News

  • Jun 05, 2017

    Don’t Get Fooled Again – Workout Recovery

    I’ve decided to start a series titled “Don’t Get Fooled Again” to help endurance athletes sort out information that is true or false at face value. I’ll post a question in the morning on Gale Bernhardt Consulting Facebook and have people weigh in with comments. I’ll comment later the same day on Facebook. I’ll store the series here on my blog so it is easy to find. Let’s begin with workout recovery: In order to optimize performance and recovery, athletes need to continually load and reload muscle glycogen stores. This process cannot happen on a low-carbohydrate diet. (True or False?)...

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  • May 03, 2017

    Exercise in a pill – a slippery slope

    Scientists at the Salk Institute know that people can improve endurance through training. Along with the ability to do an activity for longer periods of time, people’s ability to burn fat improves; additional mitochondria and blood vessels are built; and muscle fibers that prefer fat-burning over sugar-burning are increased. All of these are contributors to improved health. But, what if you cannot do aerobic exercise? Age, obesity, heart disease, pulmonary disease or other physical limitations restrict some people’s ability to exercise. Scientists set out to explore whether or not they could replicate some of the benefits of exercise through pharmaceuticals....

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  • Apr 27, 2017

    Screen shot of swim workout builder

    I recently added a new swim training plan on TrainingPeaks.com. Right now the sample view of the training plan doesn't include the actual workout details. https://www.trainingpeaks.com/training-plans/other/swimming/tp-113460/swimming-plan-for-olympic-or-70-3-half-im-triathlon-level-i Above, you can see a screen shot of some of the workout details. You can use the workout with our without a downloadable device. All the details of the workout will display in your TrainingPeaks plan one way or the other. Let me know how it goes for you!

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  • Apr 20, 2017

    Steps to upload a TrainingPeaks workout to TrainerRoad

      There are a few nuances to uploading a TrainingPeaks workout built with the structured workout builder to TrainerRoad. I experienced those nuances today and hopefully I can save you some time and/or frustration. The very first thing you must do is be certain you are running the latest version of Adobe Air. After downloading, in order for me to get it to save and work correctly, I had to right click on the file and run it as an administrator   (https://get.adobe.com/air/) Then, download the TrainerRoad [Workout Creator] (http://trainerroadcdn1.blob.core.windows.net/software/workoutcreator.1.4.0.air) The first two steps made TrainerRoad not work on my PC....

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  • Apr 06, 2017

    This is What Mohs Surgery for Skin Cancer Looks Like

    As spring and summer approaches, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to wear protection from the sun. Sunscreen and protective clothing are a must. This fellow wants you to know that there is a price to pay for that “cool tan.” He had several spots of skin cancer removed off of the top of his head by the Mohs procedure. He says the cool tan isn’t worth it. He his hoping that his message helps at least one person.  

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  • Apr 04, 2017

    Does Nutritional Ketone Supplementation Improve Athletic Performance?

    I have written about the advantages of changing to a higher fat diet and how many athletes, including myself, have been able to reduce supplemental nutrition during racing. This supplemental nutrition has been in the form of carbohydrate drinks, chewable gels, commercial bars and homemade foods. More recently, people have begun to question whether or not using supplemental/dietary ketones (sometimes referred to as exogenous ketones) is an advantage for athletes. I was able to find one study in Cell Metabolism that examined nutritional ketone supplementation. The study was interesting in that researchers designed five studies within one umbrella study. Depending...

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  • Mar 30, 2017

    How do I do Cruise Intervals?

    Hello Gale, I am a little confused on your cruise interval run workouts in the triathlon training plan.  In the  pre-activity comments it says to do 4-5 x 5-minute intervals with a 2-minute rest in between.  I was wondering if am I supposed to do these at Zone 4 - Zone 5a segments before my main run, or am I supposed to do as many intervals as I can for 1 hour? Thanks, G. F. _______ Good question, G.F. You can find more information in the free download documents in the “shorthand for intervals section.” That written, let me answer...

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  • Jan 19, 2017

    Starving on my 30-mile ride, what should I do?

    Hey Gale, As you know I am adapting to the Fat Burning Machine principles. I just went for a 30ish mile road ride and the last 30min I was starving.  Typically for this distance and time I don't bring food and am not usually hungry.  I had my usual breakfast of omelet, whole wheat toast with butter and coffee. I'm clearly not in mid-season bike shape but found the hunger to be abnormal. I did bring water and was hydrated normally. Any thoughts? M.R. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hey M. R., Great question - and many athletes have experienced the same thing. I...

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  • Dec 20, 2016

    Is it okay to modify the ready-to-use triathlon training plan?

    Q.  Hi Gale, Last week I started following your TrainingPeaks program "Triathlon: Base Period (Winter, Off-Season) Training". After the first week is almost done I noticed that the trainings that were an exact match to the training parameters are colored in green while shorter ones or longer ones are colored in red. Is it OK if I do a longer ride? For example even if here winter is quite nasty, there are still days when I can go out and do a 50-100km ride. I also like to train for future contests, but I also like riding just for the...

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  • Dec 07, 2016

    What is the best nut?

    Q. Hey Gale, I’m an endurance athlete following the Fat Burning Machine diet guidelines. In the book you recommend using nuts as snacks, what is the best nut? My friend insists that I shouldn’t eat anything but almonds, can you give your opinion? D.S. A. Excellent timing, D.S. I am in the process of teaching a 9-week course to help a variety of people (endurance athletes and non-endurance junkies alike) teach their bodies to burn fat for fuel. In the past couple of weeks we’ve taken a good look at nuts. I’m going to include two charts in this column....

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