vomiting on the bike

[BShow]

the guys I know who have (and brag about it) usually are dehydrated or they're trying to rush fitness by jumping into fairly high intensity stuff too early

I agree with you on all counts...

[Hindmost]

It is advisable to hold your head to the side and not vomit directly on the bike.

[sine]

It is advisable to hold your head to the side and not vomit directly on the bike.

Correct but......the one and only time I did it on the bike, I puked on my best buddy who came back from a rotation.

This during a ttt event and our support handed me the wrong bottle but I took a swig anyway...concentration much higher than what I was used too. It was wierd, it happened so quickly.

[MinorBaker]

I would at least see a GI, worse case scenario: he/she tells you it is nothing to worry about. I wonder if the sleeve of energy blocks might be part of the problem, I had stomach issues with candy like energy products (gels, blocks, jelly beans, etc). I switched over to "real" food (rice cakes, whole pieces of fruit, oatmeal+eggs) and have had way less issues.

I have puked exactly once while riding and I know the causes: hard effort + heat + no electrolytes = barfing midrace. Post barf, I felt way better, drank a coke, and ramped it back up to finish top ten. Aside from having to deal with all of the shit from teammates who got hit with the projectile vomit, it wasn't so bad.

[bcm119]

I would at least see a GI, worse case scenario: he/she tells you it is nothing to worry about.

if that's the worst case scenario, why go through the hassle of seeing a GI and getting a scope down your throat? It's not pleasant.

I never thought barfing from extreme exertion was anything to worry about. It means you're either doing too much intensity too early, you ate too much sugary crap from the gas station, or you're dehydrated/overheated.

[maggierose]

You puke because you have too much food in your stomach and your body wants to get rid of it because it doesn't want to waste blood on digestion; it wants the blood to supply 02 to muscles.

Eat less before anaerobic intervals or wait longer after eating.

Being hydrated helps but not as much as not having lunch tumbling around your tummy during a sprint.

[false_aesthetic]

This topic has come up at both the Dr + PT's office. Both offered a similar response that there are a few centers for vomiting in the brain (e.g. vomiting caused in the digestive system, outside the digestive system, by smells, etc) and for some people one (or several, I guess) centers can be located close by whatever part of your brain is excited by intense effort. If those two parts of the brain are too close there can be signal leakage which ends up triggering vomiting. The PT went on to say that its similar to the phenomenon where people sneeze when they see bright light.


I'm pretty sure they dumbed it down for me but you get the idea.

[defspace]

If those two parts of the brain are too close there can be signal leakage which ends up triggering vomiting. The PT went on to say that its similar to the phenomenon where people sneeze when they see bright light.

That's really interesting. Thanks for passing along that info!

[oopfoo]

This topic is personal to me, too. All my racing years, I noticed that where others became TIRED during races, I became nauseated. It was a serious problem, because it was practically overwhelming and as a sprinter, I could count on several of these occurrences per race. I learned, as did my teammates, that if I could simply hang on and get through it, it would sometimes simply go away. Sometimes I'd actually puke, sometimes I wouldn't. But there were more races than I'd like to count where I simply pulled off the road and puked my guts out, ending up in tears because I was such a fucking pussy. I always thought it was simply lack of training.

As I got older, I realized that my diet had a LOT to do with it. For instance: NO BANANAS. If you want to see me die, give me a banana during a race. Other normal pre-race foods were right out...I would just have to choke down a few brown-shingle Powerbars and water (this was 1989 or so).

Then, the 2000s happened and I found that I could eat pretty much all the GU I wanted. Did it at Six Gap and it just worked for me--not a single instance of pukies. Hah! But then, now I'm old and slow. Too little, too late, right?

If those two parts of the brain are too close there can be signal leakage which ends up triggering vomiting. The PT went on to say that its similar to the phenomenon where people sneeze when they see bright light.

This REALLY interests me. I've never thought, "Hey...something is WRONG with this." And now I have a new project to figure out what's going on inside of me.

Defspace, I really hope you figure out what's going on. If you do, please pass it along. I would be happy, of course, to pass on what I find, though I'm not sure how useful the dietary habits of a 45-year-old ex-racer are going to be to you.

[11.4]

First of all, what you have might actually be a bronchial spasm that just feels like a gastric heave. It can be hard to tell them apart because your diaphragm is pushing up on everything somewhat indiscriminately and the feelings are all coming from about the same place. Bronchial spasms can be exercise-induced asthma (most common reason) or can just be the result of very hard breathing. Either way, easily addressed and much more easily than GI issues.

Second, if there's a gastric component to it, I run into more than a few people whose stomachs don't like gel blocks. Those things can cause gastric spasms where other nutritional products don't. We switched a couple riders to SportBeans and from GelBlocks and their stomach problems went away.

Last, when a bunch of us trackies are training hard together on our Kickrs, we usually stop when one or the other starts heaving. I can be the one, and since I don't have problems at night or under stress or other abnormal situations where something might be getting actuated, I don't really worry about it. Most people think they are going 100% when they are really just doing about 80. Going 100% really hurts and throwing up or heaving isn't that unusual. You'd see it a lot more of it if you made everybody ride to their true 100%. This isn't to say that you shouldn't check with a physician, but you can keep checking and checking to find an issue. It could just be an oddity in how your pyloric sphincter is shaped, or whether your stomach is tilted, or whether you have a hormonal stress response that constricts your stomach, so on. You can get X-rays and then an MRI before they have to do an endoscopy. As mentioned above, it ain't pleasant. If you haven't had other symptoms you may not have anything that you really can do anything about. Without other symptoms showing themselves, or the problem coming out in situations other than hard riding, your physician should tell you first to change or forego food before your event and see what that does. You may also be in a very low position on your bike such that the exit path for liquids from your stomach is level or downhill and it's too easy for some of it to get out (you may be having a small leak of acid that then causes the dry heaves). Experiment and see what stops it. You can probably figure it out yourself in a few hard rides or races, and that's a lot less intrusive than what your doc will want to do to you.

[Shinomaster]

I saw at least two guys puke after cross races.. and this was before any beer consumption.