Nutrition Issues: Fighting Nausea

mbrune

I've been getting into endurance distance the past two years and consistently increasing my pace and power out on the road. Last year, and now this year I continually have issues once I go beyond 60 miles at a hard effort. Every ride I do beyond that distance I get home feeling insanely Nauseous and basically am worthless until my stomach finally settles. Last ride I did was only 60 miles (around 100km) with a terrible headwind for part of the ride, but I felt ill for the rest of the day, and still was a little off the next day. This is not a recipe for productive training. I use gels (SIS lately with electrolytes and without) and don't notice any ill effects when I consume them. I also use NUUN tablets but only start plugging those in after about 2 hours in the saddle (so only the last hour on the last ride) I wonder if the fizziness of the NUUN is messing with my stomach and am going to skip that next trip. I think I'm going to use a concoction of orange juice, water, salt, and sugar instead and just keep it on the bike taking sips alternately from that. I also generally eat a banana on a long day as bananas are fairly kind to the stomach. More solid foods don't sit well, or don't get past my hiatal hernia (stick in the part of my esophagus that is stuck above my diaphragm) This causes nausea all on it's own so I've found it's best to avoid most solids until after I'm home and can stay standing up for a while after eating. (not bent over on the bike). It's also worst when I push hard, which is understandable when it comes to blood distribution. I've had long days in the saddle where I've just wanted to finish and amazingly I feel pretty okay at the end. On the last 60 I pushed pretty hard due to the wind (and wanting to get more fit and more speed). I know that plays a role, but I feel like I ought to be able to push my body without nausea putting the breaks on my training. I know that some of this is trial and error, see what works and stay away from what doesn't but I'd be interested to hear what works for others who deal with nausea. I also know that there are different posts in here regarding nutrition, so I'm hoping to compile replies that deal directly with nausea. All my friends who ride don't deal with the issue and are therefore no help to me.

On a related note, the nausea is also accompanied by feeling the burn in my legs in response to the raised acidity in my blood. Once i'm off the bike I walk around until I get the burn to lessen, but some days it's bad enough that it's tough to stay on my feet at the end. Next day I'm fine with no sore muscles so I feel like I'm not even reaching the potential of the engine, just getting derailed by nutritional issues. (Feels kinda like bonking, but I have carbs in my body and water in the tank) Clearly I'm mismanaging something. I'll keep playing this summer to see if I can sort it, but ideas are welcome.

thanks!

webboo

If you can ride 60 miles on a regular basis, have you tried just on water. You might have to go a bit easier than normal. If you did this and didn’t suffer any nausea, then you would know what you are eating is causing it.

kajjal

I would speak to your doctor for advice, the hernia you have can be very painful with various side effects. They would likely know how to help manage this under these circumstances or put you in touch with someone who could advise. Sometimes you just have to work within the physical limits of your body which are not down to fitness.

mbrune

Webboo wrote:

If you can ride 60 miles on a regular basis, have you tried just on water. You might have to go a bit easier than normal. If you did this and didn’t suffer any nausea, then you would know what you are eating is causing it.

Not a bad idea, not sure I can do 60 without some form of nutrition, though if I didn’t push it at all I could probably manage. I think I’ll try gels and water only and see how that goes first, I don’t want to bonk as I’ve had that unpleasant experience before and It was a bit sketchy.

mbrune

Kajjal wrote:

I would speak to your doctor for advice, the hernia you have can be very painful with various side effects. They would likely know how to help manage this under these circumstances or put you in touch with someone who could advise. Sometimes you just have to work within the physical limits of your body which are not down to fitness.

I do have an appointment to see a gastroenterologist to talk this over with them, my concern is they will basically tell me to stay off of the bike or go easy, both of which I am not super willing to do. I enjoy cycling as it allows me to push my body even though my knees are crap. They might have ideas on nutrition, or contacts.

Thanks for the reply.

craigus89

mbrune wrote:

Webboo wrote:

If you can ride 60 miles on a regular basis, have you tried just on water. You might have to go a bit easier than normal. If you did this and didn’t suffer any nausea, then you would know what you are eating is causing it.

Not a bad idea, not sure I can do 60 without some form of nutrition, though if I didn’t push it at all I could probably manage. I think I’ll try gels and water only and see how that goes first, I don’t want to bonk as I’ve had that unpleasant experience before and It was a bit sketchy.

Take the gels with you and have one in an emergency if you need to.

For what its worth, I used to smash the gels on a regular basis. Now I carry a couple as emergency but eat real food and feel so much better. All my mid and post ride stomach cramps have gone and it's much more pleasant eating flapjack, banana or peanut butter and jam sarnies than the sickly gels. You feel more satiated too.

Try it.

Alejandrosdog

i suffered with this for a while and now use electrolyte it works for me, for 2.5 to three hours then i need to replensih bottles so its just water. If im going to ride reasonably hard I start eating before the ride and carry on.

I avoid like the plague energy drink for the reasons you described. Everyone is different you just need to find what works for you and is kind on your stomach. eg if i do a sportive or similar i dont bother with the feed stops full of sugary crap thats been mauled by dirty fingers I stop at a garage and get a meal deal for £3.50, its quick and easy and the toilet is usually more savoury if needed.

mbrune

Thank you for the personal experience. Last 60 I did had a decent climb (2000 ft) and I felt fine all the way to the end. Then I got home with burning legs and starting feeling insanely nauseous. After about an hour of laying on the couch fighting the sickly feeling my stomach rebelled and everything in my stomach flew the coup. Incidentally I discovered that my stomach had emptied nothing since the hill climb (starting at about mile 25). This included at least two gels (isotonic ones) a bit more than one full water bottle and half a banana. Evidently my stomach stopped emptying due to intensity. The weird thing is after topping the climb the next seven miles were downhill and I let my heart rate fall in order to allow my body to digest. My heart rate after the climb barely left zone 3 of 5, of course that’s the standard zones based on age but should be close, yet my body was unable to do any digesting. No wonder I felt dehydrated and weak at the end given all the water and glycogen that didn’t actually make it into my system.

Next day I rode only 35 miles but tried a gel about midway to see what happened. Just the sickly sweetness of the thing sent my stomach into knots again so I didn’t finish it. I didn’t need it for that distance anyway but was curious how it would make my body feel. Tomorrow I’m trying the mini rice squares with sugar and cream cheese to see if they sit better. It’s only a 50 mile ride but has about 3500 ft of elevation. I’m hoping that you guys are onto something with the real food and wonder if that artificial sweetness in the gels is too much for my sensitive system. If I can keep my stomach working I think I could do more distance but right now I’ve hit a road block this season. Last year wasn’t great but I never threw up and could go 100 miles. I figured this season I could get that nausea under control, but so far it’s been a struggle.

sloppyschleckonds

Just a thought, I tried some SIS tabs once that had Inulin in them. Gave me the worst stomach cramps ever.

mbrune

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

Just a thought, I tried some SIS tabs once that had Inulin in them. Gave me the worst stomach cramps ever.

It could be that something in the gels is not agreeing with me alright. Not sure what Inulin is, but I can check the label for it. GU gels seemed to cause some upset as well and I thought the SIS ones would be better and easier to digest. Right now I wonder if the purely synthetic nature of the maltodextrin they put in those gels is something my system can’t tolerate. Today’s ride I ate half a banana and a rice patty (home-made) while out for about two and a half hours and felt pretty good when I finished. Zero nausea. I took it easier on the ride as well and spent no time in zone four with lots of time in zone 2. A much easier ride than I usually do but it seemed to help my stomach. I’ll need to keep working up the intensity while still taking in food I think and see if I can train my stomach to continue emptying. I’m going to start incorporating longer rides but keep the intensity low, then do my middle distances hard while still working in food to continue training my stomach. In the past I’ve always done my hour long rides fasted, I think I’ll continue this as well. Hopefully I can get to a point where I can keep at least a moderate intensity on long rides without making myself ill while also building the ability to burn fat so that I don’t have to eat quite as much on the bike as I think that will save my stomach as well.

mbrune

After working on this all summer, it has gotten better. So I’m going to post an update in case someone else deals with a similar issue.

First of all, I believe the vomiting was related to an electrolyte imbalance. Specifically I was getting to low on salt as my sweat is highly concentrated and I sweat a lot. I started doing one water bottle with a NUUN tablet adding an extra bit of salt and a little sugar. This drink hits the spot on hot days. If I’m not working out it’s not great. When that water bottle empties I mix a second one to replace it.

I also would have to say that simply getting in better shape has to have helped. But even when I push it hard for 60+ miles now I don’t throw up, actually I have been finishing feeling ravished. Some of that is I’m not overtaxing my system by working harder than my body wants to. Some of that probably comes down to a gut that is better trained to deal with digestion during longer rides.

Of course the longest I’ve done so far is four and a half hours, which is not a lot, but the fact that I can now do that without getting sick is a great help to my confidence. Tomorrow I’m doing 90 miles so we’ll see if I have a reoccurrence, but I’m optimistic that the electrolyte mix I’m taking is helping my body keep working properly and offsetting the bloating that I was experiencing before. I also hypothesize that the lack of salt in my system was throwing my body into a self protective state where it didn’t process more water as I was already low on sodium.

Thank you to those who have given feedback.