The Big Bonk
If you watched the cross country portion of the Tokyo Olympics, you probably saw some pretty tired horses at the end of the course. I definitely had a strong reaction to seeing a tired horse struggle to do it’s job while being at the very end of it’s ability. Human athletes call it bonking.
I’ve been an athlete in running, biking and skiing and have dizzily teetered on the edge of bonking several times in my life. Its absolutely NO fun at all to be at that place. It’s one thing to bonk because you are trying your very hardest to finish as fast as you possibly can, straining against your own muscles when they feel like molasses and have nothing left to give. It’s quite another thing to bonk in the brain because you did not feed or hydrate yourself properly. Your muscles are fine, but you are dizzy, can’t think clearly and everything is fuzzy and unsharp.
Well, that is what happened to me this last weekend. At the 5 Points Horse Trials at the Carolina Horse Park. Archie and Baker were great; they tried so hard to overcome the intense heat and humidity to do as best as they could….. but I let them down. I can’t tell you why I didn’t eat like a normal human should, I just didn’t. It was so hot that eating seemed to be the last thing that I wanted to do. I paid the price on Sunday when we had to show jump and then go straight to cross country. I was not sharp, not thinking clearly and not riding well in the 95 degree heat and humidity.
This trip is forcing me to adjust to new situations. At any event back home, I feel like a 5-ring circus act, juggling employees, students, walking courses and riding my own horses every single day that I am at a competition. Because my time is so finely minced throughout the day with my different responsibilities, I know that when I do have a moment to focus on me, I am 150% in the zone to make sure I don’t squander the opportunity. But, here? Well, it’s all me. In fact… its only me. I have too much time to myself and that caught me off guard. In retrospect, because I was drowning in “me” time, I didn’t give myself that 150% focus that I needed. When you are used to drinking from a firehose, I guess you might forget how to drink from a cup.
So, onwards. I would like to blame it on the weather and that is what caused me to not ride well, but I can’t do that. I didn’t ride well because I didn’t take care of myself. Bonking has made me realize that the opportunity squandered was of my own making. And the good news is that it is easy to fix. I head to Tryon in a week and a half and you can believe that I am now properly looking forward to challenging my riding and training skills…. Not my nutritional limits!