This seems...wrong

Anyone who has ever used a torrent client knows that you need to cap your upload speed or else your connection dies, but does the same concept apply to your overall Internet connection (This is an example to explain my reasoning, I am not using torrents right now)? If so, is there anything my ISP can do about it to permanently correct it?

What ISP are you with?

And yes, but no. Torrenting in general can reduce your internet speed due to the number of connections being added and taken away without your upload speed even being high. It's just the way the protocol works.

Now, I don't know how to explain the crazy spike in upload. Perhaps your ISP is working on something into which your connection falls, or something of that sort. I'd say give them a call and ask if anything's been up lately.