"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Vomiting from an effort / workout

I see lots of references to this... but I have only ever once thrown up because of an effort or workout, and I think in that case I had just eaten the wrong thing too close to ride time.

I really don't think I'm such a slacker that I'm just not going hard enough... so what is it? Should I eat more cheese fries before each workout?

I've never actually puked but come close after a TT once. I've had a gastro problem of a different nature on several occasions though.

depends on the workout. 3' vo2max intervals and tabatas push me to the edge almost every time, but 20 minute intervals just leave me ho-hum and a little tired.

I think some people respond to max eforts differently than others. Never happened to me.

Happened to me once many years ago (cresting a short, sharp hill, trying to keep up with the pack--I'm a large rider). But not since. I think it's a matter of your system being used to approaching its limits.

I think some people respond to max eforts differently than others. Never happened to me.

I ran with a guy in hs who could puke at will, even doing an easy recovery run. I've only puked once, and it was after swimming tryouts my junior year which involved a bunch of stuff that wasn't swimming and which I wasn't in great shape for.

i have only come close a couple of times and only after 5min efforts. perhaps because I am pushing to such a higher limit than a 20min effort because I know it's so short.

Did once after too many margaritas and beer at a Mexican restaurant the night before a running race. It was a hot and humid August race that finished at the top of a steep hill. People scattered getting away from me.

Did once after too many margaritas and beer at a Mexican restaurant the night before a running race. It was a hot and humid August race that finished at the top of a steep hill. People scattered getting away from me.

I'm laughing with you b/c I ran a half-marathon on a real bad hangover once. It wasn't pretty.

Only when I don't eat enough.

I hope to never puke on the bike.

Sure, I've felt sick after tabattas/intervals, but not that sick.

I have never been sick from intervals and I have only seen one guy puke at a race and that was a new Cat 5 at the track that overcooked a couple of efforts and was not used to the intensity but it was probably due to eating too much before the racing. My arms can go sort of numb behind the motor at the track at high cadence and power and I am gasping for air but that is all.

Liz Hatch did an interview on the Velocast in which she described another girl puking on her during a race, in the middle of the peloton. Never slowed, never wavered, didn't stop.

When I was a kid doing '2-a-days' in football practice, there was invariably people throwing up. I never did. Not that I didn't feel like crap, I just never felt the need to puke. Same on the bike. I might ride myself into a hole so deep that the trip home happens at 10 mph, but I don't really feel the need to puke.

During one cyclocross race I was going really hard and feeling like hell. I came down a hill around a wall/blind corner and starting up a muddy incline. On the outside of the corner in a bunch of mud was a guy on all fours puking his guts out. Mental note..."At least I'm not him".

I've had lots of reflux in my throat situations due to hard efforts. I'm thinking that these don't count.

I have had one mouthful that I then swallowed after one really hard effort. I will leave it to the BF judges to determine if that is a true vomit.

I have yet to leave chunks on the pavement.

I've been on a guy's wheel in a race when he started puking. It wasn't the most pleasant thing.

I had a teammate that seemed to get sick on command. I also caught on cam (I forgot about it until I read this thread) someone pulling off to get sick at a training race this year.

I've never gotten sick on the bike. The ones that I've seen get sick seem to think of it as proof they were working hard. I see it as proof they were working kinda dumb. Well, if they won and puked, fine. But puked and OTB, that's no good.

I also haven't passed out from effort. A long time ago a medalist in the Olympics in the track fainted on the podium - Eddy B pointed to that example as a rider that has ridden hard enough. I've also been able to get up and down stairs, even if I don't feel like it - someone else pointed out that this one sprinter had to be carried up the stairs after the end of a mountain stage.

I have cramped but that's no biggie unless you're driving. Or you have your mouth full, in which case it sucks to be across from you.

One of my best ever rides was after the most serious night of drinking I ever had. I probably rode well because I didn't retain 10 or 15 or 20 of the drinks I had (I weighed maybe 145 at the time, drank about 20 drinks, and admittedly got sick at least a few times - the host of the party is still a friend so I couldn't have been that bad :) ). I slept a few hours, got a ride to my car, drove to Gimbles, and slayed all. I just remember being soaked in sweat, unnaturally so, but feeling immensely strong. The others may have gotten woozy from the alcohol oozing out of my pores, who knows.

cdr

Great story cdr... I can recall several times when I've felt really good racing with a hangover. No puking though.

I used to ride with a guy who is lactose intolerant, but every day he'd come home from school and just drink a big glass of milk. Then meet me and not 10 minutes into our ride, up it comes. He was good at it, turn his head, puke, never deviating from his line or pace.

I've been hit with a couple threatening waves of nausea before. It's more likely to happen after an intense anaerobic effort vs. a sustained hard effort (like a TT)--just throwing that out there because I've known several people who'd regularly puke after/during TTs. Although I might say, "I feel like I'm gonna puke," in reality, I am probably closer to passing out than to vomiting. Reflux is a regular thing, usually happens when someone decides to attack too soon after I've eaten something, but it can also occur in TTs. I can usually recover from that just by sitting a bit more upright. Sometimes, I have to also dial back the HR a bit.

When puking is not enough...The racer who runs our Elite 1/2 team and raced on the old Webcor men's Pro team was giving me instructions on how to pace a 40K ITT. It was simple... pace each 10K section with more power and in the final 10K you keep putting in a little more power until you taste blood in your mouth. I do not think I got quite to that point. Obviously, I need more work.

I had a teammate that seemed to get sick on command. I also caught on cam (I forgot about it until I read this thread) someone pulling off to get sick at a training race this year.

I've never gotten sick on the bike. The ones that I've seen get sick seem to think of it as proof they were working hard. I see it as proof they were working kinda dumb. Well, if they won and puked, fine. But puked and OTB, that's no good.

Good point. I've puked four times from cycling efforts. Two of them were following 1' attack race wins, one was training sprints that got out of hand, and the other was after setting a 1' personal best power average. So, that's once every five years for me (though two of those were since I got the power meter :innocent:). It seems that for me, it takes a rapid burst of lactic acid to get my liver freaked out (causing nausea), then hitting my max HR in the same effort, and presumably my max resp. rate. All of these were on race-nutrition only. No table food in my stomach or coming out of it. Two of those efforts I had an HR strap on, and could confirm max HR. The other two, I wasn't wearing it.

Tour de Gruene in bad form on a hacked together TT bike with Lance chasing.

100 degree TT in bad form on a good TT bike.

So it's either TT's or bad form.

In HS running the 800m was as close to puking as I've ever come. Just under sprint intensity for just under 2 minutes. When I was finished I would be dizzy and nauseous.

Great story cdr...

I forgot to mention that I met a future girlfriend at that party - I was kinda shy but she asked me out later. And a former err something, girlfriend/crushee/whatever came over, hung out for a few hours, drove me home (hers), and drove me back the next morning so I could go ride. That just makes the story a bit better :) So I couldn't have been that bad that night. Or I was so bad that I was.. never mind.

The future girlfriend is an ex- now but she visited a race to say hi and stuff this year. It's been a long, long time, maybe 8 years, and since she moved to Brazil right after we split up, I was shocked to say the least. The host of the party (long time racer) came in to registration give me a heads up, about 20 seconds before the women walked in (her and her sister). I was stunned.

Just to clarify this has absolutely nothing to do with vomiting from an effort.

when i first started training a couple years ago i puked often, now i think id fall over dead before i puked. im more likely to see stars or my vision fade. whatever.

I've thrown up a little on two different occasions during TT's. Many more times than that reading BF.

I've puked a few times.

Mostly it was after just eating or drinking on the bike and having to do a really hard, extended effort.

I've been nauseous a few times after a race - especially a race with a long break - and I know I would have puked if I'd eaten anything for about 30 minutes. Then it passes and I start into the liquids and fruit.

One more. My teammate and I were waiting for the race at Providence RI. They were either running late or we mistimed our food schedule - I was starving before the race. I went to a hot dog cart by the start/finish, bought a couple hotdogs and a huge Coke and scarfed it all down. My teammate must have been salivating watching me eat because he went and did the same thing. This was about 10 minutes before the start. My teammate dropped out with serious stomach cramps. I waited a bit too long to launch my sprint but did fine (a friendly rival went early and for about 5 seconds I automatically went into "block for him" mode - I got second by about a wheel).

cast iron stomach?
cdr

I puked once after a run on a hot day, but that was more to do with being dehydrated and possibly mild heat stroke than with the effort.

Try running/slogging a ten mile navigation course in snowshoes and full ruck. There was so much puke out there that you didn't need a compass.

I find no joy in pushing myself to that level anymore.

Good point. I've puked four times from cycling efforts. Two of them were following 1' attack race wins, one was training sprints that got out of hand, and the other was after setting a 1' personal best power average. So, that's once every five years for me (though two of those were since I got the power meter :innocent:). It seems that for me, it takes a rapid burst of lactic acid to get my liver freaked out (causing nausea), then hitting my max HR in the same effort, and presumably my max resp. rate. All of these were on race-nutrition only. No table food in my stomach or coming out of it. Two of those efforts I had an HR strap on, and could confirm max HR. The other two, I wasn't wearing it.

This reminds me of the one time I did make it to the gagging stage, though not quite to the heaving stage. I was riding a few months ago with a bunch of dudes that consisted of either elite level racers or complete novice collegiate cyclists. The near puke inducing incident happened when a teammate tried to set me up for the town line sprint against the winner of the 50+ green jersey at GMSR, who had jumped into our group for the last few miles back into town. I didn't win the sprint (no surprise) but I tried hard. There was also a bridge effort and a short, kinda steep hill within a mile or so of that sprint effort that may have dragged out the anaerobic effort a bit longer than I could take.

I've tasted blood towards the end of some TTs. Most of my TTs have been in the colder months, so the cold, dry air may have something to do with it. I always develop a cough after a TT for at least the rest of the day.

I've tasted blood towards the end of some TTs. Most of my TTs have been in the colder months, so the cold, dry air may have something to do with it. I always develop a cough after a TT for at least the rest of the day.

I've tasted blood in races more times than I can remember.

Race hacks are par for the course. I have to tell my wife that I'm not sick, it's from racing. She always looks at me in a dubious fashion.

Im a 3-timer. Twice after two different 1-minute interval sets and once after a VO2Max interval set in the heat.

I notice these are different than binge drinking ralphing. Not as much substance but both leave me laying somewhere swearing I'm never going to do this again.

I threw up in the second lap of a crit once, but not from the effort, I was just regular sick. I haven't had an espresso gel since.

Long anaerobic efforts are enough to make me feel nauseous, but I've never actually been sick. The only reason I've even come close to actually throwing up mid-race is because I seem to swallow a lot of air when I'm going really hard. Having all that air in my stomach is uncomfortable, but I learned at Battenkill '09 that trying to belch it back out when going at 100% carries a very real risk of taking your Clif bar with it. That was a near thing.

I would suggest not mouth-breathing, but my nasal passages are too constricted for nose-breathing when my heart rate is over 110 bpm, let alone several minutes pushing VO2.

I've never gotten sick on the bike. The ones that I've seen get sick seem to think of it as proof they were working hard. I see it as proof they were working kinda dumb.

Also, this times a million. Some people are more likely to puke, sure, but puking on every training ride doesn't mean that you're training better than your teammates, it means that you're an idiot.

Yes, I had a teammate who thought this.

Also, this times a million. Some people are more likely to puke, sure, but puking on every training ride doesn't mean that you're training better than your teammates, it means that you're an idiot.

:lol:

btw Tasting blood means breathing hard and bursting air sacs. That's kind of normal. Heck a trumpet player could verify this. It's a common ailment for wind/horn players. For cyclists it usually means super hard efforts, cold air, or some other stuff that escapes me.

I've been coughing since this mornings session.

:lol:

btw Tasting blood means breathing hard and bursting air sacs. That's kind of normal. Heck a trumpet player could verify this. It's a common ailment for wind/horn players. For cyclists it usually means super hard efforts, cold air, or some other stuff that escapes me.

Yup. i taste blood in early season races. It is a combination of the air still being near freezing and the fact that I am not usually in race-shape yet, so those efforts are extra difficult.

I've lost it about 3-4 times after crits during the hottest parts of the year. It will come out like buckshot immediately once I stop. Always get queezy after stopping immediately following intense efforts; learned the hard way that spinning for 10 min afterwards seems to keep the blood flowing and other things in check. Everyone always asks me WTF I'm doing after the finish when I'm nowhere to be found.

As I've gotten older, my stomach has gotten more sensitive for some reason. Motion sickness was never a problem years back. Now riding in the back of a car will make me throw up without question. Forget flying in small airplanes (i.e. Piper or Cessna).