Sports Hitting The Wall

[crazyman27]

I've played numerous sports (footy, soccer, cricket, tennis), have finished a marathon and been on numerous 10km+ runs and have completed numerous 60km+ rides over my sporting career (around 14 years). On the weekend, for the first time ever, I hit the wall. Here's what happened:

Decided to go for a ride on Sunday after playing footy on Saturday. I was a little bit sore but nothing too serious so I decided to do around 70km. Cruised through the first 45km (mostly downhill) before I reached a short climb (2.4km at 9.4%). I had a quick rest and ate a banana before doing the climb. Cruised up the climb and had a quick descent before reaching the final climb (5.6km at 4.9%) I'd have to do to get home.

Now I would normally have no issues doing this climb at a steady rate, but this time I really struggled and even considered stopping a few times. By the time I reached the top I was absolutely spent and had to stop. I didn't consider it at the time (thought I was just having a bad day and would recover) but at this point I had hit the wall. I was so bad I could hardly get on and off my bike.

From the top of this climb to my house is around 8km (a little bit of uphill but mostly downhill) a distance I would normally knock off with no trouble but I felt so bad at this stage I considered calling my folks to come and get me.

I eventually managed to ride home but the final 8km was the most energy-sapped I have ever been during any sport and it took me twice as long as it normally would to get home. I had to walk the bike up one of the harder hills and was pretty close to tears just thinking about how far I had to ride (how emotional I became was one of the things that really surprised me). I was amazed at how awful I felt and how quickly I had gone from being fine to being absolutely wrecked.

When I got home I did a bit of research on hitting the wall and the symptoms matched exactly to what I experienced. I'd been absolutely exhausted before and even questioned the legitimacy of hitting the wall, but had never experienced anything like actually reaching the point of no return (it's so bad that even simple tasks like tying shoelaces can be impossible).

In hindsight I didn't consume enough carbs during the ride and will definitely take more food next time.

So has anybody else 'hit the wall'? How did you deal with it? What lessons did you learn from it?

 

[Hue_Jars]

Played footy on Saturday, hit the wall out on the piss about 3am, couldnt have another bourbon - had to go home.

Woke up Sunday and had maccas for breakfast - problem solvered.

Key: dont do massive bike rides.

 

[Macca19]

Hit the wall in NZ climbing Te Mata Peak after going off the beaten track and making the climb about 5 times longer than it needed to be. Its not even all that high but it was pretty hot and that day I was rooted about half way up. About 3/4 of the way up I ended up having to stop for about 10 minutes as my quads felt like they were about to liquidise then pretty much went: walk 20 steps, stop for 30 seconds, repeat for the rest of the way up. Absolutely drenched in sweat. Then ran back down which was fun!

 

[Private Hudson]

Played footy on Saturday, hit the wall out on the piss about 3am, couldnt have another bourbon - had to go home.

Woke up Sunday and had maccas for breakfast - problem solvered.

Key: dont do massive bike rides.

Genuinely made me laugh!

 

[IAMJUNGLEMUFFIN]

Carrying my 30 kilo pack and a 15 kilo back pack when in Germany. Had to carry them for several days on minimal food, walking probably 40 ks in total (memory is starting to get a bit foggy, but feels roughly right).

The night before the last day I was grinding it out as usual, still had plenty in the tank to get where I needed to be.

The next morning I had probably 1.5 k's to walk. Should have been easy considering I was well rested and fresh, but it ended up taking me over an hour to do it. Afterwards I had to walk another 2 k's or so, and couldn't go further than 3-400 metres at a time without needing a 15 minutes rest, I literally had nothing left in the tank.

It was topped off with the pain of walking on popped blisters which covered most of the balls and heal of my feet.

I've pushed myself harder physically before, to the point of dry retching during exercise, but this was easily the hardest I've ever had to push myself.

The lesson I learnt from it is I've got what it takes to get the job done, no matter how long it takes or how hard it is.

 

[Deadline]

Not sports related but I needed to get to a friends house to pick something up which was about 3km away. Normally I would walk although it was a cold night and I had spotted a bike earlier in front of a garage a long the route. I walked to the house, stole the bike and sped off with haste to my destination.

I hadn't ridden a bike for some time and after the adrenalin rush from the crime and my unfit body I lasted about 300m before quads had completely tightened up. I had to stop to regain myself and catch my breath. I willed myself to ride to some shops ahead for another rest and a drink before I began to feel very ill. I didn't make it to the shop before spewing up all over the front of the bike. I just kept riding till I got the to shops.

I got there threw the bike on the ground and spewed all over the car park. With a drink and a long rest I continued to my destination spewing up my at various intervals while I was riding. With the momentum the spew would spit back up and hit my legs off the tires. I'd spew all over the handlebars but just kept going. I'd also stop at certain points throw the bike on the floor and just lie on the grass for a time, in between spewing. Normally I would be giggling in this situation because i'm a bit ****ed like that, but I was in too much agony at this point.

Anyway I managed to get the weed and head back home. I left the bike on the front lawn of the house I got it from completely covered in spew. Walked home, cleaned up and got high. Although I couldn't walk properly for a few days.

 

[Illinois Nazi]

Princess Diana did it and you never heard her complaining.

 

[The Passenger]

strong username to op correlation.... i lol'ed at first reply too....

but no never hit the wall... the coach loves my half paced, half arsed chases

 

[BotsMaster]

Princess Diana did it and you never heard her complaining.

lol'd hard

 

[IAMJUNGLEMUFFIN]

Not sports related but I needed to get to a friends house to pick something up which was about 3km away. Normally I would walk although it was a cold night and I had spotted a bike earlier in front of a garage a long the route. I walked to the house, stole the bike and sped off with haste to my destination.

I hadn't ridden a bike for some time and after the adrenalin rush from the crime and my unfit body I lasted about 300m before quads had completely tightened up. I had to stop to regain myself and catch my breath. I willed myself to ride to some shops ahead for another rest and a drink before I began to feel very ill. I didn't make it to the shop before spewing up all over the front of the bike. I just kept riding till I got the to shops.

I got there threw the bike on the ground and spewed all over the car park. With a drink and a long rest I continued to my destination spewing up my at various intervals while I was riding. With the momentum the spew would spit back up and hit my legs off the tires. I'd spew all over the handlebars but just kept going. I'd also stop at certain points throw the bike on the floor and just lie on the grass for a time, in between spewing. Normally I would be giggling in this situation because i'm a bit ****ed like that, but I was in too much agony at this point.

Anyway I managed to get the weed and head back home. I left the bike on the front lawn of the house I got it from completely covered in spew. Walked home, cleaned up and got high. Although I couldn't walk properly for a few days.

OP drank way too much piss before comencing his felonious bike ride.

On a more mejestic note, the Princess Die joke was exceptionally well delivered.

 

[La Dispute]

[YOUTUBE]glOfHOxdRCU[/YOUTUBE]

This is what you should do.

 

[Dont be a lemon]

 

[Silent Alarm]

[YOUTUBE]glOfHOxdRCU[/YOUTUBE]

This is what you should do.

You can see me if you're tall... lookin' over

Well done on the Yuck reference, sir. I applaude you.

 

[crazyman27]

I thought this was appropriate:

[YOUTUBE]6pttqFUviWs[/YOUTUBE]

 

[La Dispute]

You can see me if you're tall... lookin' over

Well done on the Yuck reference, sir. I applaude you.

Well I mean, crazyman27 was in space, he knew that it wasn't real, but that's just the way that he feels.