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Food Causing Stomach Blockage?

Old 07-05-22, 09:24 AM
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AGranquist
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Food Causing Stomach Blockage?

I went on a 45 mile road ride yesterday but had on-board nutrition and rehydration. I felt great for the first 20 miles but then started to feel bloated and a significant drop in energy. I pushed through at a much slower pace and continued to hydrate but felt more and more bloated. When I finally reached home I was cramping all over and then vomited. Most of the vomit was the rehydration liquids and a small amount of food. My theory is that one of the items I ate while riding somehow blocked the exit from my stomach and wouldn't allow the liquids to enter my intestines where it would be properly digested.

This also happened a few years ago when dill pickle seeds seems to block my GI tract in a similar fashion.

Has this happened to others and what would you recommend for on-board foods to avoid this situation in the future?

Last edited by AGranquist; 07-07-22 at 10:55 AM.
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Old 07-05-22, 09:30 AM
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Polaris OBark
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Drink water. Eat normal, easy to digest food, and chew it before you swallow it.

If that doesn't work, ask your gastro-enterologist for a pyloric sphincter replacement.
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Old 07-05-22, 10:47 AM
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I eat very little when riding. I've always preferred to put my carbs in my bottles. Indigestion and reflux can be an issue for some when cycling. Sometimes I have taken a Pepcid or Prilosec before a long ride just to be sure.

Or was your clog in the other direction?
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Old 07-05-22, 01:50 PM
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Sounds like a question for @Carbonfiberboy.
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Old 07-05-22, 01:59 PM
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Might help to know what your "on board nutrition and hydration" were. I'n no gastroenterologist but seems unlikely to me that pickle seeds would clog your tubes.
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Old 07-05-22, 02:45 PM
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Do you eat what you ate on the bike on a regular basis?
For some reason it is not uncommon for a rider to eat and drink something they never consume otherwise. I, for example, realized/confirmed that most commercial sport drinks don't work well for me by trying them at home on a regular afternoon. Yeah, if is doesn't digest well while sitting on the couch at high pace it will definitely cause problems. Small dosis of high-simple-sugars in sports stuff while sitting, though.
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Old 07-05-22, 03:08 PM
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Eat and drink foods you know work for you. Hard riding and riding in hot weather is stressful for the body. Your stomach shuts down and works far slower.

For me, not all sport drinks work. For hard/important rides, I fill my water bottles with my drink and bring enough powder along to manage if the provided drinks don't work. (And my preferred drink was formulated by a marathon runner who failed to qualify for the Olympics when the trial was held on a very hot day and he got sick from the then popular drink. He was a biochemist by profession.)

In my racing days when I was riding very long miles in sometimes hot and humid New England I ate my usual breakfast and carried PB and honey sandwiches and bananas. If I needed more, I bought Fig Newtons. All familiar foods that worked. Oh, in September, I'd ride to the MA-NH border to a farm store and have them go back and get me two apples too ripe and soft to sell.
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Old 07-05-22, 04:17 PM
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had the same reaction, way back when the 'sports' drinks first made big market impact.
think the 1st attempt was G-aid, but can;t remember for certain. puked 5 -8 min. after drinking ...
In any case, having tried and assortment of 'sports' drinks, while on the bike - they mostly made me vomit...
since then, I've been mixing my own electrolyte drinks - which I only use for rides over 55-60 mi.
otherwise, drink only water.
mixing drinks with most of the current electrolyte powders works great - you get to control the dilution at level you can stomach.
Ride On
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Old 07-05-22, 07:32 PM
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It's called "too high stomach osmolality". IOW too many calories in too small a volume of liquid. This is aggravated by the fact that the blood supply for the stomach and whole digestive tract decreases when one exercises. Long climbs are the worst. Heat doesn't help, either. Sometimes the only thing one can do is stop riding, sit in the shade, drink plain water, and maybe take low dose electrolytes. Sit there and do that until your stomach feels OK again. Your stomach can't empty if the osmolality is too high. Usually, one can keep riding while drinking plain water, etc. Depends on how bad it is. The drop in energy you felt was the beginning of a bonk because as far as your system was concerned, you hadn't eaten anything.

How to prevent? Whatever you were drinking, don't or at least dilute it a lot. Simple carbs, no fat, plain water.

After a bout of that a long time ago, I switched to liquid food, high glycemic index carbs, no more than 250 Cal./hr, and plain water. Never had another problem. On short rides, and 45 miles qualifies, 120 Cal/hr might be better. When I was eating solid food, I used Clif bars. I'd open a couple of them and put them in a jersey pocket. I'd pull out a bar, break it into quarters, and eat 1/4 of it about every 15'. That also worked very well. Small amounts, frequently works well. My guess is that on a 45 mile ride, you actually didn't need any electrolytes. Mammalian systems keep blood electrolytes at proper levels all by themselves. It takes a lot of abuse to upset that balance. It's mostly marketing. An African hunting party, running across the Serengeti, don't even carry water, much less electrolytes. That's my vision of what a group ride is really like. Hopefully we know where the waterholes are.
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Old 07-06-22, 05:14 AM
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This might help if on-ride refueling is giving problems - "Carbo loading". Load up on carbs the night before the long ride, and then carbo load again shortly before the ride. For some, this might be 2 hours before the ride to avoid upset stomach. Or for me, only 15 minutes before the ride.

However, you still need to bring fuel on long rides even if you carbo load. Carbo loading is not an alternative to not bringing any food on rides.
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Old 07-07-22, 10:49 AM
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I appreciate all the helpful responses. Thanks!

FWIW - My on-board nutrition comprised of the following:
Mile 8 - 1 soft granola bar
Mile 20 - 1 stick of fruit leather (perhaps the seeds caused the issue?)
Mile 30 - 1 Lil Debbie nutty buddy bar

I drank roughly 60 oz of Gatorade on a consistent pace.
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Old 07-07-22, 11:02 AM
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I always drink coffee in the morning to clear the system. Also for snacks I stick to fruity dry snacks and/or granolas and I drink a ton of water during my rides. I also pack pickle juice for those hard climbing rides, but I only use that on the final stretch home in case I start to cramp. Though I avoid drinking it unless absolutely necessary since it wreaks havoc on my stomach!
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Old 07-07-22, 01:54 PM
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Mile 30 - 1 Lil Debbie nutty buddy bar
1 bar out of the 2 that come in the pack? That's quite a bit of fat even if you did only eat 1 bar.

When I'm out riding I don't eat anything that has very much fat in it. It just seems to slow my performance way down and I feel bloated for 45 minutes to an hour while on the bike.
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Old 07-08-22, 06:02 PM
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Originally Posted by AGranquist
I appreciate all the helpful responses. Thanks!

FWIW - My on-board nutrition comprised of the following:
Mile 8 - 1 soft granola bar
Mile 20 - 1 stick of fruit leather (perhaps the seeds caused the issue?)
Mile 30 - 1 Lil Debbie nutty buddy bar
I drank roughly 60 oz of Gatorade on a consistent pace.
ugggh... mile 8, you just started ? if you're eating proper, your body has enough glycogen for at least 40-50 hard miles. But it's not good to reach a 'depletion' point, so having something earlier is a good thing.
Hydration - mostly water , and small intakes, frequently. - if you're riding in warm, but not 'hot' conditions, one 24 oz water in the 1st 30 mi., 2nd bottle thru mile 50. HOT then 2 bottle should also be OK for 45...
60oz of G-ade for 45 ish miles is what's killing you. (along with the excess solid...) If you gotta have G-aid, use your 2nd Bottle, 1/3 store bought G-aid , 2/3 water - and split drink from both bottles to cover the full ride.
solid - ok for fruit leather at 20-25, but likely not needed. mile 35 ok for the soft granola bar. done... lose the Lil Debby...
You've been asking your body to do more work than it can handle... a lot of digestion AND riding put high stress on your entire system, especially the circulatory. you're not gonna BONK from 45 miles... even if you don;t eat anything
AND giving it some stuff which is hard for the body to quickly assimilate... Lil Debby... Gatoraide...
That Gatorade is the worst stuff for any ongoing, longer than a few minutes, activity. AND 60 OZ, OMG!
If you're worried you're gonna keel over, carry ONE gel pac - it'll take 15 min to get into the system, but it will carry you quite some distance.
This is assuming you haven't loaded up on 4 slices of pizza before the ride...

Yogi-ism : "When the waitress asked if I wanted my pizza cut into four or eight slices, I said, 'Four. I don't think I can eat eight."
/Yogi Berra

Ride On
Yuri
EDIT: If you think you NEED more hydration, then ok, one more bottle - PLAIN WATER!, plan to 'nature break' on the ride...

Last edited by cyclezen; 07-08-22 at 06:05 PM.
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