bonked out. Legs felt fine, heart rate was comfortable, (hardly going into zone 4 even on the climbs), and I was well hydrated. And yet, I kept getting slower. Our average for the first 30 miles and 3500 ft of climbing was a comfortable and respectable 15 mph. Now I was struggling to maintain 12 mph, and the group continued to move ahead, waiting for me every 8 to 10 hills or so. Frankly, it was embarrassing.

This gave me plenty of time to think and analyze what happened. I felt like such a rookie – I made some classic mistakes; mistakes I would warn others against with even the simplest advice. First, I had the wrong kind of meal the night before. Instead of a heavy laden carb meal, I had a light mediteranean meal. My ride the previous day was not taxing, and I just felt like eating light – but I didn’t even think about “pre-loading” for the next day. In the morning I ate a larger than normal breakfast – not as heavy in carbs again as it should have been, but at least more fuel than normal – problem was that I ate at 9:30, and our ride didn’t start till almost 12:45 – that’s more than 3 hrs later, and all I had between then and the start of the ride was 1 banana. In fact, I felt hungry as we were getting ready to ride – the cardinal sin in my opinion for starting out on a long ride. All of this lead to my last and final fueling mistake – when we stopped, I didn’t take on enough fuel, as my stomach was actually queasy from not eating enough, and I didn’t “feel like eating”. Hence, my refuel was more of a sniff of gas fumes rather than putting enough in the tank to get me home.

The final 15 miles of the ride were good for one thing though; I got to put my mental training to good use. Despite the overwhelming feeling to just stop pedaling, get off the bike and take a nap, I kept going. Right leg, then left… 10 mph, then maybe 11… just don’t stop, whatever you do. It was a battle, but I finished.

Seeing Nina get stronger as the ride went longer did give me real inspiration in the end though. I was truly impressed with her conditioning and riding. She is ready for the Giretto… now she just needs to maintain it, stay focused, and do the right amount of tapering before the event. For me, I’m going to rethink a few things and get back to you on my course of action. Stay tuned for the next blog from Mr. Bonk.