Nausea near the end of long swims



C

Cam Wilson

Guest
the last two times that i have done long, continous swims, i have experienced an upset stomach
feeling towards the end of the swim. actually, the first time, it was about halfway through that
problems began. i took a rest and did some easy backcrawl instead. i also just stood there and took
it easy, drinking from my water bottle. when things felt decent again, i continued. the feeling
never really went away, but it didn't feel quite as bad. i still managed 2x500m that day with the
little break in between.

then yesterday when i did manage a full 1000m continuous swim, i felt the sick feeling around the
800m mark. i took a little break for a drink of water then i soldiered on and completed the set.

this isn't a total mystery to me, but i am not sure why this is suddenly happening. my guess is that
i simply did not have the fuel in my body for me to complete these workouts very well. was i not
hydrated enough? or should i have had more carbs in my diet prior to the swim? i do not think that i
have drastically changed my eating/drinking habits lately, and yet this is a sudden change in
performance. i never felt this nausea before.

any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Cam
 
On Mon, 09 Jun 2003 14:54:01 -0400, Cam Wilson <[email protected]> wrote:

>the last two times that i have done long, continous swims, i have experienced an upset stomach
>feeling towards the end of the swim. actually, the first time, it was about halfway through that
>problems began. i took a rest and did some easy backcrawl instead. i also just stood there and took
>it easy, drinking from my water bottle. when things felt decent again, i continued. the feeling
>never really went away, but it didn't feel quite as bad. i still managed 2x500m that day with the
>little break in between.
>
>then yesterday when i did manage a full 1000m continuous swim, i felt the sick feeling around the
>800m mark. i took a little break for a drink of water then i soldiered on and completed the set.
>
>this isn't a total mystery to me, but i am not sure why this is suddenly happening. my guess is
>that i simply did not have the fuel in my body for me to complete these workouts very well. was i
>not hydrated enough? or should i have had more carbs in my diet prior to the swim? i do not think
>that i have drastically changed my eating/drinking habits lately, and yet this is a sudden change
>in performance. i never felt this nausea before.
>
>any thoughts would be appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Cam

Interesting. I just put a note in RST about Naseau on the bike leg after the swim. I don't
have it on my long swims, or long rides, however if I put the two together blammo! I would
doubt that the naseau is from lack of carbs. How long is your swim? For the most part you
should have a carb storage of a minimum of 50 mins or so. In most cases much more. Not sure
on the exact numbers but I believe of elite marathoners it was in the neighborhood of two
hours glycogen storage in muscle and liver. However if your doing multiple workouts a day it
could be and issue. One of the respondants in RST stated "swallowing water" or "air" may be
an issue. At this point I have no idea what causes my issue, post here if you find anything
interesting.

~Matt
 
Cam Wilson wrote:
>
> the last two times that i have done long, continous swims, i have experienced an upset stomach
> feeling towards the end of the swim.

...

> any thoughts would be appreciated.

I get that feeling often during a swim, when I am returning to swimming, as I am now, and I have
always associated it with swallowing too much pool or sea water while swimming on an empty stomach
when my digestive system is expecting food. Once I swim everyday at the same time for awhile, so
that I change my eating habits accordingly, then my digestive system no longer expects food at that
time, and the nausea doesn't occur as much.

I don't know if that is a correct analysis. It might be way wrong. But the nausea has never caused
me any real trouble. I think you can swim right through it. It never gets worse for me anyway.

martin

--
Martin Smith email: [email protected] Vollsveien 9 tel. : +47 6783 1188
P.O. Box 482 mob. : +47 932 48 303 1327 Lysaker, Norway
 
In high school when I ran track I would regularly get a naseated feeling running 220 wind sprints
and 7-mile road runs. Maybe it's just a function of really pushing yourself. I'm not really getting
this feeling swimming however ... maybe I'm lazier than I used to be. :)

Cam Wilson wrote:
> the last two times that i have done long, continous swims, i have experienced an upset stomach
> feeling towards the end of the swim. actually, the first time, it was about halfway through that
> problems began. i took a rest and did some easy backcrawl instead. i also just stood there and
> took it easy, drinking from my water bottle. when things felt decent again, i continued. the
> feeling never really went away, but it didn't feel quite as bad. i still managed 2x500m that day
> with the little break in between.
>
> then yesterday when i did manage a full 1000m continuous swim, i felt the sick feeling around the
> 800m mark. i took a little break for a drink of water then i soldiered on and completed the set.
>
> this isn't a total mystery to me, but i am not sure why this is suddenly happening. my guess is
> that i simply did not have the fuel in my body for me to complete these workouts very well. was i
> not hydrated enough? or should i have had more carbs in my diet prior to the swim? i do not think
> that i have drastically changed my eating/drinking habits lately, and yet this is a sudden change
> in performance. i never felt this nausea before.
>
> any thoughts would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Cam
 
In article <[email protected]>, MJuric wrote:

> Interesting. I just put a note in RST about Naseau on the bike leg after the swim. I don't
> have it on my long swims, or long rides, however if I put the two together blammo! I would
> doubt that the naseau is from lack of carbs. How long is your swim? For the most part you
> should have a carb storage of a minimum of 50 mins or so. In most cases much more. Not sure
> on the exact numbers but I believe of elite marathoners it was in the neighborhood of two
> hours glycogen storage in muscle and liver. However if your doing multiple workouts a day it
> could be and issue. One of the respondants in RST stated "swallowing water" or "air" may be
> an issue. At this point I have no idea what causes my issue, post here if you find anything
> interesting.
>
> ~Matt

Matt, yes i noticed that thread in RST but passed it over since my issue was with the swim.
and damn! i can't have THAT happening in a race, what with a bike and run afterwards. must
figure this out.

it's not due to multiple workouts that day, either. this swim day is nearly always the only workout
of the day. BUT swallowing water or air MAY be the problem. i sure do have a lot of gassy
"tendencies" after every swim. maybe i was doing more of that (whichever) on those two occasions and
it upset my stomach.

thanks for the ideas,

Cam
 
In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Chris) wrote:

> In high school when I ran track I would regularly get a naseated feeling running 220 wind sprints
> and 7-mile road runs. Maybe it's just a function of really pushing yourself. I'm not really
> getting this feeling swimming however ... maybe I'm lazier than I used to be. :)
>

hm, an interesting thought. doing this longer distance IS a pretty new thing for me. perhaps that is
the answer. so this will pass as i do it more often?

Cam
 
In article <[email protected]>,
"Martin W. Smith" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Cam Wilson wrote:
> >
> > the last two times that i have done long, continous swims, i have experienced an upset stomach
> > feeling towards the end of the swim.
>
> ...
>
> > any thoughts would be appreciated.
>
> I get that feeling often during a swim, when I am returning to swimming, as I am now, and I have
> always associated it with swallowing too much pool or sea water while swimming on an empty stomach
> when my digestive system is expecting food. Once I swim everyday at the same time for awhile, so
> that I change my eating habits accordingly, then my digestive system no longer expects food at
> that time, and the nausea doesn't occur as much.
>
> I don't know if that is a correct analysis. It might be way wrong. But the nausea has never caused
> me any real trouble. I think you can swim right through it. It never gets worse for me anyway.
>
> martin

AHA! that sounds like it. given a little thought, i recalled that i do my swims with very little or
nothing on my stomach. sometimes i even feel a bit hungry before the swim. then i'm out there
pushing for at least a half hour in a continuous swim, plus warm-up, cool-down, drills, etc. yeah,
and i KNOW i take in my share of pool water (the after effects are noisy but are easy on the
nostrils - sorry!).

i'll betcha dollars to donuts that's the answer.

thanks, Martin.

Cam
 
On Tue, 10 Jun 2003 09:18:23 +0200, "Martin W. Smith" <[email protected]> wrote:

>Cam Wilson wrote:
>>
>> the last two times that i have done long, continous swims, i have experienced an upset stomach
>> feeling towards the end of the swim.
>
>...
>
>> any thoughts would be appreciated.
>
>I get that feeling often during a swim, when I am returning to swimming, as I am now, and I have
>always associated it with swallowing too much pool or sea water while swimming on an empty stomach
>when my digestive system is expecting food. Once I swim everyday at the same time for awhile, so
>that I change my eating habits accordingly, then my digestive system no longer expects food at that
>time, and the nausea doesn't occur as much.

Interesting hadn't thought of that. Most of my races are early morning. Although I run and
bike early morning, I rarely if ever swim early morning. Thanks for the idea.

>
>I don't know if that is a correct analysis. It might be way wrong. But the nausea has never caused
>me any real trouble. I think you can swim right through it. It never gets worse for me anyway.

My nasea happens after the swim on the bike, and although it doesn't really effect my
biking, it does keep me from taking proper amount of fluids which is never a good thing when
you have a run after the bike.

~Matt

>
>martin
>
>--
>Martin Smith email: [email protected] Vollsveien 9 tel. : +47 6783 1188
>P.O. Box 482 mob. : +47 932 48 303 1327 Lysaker, Norway
 
Cam Wilson wrote:
> AHA! that sounds like it. given a little thought, i recalled that i do my swims with very little
> or nothing on my stomach. sometimes i even feel a bit hungry before the swim. then i'm out there
> pushing for at least a half hour in a continuous swim, plus warm-up, cool-down, drills, etc. yeah,
> and i KNOW i take in my share of pool water (the after effects are noisy but are easy on the
> nostrils - sorry!).
>
> i'll betcha dollars to donuts that's the answer.
>
> thanks, Martin.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying you should eat something before you swim. I'm saying that the
nausea will go away if you swim at the same time everyday, or on the days you do swim, *and* you
change your eating time for all days so that either you eat after you swim or you eat after the time
you would have swum. In other words, in my case, once my body chemistry ajusts to the training early
and eating late, the nausea diminishes.

martin

--
Martin Smith email: [email protected] Vollsveien 9 tel. : +47 6783 1188
P.O. Box 482 mob. : +47 932 48 303 1327 Lysaker, Norway
 
Cam Wilson wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Chris) wrote:
>
> > In high school when I ran track I would regularly get a naseated feeling running 220 wind
> > sprints and 7-mile road runs. Maybe it's just a function of really pushing yourself. I'm not
> > really getting this feeling swimming however ... maybe I'm lazier than I used to be. :)
> >
>
>
> hm, an interesting thought. doing this longer distance IS a pretty new thing for me. perhaps that
> is the answer. so this will pass as i do it more often?
>
> Cam

It never really passed for me--but I only ran track for one season.

Now that I think about it, I have gotten a sort of nauseated feeling from swimming butterfly or
butterfly kicks, and when doing sit-ups in the swimming center weight room. I attribute this to
abdominal muscle strain.
 
if the nausea is from pushing yourself, then yes, as you aclimatise it should pass. Remember how bad
you (probably) felt the first time you swam a length front crawl breathing *properly* rather than
however best you could? Or the first time you really pushed hard on a run?

how about keeping the distance, but taking the speed right down when you start to feel ill? This way
you don't develop a mental block about "I can only swim 800m" and over time, you'll find you can
swim a bit more at pace.

Or giving yourself a "recovery" lap once every 250m, where you swim slowly and/or change stroke.
This should give you a chance to catch your breath and be able to swim the set....again over time as
you get stronger, you should be able to lose the recovery laps.

Remember....you only learnt to swim recently! You're making fab progress....just be a small bit
patient :)

"Cam Wilson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Chris) wrote:
>
> > In high school when I ran track I would regularly get a naseated feeling running 220 wind
> > sprints and 7-mile road runs. Maybe it's just a function of really pushing yourself. I'm not
> > really getting this feeling swimming however ... maybe I'm lazier than I used to be. :)
> >
>
>
> hm, an interesting thought. doing this longer distance IS a pretty new thing for me. perhaps that
> is the answer. so this will pass as i do it more often?
>
> Cam
 
In article <[email protected]>,
"Martin W. Smith" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Cam Wilson wrote:
> > AHA! that sounds like it. given a little thought, i recalled that i do my swims with very little
> > or nothing on my stomach. sometimes i even feel a bit hungry before the swim. then i'm out there
> > pushing for at least a half hour in a continuous swim, plus warm-up, cool-down, drills, etc.
> > yeah, and i KNOW i take in my share of pool water (the after effects are noisy but are easy on
> > the nostrils - sorry!).
> >
> > i'll betcha dollars to donuts that's the answer.
> >
> > thanks, Martin.
>
> Just to be clear, I'm not saying you should eat something before you swim. I'm saying that the
> nausea will go away if you swim at the same time everyday, or on the days you do swim, *and* you
> change your eating time for all days so that either you eat after you swim or you eat after the
> time you would have swum. In other words, in my case, once my body chemistry ajusts to the
> training early and eating late, the nausea diminishes.
>
> martin

oh, so you're saying not to throw off my body's eating schedule with my swim time. so that my
stomach isn't expecting food (at 1:30pm) when i would normally eat, but am instead in the pool? just
don't mess with my regular eating schedule. right?

thanks,

Cam
 
In article <[email protected]>,
"Hedgehog & Markarina" <[email protected]> wrote:

> if the nausea is from pushing yourself, then yes, as you aclimatise it should pass. Remember how
> bad you (probably) felt the first time you swam a length front crawl breathing *properly* rather
> than however best you could? Or the first time you really pushed hard on a run?
>
> how about keeping the distance, but taking the speed right down when you start to feel ill? This
> way you don't develop a mental block about "I can only swim 800m" and over time, you'll find you
> can swim a bit more at pace.
>
> Or giving yourself a "recovery" lap once every 250m, where you swim slowly and/or change stroke.
> This should give you a chance to catch your breath and be able to swim the set....again over time
> as you get stronger, you should be able to lose the recovery laps.
>
> Remember....you only learnt to swim recently! You're making fab progress....just be a small bit
> patient :)

Patient??? Me???? Well, perhaps you are right. And if you think about it, I *have* been patient.
Let's see, I took swim lessons in early 2002, practised on my own the whole rest of the year and up
til my first triathlon this past May. I had a goal, and was intent on achieving it, and didn't
expect miracles overnight. I've just been wondering about the sick feeling on these long swims.

Good suggestions... I'll try them if need be. I *may* be pushing a little hard during this 1km
swim, but to be honest, I feel slow since others are always passing me. I don't worry about this
and keep my pace. I do throw in the odd lap which is a little faster or slower than the others,
just to mix it up.

thanks for the compliment on my progress! unfortunately i don't get that from my friend who is a
longtime swimmer. he and his wife don't seem to want to remember that i'm still pretty new to
swimming and that these distance gains really mean a lot to me. they always minimize my
accomplishments, so that now i won't even bring up swimming (no pun intended :) in conversation
unless they ask, and i won't go into detail.

but having said that, others DO remind me that i'm doing a great job. persistence pays off!

Cam
 
Cam Wilson wrote:
>
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "Martin W. Smith" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Cam Wilson wrote:
> > > AHA! that sounds like it. given a little thought, i recalled that i do my swims with very
> > > little or nothing on my stomach. sometimes i even feel a bit hungry before the swim. then i'm
> > > out there pushing for at least a half hour in a continuous swim, plus warm-up, cool-down,
> > > drills, etc. yeah, and i KNOW i take in my share of pool water (the after effects are noisy
> > > but are easy on the nostrils - sorry!).
> > >
> > > i'll betcha dollars to donuts that's the answer.
> > >
> > > thanks, Martin.
> >
> > Just to be clear, I'm not saying you should eat something before you swim. I'm saying that the
> > nausea will go away if you swim at the same time everyday, or on the days you do swim, *and* you
> > change your eating time for all days so that either you eat after you swim or you eat after the
> > time you would have swum. In other words, in my case, once my body chemistry ajusts to the
> > training early and eating late, the nausea diminishes.
> >
> > martin
>
> oh, so you're saying not to throw off my body's eating schedule with my swim time. so that my
> stomach isn't expecting food (at 1:30pm) when i would normally eat, but am instead in the pool?
> just don't mess with my regular eating schedule. right?

Basically, yes. But I think you can change your body's schedule, if you keep it that way.

--
Martin Smith email: [email protected] Vollsveien 9 tel. : +47 6783 1188
P.O. Box 482 mob. : +47 932 48 303 1327 Lysaker, Norway
 
Cam Wilson wrote:
>
> the last two times that i have done long, continous swims, i have experienced an upset stomach
> feeling towards the end of the swim. actually, the first time, it was about halfway through that
> problems began.

Another possiblity to consider here is that you might be suffering from a problem that skindivers
experience using a snorkel. You might not be exhaling enough. Some swimmers are a bit afraid of
swallowing water, so they are a bit too careful about inhaling for fear of inhaling water. They end
up not exhaling enough, which results in not getting enough oxygen. Skindivers can have this problem
if their exhale is too shallow, which means too much of the air they then inhale is the air in the
snorkel they just exhaled.

martin

--
Martin Smith email: [email protected] Vollsveien 9 tel. : +47 6783 1188
P.O. Box 482 mob. : +47 932 48 303 1327 Lysaker, Norway
 
In article <[email protected]>,
"Martin W. Smith" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Cam Wilson wrote:
> >
> > the last two times that i have done long, continous swims, i have experienced an upset stomach
> > feeling towards the end of the swim. actually, the first time, it was about halfway through that
> > problems began.
>
> Another possiblity to consider here is that you might be suffering from a problem that skindivers
> experience using a snorkel. You might not be exhaling enough. Some swimmers are a bit afraid of
> swallowing water, so they are a bit too careful about inhaling for fear of inhaling water. They
> end up not exhaling enough, which results in not getting enough oxygen. Skindivers can have this
> problem if their exhale is too shallow, which means too much of the air they then inhale is the
> air in the snorkel they just exhaled.
>
> martin

i don't think that's a problem. in fact, i often exhale quite forcefully. and i find that my exhales
and inhales will vary from time to time over a long continuous swim. occasionally my inhales become
a bit laboured, so that's when i'll work on a more calming breathing pattern to relax myself again.
exhaling too much can cause that gasping inhale for me.

Cam
 
Hi everyone.

Sometimes i fell that nausea too, when swimming, but i think it is because of the effort or maybe
because of execess effort and lack off food. I swim always in the morning just before going to work,
I only eat one yogurt or one fruit, (banana, apple). Then i make my swimming workout, 45 min after
my little meal. I only fell my nausea when i make more effort than usual, normally when swimming
butterfly, or 50m sprints, where i give all energy i have. I have alot of gases after swimming, this
is not very good for social reasons, but i never thought that it was because of drinking pool water.
I wonder if that happens too when swalloing sea water?

Hope this is of some use to the discussion.

"Chris" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Cam Wilson wrote:
> > In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Chris) wrote:
> >
> > > In high school when I ran track I would regularly get a naseated feeling running 220 wind
> > > sprints and 7-mile road runs. Maybe it's just a function of really pushing yourself. I'm not
> > > really getting
this
> > > feeling swimming however ... maybe I'm lazier than I used to be. :)
> > >
> >
> >
> > hm, an interesting thought. doing this longer distance IS a pretty new thing for me. perhaps
> > that is the answer. so this will pass as i do it more often?
> >
> > Cam
>
> It never really passed for me--but I only ran track for one season.
>
> Now that I think about it, I have gotten a sort of nauseated feeling from swimming butterfly or
> butterfly kicks, and when doing sit-ups in the swimming center weight room. I attribute this to
> abdominal muscle strain.
 
Manuel Silva wrote:
>
> Hi everyone.
>
> Sometimes i fell that nausea too, when swimming, but i think it is because of the effort or maybe
> because of execess effort and lack off food. I swim always in the morning just before going to
> work, I only eat one yogurt or one fruit, (banana, apple). Then i make my swimming workout, 45 min
> after my little meal. I only fell my nausea when i make more effort than usual, normally when
> swimming butterfly, or 50m sprints, where i give all energy i have. I have alot of gases after
> swimming, this is not very good for social reasons, but i never thought that it was because of
> drinking pool water. I wonder if that happens too when swalloing sea water?
>
> Hope this is of some use to the discussion.

I think your problem would diminish if you didn't eat before swimming. The banana would probably be
ok, but the other stuff might still be in your stomach after 45 min. Apple skins would be a
problem, I think.

martin

--
Martin Smith email: [email protected] Vollsveien 9 tel. : +47 6783 1188
P.O. Box 482 mob. : +47 932 48 303 1327 Lysaker, Norway
 
OK, it's good to hear that i'm not the only one who experiences a lot of stomach gas after a swim...
this must be typical for people who bring in a lot of water (?).

cam

In article <[email protected]>,
"Manuel Silva" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi everyone.
>
> Sometimes i fell that nausea too, when swimming, but i think it is because of the effort or maybe
> because of execess effort and lack off food. I swim always in the morning just before going to
> work, I only eat one yogurt or one fruit, (banana, apple). Then i make my swimming workout, 45 min
> after my little meal. I only fell my nausea when i make more effort than usual, normally when
> swimming butterfly, or 50m sprints, where i give all energy i have. I have alot of gases after
> swimming, this is not very good for social reasons, but i never thought that it was because of
> drinking pool water. I wonder if that happens too when swalloing sea water?
>
> Hope this is of some use to the discussion.
>
> "Chris" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Cam Wilson wrote:
> > > In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Chris)
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > In high school when I ran track I would regularly get a naseated feeling running 220 wind
> > > > sprints and 7-mile road runs. Maybe it's just a function of really pushing yourself. I'm not
> > > > really getting
> this
> > > > feeling swimming however ... maybe I'm lazier than I used to be. :)
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > > hm, an interesting thought. doing this longer distance IS a pretty new thing for me. perhaps
> > > that is the answer. so this will pass as i do it more often?
> > >
> > > Cam
> >
> > It never really passed for me--but I only ran track for one season.
> >
> > Now that I think about it, I have gotten a sort of nauseated feeling from swimming butterfly or
> > butterfly kicks, and when doing sit-ups in the swimming center weight room. I attribute this to
> > abdominal muscle strain.
 
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