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I must admit that I planned to see aliens and spaceships on the group ride today. My first encounter with the spaceship was in 2000 or 2001 and I’m a believer. Yes, a spaceship landing pad exists just outside my hometown of Loveland, Colorado. Hard to believe, I know.
Steve Douglas, one of my riding buddies from the Ft. Collins Breakfast Club group ride, was not a believer—until today. And we have photos.
Before I get to today’s ride, I must go back to August and the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race. Steve had mechanical difficulties that day and it wasn’t such a good race for him. Similar to others that have had not-so-good races, he proclaimed the day after the race, “I will NEVER do Leadville again.”
Several days after the race was over, he posted the gory details of the event on an August 21, 2007 post titled, “Leadville, Aliens and Suffering”. You can find that post here.
The most critical piece of that post is:
“Would I ever do this again? … Mark these words: I will only do this one again under 2 conditions: 1) When Aliens announce their presence to this planet or 2) If my brother says he wants to do it. Keep in mind there is little chance of either of these things happening!”
I present to you photographic proof that Steve has met with the aliens—well, at least one alien. Below is Steve posing with the handcrafted spaceship and one small green alien, whose name I did not catch.
This alien spaceship was handcrafted by Russ (Russ’s Machine Shop). In all the alien excitement, I did not get a photo of Russ and Rick, who I assume is Russ’s son. I’ll have to go back another time.
In addition to handcrafting the spaceship, Russ has a garage filled with ever so beautiful Indian motorcycles, a gas pump, a handmade three-seat motorcycle (Ed, help me with that engine again in the comment section) and even a John Deer bicycle. Check out the photos below.
Now I think the aliens may have been a bit peeved at non-believers because our 45-mile ride had five flat tires, one mechanical chain drop/jam and time in the ride when the group was separated by a series of errors. Apparently, the aliens were testing us.
When the group got split, I received a call from Ryan in the other group asking if our group had been abducted by the aliens. This was proof to the aliens that people are indeed believers.
The ride finished safely, with several people talking about aliens. I think we will have great rides from this point forward because we have full alien support.
And Steve, I’m sure you’ll be cutting a check and sending in your entry form for Leadville in January of 2008. With alien support, I’m certain you’ll be selected in the lottery.
]]>Ah yes, the Para-Shirt, it’s a classic. In the quest for more speed athletes often look to make workouts harder with more drag. In this 1987 product review column, the Para-Shirt is reviewed and priced nicely at $26.95.
What are you using right now, for training and racing, that people will laugh at in 20 years?
]]>I’ve been curious about continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices for a few years. People normally associate these devices with diabetics, but awhile back there were indications that they would become available for non-diabetics. It did occur, CGM devices are now available to non-diabetics.
A great question is why should you care about monitoring your glucose if you’re not diabetic? There are several reasons you might be interested in monitoring glucose:
With that background, I decided to wear a CGM device last summer. I was quite surprised by a few things that the monitor revealed. Here are 8 of my personal insights.
First know that I do not have a gluten intolerance, I just found a gluten-free bread that I liked to eat because of the size of the slices and the taste. During the first week of wearing the monitor I had a breakfast of two eggs cooked in butter, two slices of gluten-free bread with butter, and a small amount of cherry preserves. I had bites of each in random order. This breakfast shot my glucose up to 151 mg/DL. (It is recommended to keep glucose levels below 140 mg/DL for non-diabetics.)
At a breakfast a few days later I had two eggs, one slice of the same gluten-free bread buttered and with preserves. I ate some of the eggs first, then ate the toasted bread near the end of the meal. My glucose after this meal was only 122 mg/DL. I did two things differently in this meal. First, I limited myself to one slice of bread. The second was that I ate much of the protein first.
In item number 1, above, on the second breakfast I mentioned eating most of the eggs first. Researchers at Cornell University found that if diabetics ate vegetables or protein before carbohydrates, blood glucose was lower for the same mixed meal.
Eating one slice of gluten-free bread/toast for breakfast won’t spike my glucose over that 140 mg/DL mark.
I decided to experiment with different types of bread. A turkey and cheese sandwich using two slices of Ezekiel bread only peaked my glucose to 105 mg/DL.
I was on a week-long bike tour and had a turkey and cheese croissant sandwich with potato chips and got back on my bike to ride. Glucose only spiked to 125 mg/DL. Croissants are very high in fat, so this may have affected the glucose reading as well.
On the same tour, I had ¾ of a turkey and cheese sandwich on a white hoagie bun with potato chips and I achieved an all-time high glucose reading of 219 mg/DL. I ate this sandwich after a short ride and did no exercise after eating.
A few weeks later, I had half of a Subway 6-inch sub on white bread and some vinegar and salt Pringles. This lunch was consumed at about 6.5 hours into a very long ride and I rode another 1.5 hours after lunch. Glucose spiked on the chart to 147 mg/DL, but not nearly as high as eating a similar sandwich and not exercising after.
Sometimes I consume a flavored drink packet that contains 1,000 mg of vitamin C and the CGM will show a spike as high as 140 mg/DL. This is a "false spike" is because the Vitamin C is affecting interstitial fluid – what the CGM measures – and not blood glucose levels.
I could either reduce the vitamin C dosing or ignore the spikes.
I was on a bike ride and decided to eat an entire small banana. It spiked my glucose reading up to 173 mg/DL. I think I could get the response to be “less spikey” if I ate the banana in smaller pieces over the course of time, rather than all at once. But…eating it all at once is far less messy.
When I was on the bike tour, I noticed that every time I ate one or two Clif Bloks, it caused a glucose spike. Spikes would range from 130 to around 145 mg/DL. I wasn’t surprised that glucose spiked. After all, Bloks are very simple carbohydrates.
A couple of days after the bike tour ended, I did a local race that took about 2:40 to complete. Due to the start time, I didn’t have breakfast before the ride and fueled with Clif Bloks. I consumed 5 Bloks during the ride and went well above 140 mg/DL and stayed there for 1:10 after the race was over.
While nitro-jet fuel (sugar) is good in the right exercise situation, the graphs lead me to question what fueling strategies, given different exercise situations, are best for me? I don’t want to consume excess sugars or calories if they aren’t going to good use. I want to optimize health and performance.
Okay, this could be a bad thing because it’s tempting to classify ice cream as “healthy.” That issue aside, regular high fat ice cream will send my glucose up to 130 but not higher than 140 mg/DL.
Driving to the mountains in Colorado up I-70 on a Friday afternoon in the summer is not a good choice, but sometimes it can’t be avoided. During the very stressful drive, while consuming nothing but water, glucose climbed from 105 mg/DL to 119 mg/DL. I could see the graph slowly increase over the course of the drive. Stress and cortisol increase glucose response.
Using a CGM was very educational. I was able to watch my own body response to foods as well as compare glucose responses to a few of my buddies. It is interesting to see that our glucose responses to foods was often similar and also often different.
This is a technology I will be watching as I can see applications for overall health and athletic performance.
]]>With the recent spike in COVID infections, I’ve had several people reach out and ask my opinion on when it is safe to return to exercise after having a COVID infection. I will include some guidelines in the blog, but first I need to include two disclaimers:
That written, let’s get on with exercising and racing post-COVID infection. One of the most frustrating aspects of COVID for endurance athletes is there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the severity of illness. There probably are some underlying factors that can predict how sick someone might get when getting this virus and how fast they might recover – but – we do not know those factors now. For example, given two people with the same exercise regimen and vaccination status, one might get very ill and the other has quite mild symptoms. Athletes can feel frustrated and resentful when they get very sick – why me? We don’t know why you. There is a lot we don’t know about this virus.
While there are many questions unanswered about this COVID-19 virus, for many years endurance athletes have gotten viruses and then returned to endurance exercise. Also in the past, endurance athletes have returned to exercise post-virus only to fall ill to health issues such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, myocarditis, pericarditis or bacterial infections.
Early in 2020, when we knew very, very little about this virus, one of my athletes fell ill. Exceptionally ill. At the time, medical professionals did not diagnose him with COVID-19, because his symptoms were mostly gastro-intestinal versus the typical COVID coughing and sore throat. In short, he was hospitalized twice and battled Bell’s palsy before finally returning to the ability to do workouts.
The same principles I used to help him regain his fitness in 2020, are the principles I’ve used with every athlete diagnosed with COVID-19 that has sought my help since then. The foundation for these principles came from a column I wrote in 2008 about athletes suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. (Part I link here and Part II link here.) The fatigue description in those columns will sound familiar to those suffering from long COVID.
Let’s look at guidelines and measures for when it is safe to return to training and racing post-COVID illness.
Before returning to formal, structured exercise, it is important to do everything in your power to give your body the best possible tools to go to battle against the virus. This virus or any other virus.
Some of the most important tools include rest and good nutrition. What does “good nutrition” mean? Eat foods that are very nutrient-dense. These foods are lean meats, vegetables, whole grains and fruits.
Avoid foods, food ingredients and drinks that are associated with creating inflammation in the body. At the top of this list is sugar, highly refined foods and alcohol.
How long before my body clears the virus?
The CDC guidelines for mildly ill people states:
There was a good column in National Geographic Science that noted “Most COVID-19 patients recover from their acute infection within two weeks, but bits of the virus don’t always disappear from patients’ bodies immediately.”
How do you know when the virus is gone or when it might be safe to do easy exercise?
Track and monitor your illness and wellness markers
The more data you have about your normal health markers, the more confidently you can return to exercise. Below is a partial list of markers, or symptoms, that indicate your body is not well. You may have only one on this list or you may have many:
Some illness indicators can be objectively measured by fitness tracker watches or using other tools:
It is critically important that you are brutally honest with yourself regarding how you feel. Verify your feelings with data. If you think you “feel fine” but your heart rate tells you otherwise, stop your exercise session – or don’t begin it in the first place.
Returning to exercise
The more illness symptoms you had and the longer your symptoms lasted, the more time you need to take off entirely. This high level of symptom volume and intensity is directly correlated with the volume of time you will need to exercise at a reduced volume and intensity.
Depending on your symptoms, at minimum take two to 14 days off normal aerobic activity and allow your body to rest. This may seem like a wide range, but the range must be personalized. A person that has a mild sore throat for one or two days and no other symptoms can begin easy exercise earlier than someone who suffered eight of the symptoms in the top category for a week or more. Illness intensity and duration matters.
If you are still isolating per the CDC guidelines, of course you should be exercising by yourself. This is a benefit because you can end the session based on your personal indicators rather than other people. When you think you are ready to resume exercise, the first few sessions become small tests. Depending on your pre-COVID fitness, begin with 30 to 60 minutes of Zone 1 exercise. (Exercise intensity Zones explained in a chart on this document link.)
If your heart rate is high compared to pace or the session just feels too hard, you’re not ready yet. End the session or test, turn around and go home. Better yet, do this session on an indoor treadmill or trainer at your home so you can stop at a moment’s notice.
Once you can complete a few sessions of exercise at Zone 1 heart rate, you can begin to progress. The progression guidelines follow:
No racing for a minimum of eight weeks after a COVID-19 infection and you may be finished for the season
In my coaching business, I have found that adding more intensity to exercise sessions is riskier than adding more duration. For this reason, I am very, very cautious about recommending a return to racing. I cannot say that I personally know anyone that has returned to racing within eight weeks of having a COVID-19 diagnosis. My preference is athletes do not return to racing for at least 12 weeks post-COVID.
Given what we don’t know about the virus, the number or people suffering long COVID symptoms, and secondary issues like heart and lung infections, is it worth it to you to roll the dice by racing? In my opinion, no.
I know there is a tremendous feeling of loss to give up a race that has consumed your training time, and mind, for months. Maybe a year or more. In addition to the loss of all that invested training time, there is an entry fee loss. Allow yourself to grieve these losses, so that you can move forward with rebuilding your health. With optimal health, you will have many more opportunities to race.
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A few years back I wrote a two-part column on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in Athletes. Part I is here and Part II is here.
The links to more information about each individual athlete are no longer working at the Active Network, so I am reposting all stories here.
Cyclist H.A.
The similarities between H.A. and R.C. include going to college in a tough study program and also being a very gifted cyclist. She was producing top-shelf results and was invited to be a resident at the Olympic Training Center (OTC). While at the OTC, she got pneumonia. Unfortunately, she was misdiagnosed and continued to train at a high level for two weeks, digging a deeper hole, before a proper diagnosis was given.
After treating pneumonia, she tried for the next eight months to train, but she was just tired all the time. She described the same tired and low-level sickness feeling that R.C. described. As hard as she tried to train, she just got worse.
She got pneumonia again.
She started napping and napping turned into sleeping some 18 to 20 hours per day, literally. She didn’t remember what it felt like to not feel tired. She started to wonder, “What if this is what the rest of my life will look like?”
Unlike R.C., who had some rocky relationship issues, she had a very stable relationship with her husband and he helped her tremendously. He wanted her to heal and get better. She said he was a critical component to her getting healthy again. When others might have doubted she had any real illness at all, he knew she was sick and she would get better. He commented, “When you get better…”
She visited an immunologist and he told her to get on the bike every day and ride just a little and at low intensity. Not more than an hour in the beginning. He believed that this low-level of exercise gave her an endorphin hit and helped rebuild her immune system. On some days she had to drag herself onto the trainer for an easy 30-minute session, but the low-intensity rides did seem to help.
Doctors wanted to put her on anti-depressants, but she refused.
She also worked with an internal medicine specialist that told her CFS tends to last for five years, in his opinion. He said she could begin training again for competitive racing, but the training structure had to be very loose. If a tough session was scheduled and she felt bad, she skipped it. She had to train according to how she felt. Fast on the days that she felt good, take it easy on days she didn’t feel good.
She did get back to the highest level of cycling again, but one frustration was her performance was unpredictable. In one stage race, she was dropped from the main group on the first day. On the second day of the same race she was on the podium.
In reflection, she says she believes that it is hard for competitive athletes to be honest about how they really feel. They can tolerate such high levels of pain and discomfort in order to race at top levels, that this tolerance blessing for training and racing is also a curse. Ignoring or minimizing how you really feel can lead you down a dark road.
Her husband’s support and others believing in her was critical to regaining her health. She carefully monitors the intensity of a common cold and immediately reduces training. She does a better job of resting and taking care of herself.
She was once on an extremely low-fat diet, that is no longer the case. She eats primarily fruits, healthy.
Triathlete G.D.
G.D. was similar to the cyclists in the story in that he was going to school and performing very well in the sport of triathlon. His success came earlier than the others, he was under 18 when he began to recognize his talent for sport. He too performed well enough to get an invitation to the Olympic Training Center.
He started high-level training for triathlon at age 15 and was badly injured by the time he was 18. The injury was multiple stress fractures caused, in his estimation, by training inappropriately for someone his age. Too much too soon. He read a Triathlete magazine column about Lance Armstrong’s training and tried to replicate it.
The success, however, was coming concurrently with the injuries. He had won a Junior National title at age 17, along with other races, and planned on being a pro at age 19. When he was 20 years old, he set numerous course records across the Midwest, racing nearly every weekend all summer.
Traveling to races, scoring podium spots and going to school made for an incredible lifestyle. Perhaps an intoxicating lifestyle.
The excitement and lifestyle so intoxicating that he did not recognize he was sick enough to be hospitalized while driving to a race. Rather, he planned to be on the podium at the race. His physical symptoms of unfathomable fatigue and boils on his body became so worrisome that instead of driving to the race venue, he drove himself to the hospital emergency room. He spent the night in the hospital and was in bed for a week before being strong enough to do a return drive home.
Like the others we’ve met, he was, and is, an achievement-oriented person. He is gifted in sport and outside of sport. Achieving success in sport and outside of sport was the motivation that gave him permission, self-permission, to drive himself hard. He worked hard at anything that drew his passion and somewhat enjoyed juggling many spinning plates at the same time.
He says that he believes three things contributed to his Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The first was consistent stress for years, not months, wore him to a nub. There was no time off of that stress at all.
For the training, he believes that it was the high intensity, and volume of high-intensity training, that did him in. In his estimation, the long workouts can contribute to overall fatigue, but it was the intensity that pushed him over the edge.
The third item that contributed to his illness was spending time with a really cute girl that was a rampant pot smoker and perhaps gave him a virus. He has heard that most everyone carries Epstein Barr Virus, but only certain people manifest the symptoms. In either case, given by the cute girl or lying dormant, he was attacked by a virus.
His attempts to get healthy meant going through multiple cycles of rest, ramp-up, crash, repeat. He did this multiple times until he began to get a handle on the triggers for his illness. He said, “I've never gotten back to a point where I feel indestructible, but I feel like I have a pretty good handle on things now. Mostly, I just readjusted my expectations of what was possible for me.”
He, as well as a couple of the others, commented that the hardest part of dealing with the illness is trying to convey the symptoms to athletes that have not had the disease.
The main residual issue is fear. He was not the only one to use that four-letter word.
He said, “So much of the endurance mindset is about blasting through fatigue and pushing on no matter what. It is truly debilitating to learn your own limits through such a painful lesson. I personally believe this is the most painful part of CFS.
It is important to understand the difference between “reps to success” and “reps to failure.”
After you get sick, it is crucial to get a grip mentally as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, in my personal experience, this process can take years. I do believe that it is incredibly important to talk to other people so you don't feel alone. Especially other athletes.”
Every athlete commented to me that avoiding the old traps is a life-long challenge.
Cyclist R.C.
R.C. was the oldest of the athletes I interviewed and had the deepest history of dealing with CFS. Many of the threads in his story were common to the others. But, no two stories for getting CFS or for overcoming the disease were the same.
R.C. left home to attend college and live in the dorm at age 19. He was a fulltime student and cycling too. His cycling mileage was not that high compared to others. He estimated weekly mileage at around 200 and a moderate amount of intensity. He was riding well, starting to get noticed, and studies were going well too.
Dorm life, however, was not conducive to good rest. He found it nearly impossible to get good rest and he found it frustrating. In addition to rest being tough to come by, the college culture was ripe for spreading mononucleosis.
In September of his sophomore year at college, he got sick. The first problem he found was through a blood test that determined his liver enzymes were out of tolerance. In October he got Chicken Pox and in December it was mononucleosis. He quit school and moved in with his girlfriend to recover.
After a round of prednisone and getting his liver enzymes back to normal, he went back to school part-time in the spring. He also started riding and racing again. He didn’t feel that great but was riding really well. He was a little worried about getting sick again.
His junior year he was going full speed, feeling confident on the bike and with his fitness. That winter he was selected to the U.S. Olympic Training Center resident collegiate program. The summer between his junior and senior year he raced a lot and was flying on the bike.
He was training with a coach that didn’t do big mileage, R.C. estimates only about 250 miles per week, but every workout included very high intensity. He was responding to the training with great results. He was selected for the 1980 Olympic Long Team; however, that was the year the U.S. did not send a team to the Olympics.
The spring of the following year he was back home, going to school and riding great. He was riding fantastically with light training volume. Communication from the Olympic Training Center continued and his hopes of being on the National Team were coming to fruition. At the same time, he began feeling bad. Riding well, but feeling bad.
He said, “School pressures, relationship stress, worry, and performance anxiety did me in. I started feeling really bad. But oddly, I could still ride well. It wasn’t until I felt terrible, that I quit riding.”
A doctor misdiagnosed him with blood pressure problems. He worked for an entire year to rest and get healthy again.
He moved to the east coast to go to school and began riding again. It wasn’t long before he was riding very well and winning races. He moved back to the west and continued to get great results on the bike while attending a new college. Though he was riding well, he didn’t get recognition from the Olympic Training Center and no selection chance for the next Olympic team.
He continued to ride and race well. A full eight years after his freshman year of college, he was flying on the bike again; but he started to feel that old sickness creep back.
Growing tired, he lost his power and speed on the bike. He felt sick. He said, “I felt the way you feel when you’re just about to get the flu or a cold. No energy, weak, tired and just sick. But the feeling lingers and just won’t go away…for weeks and weeks on end.”
After a battery of tests from a general practitioner, he was finally diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The doctor put him on an antiviral medication, Zovorix. He began to feel better, but it would be two years before he felt good on the bike again.
He rode consistently well for seven years and then began to feel unstable again. Looking back at that time, he says that a stressful relationship was the root of his emotional stress. He tried Zovorix again, but this time there were no positive results.
Another four years of struggling to get healthy produced limited results. After extensive testing to eliminate a battery of illnesses, he was diagnosed with CFS for the second time. An immunologist suggested he work to rebuild his immune system with healthy foods and acupuncture.
It took two years for him to get healthy again.
In reflection, he commented that when outside stresses began to pile up on him, he didn’t change his riding. He didn’t reduce intensity or volume and that was a mistake. Relationship issues were major stressors for him; however, because he was riding well, he didn’t feel like he needed to change anything about the bike.
The bike was a place to find peace and pleasure when other things were not got going well. He knows now, that keeping the same volume and intensity on the bike when life stresses pile up is a mistake.
He also knows that riding the bike in extremely windy, wet and cold conditions further stresses his body. In the past, no weather condition would keep him off the bike. Now he knows staying off the bike on some days will keep him healthy for the long haul.
Triathlete W.H.
W.H. was different than the others in that he was not attending school at the same time he was participating in sport at a high level. His time was spent at more training, high volume and high intensity.
Prior to the months leading up to when the illness struck him, he was traveling the globe training and racing professionally. He was among a handful of top triathletes in the world. What if he could be better? Perhaps the best?
With two years of reasonably successful racing under his belt, he returned home for a break. With no races or travel for a six-week block, he decided to take advantage of that and train, train, train. He was logging 25 to 28 hours per week and many of those workouts, multiple workouts per day and multiple days in a row, were at very high intensities.
Following this big training block, he went into a big racing block where he traveled to and competed in seven races over nine weeks. This included travel overseas. His performances were soaring and he was achieving personal best placements in the field, consistently. He was on top of the world.
He trained hard between the races, so he wouldn’t lose any fitness. He returned home for a two-week break in racing. When he returned home, a fellow racer was there too, staying with him for six weeks. Training sessions became races of sorts, each one pushing the other.
Like most achievement-oriented people, there is a foundation concept that the more you work, the more you are rewarded. This concept was paying in spades for W.H. as he accepted invitations from more race directors to race at their events.
He was beginning to feel tired, though. He decided to take his training easy before the next race. At that race, he crashed on the bike. Accepting that it was just an off race, he continued to rest and heal his wounds.
Heading into the next big race, he found the media was his friend. There were lots of interviews and predictions that he would be the big race winner. The spotlight was on him.
As much as he tried to psych-up for the race, he felt tired. His body was tired all over. He ignored the feelings, passing them off as part of the normal cycle.
At the race he had an average swim; but, he planned to make his move on the bike. Putting the hammer down in the first 10K of the ride, he was surprised that he wasn’t dropping people. In fact, people were catching up. This wasn’t normal.
Not to worry. His run was his new weapon and surely this is where he would seal his fate on the podium. Out of the second transition and off to the run where he felt he was moving…backwards. Screaming fans urging him on, but he just couldn’t move faster. No energy in his legs.
With one disappointing race behind him, he looked ahead to the next opportunities to race. Plenty of races and travel were lined up. At the next race, he was still tired, so tired that he dropped out. It was the first time he didn’t finish a race in his career.
While traveling to the next race, he realized something was terribly wrong and canceled plans for upcoming races. He said this was one of the lowest points of his career.
He consulted nutritionists, internists, acupuncturists, Chinese medicine specialists, took vitamins and herbal teas. Piles of tests and consultants, he did research and did what he thought was right for him.
He did low-intensity training limited to four to six hours per week. For six weeks, nothing changed. His muscles ached and through his own research, he determined that CFS was the culprit, though no “expert” diagnosed him with the disease.
At night he couldn’t fall asleep, though he was completely exhausted. Once asleep, he would wake up and remain awake for several hours. During the day, exhausted, he felt like he could fall asleep, literally, while riding his bike.
Because he was in the Pro Tour Series, he felt that he needed to race to maintain his points standing.
With little intensity training and lots of rest, he did a race. He placed reasonably well in the race and was surprised. Seven weeks after his initial fall into the chasm of fatigue, he seemed to recover and began racing again – though he would never be as strong and as fast as he was before he was struck with CFS.
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My recent routine visit to the doctor’s office raised the question, again, “Does my high cholesterol mean I need to take a statin?”
** My first disclaimer is that my research relates to me. I will provide you with an incomplete list of my research links and background information. You may find other links more helpful and that’s great. **
Just a few weeks ago I was able to get in to see a Physician’s Assistant (PA) in my doctor’s office for a routine visit. I took the opportunity to do that rather than wait for the doctor. The PA did all of the normal exam items, including order a standard lipid test. My results:
Total cholesterol: 292 mg/DL
HDL: 98 mg/DL
LDL Calculated: 175 mg/DL
Triglycerides: 82 mg/DL
When the results came back, the PA asked how I felt about going on a statin. Based on my last journey through this decision-making process, I pushed back and asked for more information. After some discussion, we decided it was best to do further lipid testing where LDL is actually measured versus calculated. Additionally, she ordered a test to measure Lipoprotein (a), also called LPa, and finally she ordered a second CT Calcium Score test since it has been about seven years since my last test. This CT test directly measures the amount of calcified plaque in the heart.
I was completely on board with the next steps in testing because I want to be judicious about the decision to take – or not take – a statin.
Updated results after further testing:
LDL measured: 141 mg/DL
The direct measure of LDL puts me in another, lower, risk category than the calculated value:
NCEP ATP III guidelines: <100 mg/dL Desirable
100-129 mg/dL Above Desirable
130-159 mg/dL Borderline High
160-189 mg/dL High
190 mg/dL Very High
My LPa test value was “deemed undetectable” in the PA notes, which was great news. High levels of LPa are thought to increase the likelihood of developing heart disease, according to some experts.
While waiting for all the testing to occur and to receive results, I went about my normal investigation of these types of matters. I was curious if anything new surfaced since my last investigation.
I did find a handful of online heart disease risk calculators. I had not seen these the last time I investigated heart disease risk assessment tools. Each tool uses slightly different items to evaluate the risk of heart disease. I think a multivariable evaluation is important because risk of heart disease is seldom (if ever?) linked to a single variable. The risk of developing heart disease is often associated with some of the items on this incomplete list:
Every calculator used slightly different risk input values to determine the overall risk of developing heart disease in the next 10 years or so. Below is a short list of some of the risk calculators I found:
American College of Cardiology (ACC) Risk Estimator
(If you are over the age of 59, the ACC calculator warns you it only estimates risk for ages 20-59.)
Framingham General CVD Risk Profile
My ASCVD (atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease) risk scores from each of the calculators above are 2.8%, 2.8% , 1.2%, and N/A. I was unable to use the last calculator because I do not have a current value for C-Reactive Protein (CRP). These percentage values are my 10-year estimated risk scores for developing cardiovascular disease. Obviously quite low.
It is important to know that my blood pressure at my most recent visit was 106/60 and has historically been in this range. I have no family history of heart disease, have never been a smoker, am not diabetic and I do not consider myself under a lot of stress at this time. Have I previously been under what I consider a great deal of stress? Yes.
I think a few things are important to point out. First, it is well known that people with what doctors consider “normal” cholesterol levels can have heart disease and suffer fatal heart attacks. My friend Scott Ellis and famous news man Tim Russert (who had an LDL of 78) are examples. The caution here is that if you have “normal” cholesterol levels, do not assume you have no risk of heart disease.
One study of 4,100 people found that, “At the start of the study, participants were 40–54 years old and had ideal health, which was defined as being a non-smoker and having optimal blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol. After conducting thorough medical exams at the start of the study, researchers found that 50% of participants had significant plaque build-up in their arteries.”
Another important concept to consider is something called dependent variables. A single variable by itself is not as important as the consideration of several variables and how they relate to one another.
The first important summary point is:
Your personal risk of heart disease and the likelihood of a heart attack depends on several variables. Whether or not you should be prescribed a statin to prevent the further development of heart disease depends on the specific values of multiple variables.
My final test result came in today and it is the CT Calcium Score. The score was zero in 2016 and remains zero in 2022. Very good news indeed.
When evaluating risk/benefit ratios of taking a statin, know there are disagreements among experts. Some believe that above a certain value, LDL must be reduced (independent of the value of any other variable(s)) in order to reduce risk of heart disease. Taking a statin is the way reduce LDL, so the message will be, “Take the statin.”
Other experts believe it isn’t that clearcut and that taking statins to lower LDL without considering dependent variables is not a reasonable conclusion. One reason for the pause is because statins come with certain risks.
Another important summary point is:
No matter which choice I make, take a statin or not, that choice comes with risks. Which set of risks am I willing to take?
I have made my decision on whether or not to take a statin. When I started this column, I was intent on letting you know that decision at the end of the column. After writing the column, I’ve decided that my decision is right for me. Given exactly the same health markers that I have, you might make a different decision. And that’s okay.
Are you wondering where to begin?
More links in no particular order:
New Study Suggests Benefit-to-Harm Balance of Statins for Healthy Adults ‘Generally Favorable’
Statins Provide No Clinical Benefit When Coronary Calcium Is Zero, Study Shows
Side Effect Patterns in a Crossover Trial of Statin, Placebo, and No Treatment
What to know about a zero calcium score with high cholesterol
The Russert Impact: A Golden Opportunity to Promote Primary Coronary Prevention
The common "good" and "bad" cholesterol levels myth is not true
Link between high cholesterol and heart disease 'inconsistent', new study finds.
]]>Q. Hello. We are going to the USA Cycling MTB Nationals in Winter Park this year and will be racing various events over a week (between prerides, short track, qualifiers, XCO, etc). In preparation for the altitude, I read your article about altitude and the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race and have more questions. For Winter Park, we thought about getting up there a week in advance, but also considered spending two off days down in Golden, CO (about an hour a way, and at 5000 feet instead of 10,000). There could be downsides to this as well.
1) Should we spend two days off in Golden or stay in Winter Park?
2) Others have told us to stay in Winter Park but sleep in a room with supplemental oxygen, what do you think?
3) Do you think there is a risk of spending "too much" time at altitude?
Anyway, I’m interested if you had any other thoughts or have come across new research since you last article on altitude and racing. Thank you! ~ MD
A. Hello MD ~
Thanks for reaching out.
First, I don't see the point of spending off days in Golden in the middle of your racing, other than perhaps a theory of recovery from hard efforts. There is more oxygen available in Golden. The question is, how much do you gain by spending time in Golden versus just having days off? I didn't find any research on such a format (low altitude for a couple of days in the middle of altitude training), so results are unknown. And, there is a hassle factor with moving locations.
Typically, supplemental oxygen is used in training sessions, rather than sleep sessions, to improve performance. (This is the traditional sleep high, train low theory.) During training, supplemental oxygen during treadmill or bike trainer sessions has been shown to improve power output during the session, which is particularly useful for those living at altitude and racing at sea level. (The athletes living at the Olympic Training Center are great examples.) So, I'm not sure why someone would recommend supplemental oxygen in your sleeping room - other than perhaps they are thinking about recovery? I haven't been able to find that there is any benefit to sleeping with supplemental oxygen at altitude - except for "maybe" those with pre-existing sleep apnea.
You don't say where you're traveling from - but if it is sea level, there are advantages to traveling to Golden (or any city along the front range of Colorado) and staying a couple of days to acclimate there first. By acclimatizing to some 5,000 feet prior to heading up to Winter Park at 9,100 feet, you can reduce the chances of altitude illness and HAPE.
For your final question, I don't see any downsides to spending more time at altitude as long as you do training to maintain power (shorter intervals and more recovery), aim for good recovery and high quality sleep. Most research points to 21 days as the optimal altitude exposure for those aiming to gain more red blood cells. If you plan to spend more than 21 days in CO, let me know. I have some ideas on other strategies to use.
Hope this helps and let me know if you have more questions. Most of all, have fun at the races!
Gale
]]>I was listening to a podcast on healthy aging and the presenter noted that as we age, stability (balance) is one of the first skills we lose. It is critical to keep this skill for life function and sport. Yoga is a great way to keep your balance. If you don’t happen to do yoga, I can give you a few sample exercises you can easily do at home.
Exercise 1: Looking forward, stand on one foot and count 1001, 1002, 1003, 1004, 1005. The non-weight-bearing foot can be anywhere, but it's easier to begin with it close to the ground. Switch which foot is weight-bearing and repeat the same count. Repeat the set (right leg and left leg) some five to 10 times. As you progress, build up to a 30-second count per foot. As you increase the time per foot, you can decrease the number of sets.
Exercise 2: Looking forward, stand on one foot and count to five. Remain on that foot, look over your right shoulder and count to five. Remaining on that foot, look over your left shoulder and count to five. (The weight-bearing foot gets a total count of 15 before resting.) Switch feet. Repeat each foot three to five times.
Exercise 3: Complete exercise 2 with your eyes closed. This is going to be harder than you think. In fact, I'll bet that very few of you are able to get up from your chairs right now and do exercise 3 without touching the ground with the foot that is supposed to remain suspended in the air. Let me know how it goes.
Exercise 4: While standing on one foot, raise your knee until your femur is parallel to the ground. Count to five. Repeat five to 10 times. As you progress, build up to 30 seconds per foot.
Exercise 5: While standing on one foot, raise your knee until your femur is parallel to the ground. Kick your heel out until your leg is near parallel to the ground. Bring your foot back so your tibia is perpendicular to the ground. Then move your foot back in a controlled manner as though you are a horse kicking backwards. Return your femur to the parallel position. This entire movement is a count of one. Begin with five repetitions and build to 20 or 30 before switching to the other leg.
Exercise 6: Raise both arms above your head. Stand on one foot. Let's begin with the right foot as an example. The left leg begins with the femur parallel to the ground (like in exercise 4). Move your right hand down to meet the bottom of your left foot. This requires that your left leg moves up and the bottom of your foot rotates toward your hand. A count of "1" is when your right hand touches the bottom of your left foot. Return to both hands up and femur parallel to the ground before beginning the second repeat. Begin with a count of five and build to 20 or 30 before switching to the other leg.
Variation 1: You can choose to do only one exercise per balance session or do a series. Your series might be doing three repeats of going through exercises 1, 2 and 3. In other words, do each exercise three times.
Variation 2: When you master exercises 1 through 3, to make them more challenging you can do them on a BOSU ball.
Variation 3: As you advance, you can choose to eliminate exercises 1, 2 and 3 and do only one of exercises 4 through 6 per balance session. Or you can do a series. Your series might include three repeats of going through exercises 4, 5 and 6. In other words, do each exercise three times.
Variation 4: Complete one or more sets of exercises 4, 5 and 6 with your eyes closed.
Let me know what you discover while trying out the balance exercises.
Image by Nicooografie from Pixabay
]]>Hurting, timid and fearful
Litmus tests
Breakthrough days
Minimizing fitness loss
Patience, persistence, progression
This is the final post in a three-part series. In the last post I outlined some of the principles I followed for the healing process. In the first post of this series I wrote some about the mental and physical process of healing. For Part III I want revisit those two aspects and how they work together to get back to pain-free, confident and fearless.
Hurting, timid and fearful
Anyone suffering an injury expects pain in the area of injury. What we don’t expect is pain in places or with movements seemingly unassociated with the injury. I expected pain in my back, ribs and lower shoulder blade (scapula) area. I did not expect pain in my arm, in the deltoid and triceps area.
I had the most pain in my arm, back and ribs rolling over in bed, getting up off the sofa, picking something up off of the floor, putting something with a little weight into the cupboard, pulling myself up into the car and restraining the dog. Other movements did cause some pain, but these were the big attention-grabbing ones.
About a week or so after the crash, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror while walking. I noticed my posture was terrible! I was somewhat hunched over and leaning to the right. It looked like a protective stance and I’m sure it was just a natural reaction to injury.
Good posture didn’t hurt at all, so I immediately began to focus on good posture and alignment when walking or sitting.
The thought of planning anything into the future, like a ski day, brought sadness and fear to mind. How could I possibly go skiing if I have the movement pain described above?
Litmus tests
I did want to ski at some point in the season, if possible. What I didn’t want to do is try to ski before the ribs were healed and muscular pain was gone. But when will that be?
It is common knowledge that bruised or cracked ribs take some four to six weeks to heal. Time goal number one was ski no earlier than four weeks post-injury.
In order to give myself permission to ski, litmus test number one was pain-free normal activities. I needed to be capable of doing all normal daily movements pain-free. Test number two was the ability to jump, doing my basic plyometric routine, with no pain. I thought if I can jump confidently, I can ski.
It sounds strange, but in order to ski, I needed to be able to fall and not worry about falling. This was litmus test number three, though it was quite subjective.
Breakthrough days
In Part II I mentioned that I received manual Muscle Activation Therapies (MAT.) Seventeen days after the crash, I received my first MAT treatment from Sherri Goering. I explained my crash and the seemingly unrelated pains I was getting with arm movements. She did a resistance evaluation on both legs and both arms. She would ask me to position my leg or arm a particular way and then press against her hand. I could feel that in some positions, I could not resist very well and sometimes one side or the other was weaker.
She then worked along muscle attachments with just enough pressure and friction to be uncomfortable but not painful. There is a lot of participant work with manual MAT; rolling over, testing, manipulation, repeat. MAT not a relaxing massage.
The next morning after MAT treatment, my unrelated-to-the-crash pain was gone. Gone! I couldn’t believe it. Of course I still had pain if I pressed directly in the area of my injury, but I was now able to move my arm normally and increase swim time by 15 minutes. I could use the ladder to get out of the pool, with no pain. This was my second breakthrough day. I was able to stop the night time acetaminophen 48 hours after this treatment.
The following week I had another acupuncture treatment from Ellen Williams which reduced the pain level in my back and ribs to zero within 24 hours. Specifically, pain associated with any movement. Again, pressing on the area of injury was still uncomfortable, but much better.
Three days after the second acupuncture treatment, I had another MAT session. The MAT session again improved my ability to move normally, this time movement related to the injury. Along with the manual manipulation, I had assigned daily isometric exercises.
The end of week three was a big breakthrough in feeling good, but it is still too early to ski.
Minimizing fitness loss
I was able to minimize my loss of fitness during the entire process by focusing on good form during any exercise. (The focus was not on higher heart rates or intensity.) Early on I was able to swim, begin strength training with body weight only and ride an indoor trainer. As I mentioned in Part I, my guide was to do only movements and exercise that didn’t generate pain. I was very cautious adding load, particularly in the weight room.
Slightly more than four weeks out from the injury I am back to swimming an hour and doing a long road ride at 53 miles. I’m not quite back to where I was before the crash in the weight room or running. I’m being conservative in the weight room and cautious running on icy surfaces.
Closing in on five weeks post-crash, I don’t feel any pain when pressing on my rib and back area. Yay!
Patience, persistence, progression
Looking back to the beginning, I can still recall being in pain, very discouraged, sad, timid and fearful. It is no fun mentally. I was fearful of not being able to get back to doing the things I love quickly.
If you find yourself injured, I suspect you can relate to the last paragraph. Sometimes “quickly” is defined as a few days; but sometimes it means weeks or months. It is difficult to remain optimistic, but if you set realistic goals and look for small successes; it helps mentally and physically. Also look for ways to accelerate the healing process. Of course you can’t “bake a cake in 5 minutes” but you can do things to keep progressing on the fastest realistic timeline and minimize fitness loss.
I’m planning my first alpine ski day somewhere in the fifth week and I’m confident it will be a great day!
]]>
In my last post I explained how I managed to smash myself into the frame of the closet door. In this post I will explain what I did to manage my healing process through four weeks out from the injury.
Taking pain relievers is another issue that triggers conflicting advice. Do your homework or listen to your medical expert before you decide what to do.
I decided to take ibuprofen on a regular schedule for the first three days so I could get decent rest at night and move about without pain. After three days of this, I decided to stop taking ibuprofen. The first day I had some pain during the day, but it was manageable. However, the pain that first night was not manageable and not conducive to good quality rest at all. I know that quality sleep is critical during the healing process.
On day five, I switched to acetaminophen at night only. I did this so I could be aware of what movements caused pain while I was most active during the day. After day 16, I took no pain relievers.
On day 19 I headed to the pool. Because I was experiencing some attention-grabbing pain in my rib and back area for certain movements, I decided to begin in the warm, zero-depth pool. My goal was to make it 30 minutes.
Mid-way through the pull portion of the stroke, it was not painful, but not comfortable either. At about 25 minutes I noticed the pain was increasing, so I stopped the swim session.
I read a few blog posts from people that claimed they were healed in a week by doing x, y, z – don’t buy it. You cannot bake a cake in 5 minutes and you cannot heal bone in a week. Maybe some technology in the future will allow it, but not now.
For this incident, I had my first acupuncture treatment eight days after the closet crash. The day after treatment I had some noticeable pain relief in my back. Due to the holiday schedule and my practitioner getting COVID, I didn’t receive another treatment until 21 days after the crash. Within 24 hours of this treatment, there was noticeably less pain in my back and ribs.
Isometric exercise is one of two typical Muscle Activation Techniques. The best explanation I’ve found for MAT is found at this link.
A week or so after my closet crash, local MAT specialist Sherri Goering reached out and reminded me that she is certified in MAT manual therapy and she could, perhaps, help me with the healing process. She was significant help and I will explain what this process feels like in the next post, since this one is getting long.
Colorado folks might be aware of MAT from the Sports Illustrated column on Peyton Manning. He relied on Denver-based Greg Roskoph’s MAT to help him recover from neck surgery and go on to play in two Superbowls with the Denver Broncos.
In the next blog, I’ll provide a description of how I was feeling before the first MAT treatment, what it feels like to have manual MAT and what activities I could do without pain after the therapy.
]]>
Cleaning is dangerous. Three days before Christmas I set out on a mission to clean my office. I like year-end cleaning because business is slow and it is a great way to use my time productively. With my hands full of stuff to throw away, I was walking toward the door with full momentum and caught my toe on the dog bed. Thankfully, Zena was not in the bed at the time. Hindsight tells me I should have moved the bed prior to my enthusiastic cleaning process to remove a trip hazard – but you know what they say about hindsight.
During the fall, I managed to twist my body so that the frame of the closet door smashed hard into my back between my spine and scapula. Laying on floor gasping for air, I couldn’t speak for awhile. I had knocked the air out of my lungs and had to wait for normal breathing to return. Del and Zena hovered over me, each in their own way asking, “What happened? Are you okay?”
No, I’m not okay. That really hurt.
Having dealt with cracked ribs in a past mountain biking crash, I was pretty sure I had done rib damage along with some muscle and maybe tendon trauma. I didn’t believe I broke a rib or did any internal damage due to my symptoms. The good news is that it could have been worse, the bad news is that I was in a lot of pain.
In the first week or so, sharp pain at the injury site was triggered by normal activities like bending over, sneezing, coughing, laughing, lifting something off of a shelf, pulling on the dog leash, getting into the car, and sleeping (or lack thereof.) Anyone who has injured ribs know that the pain is intense and can be debilitating. If I can’t do simple human activities like rolling over in bed or picking something up off of the floor, how will I be able to swim, bike outside, run or ski?
I need to recover quickly! I want to be back to 100% in a week or so, what can I do to make that happen?
Early in the injury process, it is important not to do anything to slow healing, or worse make healing backslide. Most active people (including me) are desperate to speed things up, but even with intervention modalities healing takes time.
Not what I want to read or hear – even though I know it to be true.
Normal movements caused me attention-grabbing pain for the first two weeks. Mentally, it is tough to accept the fact that you are hurt and the focus is now on healing, not fun, adventure and normal routine. Healing from injuries like this require mental coaching as well as physical care.
If you get an injury to the ribs, like most injuries, healing time depends on the severity of the injury. This is just like a laceration wound, but injuries that can be seen easier to understand and justify the healing process. Injuries that cannot be seen make it easy to become impatient.
For me, the first two weeks were really rough physically and mentally. I was heartbroken to have such a stupid injury. However, that’s why they are called accidents – no one intends to injure themselves doing sport or domestic activities.
I am happy to report that I’m just over three weeks out from the incident and I’m significantly better. The next blog will cover some of the strategies and intervention modalities I used this time and the basic timeline of progress.
]]>Sometimes it is hard to get inspired. It happens to everyone at some point.
For most Northern Hemisphere people, any paid-entry-type races are several months away and that makes it easy to worry about fitness later. For others, there is a complete lack of desire to enter a race or event. That is certainly hard on motivation and fitness.
In both cases, race enthusiast or not, an un-event event can help you. An un-event can be done solo – but it is MUCH better if you include friends or your community. I’ll give you an example.
Several years ago two guys, Jordan Radin and Adam Miller, decided it would be fun to have an un-event that occurs four times per year. They select four days nearest each solstice and equinox for the un-event to occur. This un-event is a mountain bike course in a local open space called Horsetooth Mountain Park. Everyone rides the course anytime they please over the four designated days. The course is the same each time and there is a Strava segment set-up so elapsed ride times can be easily gathered and verified. The un-event is appropriately named The Four Seasons of Horsetooth.
Because Colorado weather can be really challenging to get four course events completed each season, the results page ranks riders by the total time for the best three rides. If you happen to complete four rides, 10 minutes is taken off your best three-ride total. The time bonus is incentive for the determined rider to aim for four rides.
Jordan and Adam have made it super fun by making a bedazzled leader’s vest, hand-made horsey trophies for the leaders and horsey-themed announcements. You can view their creativity on the Facebook page here.
The un-event is inspiration to just get out there and ride. But…in order to just ride, all of us need a certain amount of fitness or it becomes a longer ride for sure. It doesn’t matter if you’re the fastest or not, what matters is you are out there getting it done. When the weather warms up you will thank un-event organizers and yourself.
If you aren’t lucky enough to have an un-event near you, it’s time to create one. Borrowing the four seasons quarterly goals from Jordan and Adam might be your best 2022 inspiration.
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Over the past several weeks I’ve consulted with many athletes concerned about how to move forward with training during the COVID-19 crisis. In today’s blog, let me address a few of the questions I’ve received:
These are great questions for athletes navigating life during COVID. For the athletes I work with, the highest priority is always given to building “bulletproof health.” Boiled down to two basic categories, bulletproof health means a very strong immune system and an injury-resistant musculoskeletal system. For this column, let’s focus on the immune system.
It is well-reported that exercise can boost the immune system. It gets messy when we attempt to define “exercise.” What is an easy, stress-reducing exercise load for one person can be described as over-the-top, stress-producing exercise for another person.
Another consideration is lifestyle and life in general. Think about your personal life. Imagine you had no worries about a job, money, mortgage, rent, nutrient-dense meals, mental health, quality sleep, health insurance, family, friends, etc. In other words, given a perfect life, you could handle a much higher training load than if you are struggling with any one of the issues listed, much less if you struggle with a combination of these issues.
Often when athletes end up ill or injured under normal circumstances, it is the stress and worry caused from “life” that causes physical and perhaps mental breakdown.
Let’s circle back to the column questions. Below is a summary of my opinion and advice I’ve given to those that I coach.
Will long training rides or runs put me at a higher risk for catching the virus?
If your long workouts are typical of what you have been doing in recent past and the long workout is part of a mix that is normal for you, I don’t think you are significantly increasing your risk for catching the virus.
That written, the more “life” issues you have added during the COVID-19 crisis, the greater risk you have of overall body stress. Consider reducing your normal long workouts if life stresses are piling up.
For athletes needing to begin building the time or distance of long workouts in order to prepare for a long-distance event some three to four months out, there can be added risk of getting the virus.
Does intensity within workouts put me at a higher risk for catching the virus?
Some intensity within workouts has been shown to beneficially improve immune function. However, high training workloads (volume and intensity) combined with life stress is linked with immune system disturbances, inflammation, oxidative stress, muscle damage and increased illness risk.
What defines “a high workload” relative to intensity? First let’s define intensity. You can find a description of the intensity zones I use for my athletes in the free document download section.
Generally, training done in Zones 1 and 2 puts a very low load on the athlete – unless – volume takes a big leap.
Training that contains high accumulated time loads of Zone 3 to Zone 5c is where there can be trouble. Similar to the section on long training sessions, what is a high load for one person is not for the next. The easiest way to control your volume of intensity is to plan the number of days per week you intend to include 15 minutes or more of Zone 3 to 5c. Some sites such as TrainingPeaks and Strava track training stress scores, which can help you monitor intensity and training load.
A high-intensity workout that is very effective for improving fitness and putting a relatively low load on your immune system is Miracle Intervals. I have written about these intervals in the past. They are high power output intervals followed by generous recovery. (In the next blog I’ll post a running version of Miracle intervals, perfect for quarantine.)
I’m entered into a race that allows transfer of entry to next year. Should I take advantage of the entry or just keep on track to race this year (if the race happens)?
This is a highly personal decision. In addition to keeping track of long workouts and intensity, you need to monitor is your life stress load. As life stress increases, you need to adjust training load, and perhaps endurance goals.
In all cases, don’t forget to include recovery days and weeks in your plan.
Some people are inspired by a race goal in the midst of this crisis, while for others it adds another life stress. When looking ahead at a race, consider if the training load necessary to meet your race goal is realistic given everything previously discussed in the column.
The primary goal for your current training plan should be to do what’s best to keep or build bulletproof mental and physical health.
Resources and References
The compelling link between physical activity and the body’s defense system
Use a base training plan to help you keep fitness without overdoing intensity
More high intensity workout options from Bicycling Magazine’s Selene Yeager
Lessons from athletes that contracted Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Part I and Part II
]]>
In these challenging times, and those directly in front of us, it is important to focus on what you can control. You want your health, finances, and well-being (mental health, family support system, etc.) to be robust – strong, tough. At the same time, even people and things that are robust face difficult situations. Pushed, bent and stretched beyond what you thought you could endure. The feeling that you are barely holding on by the tips of your fingers. But…you are holding on.
Resilience describes the ability to withstand and recover from difficult situations. All of us need that ability more than ever.
Below are three steps you can take now to become robust and resilient.
What isn’t nutritious? Highly refined, packaged foods that include a lot of sugar and no vitamins and minerals. If you don’t have immediate access to these foods, you won’t be eating them.
Though the details look different for each of us, we can work on being robust and resilient together.
Next post, what should my endurance exercise look like? Should I be “training” for that postponed race? How much intensity or duration is too much for my immune system? Do I put myself at more risk of getting COVID by “training?”
Base fitness and other training plans can be found at this link.
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"I’m a little disappointed and embarrassed by my overconfidence, but it does inspire me to train for a better performance next time.”
It was not the first time I assigned myself a podium position before beginning a race. But the result was the worst – I logged a DNF (did not finish) within minutes of the start. My only hope is to improve within the series.
I read the first event materials and saw my age group had an early start – 7:00 am. Yay! I love an early start and for a bonus, I’m in the first couple of years of the new age group. My past results have been good when I’m new to an age category and to boot, the age group was large.
I left the house at 6:50 am, as the venue is close to where I live. My first indication of trouble was two blocks away from the event, there was a line of cars waiting for the turn lane. As I made the turn into the parking area, I was stunned that the lot was nearly half full – it’s only 6:55 am! Naively, I did not expect this situation.
I gathered my reusable event equipment and decided to walk to the start line area. With each step, I grew more aware that I completely underestimated the competition. I could see the queue of people with shopping carts across the front of King Soopers, wrapped around the side of the building. No end in sight.
Standing on the median watching my life-savvy and wily competitors move toward the store, I noticed my mom sitting in their car, waiting for my stepdad. She was happy to see me. We spoke from a distance through the open car door.
By this time, the cart line had begun to move and about 30 people without carts began to congregate – 6 feet apart – at the door. I asked Mom, “Where’s Bob?”
“Oh, I think he’s in the store. He was in line at or before 6:40 am. He was maybe tenth in line.”
We chatted for awhile and watching the line move in a slow and orderly manner, I decided I would get back in the car and go home. Surely by the time I got into the store, all paper goods that I wanted would be gone. Our house isn’t in an emergency situation yet, so I have some time to better prepare for the next race.
Once in the car I called my husband, “I just got my ass kicked by the 80 +/- crowd. I was confident I would get into the store and score some Charmin, but I underestimated the competition. I’m a little disappointed and embarrassed by my overconfidence, but it does inspire me to train for a better performance next time.”
I’ll be ready for the next race in the series. I am determined to stand victorious with toilet paper above my head…
Image by Gerd Altman by Pixabay
]]>One of my cycling buddies, Alan, asked me if I knew of an at-home strength training or exercise program that is appropriate for his mother that has peripheral neuropathy.
Yes, I do!
The very basic strength training plan in this blog post is for anyone just beginning an exercise program. With the Coronavirus, many people are homebound looking for some exercise help. This is a great start.
Here is the list of exercises you will do and why:
For exercises 1 through 5, I pulled pages directly from the book “Become a Fat-Burning Machine.” There are more exercises in the book and also training plans if this blog post isn’t enough for you. Also know I have not taken the time to do editing for all the photos. I just wanted to get this information out for Alan.
Exercise 6 is one I added to the mix for my own parents. I wanted them to work on balance to help prevent falls.
The first photo includes general instructions for each exercise session. When you’re just beginning, plan to do these exercises two or three days per week. You can maintain or progress from there. Click on any image to make it bigger. Use Esc to make it small again.
I hope this easy at-home program helps you or your loved ones. Let me know if you have questions.
PS...Amazon has great deals on the book, hardcover or e-version.
Gale
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It is no secret that I love the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race. I have successfully completed the event 14 times out of 14 entries.
If you got selected to toe the start line, first, congratulations! Second, you may need some help. Below is a list of links that has information to help you succeed.
Best wishes and let me know how it goes!
General info links here:
Tough love here:
I have some variations on nutrition in recent years. You can read about those on my blog:
More tips here:
https://galebernhardt.com/blogs/news/16662544-leadville-100-mountain-bike-race-plan-is-now-available
Let me know if you have questions not addressed in the links.
]]>(Originally posted on the Fat-Burning Machine page)
Q. I‘m a vegan-long-course triathlete - what would you suggest eating on long training rides and runs? Seems like every time I use gels or sports drink, my weight spikes the next day/few days - even if my training session is 3 to 5hrs + long...Paul
A. Good question. For electrolytes, you might try using one of the drinks that have only the electrolytes and no sugars. The for carbohydrates, some athletes do much better with items they can chew - Clif Blocks, Stinger chews, etc.
For some, this is still too much sugar at one crack so they do better with breaking a bar into quarters and eating small bits at a time. Look for bars in the 45%-55% carbs range and see if that helps. You can find an incomplete chart at the link below, a start for you (click on the chart to get it to enlarge):
https://galebernhardt.com/.../16620568-comparing-energy...
Gale
When you read the column title, you might think to yourself, “Well duh! We’ve known that for a long time!”
Not so fast.
A very high percentage of scientific studies have been conducted on men only. The reason for this past behavior is that scientists didn’t want to make the study results more difficult to interpret due to a woman’s monthly hormone fluctuations.
Thankfully, more scientists are using women in their studies and figuring out how to consider monthly hormone fluctuations. After all, women have to adjust and consider monthly cycle changes for some 40 years of their lives.
When you look at the results of any study, take a look at the participants and study sponsors. Are the participants only men? Only mice? Only sedentary and obese people? Who sponsored the study, what do they have to gain?
High-quality media outlets will accurately report study findings and potential study flaws. For the particular study I mentioned in the title, the findings came across my newsfeed as a news release. While I’m not surprised at the results because we’ve known that caffeine is an ergogenic aid for a long time, it makes me somewhat skeptical of the study when I see so many study-sponsor references in the release.
I’ll look for more details when the study is available on PubMed and I’ll look for future studies on the same subject. I’ll keep you posted.
Use my proven training plans to help you improve base fitness or event performance.
]]>From: JL
Sent: Wednesday, October 2, 2019 2:33 PM
To: gale@galebernhardt.com
Subject: Exercised Induced Asthma
Hi Gale,
I happened to run across an article you wrote for Active.com regarding exercise induced asthma. I had to reach out and thank you because the article contained so much valuable information. It really hit home with me. I'm an avid mountain bike rider and coach the local high school MTB team. I ride with the team and our training rides are fairly hard. The high school racers are young and strong! Within the last 6 months or so, I noticed my cough & congestion getting worse after each workout. I tried to deal with the symptoms without any meds. I finally went to the doctor and found out I have EIA. I was prescribed an inhaler to use before each ride and that worked well for several months. My EIA symptoms returned and the doctor put me on corticosteriods plus the inhaler. I feel so much better now! Hopefully, I can manage my EIA so I can continue my passion of mountain bike riding.
Sincerely,
JL
________________________________________________
Hi JL,
Thanks so much for letting me know! It makes me feel great to know my columns help people.
Take care of yourself and all the best for your team!
Gale
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Gale Bernhardt
Cycling/Multisport Athlete Development
Olympic coach, triathlon and cycling
Website: http://galebernhardt.com
Become a Fat-Burning Machine: http://fat-burning-machine.com/
A Full Range of Ready to Use, Easy to Follow Training Plans
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GaleBernhardt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GaleBernhardtConsulting
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Dave Newman in the distance, riding the Colorado Trail near Guller Creek heading to Searle Pass.
This ride has been on my bucket list for a while now and I was able to talk my buddy Dave Newman into doing the ride with me. In this column, I’ll share photos from our day and some tips to help you succeed if you want to do this ride.
Though we didn’t make it this easy on the file link I’ll provide later, the easiest way to connect to the Colorado Trail is via the east overflow parking lot at Copper Mountain, Colorado. Follow the paved trail south until it ends at Highway 91. Directly across the highway is the Colorado Trail Segment 8 — Copper Mountain to Tennessee Pass Trailhead.
Another option that includes some road warm-up is to take an easy spin through the resort to the A-Road on the west end of Copper Mountain. Ride the A-Road until the Colorado Trail crosses it and take a right to begin riding the trail towards Searle Pass. To find a map of Copper Mountain summer trails, go to the resort site.
My husband agreed to pick us up at the end of the ride, rather than dropping a car at the endpoint. It is important to know that there are two potential pick-up sites. The first pick-up point is at Camp Hale. There is a campground as well as a small memorial south of the campground entrance. “Small” means a parking lot and a couple of wooden signs. The only way you will know you are at the Camp Hale Memorial is by looking at the map on one of the wooden signs and it says “You are here. Camp Hale Memorial.”
Getting to the Camp Hale Memorial at the end of your ride means leaving the Colorado Trail at Forest Service Road 171 (also known as East Fork Eagle Road) and making your way to Camp Hale Spur 18 to access Highway 24 (also known as the Tenth Mountain Division Memorial Highway.)
If you decide not to stop at Camp Hale and continue on the Colorado Trail to the end of the Colorado Trail segment at the top of Tennessee Pass, it is roughly a 7-mile climb from Camp Hale to the top of Tennessee Pass where there is a memorial commemorating the Tenth Mountain Division. This location is also along Highway 24 and is a potential place to drop a car or have someone pick you up.
The first part of the ride out through Copper Mountain and past the ski area boundary, tucks in and out of trees along Guller Creek. Though it is mostly a climb to Searle Pass, there are some rollers and short, poppy climbs with a few rock gardens and tree roots. We rode on a nice, dry fall day in late September so most of the trail was dry. Even this late in the season, there was still running water above tree line. If you ride in the early summer, expect some wet areas and potential snowfields along the trail. In mid-summer, be sure to leave early enough to avoid lightning storms as the ride includes roughly 8 miles above 11,000 feet. (Treeline is roughly 11,500 feet.)
Click on any photo for a bigger view and press esc to get back to the column
Dave getting ready for a Guller Creek crossing
Gale in alpine forest - photo courtesy of Dave Newman
Getting ready to leave the alpine forest, looking back toward Copper Mountain
Above treeline with Searle Pass in view
Part of the hut system, a sign for Janet's cabin
Janet's cabin is tucked in the trees
Dave's final push to get to Searle Pass
I'm coming Dave! - photo courtesy of Dave Newman
Searle Pass view toward the mine tailing ponds
Searle Pass view toward Copper
Between Searle and Kokomo Passes (Photo courtesy of Dave Newman)
What wasn’t obvious to me prior to the ride is that after reaching Searle Pass, there is a high-alpine traverse and more climbing to the high point of 12,288 feet. Then, there is a short descent to the sign designating Kokomo Pass. On a side note, Kokomo was once a thriving mining town.
High alpine traverse pano view
We made it to Kokomo! (Photo courtesy of Dave Newman)
Neither of us expected the descent into Camp Hale to be so steep - another heads up!
Dave is surrounded by fall gold
Late season wildflowers!
Waterfall near Camp Hale
You can find a Relive video of the ride at this link. In the locations where two photos appear, in general one was taken with a view one way and the second photo is roughly 180 degrees the other direction. Some of the photo labels might be confusing.
Strava file for the ride – You can download a gpx file from this link. Know that we rode around trying to find my husband at the end of the ride. In that process, we took one wrong turn. You can see wrong turn comment in the Relive video. Unless you feel a need to add more miles, just end your ride at the Camp Hale Memorial.
Things to know before you go
Thank you, sir, may I have another Stage, please?
I knew Breck Epic would be difficult. It is a six-day mountain bike stage race in the Colorado mountains, Summit County. In my pre-race blog I wrote about the miles and elevation gain in each day, you can find that information at this link. I pre-rode every day except stage 5, so I knew what was in store for me. I did sign up and pay the entry fee before pre-riding any of the stages and in hindsight that was probably a good thing.
I had every intention of writing a short blog about my race experience each day. That didn’t happen. It was all I could do to finish the race, get my bike taken care of, clean up, prep for the next day and try to spend some time with my family in the middle of this selfish affair before going to bed exhausted.
Each stage is listed below with a hot-link to the race video in the title to each. My Strava file link is listed with each stage so you can download the gpx file if you’d like. Brief descriptions are included with each day. If you have more questions on any day, feel free to email me at gale@galebernhardt.com.
Because I’ve completed the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race 14 times, a frequent question I get is “How does Breck Epic compare to the Leadville 100?”
Both races are held at altitude in the beautiful Colorado high country. The similarities end there.
Leadville is a single, long day in the saddle. There is limited single-track at this event. The most technical part of the event is descending the Columbine Mine climb while others are pushing bikes up the climb. Choosing the best line is often not an option in either direction.
The Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race hosts road racers and Ironman triathletes due to the minimal amount of technical mountain biking required.
Breck Epic is day after day of technical climbing and descending at altitude. You must do the work to have technical mountain biking skills or you put yourself and others in danger. To be direct, roadies and triathletes can enter this event – but will not be successful unless they have worked on technical skills prior to entering this race.
Stage 1 - Pennsylvania Creek: 36.4 miles/58.6km, 5700’/1737m
In 2019 at the start of the race weather apps disagreed about the chances for precipitation for the day. I took one look at the sky and decided to begin in knee warmers, arm warmers and carry my more serious rain jacket.
I don’t know exactly when the rain began, maybe after the first hour or so? Though it was raining, I was warm enough climbing and didn’t need to put on my jacket until the Boreas Pass descent. The rain got worse from here on out. It was the most cold, miserable day I’ve put in on a mountain bike.
This day includes the infamous “Little French” climb used during the Firecracker 50 event as well as the Breck 32, 68 and 100 events.
My finish chip time was 5:32, Strava file here. I did screw up the start, so race beginning is here.
Stage 2 – Colorado Trail: 41.4 miles/66.6km, 6565’/2001m
I just love the Colorado Trail section included in this stage. Also, I was so happy for no rain predicted for today or the rest of the week. I still carried a rain jacket because I’ve been caught in “no rain predicted” before.
Finish chip time was 5:57, Strava file here.
Stage 3 – Guyot: 39.2 miles/63km, 7100’/2164m
Fatigue is surely setting in today, my sleep at night is broken and restless. This stage was at risk prior to race day. Colorado had a heavy winter of snow and there is still evidence of it on race day. We hiked over several avalanche/snow fields and rode (or foot-skied!) down a giant snowfield. This day included a big hike-a-bike section to the top of French Pass (Not to be confused with “Little French” for those that have raced the area in past events.)
My asthma began acting up last night and I am coughing up crud. My otherwise well-controlled exercise-induced asthma has begun causing me trouble. I had trouble throughout the rest of the event, so I won’t mention this issue again. I normally take an inhaler before exercise only, but began using it every 12 hours. I think I was able to mitigate the problem, it got only slightly worse as the week went on.
This day known as the Queen Stage kicked me in the pants – it had tough climbing and several long, rocky, technical descents.
Finish chip time was 6:08, Strava file here.
Stage 4 – Aqueduct: 41.2 miles/66.3, 6473’/1972m
Yay, more sun today! I traded carrying my heavy rain jacket for a light shell.
Each morning I find that my legs feel pretty bad. Based on an experience I had in a 3-day mountain bike stage race, I made myself a promise I would begin each day and ride for an hour. If I felt worse after an hour, consider pulling the plug on the event. Every day, I felt better after the first hour. Our bodies are amazing – what they can endure and how the respond.
I also loved this course – something about the even-numbered days.
Finish chip time was 5:56, Strava file here.
Stage 5 – Wheeler: 24.00 miles/38.6km, 5227’/1593m
Wheeler is the only day I didn’t pre-ride. I heard from others that it is A LOT of hike-a-bike. Pushing bikes up to the top of the Ten Mile Range wasn’t much fun – but the views were stunning. I could see Breckenridge and Copper Mountain ski area lifts along with the mine tailing ponds on the road to Leadville. There was a lot of cussing during this stage – from me and everyone around me.
The upper descents on this stage are exposed – one wrong move and you will tumble down the mountain for perhaps hundreds of yards. I was satisfied to walk the most exposed sections and let those that wanted to ride go around me.
After getting off of the exposed mountain, the remaining single-track descent is often describe as “rowdy.” Think loose, rough downhiller course.
The climb back to Breck is on a fun trail called “Peaks” – I normally love this trail but my legs are so fatigued that a pebble could put me off the bike.
Finish chip time was 5:59, Strava file here.
Aug 16: Stage 6 – Gold Dust: 29.3 miles/47.2, 3740’/1139m
I love this stage. It’s the shortest stage and a nice way to finish a hard week. The Gold Dust descent is flowy and fun. The climbs can be as hard as you make them. The Boreas Pass road and forest service road before that can be really windy. I was able to find a paceline for this climb. Though I couldn’t hold on for the entire climb, the help I was able to get (and give) was great.
Finish chip time was 3:37, Strava file here.
Summary
I felt really good about how the week went. My number one goal was to finish and I accomplished that. My race chip times for the week totaled 33 hours and 11 minutes of racing. Ooofta. No wonder I’m tired.
At age 61, I was put into the 50+ category for women. I achieved four stage podium spots (one 2nd place and three 3rd places.) I ended up 5th GC in that group. This was a nice bonus.
A few notes and recommendations are below.
Can you complete the Breck Epic?
Yes…but…
You must do your homework on endurance training and technical skills. Even if you keep your ego in check, the race will hand it back to you - though nicely served on a silver platter.
Notes and recommendations
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This ailment is very common among endurance athletes. It typically begins rearing its ugly head in the two to three weeks prior to race day. A small itch, so to speak. The worst of it begins seven days out from the race and reaches peak intensity in the 24 hours prior to when the start gun fires.
Some common ailment symptoms:
Retail therapy and viva la Visa! Athletes make multiple purchases online or at local stores – sometimes duplicating purchases “just in case.” In the worst scenarios, athletes will pay exorbitant amounts for next day delivery.
Meltdowns over small issues: This symptom can be observed in family, work or training situations. Something as small as spilled sports drink on a training ride can send the athlete into a panicked frenzy.
Indecision: The athlete finds each decision situation as an impossible puzzle. For example, trying to decide which restaurant to select requires four hours (minimum) of contemplation and research. For engineers and accountants, spreadsheets are certainly involved in finding the optimal answer.
Obsessive list-making: This one is easy to spot as dozens of “to do” lists and sticky notes are found everywhere the athlete has been. Everything but the kitchen sink: The athlete takes every item possibly needed for the event, including at least one back-up for each item. He or she includes items that couldn’t possibly be needed for the event—plus back-ups for those as well.
Crabby pants: Some racers become withdrawn and have low-level crabbiness for no real reason.
You probably know, I’m exaggerating. Somewhat. Maybe not.
I’m not exempt, I have some of the pre-race anxiety symptoms now.
What are your pre-race anxiety symptoms?
]]>Featured photo courtesy of Ron Kennedy
The Breck Epic event has been on my bucket list for years – maybe eight or 10 years. My buddy Scott Ellis and I planned on doing the race in 2017. That did not happen so I’m doing it in 2019 with his spirit-support.
What is Breck Epic? It is a six-day mountain bike stage race on the trails in Summit County, Colorado. Each stage starts and finishes in Breckenridge (at roughly 9,600 feet elevation.) At the sweet age of 61, I am concerned about simply finishing the event. I am told by the race director that only one woman in the 60+ age category has completed this event. That was 10 years ago. There are only two of us in the 60+ age category entered in 2019, so we’ll be racing in an age category of women 50+. Men 60+ will race their own category because there are five or more of them racing.
I took a quick count of entrants last week (numbers may have changed since) and there are 332 people entered in the 6-day SOLO category, 51 of which are women (15% of the field.)
My goal is to simply finish every day so that I can begin the next day. Then repeat the routine to total six days of riding. To give you some perspective, below is the stage listing, miles per day, elevation gain that day and the daily feet-per-mile of climbing.
Breck Epic Stage |
Miles |
Feet of Elevation Gain |
Feet/Mile |
Maximum Race Elevation (Feet) |
1 |
36.4 |
5700 |
157 |
11,188 |
2 |
41.4 |
6565 |
159 |
11,154 |
3 |
39.2 |
7100 |
181 |
12,030 |
4 |
41.2 |
6473 |
157 |
11,160 |
5 |
24 |
5227 |
218 |
12,539 |
6 |
29.3 |
3740 |
128 |
11,468 |
Totals and avg |
211.5 |
34805 |
166 |
11,590 |
What makes any race “hard” is some combination of distance, weather conditions, altitude, feet of climbing and whether the course includes technical climbing and descending. Breck Epic has all of those. To compare some other one-day races with Breck Epic, look at the chart below. Or, you can take data from your own race and ride experience to have some kind of comparison.
Race |
Miles |
Total Ascent (Feet) |
Feet Per Mile of Racing |
Minimum Elevation (Feet) |
Maximum Race Elevation (Feet) |
Dakota Five-O |
46.87 |
6,260 |
134 |
3,517 |
5,940 |
Breck 32 |
34.3 |
4,551 |
133 |
9,382 |
11,142 |
Gunnison Growler |
35.7 |
4,659 |
131 |
7,415 |
8,269 |
Firecracker 50 |
51.3 |
6,394 |
125 |
9,132 |
10,580 |
Breck 68 |
70 |
8,508 |
122 |
9,367 |
11,437 |
Laramie Enduro |
61.75 |
6,763 |
110 |
7,838 |
8,925 |
Leadville |
103 |
11,325 |
110 |
9,233 |
12,479 |
* Note that all three Breckenridge races start and end at the same relative location |
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in Breck. The differences in elevation readings are due to barometric pressure |
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differences. |
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For Northern Colorado riders, below is a chart of some of the local climbs and routes along with the feet-per-mile ranking. I used many of these in my training plan. More on training later.
Northern Colorado Local Training Climbs |
Miles |
Feet of Elevation Gain |
Feet/Mile |
Towers up and down |
3.6 |
958 |
266 |
South Ridge up and down |
4.4 |
1108 |
252 |
Pinewood from Carter entrance |
7.2 |
1225 |
170 |
Blue Sky, Up Towers, down Mill Creek, up and down Sawmill, Blue Sky |
16.65 |
2723 |
164 |
Old Fall River Road out and back |
22.35 |
3287 |
147 |
4SOH |
20.39 |
2720 |
133 |
Rist Climb from Bellvue out and back |
23.06 |
2814 |
122 |
Buckhorn climb out and back from Masonville |
31.6 |
2613 |
83 |
Rist Loop from home |
58.15 |
4547 |
78 |
Estes from home - Glen Haven both ways |
64.57 |
4170 |
65 |
** All up and down or out and back elevations are estimated, |
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using the climb data only - so all are short a bit of elevation |
I’ve ridden most of the Breck Epic stages last year or within the last month. I have a healthy dose of respect for this race and simply finishing is not a given for me. I expect to be riding some five to six hours each day and they are obviously not easy miles.
So there you have it. That’s what I’ll be up to August 11th through the 16th. Riding my bike in the mountains for hours. I’m excited, nervous, fortunate, grateful, and a whole list of other emotions. I’ll try to post something each day, but no promises. It might be all I can do to finish the day, clean up, eat and get some rest.
I tell people it’s good to do things that scare them a bit. Now I have to live my own advice.
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See the entire story at this link.
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Gale Bernhardt ©2018
The primary reason many athletes seek high altitude training locations is to help improve the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood and to increase the chemical in the body that makes oxygen more available to the muscles. In Part I we learned how the body responds in positive and negative ways to altitude stress. In Part II, we’ll look at strategies for training at altitude.
Artificially live high and train low
One training theory suggests you should live at a moderately high altitude and train at a lower one. This is commonly titled, “live high and train low”. Theoretically, this means living in the mountains to gain more oxygen-carrying capacity and driving to sea level to do your speed work to achieve maximum power.
While nobody wants to spend that much time or expense driving, scientists have researched this kind of training using a “high-altitude house” that simulates living at 8,200 feet. In one experiment, athletes spent 16 to 18 hours living inside the altitude house and did their training outside at sea level. These athletes showed the physiological improvements typical of living at altitude, and they had performance breakthroughs as well.
In contrast, other athletes doing the same training but not living at altitude showed no gains either in physiology or performance.
Live high and artificially train low
If you don’t have access to an altitude house, while living at sea level, consider living at moderate altitude. The Northern Arizona University Center for High Altitude Training (altitude 6,512) considers altitudes between 5,000 and 8,500 feet to be ideal. This recommendation is similar to that of Dr. Randy Wilber, exercise physiologist for the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado (altitude 6,035).
While training at altitude is good for building red blood cells, it is not good for recovery from hard workouts. Dr. Wilber comments in his book, “Altitude Training and Athletic Performance”, that living at higher altitudes likely hampers training recovery. This is because of the reduced availability of oxygen for the muscle repair process.
Recovery aside for a moment, once you are living high you need to do workouts at the same intensity or power output that you plan to use on race day. We learned in Part I that altitude hampers your ability to train at the same intensity that you would at sea level, so you will need to begin your training at your desired race intensity for shorter periods of time, with longer rest bouts so you can keep the power output high. As you progress through your training, you can increase the length of the work bouts and decrease rest time.
If you are elite athlete at the Olympic Training Center (OTC), or otherwise have access to a physiology lab, another strategy is to utilize supplemental oxygen training for high-intensity workouts. Athletes at the OTC wear a mask over their nose and mouth to breath sea level oxygen while completing high-intensity workouts on a bike trainer that lets them know power output. This enables the cyclists to be sure power is not lost while living at altitude. Triathletes and runners complete running treadmill workouts utilizing supplemental oxygen, clipping along at sea level race pace.
Supplemental oxygen workouts are very stressful and the coaches and athletes must be very careful that full recovery is accomplished before another supplemental O2 workout is completed.
If living at altitude or simulating altitude is not a reality for you, can gains be made by taking shorter trips to high altitude? Unfortunately, for the average cyclist who just wants to get faster, studies on short-term altitude exposure are inconclusive. Some studies suggest that performance increases after a period of high-altitude training, while others indicate that simply training at sea level will yield faster race times.
Utilizing altitude training for a sea-level race
Utilizing altitude training for racing at an altitude between 5,000 and 8,500 feet
Utilizing altitude training for racing at altitudes above 8,500 feet
Limited time and cash
If you are a lowlander planning to race at altitude; but do not have the resources to live at altitude, consider arriving two or three days prior to the race start. More information on this strategy can be found here.
Portions of the text reprinted from “Training Plans for Cyclists” by Gale Bernhardt, VeloPress.
Gale Bernhardt was the 2003 USA Triathlon Pan American Games and 2004 USA Triathlon Olympic coach for both the men's and women's teams. Her first Olympic experience was as a personal cycling coach at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Thousands of athletes have had successful training and racing experiences using Gale's ready-to-use, easy-to-follow training plans. For more information, find some plans on Gale’s site and more plans on TrainingPeaks.com.
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Gale Bernhardt ©2018
If you are a lowlander and have traveled to the mountains to bike, hike, ski, race, or sightsee, you may have experienced uncomfortable symptoms of high altitude. You may have gotten a rip-roaring headache, nausea, or just felt lousy all over. Still, you have heard that high-altitude training is “good” for you. Is altitude training really worthwhile?
In this column I will explain the basics about how altitude affects the body, the benefits and the downsides. In Part II I’ll look at some recommendations for utilizing altitude training for sea level racing and for mountain racing.
The reality is, the density of oxygen in the air decreases in direct proportion to increasing altitude. In other words, when you take a normal breath of air at altitude, you will have less oxygen in your lungs than you would if you were to take the same size breath at sea level. Being an aerobic animal, you know your muscles want and need plenty of oxygen for endurance sports. To compensate for less oxygen and reduced pressure, the body tries to adjust, occasionally rebelling. The most important compensations include an increase in breathing rate (causing some people to hyperventilate) and an increase in blood flow at rest and during submaximal exercise.
Additional responses to changes in altitude can include increased resting heart rate, lightheadedness, headache, insomnia, nausea, and loss of appetite. As altitude increases above 15,000 feet, people may experience vomiting, intestinal disturbances, dyspnea (labored breathing), lethargy, general weakness, and an inability to make rational decisions.
In the first few days of altitude adaptation, cardiac output and submaximal heart rate may increase 50 percent above sea level values. No wonder people feel like their hearts are going to leap from their bodies! Because your body requires the same amount of oxygen to work at altitude as it does at sea level, the increase in submaximal blood flow partially compensates for reduced oxygen levels.
In terms of total oxygen circulated in the body, at rest and moderate levels of exercise, a 10 percent increase in cardiac output can offset a 10 percent reduction in arterial oxygen saturation. In other words, your heart can pump 10 percent faster to compensate for 10 percent less oxygen in your bloodstream
It is beyond the 10 percent range where things get tough. The greatest effects of altitude on aerobic metabolism seem to be during maximal exercise. At top intensities, the ventilatory and circulatory adjustments to altitude cannot compensate for the lower oxygen content of arterial blood. This means the athlete has to slow down to reduce the demand for oxygen.
Adaptations to Altitude Stress
With all the seemingly negative effects, why would someone want to train at altitude? The biggest reason to train at altitude is the body’s long-term adaptation, which is an increase in the blood’s oxygen-carrying capacity. This is partially due to an altitude-induced increase in erythropoietin (EPO), the key chemical that stimulates increased red blood cell production. Altitude exposure also causes an increase in 2.3 DPG, the chemical that makes oxygen more available to the muscles.
During the first few days at altitude, there’s a decrease in plasma volume. Because of this decrease, red blood cells become more concentrated. For example, after about a week at 7,400 feet, the plasma volume is decreased by 8 percent, while the concentrations of red blood cells and hemoglobin are increased by 4 and 10 percent, respectively. The changes observed after a week cause the oxygen content of arterial blood to increase significantly above values observed immediately upon arrival at altitude.
Following this adaptation of decreasing plasma volume is an increase in red cell mass. Through responses initiated by the body, reduced arterial oxygen pressure stimulates an increase in the total number of red blood cells. For example, a healthy high-altitude native may have a red blood cell count that is 50 percent greater than a native sea level dweller. These two adaptations to altitude have an effect that translates into a large increase in the blood’s capacity to transport oxygen at rest and during exercise.
Speed and Power at Altitude
Having lots of red blood cells that flood the body with oxygen-carrying capability sounds great, right? People ought to be aerobic animals after they adapt to altitude. But here’s the bad news: When exposed to higher altitudes, it’s nearly impossible for athletes to train at the same intensity as they were able to train while at sea level.
In other words, if you are a lowlander capable of averaging 20 miles per hour for a 40km time trial, at a heart rate of 175 beats per minute and a perceived exertion of 17 on the Borg Scale (breathing hard), your average speed (assuming a duplicate course profile) could be decreased by 5 to 10 percent for the same heart rate and perceived exertion when exposed to even moderate altitudes. This means your speed will decrease by two miles per hour, which is quite a reduction.
What if people who already live at high altitude travel to sea level? Is there an automatic gain in speed? That’s a good question, and there’s no easy answer. Since people living at a higher altitude are not able to train at the same intensity levels they would train at as lowlanders, they have not trained their bodies to perform at higher speeds. Unproven by science, perhaps the highlanders don’t have the neuromuscular programming, in addition to the metabolic speeds, necessary to cycle fast at sea level.
How long is it before the benefits of high altitude disappear when that athlete travels to race at sea level? Estimates for an athlete to lose the maximum benefits of their native, high-altitude adaptations are in the six- to eight-week range.
Up Next
In Part II we’ll look at utilizing altitude to improve race performance.
Portions of the text reprinted from “Training Plans for Cyclists” by Gale Bernhardt, VeloPress.
Gale Bernhardt was the 2003 USA Triathlon Pan American Games and 2004 USA Triathlon Olympic coach for both the men's and women's teams. Her first Olympic experience was as a personal cycling coach at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Thousands of athletes have had successful training and racing experiences using Gale's ready-to-use, easy-to-follow training plans. For more information, find some plans on Gale’s site and more plans on TrainingPeaks.com.
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Or, the problem is the sky is not falling. We have had an extremely dry start to the 2017-2018 Colorado winter. Some people are happy with the dry conditions, others are not. Should we be pressing the panic button?
If you want the answer now – don’t panic yet. If you want more detail, read on.
One of my nicknames, given to me by good cycling buddies Scott Ellis and Bill Frielingsdorf, is “Weather Girl.” I closely examine multiple weather websites before every race and often the group rides as well. I'm a powder hound in the winter, closely watching forecasts for great snow. I could probably have another nickname, “Water Girl.” I have long been interested in snowpack and water in the state.
We had an extremely dry winter in the mid-70s. I don’t recall the year and I can’t find data for that year. There was very limited skiing that year.
The year I recall that was driest in recent years was 2002. Those people involved in irrigation and allocating water for the state had a big challenge that year. Below (click on the image to enlarge) is a snowpack graph for the South Platte River Basin for water years 1999-2002.
The black line represents the water year 2002 (WY2002). This water year graph for snowpack begins in October of 2001 and goes to June of 2002. Notice for all water years on this graph, the snow water equivalent in mid-December was right around the 2.5 to 3-inch mark for three of the years. It was January where thing stayed dry in 2002 while we got more snow for the other years. Peak snowpack for 2002 was less than 8 inches, while the average is more like 15 inches.
The next dry year was 2012. The graph below shows water years 2009 to 2012 and you can see that all the years had mid-December snowpack higher than 2002. WY2012 began okay but ended weak - about 10 inches.
WY2011 began strong and ended strong. The snowpack that year was well above the 15-inch average. WY2011 was also a stellar ski season. The South Platte River Basin is different than the basins that host ski areas and those basins track higher averages that the South Platte – but – the basic graph appearance is similar for all Colorado basins.
What doe this year look like? Below is the graph for water years 2015 to 2018. You can see that we’ve had a slow start to the year, similar to 2002. In mid-December, we’re around that 3-inch snowpack number. It will be January or February before we can determine if WY2018 will be a “bad” ski season and perhaps cause water restrictions for some areas of the state.
I’ve heard that some media outlets looking for traffic have been crying wolf. “This is the beginning of the end for skiing in Colorado!!”
I say bullpucky. We may have a dry year and we may not. Even if we do, it will likely be only one year.
I will admit I tend to be optimistic. It is possible that we can have an extended drought. After all, there were the Great Dust Bowl years (1930-1936) that did affect a good part of eastern Colorado.
Possible.
Fingers crossed, salt over the shoulder and four-leaf clover that the snow will come.
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A few months ago, I signed up to be part of a study at Colorado State University (CSU.) Researchers from CSU and University of Colorado health are examining how high levels of exercise affect your heart. I have gone through two of the three phases of testing.
One of the tests is a VO2max test. Though the researchers are not looking for substrate use (the percentage of carbohydrate and fat used at each exercise intensity), these numbers show up on the results sheet.
The research coordinator, Nate Bachman, sent me this result:
“I am also attaching a report of your VO2 Max test and a substrate report. The substrate report indicates both % and grams per minute of carbohydrate and fat you used throughout the test (and the corresponding VO2 value). These numbers fluctuate due during each stage due to slight changes in effort, breathing pattern, and measurement variability. You can go through the report and look at different time points. At 5:01 you were using 44% fat and your VO2 was 43.0 ml/kg/m (43.0/47.3= 91% of your max). This indicates you were using fat for almost half of your fuel source at 91% of max- this is great.”
I don’t know how I compare to others in the study, but I do know some baseline information. There is something called the Crossover Point Hypothesis, developed and studied by George Brooks at UC Berkley. The study was looking for the point where athletes would crossover from burning primarily fat to carbohydrates. As you probably know, at low-intensity exercise fat is the primary source of fuel.
The investigation by Brooks showed that depending on the level of training, athletes would crossover somewhere between 35% and 65% of VO2max.
More recently, Jeff Volek’s research pointed out that the crossover point has a direct relationship to diet. In a past blog, I noted that elite ultrarunners consuming an extremely high-fat diet (some 70% of daily calories come from fat) have shifted the paradigm about what is possible for fat burning for endurance athletes.
I also noted in that blog that I am not interested in following a 70% fat diet. My diet follows Fat-Burning Machine principles and I modify those principles depending on my level of activity. The Fat-Burning Machine plan is different from Keto or Paleo in that it allows limited grains, dairy, fruit, and alcohol. Portion size, the timing of macronutrients and exercise considerations all play a role.
Over the years that I’ve been eating the Fat-Burning Machine way, I knew it made a difference because I didn’t need to supplement much nutrition during training and racing. Now I have solid proof that I am a Fat-Burning Machine.
]]>A few years back I wrote a column titled, “Liars, Cheaters and Thieves in Your Sport.” The column looked at why people lie, cheat and steal. Why do people cut courses? Why do people skip paying entry fees?
More recently we’ve had drug use among these amateurs and now motors in bikes or e-bikes. People seek an advantage. They excuse themselves from wrong-doing by claiming others are doing “it” too and they are just leveling the playing field.
One of the attractions of Strava is that cyclists and runners can measure best times on particular segments against themselves and against others. King and Queen of the Mountain designations are given to those with overall best times. Special badges are also given by time in age and weight categories.
Now road cyclists and mountain bikers alike note suspicious segment achievements for riders. Are these achievements earned by training or boosted by e-bikes?
As e-bikes become more popular, will their increased use spell a death sentence for Strava?
What do you think?
Check to see if I have an easy-to-use training plan for you on my site to help you reach your goals. And, there are more options on the TrainingPeaks site.
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