**brian**

Does anybody have any tips on relieving/reducing the nausea & overall crappy feeling that can set in after a hard set of intervals?

I've been doing intervals on a trainer a couple mornings a week for the last month or so, and find that when I really come uncorked on the bike (ie, successful sessions), I am in bad shape - out of it & nauseous for an hour or so after the session, and it takes several hours to gradually start feeling better.

I realize that to some degree this is part of the deal with an intense workout, but I'm hoping I can tweak what and when I'm eating/drinking (and anything else I can do!) to lessen the after effects.

I am doing the intervals about 20 minutes after I get up in the morning; don't eat anything beforehand. I drink about a quart of water before & during the session, and more after. Today I ate a banana right after the session, and had a bigger breakfast a couple hours later, after I got to work (and my stomach was about 50% back to normal).

FightingPanther

your doing intervals on an empty stomach and after a 10 hour+ fast
of course you feel like trash after

you need to eat before you do the efforts

127.0.0.1

you are doing intervals correctly...
if you feel like crap afterward

srsly take 3 fat tums 1 hour prior to the intense efforts

and use an energy drink starting at 15 minutes into your ride and sip from that
instead of plain water. this gives your liver a break in it's quest to supply energy
for the intervals.

racin jasin

i often puke if i go to hard!! biking or running.you do need to eat something .i do plan special K or a granola bar right when i get up.then 20 or 30 min before i work out..

if you feel like puking you did a good job!

FreddyBoy

After each session?
The effort is certainly building up your ability to tolerate/handle stress but I wonder if that wear and tear is actually helping you improve long term.

I got gassed on my group ride yesterday as I realize these guys are riding FASTER as the weather gets warmer and the racing season approaches (those 23mph avg's are creeping up to 25 and that is just to much for me). I am going to start adding some interval work to my training and hopefully improve my cardio.

My approach will be to try and get the most (fastest) benefit out of the least amount of training. I figure one day/week of 30 & 60 second sprints followed by similar cool down times.

slim_77

Eating can help. last year I began to do my threshold workouts in the AM and always am sure to eat a good dinner the previous night and a little something 15 min before I get on the bike. These are intense efforts and require you to be fueled up to make them effective. THat said, my uneasy feeling quickly subsides and an hour later I generally feel like a million bucks.

What kind of intervals are you doing(duration & sets)? How often are you doing them? At what intensity?

Pat

You know it could be a underlying gastric problem like gerd or hyperacidity. You might try using an acid blocker like Pepcid before riding. Or you could try an anti GERD (gastric reflux) like Prilosec. I have problems with both. Intervals did not bother me but hard centuries were always a problem until I started using the above. Of course, it is quite likely that you do not have a similar problem. But it only costs a few $$$ to see if the stuff helps.

**brian**

Thanks for all the replies.

The last few weeks, I've been doing:

Tuesday: Spinerval dvd - 7 x 90" reps, with 3' rep at the end
These I do at about 117% my speed at FT

Thursday: alternate between 4 x 5' at about 110% FT speed,
and 1 x 30' or 2 x 20' at FT

Plus riding 80-100 miles on the weekends

Usually when I do the sessions, I feel crappy/mildly nauseous for an hour or couple hours tops, then feel great.

The session that prompted me to post was the 7 x 90" + 3' workout. In the last 2 reps, I stood for the last 30" to really give it an extra push, which slid my HR up about 6 or 8 bpm higher than I usually get at that point... it was within 2 beats of the maximum I've seen on the bike outside.

In retrospect, I think that little extra push really did me in. Beside feeling seriously horrible for hours, my legs were flat when I did my next session 2 days later - my HR just wouldn't come up the way it normally does. Riding at what's normally my speed at FT, my HR was 14 bpm below FT. It was weird & did not feel good.

Going forward, I'll make sure I eat before each session, and be a little more judicious about breaking out the extra-extra...

- Brian

timmhaan

you have a fan and\or open windows when you do intervals on the trainer? if not, make sure you are able to cool off after each effort.

slim_77

Brian, are you training to race? what cat?

**brian**

Ah - not quite. Right now I'm just looking to increase my fitness, strength & speed.

A little more background. I got the bike bug last summer after a 20-year layoff (I was a big biker in high school but never raced). I logged about 1200 miles from September - early December. Got the trainer in December and have been gradually increasing the intensity of my indoor workouts.

This spring I'm hoping to do some fast group rides and I'll see how things go from there. So far I've already seen a big boost in speed from where I was when my outside riding tapered off in December.

I'm not following a particular training book or program at this point - just trying to put together workouts that make sense for my level of fitness.

slim_77

Good info. Well, that being the case I honestly don't think you need workouts at the level of intensity you are currently working. Perhaps these symptoms are a signal from your body that "I'm not ready for this stuff!" Joe Friel (author of the Cyclists Training Bible) even suggests that those within their first season of racing don't do Vo2 work. Those workouts (Vo2 or 5 min of hard, hard, hard) are to prepare your body to deal with a very intense and short amount of work (last lap of a race, final 800m, etc). Also, they are not workouts you can or should do each week for the next 7 months-you'll burn out (feel like $hit) and hate riding (because you feel like $hit).

To become more fit for fast group rides, I'd recommend workouts just below your LTHR. These have been labeled SST workouts (do a search, there is a ton out there) and will work your aerobic system in addition to build muscular endurance. In short, everything you need for a fast group ride. After a few weeks of those, start workout at threshold once a week, these would be your 2x15' leading up to 2x20'. These are always very very difficult and will make you much faster (even your sprint!) in the long run. Don't worry, you'll get the sprint workouts but let the Vo2 workouts come from your group rides! Take a pull up front

Even though these group rides will be fast, most of your time will be at, just above or even below your LT. Well, unless you are up front pulling or attack the group or sprint for some line. So target your threshold for training. But leave the Republic of Anaerobia alone; it is a very hostile place.

Also, every 3 or 4 weeks let your body rest. Take it easy. Do some light riding, nothing intense. You'll be surprised how strong you'll be the following weeks.

This may not cure your symptoms, but it will make you faster.

ericgu

You aren't warming up enough before the intervals. You generally need to get really warmed up, with say 30 minutes on the bike before you do intervals. I'd go easy on the water as well - that can slosh around and make things worse.

You also probably aren't cooling down enough either. I'd suggest 15-20 minutes of easy cycling.

cyclezen

like timm said, you;re overheating, 'indoors', best to get some real heavy ventilation goin, or do it on an unheated porch or other area which doesn;t trap heat as much and allows quick cooling/ventilation.
if you;re getting nauseous after an outdoors ride, and its not due to some bug, then you're over-dressed, when you can no longer cool down between intervals, the session is over for all intents.
heart-rate is not always a good indicator of overheating, you can still have the HR go down and be overheating
next step after extreme nausea is 'blackout', don;t go there... (I know...)

better not to be digesting anything when you're doin intervals
water is OK if you're not real sloshy, but it won't bring temps down quick enough (unless you dowse yourself with multiple bottles like Floyd landis did in his epic TDFstage)

40x14

As an slightly older master's level guy, one of the things I've learned is that it really helps to rest when my body asks for it. Sometimes this happens right after a 'personal best' and other times it happens in 2-3 week intervals.

I give my body a few days rest in order to recover. By allowing my body to recover I've found that I can train progressively harder.

If your heart rate wasn't going up, that's a sign to throw in the towel - not permanently - but just for a few days. You'll be amazed how much stronger you can get if you mix rest into the schedule.

Fat Boy

+1

**brian**

Wow, lots of great feedback here.

Timhhaan, Cyclezen - I'm doing these in my basement, where these days it's about 58 F. I actually have to keep an extra layer on until I'm warmed up, and that's when I turn on my big box fan. It probably would help to kick the fan up a notch when I get into the meat of a session.

Eric - good point about warming up for these beasts. I usually warm up 10-12 minutes before the first interval - enough to get a good sweat going. I'm sure it would be better to warm up longer.
At the end of a session I spin a couple minutes to get my wits back, then another 5 minutes or so to get my HR back down to mid/low zone 2.

Slim - I definitely don't want to burn out! I'm very gung-ho right now, but I want to make sure I can physically and mentally sustain what I'm doing.
I'll consider shifting some of my Mon-Fri work to SST. One of the (perhaps misguided) attractions of interval workouts was that I could fit them into a 45- or 50-minute window in the morning, before work. My impression of SST was that the sessions need to be quite a bit longer... maybe I'll need to get up a little earlier!

40x14 & Slim - point taken on rest & recovery. A few weeks ago I had a mechanical issue about 40 minutes into what was meant to be a long/hard Sunday ride, and wasn't able to put in the effort I was planning. The following Sunday I had what felt like the best ride ever. I thought I had a tail wind out - and back! So I've observed the benefits of rest; I'll try to anticipate taking a break every once in a while.

I'm also noticing that I need to sleep more than I did in the past... so I'm really gonna have to cut back my late-night bikeforums browsing...

slim_77

^good luck brian!

Yeah, its tough to do this sport with time constraints. I really don't do more than 90 min on the trainer in any one session. With SST, the warm up is not as important as with higher intensity stuff--so the 10-15 min WU is ok. Then you can hit two or three 20 min intervals with 3-5 min rest (more mental rest than physical) and cool down in that bloc.

I need more sleep too. Crap, I really should go to bed now...