Puking on intense rides?

[Gagemr]

So 2 days ago I did a criterium that was one of the most intense rides I've ever done. After pushing hard for 45 minutes I went all out in the sprint and ended up having to stop to puke after the race was over. I didn't actually throw up anything since I ate a very light breakfast 3.5 hours before the race. I've found that if I eat within a few hours of the race my body has trouble digesting it and I feel bad all race. Anyways, in the final sprint my heart rate maxed out at 199, which is normal for me. In my race last month I maxed out at 204 and didn't have this problem. So I thought it may have just been a result of putting in a very long, hard effort.

What scared me was when this morning, 2 days after the race, it happened to me again. This time it was a tempo group ride and I was only about 20 minutes in. Normally we are constantly rotating so you are not in the wind for more then a few seconds. Well I got hung out for about 30 seconds and had to stop once again to puke. I have been doing this ride for months and never had this problem. The ride starts at 5:15am so normally I don't eat breakfast until after. This time my heat rate was at 188 when it happened, which again is completely normal for me. It's a twice a week ride and I frequently hit 190 bpm in the final sprint.

Anyways, I'm just trying to figure out what my be causing it. Is it my body being fatuiged from the race? My legs feel great. Could it be something to do with my diet?

The last thing that worries me is that I sufffer from cold-induced athsma. The race was the first time that I've ever done a threshold effort in cold weather (35-40 farenheight). Today was a little chilly but not nearly as bad (just under 60 degrees). So could this be a result of my body trying to clear mucus out of my lungs that is being generated due to the cold weather.

So just wondering if anybody has experienced this or may have an idea what is causing it. Thanks.

 

[Corzhens]

That puking may be due to acid reflux and not directly caused by your riding. Particularly if you sense that something is wrong with your throat, I would advise you to see an internist so you would know the problem. Throwing up can have several causes but when connected to athletic activity, it is not normal.

 

[Jcycle]

If you are puking you are over doing it for whatever your health or condition is at the time. You should consult your doctor with all the information surrounding the event.

 

[pwarbi]

I think it might be your bodies way of telling you that your over doing it. It's never happened to me, but it has happened to a couple of people I've rode with in the past, and it's been when they've tried to keep up with a breakaway but been too exhausted.

 

[kuroba]

I've felt nauseous a couple times when riding too hard when I'm too tired (usually on the way back from a considerable ride), I think it's the way my body is telling me I'm overdoing it, so I slow down or stop for a while before actually puking.

Maybe your body is still resented from that hard ride, and you need a couple days of rest to recover (I know, it sucks not to ride, but sometimes it's better to stop for a few days that to have it escalate to a serious health issue).

 

[mauricioq]

You probably just pushed your body way too much. You now know more about your limits, think about it so it doesn't happen again. Never happened to me, when i feel way too tired, I just start to slow down.

 

[Weatherby]

The cold part of your post? yes.

Nausea in general? No

The only time I might get nauseous is during long, hot climbs if I have too much fluid in my stomach. I try not to eat or drink too close to a big effort. I don't race much anymore but did a couple Cat 3 and Masters races last year and some of the efforts to hang shattered me. I was looking down at my power meter asking, "Who are these guys?" but I did not feel like puking although I also had no desire to eat after the sprint. I know a guy who pukes on every ride.

 

[Froze]

The most common reasons for you're problem is dehydration and heat exhaustion, if you ruled out those two problems then see the next sentence.

Please read this, there is a lot of reading but you need to read it: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4027831/

I've never had this problem nor knew anyone that did but it isn't uncommon.

 

[Weatherby]

Dehydration does not cause puking. The only symptom of dehydration is thirst.

http://running.competitor.com/2014/05/nutrition/the-truth-about-dehydration-and-performance_76027

http://www.amazon.com/Waterlogged-Serious-Problem-Overhydration-Endurance/dp/145042497X

http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2012/06/waterlogged/

 

[Froze]

Dehydration does not cause puking. The only symptom of dehydration is thirst.

http://running.competitor.com/2014/05/nutrition/the-truth-about-dehydration-and-performance_76027

http://www.amazon.com/Waterlogged-Serious-Problem-Overhydration-Endurance/dp/145042497X

http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2012/06/waterlogged/

I disagree and so do many others including the NCBI report I mentioned earlier, see:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/4...ientists.com/HTML/questions/question/1000148/
http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/puking-primer
I can go on and on, it's all over the internet that dehydration can cause puking during exercise. Also gulping to much liquid instead of sipping it prevents the stomach from processing it correctly and thus rejects the fluid.

 

[Weatherby]

I disagree and so do many others including the NCBI report I mentioned earlier, see:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/4...ientists.com/HTML/questions/question/1000148/
http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/puking-primer
I can go on and on, it's all over the internet that dehydration can cause puking during exercise. Also gulping to much liquid instead of sipping it prevents the stomach from processing it correctly and thus rejects the fluid.

I read your link and it was useless. Read Noakes' book and I'll engage. You are changing the nature of the subject from dehydration causing nausea to one potential cause....gulping.

Drinking Gatorade causes tummy aches with many people like me because of the rather high amount of garbage high fructose fructose in it but that is also besides my point, which was drink to thirst and no more or less.

If you can go on and on, why didn't you?

Anyone contemplating long distance endurance events like centuries should read Noakes book or simply drink to thirst. An athlete can only absorb so fluid per hour w/o negative consequences and that amount is closer to 16 oz per hour than a liter per hour. The Camelbak's guidance spit out 44 oz per hour. if I drank this much over the course of say a double century, I would be dead. Dead. The guidance that it provides is very dangerous.

I am out of this thread. GL

 

[Gagemr]

Thank you all for the replies. Unfortunatly I am very confident that it wasn't water related. I drank a normal amount of water and was not sweating very much. I have been both overhydrated and dehydrated and it felt nothing like either of those. The feeling was more in my throat and I never really had an upset stomach or a nauseous feeling.

It happened again last Thursday at about the same intensity as it did the second time, although I forgot my heart rate monitor so I don't have the exact numbers. I decided to do easy riding Friday-Sunday, then take today off entirely. I will go out on the tempo ride tomorrow and see how I feel. If it happens again I will see a doctor.

 

[Froze]

I read your link and it was useless. Read Noakes' book and I'll engage. You are changing the nature of the subject from dehydration causing nausea to one potential cause....gulping.

Drinking Gatorade causes tummy aches with many people like me because of the rather high amount of garbage high fructose fructose in it but that is also besides my point, which was drink to thirst and no more or less.

If you can go on and on, why didn't you?

Anyone contemplating long distance endurance events like centuries should read Noakes book or simply drink to thirst. An athlete can only absorb so fluid per hour w/o negative consequences and that amount is closer to 16 oz per hour than a liter per hour. The Camelbak's guidance spit out 44 oz per hour. if I drank this much over the course of say a double century, I would be dead. Dead. The guidance that it provides is very dangerous.

I am out of this thread. GL

No I did not change to gulping and if you read all the links and what I said in regards to the original subject matter you would have determined that.

If the guidance that Camebak provides is dangerous kindly inform them of their error of their ways, I'm sure they would want to hear from you to prevent a lawsuit from someone dying from drinking to much as per their advice.

 

[Bicycleman]

Thank you all for the replies. Unfortunatly I am very confident that it wasn't water related. I drank a normal amount of water and was not sweating very much. I have been both overhydrated and dehydrated and it felt nothing like either of those. The feeling was more in my throat and I never really had an upset stomach or a nauseous feeling.

It happened again last Thursday at about the same intensity as it did the second time, although I forgot my heart rate monitor so I don't have the exact numbers. I decided to do easy riding Friday-Sunday, then take today off entirely. I will go out on the tempo ride tomorrow and see how I feel. If it happens again I will see a doctor.

Did you have the need to cough before throwing up? I too have asthma and sometimes I will start coughing to the point that I gag from the coughing, but it has never caused me to throw up unless I had some kind of bug where I was sick or had an upset stomach.

Your intense efforts, requiring such hard breathing, may be causing a gag reflex, resulting in the throwing up. I had that happen to me once when I ran long distance but never on the bike.

 

[jimmy484]

Being at the point of puking is something you might encounter only a handful of times in a racing career; for it to happen twice in a training week would suggest you're going beyond some limit you really shouldn't be going beyond. I'd definitely say you first need to throttle back, and possibly even see a doctor.

 

[Gagemr]

Did you have the need to cough before throwing up? I too have asthma and sometimes I will start coughing to the point that I gag from the coughing, but it has never caused me to throw up unless I had some kind of bug where I was sick or had an upset stomach.

Your intense efforts, requiring such hard breathing, may be causing a gag reflex, resulting in the throwing up. I had that happen to me once when I ran long distance but never on the bike.

Yes this sounds very much like it. I was coughing more then usual throughout the course of the race. Eventually it got to the point where I had that gagging feeling. It the race I kept pushing since I was almost to the line which caused me to have a puking reflex after the race. Like I said I never threw anything up, but I feel like if I had anything to throw up I would've.

In training I pulled out as soon as I started to gag I stopped and it continued for a few seconds, then I was fine. The second time in training I felt it coming and pulled out immediately. That time I never had to stop and recovered almost immediately.

 

[Gagemr]

Well good news for this morning. I was able to do the tempo ride without having any issues with this. Sat in the draft for most of the ride but I did a practice leadout at the end as the last rider before the sprinter.

I ended up getting my heart rate up to 198 but I didn't want to max out today. I felt no ill effects on that effort. On Thursday I will do the sprint myself and see how I feel. If all goes well with that I will take a few easy days then race Sunday.

I have races the next 2 weekends but then I have a few weeks off so I will experiment to see if I can find the cause if all this. For now I don't want to make any big changes to my training.

 

[JeffBrown]

Puking can happen because of many different things, either acid reflux or you pushed yourself to hard are two of the main reasons I can think of. I deal with acid reflux, and seeing as that you said it happened within 20 minutes on the second ride, seems like to me acid reflux since it is random. There are pills you can try and see if they help. I would maybe consult your doctor and see what they say.

 

[An old Guy]

Anyone contemplating long distance endurance events like centuries should read Noakes book or simply drink to thirst. An athlete can only absorb so fluid per hour w/o negative consequences and that amount is closer to 16 oz per hour than a liter per hour.

The purpose of training is to change one's ability. It is not difficult to increase one's ability to process fluids.

I used to drink 2 water bottle - 20oz each and 44oz of pop every 2 to 2-1/2 hours in the summer. So that is about 40oz/hour. But I needed to lose about 40oz/hour to allow that to happen.

Centuries do not need to be long distance endurance events. 6-10 hours on a bicycle can be a normal day. What makes it an endurance event is beating oneself up during the event.

 

[Ram Shah]

You probably rode too much the day before! You should go see a doctor and try to tell him the circumstances under which it happened and also rest a little even I the doctor has no suggestions! Laying off the bike for a couple of days is simpler than it progressing into a serious issue!