Post Race & Workout Nausea

[MINIskirt]

Okay so everytime I do a race or sometimes after a strenuous workout, I feel nauseous. Some days are better than others, but it's still there. It was really bad after the Splash N Dash I did last month and has me hesitant to do another race for a while.

So what can I do to avoid that?

FWIW, I'm still new to the energy shot bloks and gu's and my general eating habits include more junk that it probably should.

[LBTC]

Hi, Jen

I'm no stranger to nausea, and hope that your issue is much easier to solve than mine!

I think you'll want to really examine the pattern of when you get nauseous. Are you well-hydrated? Did you sleep well? What did you eat before, during after? Does the nausea happen anytime other than after strenuous exercise? Does it ever happen during (there was a thread about this - if it does, it may be a cramp in your diaphragm)? What have you tried to ease it? What works to ease it?

Try to find the pattern. I'm hoping it's as simple as you are not well-hydrated enough before you start exercising, because that's very easy to fix. You might be looking at a food sensitivity issue, lack of certain nutrients, or muscle or organ problems.

If you don't see a cause when you look for one, and can't remedy it, how far do you want to go to find the answers? After being down the road of doctors and specialists, I'm much more inclined to recommend acupuncture, as long as the practitioner is trained in traditional chinese medicine five element theory.

Pay attention to your body's messages. There might be something really important she's trying to tell you!

Hugs and enlightened butterflies,
~T~

[Zen]

When you exercise you produce a lot of hormones (endorphins, vasopressins). The combination of these can make you nauseous.
Try to increase your cool-down time so all that blood that was being used in your muscles doesn't go back to working on digestion and bringing all that shotblock and Gu sugar back with it.

Drink a 50% Gatorade 50% water within 15 minutes to replace glycogen.

That's all I got.

[RoadRaven]

It could be something you have eaten - or haven't - that doesn't agree with race demands...

But I do like what Zen said and wonder if you cool down enough?

Try and pick patterns in your response like LB suggests... what happened before and what happened after, and hopefully you can pin point a trigger - or a solution/remedy...

Best of luck

[meridian]

I have the exact same problem (also temporary darkened vision) when I stay at a very high excretion level and/or heart rate for an extended period of time, or I stop too fast without an adequate cool down (it comes on stronger and faster immediately after hard running or hard lifting than cycling).

I’ve found that when it comes on the worst, I’m not well hydrated or was lax on nutrition earlier in the day.. and was essentially running on empty.

However, even when I’ve taken extra care to make sure I eat well and hydrate, my body quickly jumps to that “vomit zone” if I overexert myself and accidentally get my heart rate and breathing up too high.

[RoadRaven]

I have the exact same problem (also temporary darkened vision) when I stay at a very high excretion level and/or heart rate for an extended period of time

My partner TTs at an average of 41-43kph for 30 minutes... when he reaches the finish line he is losing clear vision and can't see clearly - he starts to get his vision back after about 5 minutes...

[spokewench]

This probably is not going to help much, but you are not alone in these symptoms. I've watched many a racer go really hard and feel nauseous afterwards. I'm not sure what the medical or physiological causes are, but suffice it to say it is a pretty normal occurrence.

It usually happens when that person is going harder than normal or under more stress than normal. When I was on a mountain bike team in California years ago, it seems like every time we would go to Mammoth, there would be at least 1/2 of our team sick after or during the races. But, of course, they were going as hard as they could at altitude and this would contribute to the nauseous feelings.

Don't really know what to do about these feelings. As you get fitter, it probably takes longer or harder rides to get to this point where physiology is protesting. So all I can tell you is as you get fitter, this will probably happen less and less, but I'm not sure how you stop it.

spoke