Feeling sick after 70 miles or so...

The Kellyboy

I've done 2 sportives and both times I've felt sick around the 70 mile mark.
I set a timer to eat every 30 mins (flapjacks, Soreen loaves, bananas, the odd gel) plus food at the stops. I drank my usual hydration drink (SIS Go Hydro) and I didn't eat anything out of the ordinary.
Could I be eating too much? I've got the Carten100 in 2 weeks - is just drinking water a good idea?
Any suggestions gratefully received!

imposter2.0

So you feel sick at 70 miles - and then what? Does it pass and do you continue riding? How much do you actually eat every 30 mins?

The Kellyboy

It tends to stay for a while and then pass. I'll eat a soreen loaf (the mini ones), half a flapjack or a banana. I try to get that 60g of carb per hour. I think it's the drinks, even the calorie free stuff. I'm going to try carb loading beforehand and alternate plain water and SIS Go Hydro plus the food.

jmillen

I've had this feeling before and I'm pretty sure it was because I was eating too much, and then when I did drink, I was trying to drink lucozade and gels.

I've now toned down the food and eat small bits every 20-30 mins. I also have 2 bottles, one with water and one with High5. I've not had any sick feelings since, and I don't bother with the gels any more either as they upset my stomach.

meanredspider

It's not unusual for stuff to disagree with you - you do seem to be eating a fair bit (more than I could manage from the sounds of it). How much do you eat at the stops and is it stuff you know you can manage? How much are you drinking? I would perhaps try eating/drinking a little less. I find my stomach settles after a while on a ride and I can eat more but we're all different.

dilatory

Incidentally too much SIS Hydro makes me feel like I'm gonna vom. How much do you drink?

The Kellyboy

I think I was drinking about a bottle (750ml) an hour. In shorter training runs there's no problems, at 50 miles I felt fine. It was another hour or two when it started.
My 'worry' about not taking salt replacement is cramp later in the ride.
I'll try plain water and see...

pianoman

Yes I'd agree that an awful lot of commercial products are tough on the stomach as they contain lots of glorified sugar. The "benefit" of taking such products is easy to quantify as all you need to do is look at the nutritional info on the packaging, but something like Optimum Nutrition Amino Energy is virtually carb free yet helps the body use it's own energy more and replaces broken down amino acids, far more important than clogging the body with maltodextrin - ON's product is so good I really notice a drop off when I don't use it. By using such a drink in one bottle (water only in the other) you'll likely be able to tolerate more food at the feed stations.

Also feeding every 30 minutes is a bit much unless you're literally grazing all the way round. I am more efficient now I've done some longer, steadier exercise at fat burn pace during my run sessions - I even know two people training for Ironman who do a two hour run on a Saturday morning on an empty stomach (!) and do the same on our Sunday club ride. Try slotting in some similar sessions on the bike every now and then and you'll read the benefits.

Here's a good article to read which explores this theory further: http://www.theendurancestore.com/blog/b ... bad-thing/

mattrixdesign2

Not experienced the sick feeling, but learning not to use these gels/drink powders. They play havoc with my stomach post rider (pains, squits etc), give me a headache, and even acne! I bought a sample box of all sorts, got through most, all had the same effect. Admittedly at the time of taking them they did seem to help during the actual ride.

Got a causal 100mile ride on Sat, my plan is to fuel it will 1 x water, 1 x water/juice/pinch of salt, some mini Soreen, fig rolls, and cheese sandwiches (I always seem to crave some substantial non sugary food). Another time I may try some home made flap jack with nuts in.

Hoping this will work well.

hypster

It sounds to me like you are eating and drinking way too much. The other problem is you are pounding down quite a mixture of different foods plus energy drink so have no way of knowing if any one individual thing might be causing your problems.

As you say you should be aiming for (a maximum of) around 60g of carbohydrate per hour from all sources. You also need to ensure that you consume enough liquid as well to aid stomach emptying otherwise gastro-intestinal problems can occur. Depending on how hard you are riding I would suggest that at this time of year you wouldn't need to drink more than about 500ml of fluid per hour, more as the weather warms up and you sweat more.

Gauge your drink strength based on whatever fluid intake you decide on and then pay attention to the amount of solid food you also consume to try and limit to around 60g of CHO per hour. I would suggest sticking to one or two items only, maybe the flapjacks and bananas and see how you get on. Gels are just more of the same that you have in your drinks bottle.

Many people do decide that energy drinks can be a bit sickly especially over longer rides so you could try foregoing that and just using water and maybe a Zero tablet in your drinks bottle if you think that will help with cramp. On that note, have you suffered with cramp in the past? Has electrolyte supplementation helped? If you do just drink water then you will need to up the proportion of solid food you consume to meet your 60g CHO per hour requirement.

I actually prefer the opposite approach and use mainly 60g of maltodextrin per hour in my bottle because it is easier to control my consumption. I supplement this with a small amount of solid food just for something different to eat. Since switching to this strategy I never suffer with GI problems on long rides.

Grill

The Kellyboy wrote:

I think I was drinking about a bottle (750ml) an hour. In shorter training runs there's no problems, at 50 miles I felt fine. It was another hour or two when it started.
My 'worry' about not taking salt replacement is cramp later in the ride.
I'll try plain water and see...

That's a ridiculous amount. Even on 12 and 24hr TTs I can't get through mare than 500-600ml an hour and it's either very heavily diluted or split between drink and plain water. You're ingesting more maltodextrin than your body can absorb without additional water (quite common considering the ideal is about 4% and you're ingesting about an 8% mix). Skratch Labs and Clif both do lower carb mixes with all the electrolytes. Alternatively heavily diluted pineapple juice works a treat.

bahzob

Ditto above, sounds like you are eating/drinking too much. You haven't said how fast you are riding. If its not very quick then don't forget
- A portion of the energy needed will come from fat. The easier you are taking it the greater this will be.
- Unless you are starving yourself beforehand you will have around 1500kcal worth of energy stored as glycogen (enough for 3 hours at a steady pace)
- You should have eaten sensibly beforehand and this should be digested and become available as fuel during a ride.

Given all this the marginal extra carbs needed for a 70 mile ride really won't be much, if anything at all. I've done longer rides quite quickly just with water and a small bag of jelly beans.

Think your case illustrates that training is about more than just putting in the miles, it should also be used to test and understand other factors such as what nutrition your body needs.

I wouldn't advocate going from one extreme to another and doing a full on event on water only. However I do think it makes sense if you are doing LSD rides to plan to do one or two just that way. This provides a useful baseline as to what your body is capable of. You can then use this to establish what you really need to eat

whoof

flapjacks, Soreen loaves, bananas, the odd gel) plus food at the stops. I drank my usual hydration drink (SIS Go Hydro.
Not surprised you feel sick that's sugar, sugar, fruit sugar, gooey sugar and sugar drink. I think it was Gethin Butler who rode the LEJOG record with regular sausage sandwiches as he couldn't stomach too many bars/gels/and energy drinks.
Put a savoury sandwich in you pocket for the first part of your ride. Cut it up into managable pieces and eat it bit by bit. Choose something that you would normal eat and is suitable to be carried around (Coronation chicken will probably make a bit of a mess). Try this in training first.

Also as said drink some water as well as SIS.

The Kellyboy

I had a good breakfast (porridge then an omelette on toast) plus a 'before' exercise High5 drink and then all the rest I stated earlier. I ran out of juice from 80 -100 miles on a previous sportive and didn't want that to happen again. I think I went too far the other way - eating too much!
I'll have Zero in one bottle, plain water in the other and not overdo the high GI foods.

I really appreciate all the input & I'll post how my stomach is (was!) after the Carten100 next Sat!

whoof

If you are running out of energy in the later sections of a ride your problem might not be just what you eat. You need to have ridden sufficient training to allow your body to feel comfortable with 100 mile plus and you need to pace your rides correctly but not starting out too quickly. Neither of these can be over come with gels and energy drinks just practice.

bigpikle

yep - sounds a lot like 'eat less and pace better' are your keys for a stronger 100. I've experienced the sick feeling before, doing the Maratona in roasting heat and I suspect it was more about dehydration, but certainly making sure you have less unabsorbed carbs sat in your gut is going to make a difference.

The Kellyboy

I smashed the Carten100 yesterday...well, I finished it!
I ate less, drank less and felt strong to the finish. I did manage to squeeze down a cheeky burger and chips at 60 miles whilst waiting 90 mins for my riding buddy's puncture to be repaired!
I've written a short piece on my website:
www.rawphotography.me.uk
Just click the tab for Carten100 2014.
(I don't know if you're allowed to do this, I'll remove it if I have to. My apologies in advance just in case)

meanredspider

90 minutes?!! What were they doing? I'm not sure burger and chips is great riding food. But well done for finishing.

The Kellyboy

A big part of the 90 minutes was walking 3 miles along the cycle path to the next feed station, then the mechanics had to run him to the nearest bike shop as they'd run out of tyres!

top_bhoy

The Kellyboy wrote:

A big part of the 90 minutes was walking 3 miles along the cycle path to the next feed station, then the mechanics had to run him to the nearest bike shop as they'd run out of tyres!

Unless there is a very good excuse, your a pair of numpties Maybe a daft question...why didn't you carry at least a puncture repair kit and a pump between the pair of you? A spare tube or two wouldn't have been out of place either and you'd have been back on the road in 15-20 minutes max!! At least a lesson learnt (I hope).

keef66

He said they'd run out of tyres. Don't know about you, but I don't normally ride with a spare tyre.

If it was because they didn't have a tube between them, then yes, I agree, self inflicted

top_bhoy

keef66 wrote:

He said they'd run out of tyres. Don't know about you, but I don't normally ride with a spare tyre.

If it was because they didn't have a tube between them, then yes, I agree, self inflicted

I beg to differ; from the post it specifically states puncture (not damaged tyre):

The Kellyboy wrote:

I smashed the Carten100 yesterday...well, I finished it!
I ate less, drank less and felt strong to the finish. I did manage to squeeze down a cheeky burger and chips at 60 miles whilst waiting 90 mins for my riding buddy's puncture to be repaired!
I've written a short piece on my website:
http://www.rawphotography.me.uk
Just click the tab for Carten100 2014.
(I don't know if you're allowed to do this, I'll remove it if I have to. My apologies in advance just in case)

However, in case it is taken seriously, my reference to numpties was meant to be light hearted.

The Kellyboy

That's okay boys - no offence taken at all! I noticed the cheeky smiley after the 'numpties' reference.

I reckon if you're the kind of person who gets upset by witty banter, criticism or having the mickey taken then you shouldn't post on open forums!

It was his tyre that was shredded (by shells on the route - a cycle path alongside the beach at Burry Port). He had to buy a new tyre plus a tube!