Bonk!

Yesterday, I bonked. I bonked bad. I've had times where I've "bonked," had to stop and get my bearings, put my head down for a bit. But yesterday I was in bad shape--pull over, put my head down and I hope I don't pass out or puke shape.

Of course, it was my own fault. I went off in the height of the day. In July. In Arizona. With no food. I took off on my bike to do some geocaching and figured I'd bike around to find some caches and then hike up one of the trails in the state park to check on one of my own caches. So I ended up biking for a little over an hour and then headed up to the state park. It wasn't a long hike, about a mile in and a mile out. Going in was the hard part, since it was all uphill and it was high noon with no shade. Still, so far, so good.

On the last cache I made a logistical error that I thought would get me closer to the cache by bike and shorten the hiking part of it, but, as I said, I was mistaken. I ended up going back to the site of the first clue for that cache. At that time I thought I would stop at Starbucks and get a recharge of some kind. All I ate for breakfast was half an english muffin with peanut butter. I didn't bring any food with me and only water to drink. Not too bright.

I went back to the first clue. I hiked across the wash and up a hill to get the main cache of this two part find. I made it back to the bike and, since we had plans for the evening, decided I had better head home. I was going to go right by that Starbucks again and figured I should get some energy in me, either a straight sugary coffee drink, a muffin, both, whatever. But I thought, hey, I'm less than four miles from home and I have plenty of water left. Save a few bucks and some time and just head home. I was feeling fine, after all.

The next half mile was up a hill. Not a drastic hill by any means, but it was uphill, certainly. All of a sudden, at the top of the hill I felt wiped out. Just dog tired. And hot. I turned onto the road I needed to take and pulled over to the side to catch my breath, get my system calmed down a bit, and have another drink. The next couple of miles would be a series of rollers. I ended up mostly coasting on the downhills and stopping at the top of each climb, feeling worse with each one.

The last mile would take me nearly twenty minutes. I stopped four or five times. The third to the last stop was about the worst. I was ready to black out at the top of the hill and when I stopped and put my head down I thought I was going to vomit. I'm not sure how long I stood there, but it was a while.

I made it home and turned the hose on my head to cool down. I went in and managed to mix up a protein shake and I sat down and drank that. In a short time I was feeling much better. With some calories in me and a nice cool environment, I recovered rather well. After a shower I was well on my way. We went to The Dark Knight (a great movie, by the way) and we bought a bag of popcorn and I had, for the first time in a long time, a pop. I had Pibb Xtra. I have no idea what the "Xtra" is, but I assume it's sugar and caffeine. Yeah, it was a bit sugary, but I think between the salty popcorn and the sugary drink I was getting just what I needed.

Anyway, it's stupid to go off for four or more hours in the middle of summer in the middle of the day without taking care of your nutrition needs. Bring food or stop and buy some. I had no excuses. I didn't bring anything, but there were a few places I could have stopped for a bite to eat, or even just a Gatorade or some such thing. But I didn't. Don't be like me. Think before you head out. Take care of yourself. If I had been out in the middle of nowhere on a solo bike tour or a solo hike or some such thing and I wasn't prepared I would have been in real trouble. I was lucky to have this happen so close to home.

Get out and do whatever it is you do, but be careful and be prepared.

And don't forget to reapply your sunblock!