Hey guys,

It seems like everytime that I do a competitive ride where I spend an hour or more over my anaerobic threshold I feel sick for a while after the ride. Any idea what causes this? Is it a response to the lactic acid?

-Stephen

I'd be curious for an explanation too. I've never gotten to the point of actually puking, but felt myself getting dangerously close during my first road race weekend before last.

Exercise induces gastric ischemia in healthy volunteers: a tonometry study


Johannes A. Otte1, Ellie Oostveen2, Robert H. Geelkerken3, A. B. Johan Groeneveld4, and Jeroen J. Kolkman1

1 Departments of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, 2 Pulmonology, and 3 Surgery, Medisch Spectrum Twente, Enschede, and 4 Medical Intensive Care Unit, Free University Hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
(http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/91/2/866)

Hey guys,

It seems like everytime that I do a competitive ride where I spend an hour or more over my anaerobic threshold I feel sick for a while after the ride. Any idea what causes this? Is it a response to the lactic acid?

-Stephen

I guess that's why they call it a threshold.

Here's another article about possible contributors:


Age alters regional distribution of blood flow during moderate-intensity exercise

W. L. Kenney and C. W. Ho

Noll Physiological Research Center, Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16802-6900, USA.

(http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/79/4/1112?ijkey=43c4c068a0b8a58be28c1ea0eb1cf84918ddf2dd&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha)

Exercise induces gastric ischemia in healthy volunteers: a tonometry study


Johannes A. Otte1, Ellie Oostveen2, Robert H. Geelkerken3, A. B. Johan Groeneveld4, and Jeroen J. Kolkman1

1 Departments of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, 2 Pulmonology, and 3 Surgery, Medisch Spectrum Twente, Enschede, and 4 Medical Intensive Care Unit, Free University Hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
(http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/91/2/866)


I hate reading stuff like this, I'm plagued by gut problems on longer distance races.

I hate reading stuff like this, I'm plagued by gut problems on longer distance races.

Summary: The higher the intensity, the more blood is shunted away from the digestive system. Additionally, the higher the intensity, lactic acid accumulation may not be able to be neutralized by the acid buffering system causing digestive system problems.

^^^^ +1

I feel sick after 5 sprints with ~3 minutes of recovery between them. 15 minutes of recovery and I feel brand new.

You might try a few things:
1) Make sure you're properly hydrated. This doesn't just mean water - potassium, electrolytes, etc count too.
2) Alter the things you eat pre-ride and make sure that you've digested it all. Everyone's a little different, so it's hard to make specific suggestions. People on my team have found that, when training hard, everything from peppermint tea to too much water makes the latter parts of their rides a little pukey.
3) Be sure that you're ready for that kind of workout. 60+ minutes over LT is harder than it sounds. Although your legs may be ready to do it, the rest of your body may not. Train up gradually.

Hope that helps.

This is me. During my racing career, where my teammates got tired, I got sick. Physically sick. Now, with some recovery, I could generally get a second wind, and I don't recall ever getting sick twice. But MAN, that first time was usually enough to blow me out the back of the peloton and out of the race.

Yeah, youve never ran a good TT until youve made yourself vomit.

You really have to suffer and push yourself to make youself puke. I race a TT last week where I averaged 5 beats over LT for 10 miles, I thought I was going to vomit.

Yeah, youve never ran a good TT until youve made yourself vomit.

You really have to suffer and push yourself to make youself puke. I race a TT last week where I averaged 5 beats over LT for 10 miles, I thought I was going to vomit.
Dude, I wish I could do this! My power drops if I do. How do you do it?!

Maybe I need to bump up my cadence? I find that over 182 or so, my legs start burning and the consequence is power loss. But the terrible thing is that I can hold a conversation no problem and am breathing easily during a timed ride.

This week Ill try something different and power up and then rest down the last few rollers to see if I can make myself sick or at least breathe heavily.

Dude, I wish I could do this! My power drops if I do. How do you do it?!

Maybe I need to bump up my cadence? I find that over 182 or so, my legs start burning and the consequence is power loss. But the terrible thing is that I can hold a conversation no problem and am breathing easily during a timed ride.

This week Ill try something different and power up and then rest down the last few rollers to see if I can make myself sick or at least breathe heavily.

Honestly Its just time trialing a lot. Good time trialists like millar or whoever can ride above LT for a long time. It takes a lot of concentration and dealing with the pain.

Riding above LT hurts and makes you want to vomit, youve just got to push yourself and focus on riding hard.

I find that over 182 or so, my legs start burning and the consequence is power loss. But the terrible thing is that I can hold a conversation no problem and am breathing easily during a timed ride.

Most likely this means you need more endurance training [i.e. riding more than one hour at a time, at intensity]. Your lactate threshold isn't as high relative to your VO2 max, but this can be trained. Just needs time, most likely.

-Bullseye