News

  • Jan 14, 2022

    Injured ribs and back – what it feels like (physically and mentally) during the healing process

    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...

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  • Jan 06, 2022

    Inspiration for the New Year

    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...

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  • Apr 15, 2020

    Does Long or Intense Training Put Me at Risk for Coronavirus? Should I Defer a Race Entry?

    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: Will long training rides or runs put me at a higher risk for catching the virus? Does intensity within workouts put me at higher risk for catching the virus? 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)? These are great...

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  • Apr 07, 2020

    How to Become Robust and Resilient

    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...

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  • Mar 27, 2020

    Nimrahc Series Race Report

      "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...

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  • Mar 20, 2020

    Basic Home Strength Training Program for a Wide Range of People

      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: Chair squat. Maintains leg strength and the ability to get yourself on and off the toilet. Step-up. Further maintains leg strength...

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  • Jan 29, 2020

    Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race Training and Racing Resources

      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: https://galebernhardt.com/blogs/news/12707921-leadville-100-mountain-bike-race-race-across-the-sky-training-plan-resources Tough love here: https://galebernhardt.com/blogs/news/15102525-tough-love-advice-for-leadville-100-training-and-racing I have some variations on nutrition in recent years. You can read about those on my blog: https://galebernhardt.com/blogs/news/49862981-my-fat-burning-machine-nutrition-details-for-the-leadville-100-mountain-bike-race More tips here: https://galebernhardt.com/blogs/news/16662544-leadville-100-mountain-bike-race-plan-is-now-available Let me know if...

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  • Jan 28, 2020

    Vegan Fat-Burning Machine athlete with fueling questions

    (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...

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  • Oct 30, 2019

    A recent study finds coffee is associated with improved sports performance in men and women

    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...

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  • Oct 04, 2019

    Exercise-Induced Asthma (EIA) in Athletes

      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...

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