Hi Mike:
Did you do much training before doing the 50 miler? Your nausea could be from a variety of things, including, but not limited to:
- Temperature during the ride (were you perspiring a great deal?)
- The amount and type of food that you had in your stomach both before and during the ride
- The amount of Gatorade that you drank and how you paced yourself drinking it
- How quickly you ate after the ride, what you ate, and the quantity.
Gatorade is ok as a sports drink - pretty good for replacing sodium, but IMHO there are better drinks out there (Cytomax, Extran). Gatorade does not sit well in my stomach, but I have no problem with the others. The times that I have had nausea during and after a ride were
1) When I tried a new drink at a rest stop that I had never had before (I felt like I was going to get sick for the next 25 miles)
2) When I ate too much at a rest stop.
3) When I got dehydrated and overheated during a desert ride and took in too much fluid at a time (2 bottles).
Assuming that you have been using Gatorade with success, look to the other factors and do some testing. Over time, you will learn what you can and cannot eat and drink before, during, and after an event. My rule of thumb is to not change what you eat or drink, or anything on your bike just before an event.
Hope that this helps.
DJ