Training & Nutrition - Fend off the nausea?

Whenever I decide to go for a "training ride," vs. a leisure or a technique ride, I start to get sick. Sick while I'm riding and sick a few minutes after the ride.

I'm not a great rider by any means - having a 27km/h (16.7mph) average is about as fast as I can go. Still, today I went out biking on hills with/against a 30km/h wind. I started to feel really sick during the ride - nauseous sick. This happens whenever I decide to push it, usually after the first 15 minutes of riding. Is there something I can do that stops me from feeling sick (other than "pushing it")? Is there something I can put in my water that is safe and reduces the sickness feeling? Is there a prep method I can do before the ride that helps reduce the sickness? Any ideas?

Thank a lot!

Your nausea could be the result of several things. Are you eating a lot before and during the ride? What foods? It could also be that you're consuming too much fluids and have lots of water sloshing around your stomach. Many people have problems with sports drinks and find them to be too sweet which can lead to an upset stomach.

Yet it could also be simply riding at a high anaerobic threshold that's causing it as well. Perhaps you're trying to ride at a level that's too high to sustain for more than a few minutes. Any racer will tell you about having to push themselves to the barf threshold from time to time.

I don't eat before my rides - only after. As well, my only drink is water. It could be that I drink too much, but I need to drink (my body is telling me to).

So it's just the push-it deal, eh? Nothing to help fight it off?

Whenever I decide to go for a "training ride," vs. a leisure or a technique ride, I start to get sick. Sick while I'm riding and sick a few minutes after the ride.

I'm not a great rider by any means - having a 27km/h (16.7mph) average is about as fast as I can go. Still, today I went out biking on hills with/against a 30km/h wind. I started to feel really sick during the ride - nauseous sick. This happens whenever I decide to push it, usually after the first 15 minutes of riding. Is there something I can do that stops me from feeling sick (other than "pushing it")? Is there something I can put in my water that is safe and reduces the sickness feeling? Is there a prep method I can do before the ride that helps reduce the sickness? Any ideas?

Thank a lot!

Maybe you need to warm up? Are you starting your hard effort right out the door? Are you 'pushing it a little' or are you pushing to your absolute limit? If you're just pushing it a little, that is not normal to be nauseated. Maybe talk to a doctor?

Experiment. Everyone is different. I'd say try eating about 400 cal. of carbo-rich food about 2 hours before you ride, but nothing too hard to digest. Do NOT eat 2 Clif bars one after the other. Personally, I use about 3/4 cup of a peanut/raisin/M&M mixture, but anything like that would work. Bowl of cereal, bananas, toast, whatever.

You probably feel thirsty because you aren't getting any electrolytes while or before you ride. Try some kind of sports drink while you ride. Many people find Gatorade OK, others not. Half and half Coke and water works for others. Some like Cytomax. Plain water and one Clif bar or some such per hour works for some. I like Endurolytes from e-caps.com for electrolytes. There are many other such products. Usually when I have this issue it's on a long hard ride and an Endurolyte or two fixes me right up.

OTOH, don't eat so much that your stomach doesn't empty. I'm saying that if your stomach isn't behaving you probably need to put something different into it. You'll have to figure out what that is. The reason you only get this issue when you go hard is that's exactly what makes digestion into an issue for all of us. Experiment.