Hey

Following speaking with my coach after getting dropped from the lead group on a tight hotdog crit on the weekend, I was doing short burst standing sprints last night to try and build up my sprint.

I would be at 20km/h and then (in 50/13) quickly spin up to 45-46km/h (over about 50-100m) and keep it going for about another 100-150m (2/3 the way round the velo) before slowing at the start line, taking a lap to recover at 20km/h and then doing it again.

I did about 30 minutes of this (about 20-25 repeats), but on the last couple I started to feel ill. Legs felt fine.

Would this be lactate buildup in my body not flushing away quick enough? Am I just soft?

If it is, should you train through that or is it a signal to stop?

Thanks

How hard do you normally push yourself? Pushing harder than you have in the past will make you feel ill. If you've ever taken a 3+ month break from riding, it's the same feeling. It'll get better next time.

I remember during soccer practices, after a very strenuous session, I would definitely feel sick and feel like I had to throw up (some kids actually did throw up). So it is normal, but I don't know whether or not to push through it or stop.

In one of my first ever MTB events, I remember feeling rather nauseous after a very hard start. I was forced to stop shortly after to empty my stomach contents. Started flying after that

You get used to it. Never happens to me these days.

Don't eat as much & when you do, keep it light. Also don't do too much, too soon, keep dedicated, keep adapting.

The less food I have pre-workout, the better I usually perform. These people that have 3 course breakfasts is a joke.

Completely agree. Half the key to good performance is to keep your food intake light. If you eat too much then it does nothing other than slow you down. Smaller amounts, more often, does work wonders when it comes to endurance sports. I sometimes think that's the key to good fitness - not to overload your system with food - it keeps you more alert and energetic. Leaving the table slightly hungry is good to keep in mind.

Don't think it was food - I was doing this at 6PM after eating at 1PM. Felt fine a few minutes later on my ride home from the velo.

!:-|

It's not unusual to feel ill like that after a lot of intense intervals. If you keep doing them you should get a bit more used to it.

Apart from eating too much prior to riding, I reckon most people don't warm up hard enough before doing intervals or sprints. The only times I've felt sick was when I didn't warm up properly, and/or ate too much. "Plodding" along with a HR at about 75% of maximum isn't enough of a warm-up; ya've gotta build up to it, with an effort or two around 80%, then 85%, etc. In fact, I like doing some sort of TT effort for at least 5 mins before doing any maximum intervals. Pros warm up for ages on an ergo before a TT or a prologue, building up to very hard efforts.


This may have been a less-than-ideal workout, coz I didn't really know what I was doing when I was 20, but when I was a young gung-ho track rider, I used to drive to the Carnegie Velodrome, do a 20 to 30 minute time-trial, followed by a couple of 3 to 5min intervals, and end with as many sprints as i could handle. I always felt fine doing this, but one day, for some reason, I decided to reverse the order, starting with some sprints after a short warm-up. Doing this make me feel like I was gunna chuck, just because I did the sprints after a shabby warm-up. It happened another couple of times before I realized I needed a hard warm-up before maximum efforts. I've never felt sick during intervals or sprints ever since.

Also, what course were you on? There's a massive difference between some slow-corner crits and doing The Hell Ride, especially if you're yo-yoing off the back

That's not a lot to go on with the description of "feeling sick". Were you feeling lightheaded? Nauseaus? Headaches? Like you want to vomit? Cramping in the legs? What's up?

koffee

I used my commute from the city to Hawthorn Velo to warm up - not real long I guess (about 8-9km?). Heart rate was up by the time I got there, but no real hard efforts. I ride around the velo with my helmet light on like a miner!

I'll have another go tonight and see what comes of it.

I was on the Hawthorn Velo/training track doing the repeats alone.

Nauseous - no headaches, no leg or muscle problems, no lightheadedness etc - just feeling close to puking for a few minutes - went away on my ride home.

Yeah - will try again tonight.

Going through and been doing ramp/MAP test on Wattbike setup, as well as putting in efforts and had no problem there, however I did have the ride out to Black Rock every time (20km) followed by a warm up on the stationary bikes before doing any of that.

Thanks for the responses.

Nauseous to me is an indication that you're going too hard, especially if you're fine in an easy spin going home. I think you're not ready for the intensity you're working at with these fartleks you're doing. More time working on building up to that with interval riding may do the trick.

koffee

If you push yourself hard enough you're gonna puke.

Yay for working hard!