Gross-out warning: intense exercise and the retch factor

Here's an entry about a long-standing problem I've had in my athletic pursuits. It relates to my current exercise endeavors in that, for me, exercise means, by definition, strain and heightened effort.

Did you ever get the feeling during your workout that you were on the verge of vomiting? I sure have. It happens to me all the time and my efforts at preventing myself from dumping lunch regularly cause me to curtail my output.

Back in my bicycle racing days one of the things--apart from the rather lackadaisical approach I took to training--that kept me from doing better was, I think, the way my digestive system was malfunctioning. To be more particular, I often found that when I would try to explode my effort, as is often required in a race if you don't want to get dropped, my stomach would go into rebellion.

What would happen very regularly shortly after I'd begin to put out maximum effort is that my esophagus would begin to burn intensely: it was as if hot coals were trying to force their way out of my stomach and out through my esophagus to issue in a fiery stream of vomit (yeah, that's a picture of me on the right, finally relieving the pent up pressure as I cross the finish line of a race that took me about 6 hours longer than everyone else to finish . . . just kidding!). It's a sick image, I know. But I had that sensation on many, many occasions when racing or on hard training rides.

The accompanying sensation of feeling as though stomach contents are about to eject and the corollary reaction of trying to keep that from happening has, let's say, a negative effect on effort. With respect to a highly aerobic sport like cycling its impact is very signficant: the attempt to suppress regurgitation disrupts breathing patterns in a major way--and just at a time when your leg muscles are crying out for maximal amounts of oxygen. It's hard to compete seriously in that state.

I never asked my fellow racers whether they'd ever experienced such a thing but I wish I had. My guess is that, while every serious athlete will regurgitate from exertion at some point--usually in conjunction with having eaten too close to the start of an event or a difficult workout--they probably did not have either the burning sensation or experience the regurgitative impulse as frequently as I have.

These bouts, along with some other stomach issues I experience, led me later to theorize that I probably have a hiatal hernia. It remains a theory, though. I did have an endoscopy some years ago and, when I mentioned my theory about the hiatal hernia to the doctor that performed the procedure, he said he hadn't seen signs of one. But I am unconvinced.

Be that as it may I bring up this longstanding issue now because, with my renewed fitness efforts, I'm once again confronting this old problem. It comes up when we cycle in the summer and I'm riding hardest. I'd say the burning sensation I get is proportional to the effort I'm expending, but even when I don't have that intense burning sensation, I do nonetheless feel as though I'm on the verge of barfing.

And I'm getting this feeling during our strength-training workouts as well. In fact, it's begun to plague me to the extent that I have to eat a very light lunch on strength-training days so as to be able to not feel nauseous during the latter part of the workout. It's especially bothersome with moves like incline push-ups but any exercise that involves being prone or bent over can exacerbate it. I've begun to realize just how much the attempt to suppress regurgitation takes out of my overall effort: it's kind of hard to give it your all when part of you is struggling to keep stomach contents down.

It's kind of a gross subject but something I need to address and figure out how to deal with. The simple solution is to be very careful about how and when I eat in relation to the workout. That's easy enough to do with strength-training workouts which are relatively short. With cycling it's harder since we're often out for several hours: you need to have some decent calories in your system before departing.

The odd thing in my experience is that, even 5 or 6 hours after I've eaten I can still get this sensation of stomach contents trying to breach their gastric confines. In the case of our strength training, for example, I'm trying to eat no closer than 6 hours before the workout. I feel and do so much better when I don't have to suppress the urge to toss my cookies. But it does take some will power to keep from snacking closer to the workout.

My latest idea is to try having a "super shake" for lunch on strength-training days, perhaps even an extra large one, a portion of which I'll save for a small snack a little later in the afternoon. I'll try that in the coming days to see what are the results. But when it comes to cycling season and those long rides, the problem will become harder to address.

Anyone care to share their gross-out experiences with working out or athletics and the retch factor?