By John Fulton

There are two types of cyclists:

A)     Those who have crashed and those who will crash

B)     Those who have bonked and those who will bonk

C)     All of the above.

After the last couple of weeks, I am going with “C”.

I could say I have had a bit of bad luck the last couple of weeks on the bike, but it was far more the result of carelessness than luck.

On a beautiful Saturday morning, about eight of us met up in Windsor to pre ride the Vineman course. About 35 miles into  the 55 mile track, we just descended the steepest part of the course. My Garmin said 42MPH. About two miles later on the flats , a spare tube I had not stowed properly that morning popped out and wrapped into the back wheel and jammed into the rear brake, causing me to go into an uncontrolled skid while in the aero bars at 20+mph causing me to go down in the middle of a two lane road. First, praise whoever for not having this happen on the decent we were just on. No doubt, helicopters would most likely have been involved or worse. Fortunately, my carelessness did not extend harm to any of my fellow riders, who patiently cut up a bandana, scraped up about eight pieces of electrical tape holding on old race numbers and patched me up well enough to finish the ride and get home.

Blunder #2-

Bonk, crater, blow up, shake n bake, melt down, cookie toss, however you try to say it, pain, misery and never again.

I was invited to go on a “race pace” training ride, again for Vineman. This would be a high output, no nonsense endeavor.  Over the last 6 weeks, I had been putting in consistent 150 mile + training weeks. Feeling strong and up to the task, I joined my fellow riders on a very hot first day of July. We left  about 9:30 with the temp already heating up, heading mostly in the direction of the rolling hills of Livermore. Now, race pace needs to be defined and programmed into the elements. My Elite teammates that day had a bit different threshold than I. To break it down - I attempted MY 40K race pace over a 70K distance which was the close equivalent of my partners 70K race pace. My race pace also did not take into consideration triple digit temperatures. Sparing all the ugly details, around mile 30, I was totally cooked, sick, dizzy, and nauseous. All serious implications I was seriously approaching severe overheating and dehydrating. How could this happen thirty miles into a ride when I can easily double or even triple that kind of mileage? Simple, my efforts and heart rate were way higher than a sustainable effort for that distance in that heat. A simple comparison would be to try and complete a 10K at your 5K pace.  My ego was trying to cash a check my body couldn’t support.

I again was fortunate to get home safely with tremendous help and patience from Carrie Chavez.

I share these two experiences for a simple reminder, that no matter how experienced we are or think we are, mistakes and careless behavior can lead to injury or worse.

Be safe-

(PS- my top 10 list of “ You know you bonked when”)

10- Downhill doesn’t matter.

9-10MPH is fast.

8- There is not one frigging comfortable position you can find on your bike.

7- You start formulating an ad on Craigs List to sell your bike.

6-In N Out does NOT sound good.

5-Birds are circling.

4-Triple crank sounds like a great idea.

3-you pass on the brick run.

2-Your first pee comes seven hours later.

1-You forgo your evening beer for a can of Ensure.