what about an upset stomach on the ride?



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*Okay, sensitive issue guys, and you may not want to tackle this one.*

Sometimes, this can be different things.  
- Feeling bloated before even starting the ride.
- stomach gets upset after first 10 miles
- stomach gets upset after more than one gel
- a nauseated feeling, like you are gonna puke, the whole time (usually on really hot rides)

use Clif shots and watered down Gatorade

This doesn't ALWAYS happen, but can often. What could be the causes of this?
 
I find is i'm mixed stuff like Gatorade to strong i'll get an upset stomach. Or maybe it could be related to something you eat before you go our on the road/?
 
Yep, as Steve said, it could be something you eat before your ride. I had the same thing during a race and found that after I stopped eating/drinking diary products before the ride, the problem was solved.
 
A stomach getting upset early in a ride usually means that you haven't given whatever you ate prior to the ride enough time to settle. I get around this problem by eating before I apply sunscreen (something I need to do year-round in Queensland), then allowing the food to settle while I apply the sunscreen, giving it a little more time to do so, and hence eliminating this problem.

As far as the heat related nausea goes, I, too have experienced this on really hot days. My own rather unscientific opinion is that it's your body trying to tell you something, i.e. that if it's really hot, you might need to ease off the intensity just a little. This is not something to be taken lightly.

I have heard stories of very fit people having heart-attacks on hot days because they didn't heed the warnings, and other stories of people literally frying their organs. Obviously these are extreme cases and are rarely repeated, but in the heat I wouldn't be taking unnecessary risks for the sake of one training ride.
 
You need to know how your digestive system works and how it reacts to different foodstuffs. For example, I know my stomach takes about 8 hrs to digest a heavy steak with all the trimmings, after which I need to visit the loo. Having a steak the night before a ride (not a wise move, btw) will force me to "park off" for awhile the next morning, meaning that I need to rise a bit earlier to accomodate for this. There is nothing worse than arriving at a race knowing that last nights binge is still firmly entrenched in your gut!
Foodstuffs that encourage a "park off", like high fibre cereals, diary products etc. are to be avoided a day or two before competition. If your stomach handles these sorts of food well, then your'e OK. I just feel better going to a race knowing that I've been 'regular' the last few days before the event and that I have'nt eaten anything that can trigger an upset stomach.
The bottom line? Get to know your stomach! Try different eats the night before and the morning of your TRAINING rides (never before an event!). This way you will learn what works and what doesn't. ;)
 
All of your symptoms could be explained by your drinks being too concentrated and helping you become dehydrated. When drinks are too concentrated they cause osmosis (water movement) from the blood into the gut.

This can cause the initial stomache upset and it gets worse as you dehydrate in the heat and more water moves into your gut. The nauseated feeling can be caused by dehydration and heat stress (very very bad). Normaly this kind of water movement will be accompanied by the '*****' (sorry) during the night and next morning.

The gels are bad because they are concentrated in CHO and can add to the CHO in the drink.

It is recomended that drinks are made at 7% solution and never more concentrated. In very hot weather (or cold when you wear lots of clothes) dilute this to 5% solution. Somethime the guidence on the bottles is wrong. You could also try gels or jam sandwiches and plain water.

A 7% solution equates to 7g of CHO in 100 ml of water.
 
I'm going out on a limb here but sometimes you just gotta say "what the. . ."

I went to a club talk a couple of weeks ago and one of the topics was nutrition. (I'll see if I can remember this stuff.) One of the questions raised during this talk was the so-called "blood-type diet". Now you must understand that I have a "see-food" diet. I am however blessed with a cast-iron stomach and I seldom get problems, and I run like clock work no matter what I eat. Anyway, I'm digressing.

Apparently, people with specific blood groups (I can't remeber the example) tolerate different food types better than others. (For example, (don't quote this) people with "O"-type blood may be able to tolerate proteins more than say "A" type)

I don't know the validity of this but the person discussing it was a reputable nutritionist. Anyway, you may be one of these people that are less tolerant of carbohydrates or may require more protein just before a ride. So you gotta see what works for you.

I have found in my explorations, that nutrition is a highly contested and often controversial subject, hence all my caveats. I find that when I use GU, I feel like puking just before the energy kicks in so I usually give it horns when I start feeling queasy. (I know, I know, but it works for me.) I am interested in everyone's view on this new found wisdom. Do you think it's bollocks?
 
Sorry Lab Rat,

I think this is B*******! I read in a paper recently that there was no evidence to back this up, just a fad or money making toss.

I would be interested to hear how the nutritionalist suggests that Blood type affects digestion and metabolism, as blood cells are not involved in digestion and I guess that the genes that determine blood type are different from those that control digestion!
 
I agree with 2LAP. Sounds like a 'Huisgenoot' or 'You' magazine story to me.
 
Ahh, yes, so I'm not the only sceptic here. Phew. :eek:

My memory has also been jogged a little more actually. I think the question was raised by someone in the audience and the nutritionist said pretty much the same as 2Lap. I think what she ended up saying was that different people may have adapted to different foodtypes through their diets over the years and respond to excesses in different food types differently. maybe that's it.

All I do remember clearly was thinking I'm not gonna get my blood group tested again (as you can see I don't remember this sort of stuff too clearly) to see what I should eat. I feel pretty good on the bike and I never eat before I ride in the mornings. (Then I really feel ill.)
 
Not eating in the morning, don't you worry about glycogen depletion (i.e. bonk).
 
Okay, there are two issues here really. One situation I describe is what my friend experiences. And, the other is me. My friend is the one that gets nauseated early on rides, especially ones in the heat. I think that he eats too late and doesn't drink enough. And, I have tasted his "mix" and it is pretty concentrated. I will suggest for him to do otherwise.

My problem is a little different. I have a "regular" schedule that usually lends itself to a ...well...midmorning evacuation (sorry). So, when I do my rides early on the weekend (because of the heat) I start off bloated and weighed down. An hour before I go, I usually eat one Clif bar and wash it down with some plain water. I generally take two water bottles (as I don't go THAT far) that contain half mixed gatorade and half water (diluted) and I take 1 or 2 gels depending on if I need to run afterwards. And, basically I am about to burst by mid bike because it is my "regular" time. This makes for a very uncomfortable ride, as you can imagine. And, it gets even worse after a gel and lots of the water/gatorade diluted mixture.

So, I guess what I am asking is...
How can you change your "regular" pattern to be at a different time of the day?
Or, can you take steps to avoid it and be "empty" the morning of without starving yourself the day before. I mean, I would *bonk* if I did that, right?

I am sure you guys have encountered the same thing...when your "during the week schedule" doesn't work for your "weekend schedule". How do you accomodate for this?
 
Now that does sound like a challenging issue. Perhaps you could try and er evacuate ;) first thing in the morning as you wake up. I somehow, and I did not give it much thought at the time, managed to change my time table from mid morning to first thing. So now my first pitstop is between 04:20 and 05:00 for a weekday and weekend respectively. I am now consistent.

So perhaps you gradually change your timing.

As for the glycogen depletion, I've only ever bonked twice. First time was on the 94.7 last year. Didn't do enough training and rode 80% of the ride solo. (The bunch I was with was pathetic and when we started, the starter asked how many people wanted to do 3:30. When he said anybody for a sub-3 and I put my hand up, he poked fun at me. *******. (I did it by the way.) The second time was the Powerman duathlon. (10k run / 60k cycle /10k run). I bonked on the second run in a big way but I had only done 10kms of training. So for me it seems both cases were more a lack of training than depleted stores.

I managed a 60km MTB race and a 120km road race about three weekends ago with no food before either. I also find it difficult to eat anything for the first 2 hours immediately after a race. Then my appetite comes back with a vengance. (No wonder my body fat % dropped like a stone.)
 
You will bonk every time ou don't eat enough carbs and perform lots of exercise. With little preperation the bonk can occur after just 1.5 hours of hard riding. This amount of time gets even shorter if you are already glycogen depleted at the start of the ride (i.e. prior hard training or bad diet). Eating/energy drinks on the bike helps delay the onset of the bonk and in theory as long as you CHO use and intake are matched you should never bonk. But its not always posible to eat/drink on a bike!

In the UK, people are always geting the bonk on long club rides - they think its hard or something! They should visit www.cyclingforums.com once in a while for advice!

Not sure about the regularity issue. Changing your routine sounds like good advice or perhaps adjusting the size of your meals so that you need to evacuate at a different time.

Lab_rat, you should eat something within 20 mins after finishing a ride as this is when your body aids recovery by replacing glycogen used. Your appitite goes after a ride as the blood is 'shunted' (a real technical term) to the exercising parts of your body and away from your stomache, hence you don't feel hungry. You may be delaying your recovery!

I have a number of training partners who evacuate during rides, however this involves a mobile phone and a lift from their Mums.
 
LOL 2Lap!

I will see what I can change.

Hey, at least you guys don't have to worry about taking in too much water. I would have to stop and find a tree or a bush or something, if I did that.

(Maybe that is why you never see women in the TdF...LOL)

As far as *bonking*, I am not too worried about it. I always feel great after my races and I always train over-distance..just to be sure. My biggest concern was if I make a concernted effort to not eat as much a few days before (so I wouldn't be weighed down), would that effect my carb loading and therefore leave me with not enough energy on race, and then a *bonk* situation on the run portion of my races.

I have seen the best people screw up on a race regardless of how much training they put in because they didn't taper right, or carb load right.
 
Sorry did you say *bonking*, that has a different meaning in the UK. (Sorry reverted back to secondary school humour then).

I'm with you on the need to taper and carbo-load. To carbo load you only need the CHO intake and you could get this energy drinks and not *bulky* CHO foods like pasta, etc. Its all about manipulating what you eat to get the desired effect.

If you try this, watch those teeth of yours and also watch the scales. CHO drinks are very high in energy (that is the point of them after all) so its easy to take on more calories than you realise and put on a pound or two. Work out how many calories in food you are not eating when you switch to your low bulk diet and replace these calories with energy drink.

How long are your rides anyway?
 
I've trained myself to "evacuate" (nice word, Persistence ;D ) shortly after I wake up in the morning, especially during the cycling season (sounds like potty training). I drink a cup of warm Milo (similar to a hot choclate drink, but I think any warm liquid, even warm water, will work), which helps to stimulate an early morning "evacuation". I usually need to go within 5 minutes of having the drink. Why it works, I don't know, but it does.
 
and if you train yourself to go early enough, you may catch yourself napping on the loo ;D
 
I had a frend caught napping with his head in the toilet, following oral evacuation. The lad in question learned quickly that training on a bike does not prepare you for all events; like 'boat races' and other drinking games!!

;D
 
Let's not go into the other forms of evacuation right now. (like nasal passage evacuation) It's almost lunch time.
 

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