Well, shortly after writing the followup to the Club Chalupa article yesterday I just about collapsed. At the time I thought it was my first racquetball-induced bonk, but after reading up a bit on the whole phenomenon of bonking I now conclude that it was just my first “everything bonk,” and that I’ve had pretty frequent minor bonk episodes for quite a while. If you read the linked article, they’ve itemized many of the mistakes that people make that can lead to bonking. Yesterday I made almost all of them.
I normally drink orange juice in the morning, but we were out yesterday, so I just blew it off and ate an apple and some peanuts for breakfast. I had one glass of unsweetened tea, but that was all the fluid I had in the morning. So I entered the match low on hydration and calories. I played a really hard match against Ron Jones and felt really exhausted afterwards. I then stopped by Taco Bell for the Club Chalupa on my way back to the office. That helped a little bit, but as that was all I ate, even that wasn’t enough to really compensate for the caloric drain of the match, given how low my reserves had been.
Around 1:30 I got a sudden spike of headache pain, which is a bonk sign. I’ve had these headaches before and not recognized the problem — I think every time I’ve had these I’ve had at least a minor bonk, as I don’t feel hungry after racquetball and generally don’t eat after a match. That is going to change. Anyway, along with the headache came a total lack of energy. I was just limp in my chair, staring into space. I headed over to the nearby convenience store and got a bottle of cranberry/grape juice and drank it, which helped to start recovery. But for most of the rest of the day I was lethargic and hurting pretty badly.
So what have I learned?
1. Drink more fluids in the morning.
2. Eat more calories in the morning.
3. Eat immediately after racquetball, whether I’m hungry or not.
With luck, these improvements to my routine will allow me to avoid this problem in the future.