Delayed Gastric Emptying

[Wahine]

So I've had this problem at 2 races now and I've done a little homework to try to sort things out. Here's the best information I've been able to find so far.

From Triathlete Online:

Delayed gastric emptying (DGE): The importance of ingesting an adequate amount of fluids, electrolytes and energy sources during prolonged periods of exercise is well understood by most athletes. Unfortunately, not everything that is swallowed is subsequently absorbed by the body -- particularly when an athlete is exercising at greater than 70 percent of his or her max heart rate. Such a scenario may lead to a feeling of fullness and bloating and may even cause nausea and vomiting. More importantly, as less fluid is delivered to the intestines dehydration can ensue. As an athlete becomes dehydrated he or she experiences a further decrease in gastric emptying, which can escalate the dehydration cycle. In addition, environmental conditions such as high heat and humidity can negatively affect the rate of gastric emptying and promote even more rapid dehydration.

DGE can have significant consequences and negatively impact performance. Unfortunately, there is no way to completely prevent this, nor is there any rapidly effective treatment. The best preventive measure is to ingest a balance of high- and low-energy fluids (i.e. a mixture of water and sports drinks), to keep the concentration of sugars from getting too high.

Once DGE becomes apparent, the only viable remedy is to decrease the effort of exertion to a level below 70 percent of aerobic capacity and avoid high-carb sports drinks in favor of plain water. This should restore a more normal rate of gastric emptying. Once the symptoms have abated, a trial of higher levels of exertion may be undertaken, but pay careful attention to fluid intake.

In my last race, I was hitting the electrolytes hard because of the heat and I was definitely over 70% of max HR for the first 15 miles on the ride... more like 80%.

Hope this is useful to some others out there.

[Kimmyt]

This is great, thanks. The Boy had symptoms like this during the tri.

How long have you noticed the symptoms after it's initial occurrence?

[Veronica]

Do you use Sustained Energy or anything like that on the bike? It's what I use on my double centuries. I have not had a long enough training day to scope it out for a tri. I'll probably put some in my bottle for my next race (Olympic distance) to drink on the bike. If it sits okay during the run I'll use it for the HIM.

V.

[salsabike]

Thanks for that, Wahine. I wanted to understand it better.

[Pedal Wench]

Hmmm... last week on Ride the Rockies, I had what might have been this situation. Every morning, I would hit the continental breakfast, load up on high-sugar stuff and within 15 minutes be on the road, nauseous, bloated, and just feeling like crap. When I'm home, I usually have a bagel on the drive to my weekend rides, but that's usually 30 minutes before I start riding.

I wonder if this could be my problem. I'm doing another weeklong tour in Colorado in August and was going to experiment with just skipping breakfast and going with my Sustained or Perpeteum bottles instead.

[Wahine]

V - I don't use sustained energy but I might start. I usually use cliff electrolyte drink, shot blocks and accelerade gels. This has always worked well for me until I got strong enough to push into a higher HR faster and stay there. then all of a sudden things stop moving. My plan is to take out the shot blocks, keep the electrolyte drink but dilute it and stick with the gels. I also need to back off a bit for the first 10 miles I think and let myself warm into my pace a little slower maybe. I might try Sustained energy and some other things. I had Heed on the run this weekend and that tastes horrible but worked pretty well. I can go long at a low effort and eat hamburgers.

Kimmyt - the two times this has happened the symptoms became really noticeable at about the 25 to 30 mile point. That would be about when I would start to suffer from the lack of nutrients and fluids. Then I'd become aware of my distended belly because it starts to get uncomfortable every time you try to drink which is exactly what you want to do because you're getting dehydrated etc. The symptoms stay until I can back off enough and long enough to get things moving again. At this last race, it was amazing how quickly that happened. At mile 5 on the run I suddenly started to feel better and within 15 min I had to pee and life was good. At Ironman, I don't think I completely recovered for a week.

[lph]

Hey - it has a name! I've experienced this several times and it's VERY uncomfortable. I chalked the bloating down to too much salt/sodium, since it improved once I switched to just water. Thanks for the info.