In endurance sports like cycling or running, hitting the wall or bonking refers to sudden loss of energy and the feeling of extreme fatigue, caused by using up all your glycogen. I didn’t hit the wall in that sense, I literally hit the wall. The wall I’m talking about is a rock wall along the road going up to Fort Roots from the bike trail in North Little Rock. The wall separates the road from a steep gully. Maybe it was a good thing that the wall was there…

On March 15 I was about half way through a 30-mile ride when I became slightly dizzy for a few seconds riding up the Fort Roots hill. The dizziness caught me off guard and before I realized what was happening, I ran into the wall.

The Injury!

Fortunately, I was going less than 10 miles per hour because of the steep uphill grade. I didn’t fall down or fall off my bike, I just scraped the wall and came to a stop. I got a pretty good abrasion on my leg; I lost a little skin but didn’t even get any bruises.  After stopping, I didn’t feel dizzy at all and continued to the top of the Fort Roots hill and back home.

The next day, and for about a week afterwards, I felt crappy—like I was coming down with a cold or something. I also felt a little light-headed. I was bummed out from hitting the wall and decided not to ride until I felt a lot better. I didn’t ride for a week and a half.

The day after I hit the wall, I went to the Family Clinic. The nurse seems concerned that my pulse rate was 47, but that didn’t bother me, because my pulse is sometimes in the low 50’s. I had some blood tests. All the results were normal except I had high Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (THS). High THS can sometimes be associated with low levels of thyroid hormones. So, I had another test to check that, but the results showed that my thyroid hormone levels were normal.

The Doctor also wanted me to wear a heart monitor for a day. So, I had electrodes glued to my chest for 24 hours with wires running from the electrodes to a small recording device about the size of my cell phone; it was like having a EKG all the time. After that test I had a follow-up visit with my Doctor to hear about the results. The heart monitor test was not completely normal. It showed that for a few seconds I had “episodes of ectopic atrial rhythm”. That seems to be a irregular heartbeat as if your heart skips a beat or beats at the wrong time. The Doctor didn’t explain this very well, but he didn’t seem too concerned. He said he would send the results to an expert for advice. During the 24-hour test, my average heart rate was 52; the low was 42 and the high was 95. I didn’t do anything that day, so I didn’t expect my heart rate would be very high. My heart rate probably got up to 95 when I walked down to the street to get the mail and back up the 38 steps to the house.

Apparently, the specialist thought some follow-up tests were needed, because the nurse called to say that I would be scheduled to have another heart monitor test—this one for 30 days—and a treadmill test. I had a echo stress test on a treadmill a year ago, and that test was normal. Wearing a heart monitor for 30 days will certainly cramp my style. The nurse said I can take it off to shower, but I don’t know if I can ride my bike with it on. During the previous 24-hour test, the technician said I should not ride, because I would get sweaty and the electrodes might come off.

I will probably have the test in about 3 weeks, but the date has not been confirmed yet.