After reading all of the posts from IMFL about how many people puked during the swim, I got to wonderring how many of them were actually wearing earplugs. I remember in an undergrad exercise physiology class that earplugs can reduce motion sickness during swimming. I had 4 friends do IMFL this year - two of them swam fine (with earplugs) and two of them lost their breakfast during the swim…and you guessed it, they weren’t wearing earplugs.
So, I was wonderring if this is the case, or just fluke? I could always do a Pubmed search, but I’m feeling kinda lazy today and want the real world opinion. Ever get sick during the swim while wearing earplugs?
I’d love to hear that earplugs reduce nausea during the swim. I got out of the pool yesterday (my first time to swim in a while) and felt like crap by the time I was in my car.
Ear plugs worked for me without sickness for 4 races, then my last race I started to get sick again. I’m thinking it’s something I’m just going to have to live with. (Nothing worse than feeling sick/ill on the bike)
As I understand it, cold water getting in your ear can cause nausea. Ear plugs will obviously limit the amount of cold water getting in your ear. If your ear plugs aren’t air tight some water can still get in and cause the nausea. There may be other factors that cause nausea such as swallowing water.
I should probably look into this. I passed out after my swim at my first Oly. Came to right after I hit the ground, drank some water, got back up on the bike. I was incredibly dizzy and lightheaded as it was my first long-ish open water swim.
Anytime I come out of open water and begin to run, I get a little lightheaded and dizzy. And no history of heart problems, either.
Your dizziness is probably a result of going from exerting yourself in a horizontal position for a good amount of time to immediately going vertical. Its like a head rush from standing up too quickly magnified.
Speaking of earplugs, what are the best earplugs out there in terms of seal and comfort? The moldable plugs never seem to have tight enough seal and the other kinds I’ve tried hurt my ear canal. I wish I could just use regular concert-type earplugs because those work well for me. Actually, I don’t know why you can’t use regular earplugs.
Yes for me. Forgot my ear plugs at Kona 05 and got really sick the last part of the swim. Had them in Kona 06 and didn’t get sick in the swim. The sea water plays a part, but so does the cross course waves. Obviously if you swallow a bunch of water you will still get sick though. n=1
I took the non-drowsy kind and for me, it doesn’t make me drowsy because I think the water is cold. When I open water swim (train in pacific), I need to take them or else I get really bad motion sickness and need to hurl big time in the middle of the swim. For some reason, it’s a hit or miss. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
(But I have bad motion sickness in general…car, elevator, plane…).
Speaking of earplugs, what are the best earplugs out there in terms of seal and comfort?
I have some of the custom molded ones – you can get them made through just about any audiology clinic. Completely water tight – most of our swims in Alaska are in really cold water (duh) and wearing them helps with the dizziness coming out of the water.
They also double as hearing protection – they attenuate 30+ decibels. I have a wife who’s a speech-language pathologist (shares prof sanctioning org with audiology) and tinnitus (ringing in the ears), so I’m somewhat fanatical about protecting what hearing I have
I switched to earplugs after my first year or of tri because I kept getting really bad vertigo out of the water - almost knocked over a bike rack or two…I’ve only done one salt water Oly race (before plugs) and nearly hurled but I thought at the time it was due more to drinking the salt water than the vertigo. Since then (5+ years) no vertigo in transition or sickness in the water up to IM distance. Also helps me swim straighter in open water - vertigo thing I guess - or maybe just practice, practice, practice…
Earplugs help, to a certain extent. They will help prevent water intrusion into the ear. Water trapped in your ear and sloshing around as you turn your head to breathe, will throw off your balance and might result in nausea, if your sensitive to that. (like me) I wear them even in the pool for that reason, at least for longer swims. However, if you’re swimming in waves, the bobbing up and down alone is enough to throw off your balance and makes many people nauseous. Add in the factors of having no horizon with which to orient yourself, and adrenaline induced stress in race conditions, and there you go again. I’m getting a little queasy just writing this.
One thing I have noticed is, if I am very well hydrated, all of these effects are mitigated …somewhat.
The earplugs that work the best for me are those cheap ( I think they’re ~$5./3 pairs) disposable, gooey, silicone ones that form to your ear.
Cold or hot water in the ear can make one feel dizzy. The theory was that the heat or cold caused the fluid in the inner ear to rise (hot) or fall (cold) in the semicircular canal closest to the ear drum causing the feeling of spinning (or turning over) However the same effect, in the same direction, is found in space at zero G, so the theory is wrong but the effect is real. Luke warm water shouldn’t do this.
