The final intervals of any 3min 120% workouts have me almost hyperventilating and I had to throw up with only 20 seconds to go.
I felt like my body and mind can handle the work(barely) but my stomach is letting me down.
My cadence is 110 RPM and HR is hitting 96% of max during this final minute.
Any advice? I’m training for cyclocross and these workouts really help me.
Grab a bag or bucket.
But your stomach is your body. Therefore, your body, in fact, cannot handle the work.
Back it down. VO2 should be taxing, your breathing ought to be ragged at the end of the interval, but you shouldn’t be vomiting.
Do you think a slightly longer valley would help? Maybe consider stretching those out a tad. How are the other workouts? Is your baseline too high? What are you eating before? Possibly during?
Good on you for having the mental tenacity to push through. But yeah, it’s still training. May want to experiment a bit (as painful as it sounds)
I also experienced nausea and gagging (never quite threw up) during VO2 work. What I found for me was that it was directly related to the amount of fluid intake prior to the interval. For example, I would complete a set or 2 without an issue, drink 8oz of water and then I would be gagging next VO2 interval. Eliminating water, or limiting it to a few ounces eliminated the problem. I also found that I was able to tolerate drinking larger quantities of water after a few weeks of Vo2 training has gone by. I guess my stomach needs as much training as my legs.
I have been progressing through SSB II, and found the progressive increase of VO2Max intervals tolerable. But having arrived at Spencer +2 (3min VO2Max intervals), I found I had to stop for a couple of minutes during one of the rest intervals to avoid throwing up.
I think you may be right about fluid intake - I’ll try to moderate this for my next VO2Max workout.
Your ftp might be closer to pVO2 max than the norm. Could it be 118% as detailed on the following page?
If you are throwing up during the interval then I’d say you are going too deep and need to dial it down a little. I don’t mean change your ftp, just dial down the 120% ftp sessions using the intensity feature. It’s better to complete the workout than have to stop midway.