Long Distance Riding - Dealing With Fatigue

[Twigg]

In another thread, the point was raised about excessive fatigue and how it might relate to LD Riding.

"If you find yourself opening your eyes and you are still riding, you may be an Iron Butt Rider"

That was met with a great response:

https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php/topic/162084-you-may-be-an-iron-butt-rider/?p=1212249

It crossed my mind that, along with many others, I have faced this situation. Under normal circumstances I stop well before I reach the point of exhaustion, but we all make mistakes and hopefully learn from them.

This is how I described that moment during the first Big Tex Rally (2012) I post it here hoping someone might gain something from my inexperience. This incident was US90 between Alpine and Marathon, TX at around midnight:

"When I am tired and riding, I do not generally suffer from my eyes closing. What does happen is that I lose focus, literally lose focus, my eyes go blurry and I have to force my concentration back to the task. That is a clear and unambiguous sign that I need to get off the road, and get off the bike and I NEVER ignore it. Neither should you. There comes a point, and we each are different, where we recognise those signs. It is not clever or brave, or admirable to ignore the signs. It is stupid, dangerous and has no place in LD Riding.

I felt that happen about thirty miles into the last leg. I needed a safe place to stop and there wasn't one. That road is wild and desolate. There are no houses, no towns, no gas stations just a ribbon of tarmac with nowhere to stop. If I stopped in the road I would be in danger from the next tired idiot driving up behind me. Somehow I had to stay alert until I could safely stop. I yelled at myself, I ate candy, turned up the music and had as much air flowing as I could manage. I was prepared to continue only as long as it was safer to ride than stop.

Eventually I hit a small town called Marathon, TX. This was about twenty miles passed my "signs to stop", and about forty miles from my planned stop. I pulled over in a parking area, got off the bike and lay down on the sidewalk. This might sound a bit extreme but it didn't seem at all odd at the time. I was in a safe place and could use a short "power nap". I got one and in about twenty minutes was feeling pretty darned good. There was nowhere to take my official rest break so I hopped back on the bike and completed forty uneventful miles to Sanderson, TX."

 

[redjay]

I started to fall asleep on the motorway in England after doing about a 1000 miles non stop (south of France to Birmingham).

My buddy behind me on another bike noticed I was going slower and slower and came up beside me and yelled at me.

We pulled off at the next rest area and I had a sleep on the grass for about an hour.

If my buddy had not been there I probably would have fallen off the bike.

 

[PJ4863]

I was thinking that too. Dealing with fatigue? I don't. I make sure I have a break before it gets to that point. A motorcycle ride where you aren't arriving safely isn't any fun period.

 

[Twigg]

I started to fall asleep on the motorway in England after doing about a 1000 miles non stop (south of France to Birmingham).My buddy behind me on another bike noticed I was going slower and slower and came up beside me and yelled at me.

We pulled off at the next rest area and I had a sleep on the grass for about an hour.

If my buddy had not been there I probably would have fallen off the bike.

An inability to maintain a constant speed is one of the classic signs of fatigue.

So are things like forgetting to signal, failing to dip high beams, making a couple of minor mistakes in a row. Small signs and we each learn our own.

I was thinking that too. Dealing with fatigue? I don't. I make sure I have a break before it gets to that point. A motorcycle ride where you aren't arriving safely isn't any fun period.

Maybe "Recognizing Fatigue" would have been a better title.

 

[RJAMT]

In flight training they put us in an altitude chamber and took us up to 40,000 ft, then we had to take turns removing our oxygen masks and doing a series of simple tasks such as organizing blocks, counting objects, etc.

When we started to pass out from oxygen deprivation the instructors put our mask back on and, when we recovered, we had to record our symptoms.

Some people got severe headaches, others got tunnel vision or color blindness, etc. The point was to recognize your symptoms so you could (hopefully) detect and react to a slow loss of cabin pressure.

The principal is the same as distance riding and several other activities. Get to know your signs and never ignore them. They are trying to save your life if you just let them.

 

[garyahouse]

You may recall my "Coast to coast in 48 1/2 hours" post from the summer of 2013. I did that exactly once and will never attempt it again. I don't have the health I once had. But it was amazing how well two strategies worked for me. First, I agree: a 20 minute power nap works. However, looking back I can only wish it would have been anything less than 98 degrees that day. Woke up sweating to death, but feeling ready to ride. But another little trick, which I've used many, many times over the years...

Some good advice:

Believe it or not, eating cheerios works VERY well. I learned this back in my college days when I had to drive nearly an hour to get home after working the night shift til 2 am. Getting drowsy behind this wheel was a HUGE problem for me. I had to battle it nearly every night as I didn't get much sleep in college. One night, I grabbed a couple bags of peanuts from the vending machine before leaving the shop because I was a little hungry. Driving home, I got drowsy, as usual. I tried cranking up the radio, singing, rolling down the window, you name it, but nothing was working. Then I remembered the peanuts. After I ate the first bag, I noted that I was totally awake. However, after maybe 10 minutes, I was falling asleep again. then I remembered the peanuts. I grabbed the second bag. I started wondering, is this the solution I've been looking for? I decided to eat them VERY slowly, as I had another 1/2 hour to drive. I nursed that little bag all the way home, and arrived safely without another issue with drowsiness.

A cheap solution

Afterwards, since I was broke and couldn't afford peanuts from the vending machine every night (and didn't need all the extra calories), I started bringing a little container full of Cheerios. I choose Cheerios because they're cheap and ya don't fill up easily on them like you would with peanuts, for example. Anyway, from that moment till this, it's been: problem solved. Permanently. In the past 30 years, I've given this seemingly simple advice to a whole bunch of people. And many have commented that though they didn't think it would work that well, it did indeed work THAT well. Before you dismiss my simple idea, try it. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. As long as you're eating just a few Cheerios (or whatever) every minute or so, you won't find yourself getting uncontrollably drowsy. Of course there comes a point where you have to stop and sleep, but I've found I can stave it off for quite a while with this little trick.

Gary

darksider #44

 

[deanbar601]

lots of us suffer from sleep apnea and go undiagnosed---- cpapp's are life savers

 

[SacramentoMike]

How about Honey Nut Cheerios, Gary?

I've had to stop and catch an emergency nap a couple of times--once on a picnic table, once on the ground cloth for my tent. And I'm not even an Iron Butt guy.

 

[Gurock]

I've slept on the floor of a truck wash in rural (Dorthy & Toto) Kansas; on a park bench in a casino; on my bike in various rest stops and gas stations; in gas station Subways or McDonalds; a coffee shop in Torrey, UT and was thrown out of a Subway in a gas station on Christmas Eve in Missouri or Arkansas. When it's sleep or risk going down sleep no matter what looks good.

A few years ago I was going from central Colorado through Montrose, Silverton, Durango, and on into Utah. I had a great day in the mountains and dinner in Cortez, Co. Anyone with half a brain would have rented a motel in Cortez, but I, having no brain thought I'd go on into Utah before calling it a night. It got more an more sparse until I got to Blanding, UT. At that point if was around two AM, I was exhausted and the next town of consequence was Torrey, UT about 160 miles up the road with nothing between the two except Utah wilderness. Blanding has something like six motels and I stopped at the Super 8 asking to get a room. The lady desk clerk told me that everything in town was sold out and that there was no where to stay in Blanding. I took out a bunch of cash and offered $100.00 to sleep on the lobby sofa till dawn. The desk clerk told me to get out of town before she had the police throw me in jail. So I got on the bike (a Suzuki Burgman 650 at the time) filled with gas at a nearby station and took off for Torrey, UT. The Burgman only holds four gallons including reserve, so 160 miles is very near to the end of it's range. On top of that it was the middle of the night and down below 40 degrees as I gained altitude. I made it to Torrey with about 1/3 of a gallon left and around five or six in the morning. There was a little coffee shop in Torrey where UT 12 and UT 24 come together that had just opened for breakfast, so I stumbled in (with the sun coming up) ordered a Mocha, st at a far table and napped for several hours. The nice ladies who ran the shop never bothered me. I woke and paid the bill giving the ladies a $10.00 tip. Because I ride across from Illinois to San Diego and back a couple times a year and that I love the stretch of Utah that includes Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Devil's Staircase and Zion I get through Torrey at least once a year. Each time I pull through town I stop at that coffee shop and give the ladies $10.00.

You've got to stop when your mind or body tells you to or risk the consequences.

 

[Enn]

There have been cases when I can't recall some parts of the route just covered and I have wondered if I was awake at all. I always get a cold sweat on my back then...

 

[Bounce]

https://www.ironbutt.com/tech/aowprintout.cfm

https://mattwatkins.org/ibr09/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Fatigue.pdf

 

[Bungie]

I get 'eye shake' when I'm fatigued. The only reason I know thats the sign for me is because I've ridden well past it. Not cool. I'd realized I was actually asleep for a second or two, with my eyes open.

So, when the eyes start to shaking I'm taking a break.

Reminds me of the time during the 3 Amigo's tour back in 2010. We had stopped and had big lunch (bad) and around 3pm I was fighting a really serious case of the eye shakes. We finally came upon a beautiful rest stop in Wyoming when I decided to pull off.

Rob and Tom were asleep, helmets on, in seconds in the grass. I layed down but couldn't nod off, so I got up, got cleaned up, went for a little walk.. about 30 minutes later I woke up the other two. We were all fine until our planned stop for the night.

 

[Geezer]

It is not always obvious how tired you really are until something goes seriously wrong. Add in the fact that you dehydrate rather quickly when riding because of the air flow, and you can easily get in trouble.

It was not a Iron Butt sanctioned ride, but one time I rode for more than 24 hours without a rest other than fuel and bathroom stops. I found myself tuning out for a micro-second at a time (microsleeps?) before I realized how stupid it was to ride that long without sleep. I had to sing to myself, out loud inside my helmet, to make sure I was staying awake for the next few miles before I found a place to pull over and rest. After that I adopted a new motto: 'A man's got to know his limitations.'

 

[Top_Speed1]

...Add in the fact that you dehydrate rather quickly when riding because of the air flow...

Now that explains why I drink so many beers at the end of the day!. I never knew that, thanks Greg

 

[Twigg]

It is not always obvious how tired you really are until something goes seriously wrong. Add in the fact that you dehydrate rather quickly when riding because of the air flow, and you can easily get in trouble.

Hydration systems are your friend.

Mine is a 1 gallon cooler filled with iced water. It is powered so I can also pump water down my jacket when needed. I have been known to fill it more than once a day.

 

[Sharif]

Hydration and tic tacs. And rest when needed.

 

[Intech]

What's the use of having cruise control if you can't take a nap?

Seriously, though, the conditions you are riding in have a lot to do with the onset of fatigue. I know when doing my SS1K in 2013 I drove through several severe thunderstorms within the first 6-7 hours and then again after stopping for rest. I can say that they sure sap your energy. Just as bad as driving in traffic, because of the high level of intense concentration on the surroundings.

 

[Steve in Phx]

This is a good topic!

Aside from the examples above, what specific advice might you experienced riders give to fellow riders to help them learn to identify their own signs of fatigue?

Or, in other words, you don't know what you don't know until you know it, so how do you know it?

 

[garyahouse]

It was not a Iron Butt sanctioned ride, but one time I rode for more than 24 hours hours without a rest other than fuel and bathroom stops. I found myself tuning out for a micro-second at a time (microsleeps?) before I realized hot stupid it was to ride that long without sleep...

+1

Or should I say, negative 1? Been there, done that. Why is it, when you're really tired, that it feels SO GOOD to close the eyes for 3 or 4 seconds? But needless to say, this may provide some temporary relief, but it can and will cause some permanent consequences.

Gary

darksider #44