High intensity exercise and liver area pain (long)

[CR400]

Any ideas why this could be happening???
Ok this is to see if you have any ideas that I may not have thought about or researched yet. It has happened twice one time I was able to get a heart rate reading at the time of the pain, once I let up and slowed way down it went away. This past time was at night and I was not carrying an extra light to check my HRM. So I am assuming that it was caused at near the same heart rate. As far as that rate we are talking so I high I slowed down out of fear when I saw where it was, and established a new max rate becasue of it.
(side note my HRM won't let me set my max where it really is because it is cheap and the stupid formula its programed with says its not possible.) It actually happens starting a few beats below this and only if I don't realize it and stay going at this pace for a few minuets.
It's not heart pain that feels fine, or lung they are doing ok, even the muscle burn is not bad. It just feels like my liver is gona give out with the pain.

The only thing I can think of is that it is working overtime to try to make glucose for my leg muscles, which are not overly burning which is curious in itself, and I am not panting. Well I do when I slow down or stop. Please no lectures on heart rates or how a rate may not be possible. I have hard evidance that it happens, and have purposly withheld the numbers for that reason.

[mimitabby]

how do you know it's your liver?
and not your diaphragm or something?

[Eden]

You could be getting diaphragm cramps - I sometimes get these if I work really hard without warming up properly first (or have cooled down rapidly - like descending on a cold day - then climbing again hard). They don't really feel like the muscle cramps you'd feel in your legs to me - it feels more like really really intense menstrual cramps, but higher. Stopping will make them go away.

and btw - don't get too upset about really high hr's we're all different and some of us run high. My measured max is 211, which while higher than many people's is still quite safe and normal and some people go even higher than that. (do watch though because sometimes really high numbers can be caused by interference from things like invisible dog fences, induction loops at stoplights, power lines - I know if I see 230 its one of those things and not me)

[CR400]

I really Don't know all I know for sure is that it is on the right side of my body. Right of mid line and in the general area of a liver close to or within the rib cage.
It might be the diaphram but that doesn't make sense. I don't seem to be in any respitory distress, no horribly out of control breathing or wheezing. I'm bad though when I sprint I usually forget to breath and when I do it is shallow, but this is longer then a sprint so I have to breath

[Eden]

I'm not necessarily wheezing or otherwise having out of control breathing when I get these - they always are triggered by hard work, but it doesn't have to be so intense to cause really raggedy breathing. I usually only get them if I've eaten too close to going out hard or haven't warmed up properly, but one race last year that it was kind of cold and rainy and had an 8 mile descent a lot of us got cramps, not on the way up, but on the way down! It's been a while since I've experienced them so I'm trying to recall exactly what it feels like .. they defintely hurt a lot, higher than menstrual cramps - close to my rib cage and all the way across, but I think a bit more intense on my right hand side - sort of like someone digging in a thumb maybe. They start out less painful and build if I don't back off my exercise intensity a bit.

[Eden]

exerpt from this article: http://www.breathing.com/articles/diaphragm-stitch.htm

stitch is a form of cramp, normally experienced in the diaphragm near the right side of the rib cage. It usually indicates that you are pushing yourself too hard.

In some cases it can happen quickly, striking without warning and causing excruciating pain. In other cases it can come on gradually, starting as a slightly uncomfortable tightness or tense feeling. Most people try to work their way through this type of discomfort taking it as a normal reaction to the exercise they are doing. But as they continue the pain increases - to the point where the cramp sets in, causing the same excruciating pain as experienced in the sudden attack.

This type of stitch is felt on the right hand side of the chest as a direct result of a cramp in the diaphragm. If you experience a cramp on the left hand side of the chest this is normally caused by eating too close to your workout period.

[mimitabby]

I think it has a lot to do with breathing, though, my Dh's prescription for combatting it is long deep breaths.

[CR400]

Thank you ladies. I think you may be right after the explinations. It just felt like something more life threatening. It was a cold night that night and was riding up a small 1/2 mile grade in untouched snow, the last time. That might explain why my legs could still put in a few sprints even though my upper body was hurting.