Is protein bonking a thing?

[Bsteel]

I find it hard to imagine any sort of bonking on a 30km ride, how are you riding?

Well that's the interesting thing - it was an easy ride at an easy pace, not even any particularly steep or long hills. And that after a week's easy touring (usually 60 to 90km every day, but not pushing myself to exhaustion or anything drastic). I doubt any reserves will have been seriously depleted by the tour, and if anything, my legs should have been in better than average condition.

Something in your picnic caused an insulin spike and dropped blood glucose ?

[Cugel]

The secret to not bonking on distance rides is to be fuelling yourself with carbs every hour or so. My best friend was the British 24hr champion back in the day, his secret was sugary drinks at regular intervals, and an actual bag of sugar in his back pocket which he would dip into every 15 minutes.

Worked well for him! It's all carbs, carbs, carbs. That and a good cadence!

For some reason best not elaborated just now, I feel your "bag of sugar" advice may not be the best advice in this instance (or any other).

Cugel, wary of the white death, both visible and invisible varieties.

maybe a bag of sugar isn't ideal but the boosting effect of gummi bears & jelly babies is well known

Those things are a well-known cause of gumrot, bad breath and constipation! Myself, I always rely on a chunk of ladywife date&figgie or even a mass of her "blondie".

The pale mass of a blondie is a baked conglomerate of dark chocolate lumps, oats, gluten-free flour of some kind, plump raisins, egg, butter and a teeny bit of golden syrup. It is addictive, mind. One might find a swarm of cyclists at the freezer in which she secretes the whole blondie cake. They have heard the rumours of it and cast all caution aside in attempting to obtain a piece, quarreling about who has the biggest piece and why they should give it up to another more in need.

I recall racing fellows who swore by Mars bars. One often saw them consume the thing, go faster for a few minutes (probably for psychological reasons rather than sugar reasons) then get the blow-up that generally follows the sugar rush.

These days many cyclists buy sugar-in-some-litter - small amounts of gooey muck flavoured with chemical which they suck at before casting the packet to the verge. Only £8.99 per ounce (10p for the sugar and £8.89 for the litter). Others prefer a bidon-grog that makes them sick after riding on it for 3.86 miles; and makes their bidon-nipple go black with mould.

Cugel

[Galactic]

Something in your picnic caused an insulin spike and dropped blood glucose ?

Can't think what would have done that: rye bread with spread, a few carrots and a white bap.

[Bsteel]

Something in your picnic caused an insulin spike and dropped blood glucose ?

Can't think what would have done that: rye bread with spread, a few carrots and a white bap.

Not unless the spread was a generous coating of Nutella with a dusting of castor sugar for added crunch

[Galactic]

Thought I'd revisit this thread to update you all on my findings regarding protein and bonking. May be useful for someone else concerned about this topic.

Looking upthread, the general consensus is that bonking from a lack of (or acute need for) protein isn't a thing. Yet since the thread started in 2022 I've had opportunity to experiment on myself and see what works and what doesn't work. My conclusions (NB sample size = 1) are that protein bonking is a thing. We can call it something other than bonking if you wish, but the symptoms are similar to carbo-bonking.

I went through a phase at that time of bonking that wasn't relieved by consuming carbohydrates before or after the fact, but was relieved by protein intake.

Given that, I took to carrying an emergency source of protein, ideally legume-based rather than cereal-based. In addition I upped my intake of protein sources, paying particular attention if I knew I'd be cycling more than 20km. Since I've done that (4 years ago) I've not bonked at all, and can probably forget the emergency protein bars.

So, if you're bonking and carbohydrate input doesn't help, try a bit of protein (ideally proteins from different sources).

[TrevA]

In my racing days, I would carry a bag of sultanas in my jersey pocket. Easy to grab a handful, easy to chew and swallow, slightly moist so they don’t dry your mouth out, and full of sugar for energy.

These days I just eat cake at the cafe stop, carrot cake being my favourite.

[pjclinch]

My ride snack of choice at present is baking from recipes out of Emma Pooley's Oat to Joy which as the title suggests is centred on oat-based recipes, but there's a range of savoury, naturally sweet and sweetened variants in all sorts of flavours.
Principle thing is the "poffin", a portmanteau of porridge and muffin, where the usual flour, milk and egg basis is replaced with oats and yoghurt. The result is a bit denser than a muffin (more like bread pudding) and relatively robust so as not to turn into crumbs in your pocket or bar bag etc., if there's icing involved it goes on the inside to keep mess to a minimum, and they're actually designed with performance fuelling in mind (used by the good Dr. Pooley on, for example, the ride where she set an Everesting record) but unlike gels actually quite decent as food in their own right. Not only edible, but significantly cheaper than commercial "sports nutrition" tends to be.

If you want protein in there simply select a suitable recipe and/or supplement the ingredient list. There's a spinach and feta savoury one, for example, that should give you a decent start on protein and if you add e.g. some bacon there's a bit more.

And aside from lots of useful ride recipes there's a good chunk of autobiographical tales from EP's career. The whole thing is very nicely produced in an excellent hardback binding and comes recommended.

Pete.

[MrsHJ]

Not sure I’ve ever experienced that in a ride but for me the cumulative effect of exercise and insufficient protein might be a thing. I’ve been doing a lot of gym time and cycling recently and have become absolutely exhausted in the evenings even on rest days and then after taking more rest days. Not sleeping too well either so I upped magnesium, iron, water and protein and that seems to have helped a lot. It’s difficult to know which one was the biggest problem but as a non meat eater my guess was water plus protein as the main things I was lacking. Some of those high protein bagels etc from m and s (plus the ubiquitous cottage cheese and lots of eggs) have helped up my daily totals a lot.

[atoz]

I have some home made tea loaf with me on longer rides which does the job nicely. Much better than bought confectionery.

As a quick recovery food on getting home, a slab of cheese hits the spot for me.