Categories
- Anew Fit Me Online Training Plans
- Books for Women
- Cycling Training Plans
- Mountain Bike Training Plans
- Road and Mountain Bike Books
- Running Training Plans
- Swimming Online Training Plans
- The Best Triathlon, Mountain Bike and Cycling Training Plans
- Triathlon and Duathlon Books
- Triathlon Training Plans
- Workouts in a Binder
News
-
Nov 18, 2016
Training Principles that Should Guide Your Training Plan Design
Read more →I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that after you have considered your fitness goals, your current fitness and the time you have to train – then it is time to begin designing your training plan. For all of my training plans (ready-to-use and personalized coaching) I use periodization principles in the design process. The principles apply in all cases – Olympian to fitness-goal-oriented athlete. How to apply the various principles depends on the top 3 variables mentioned yesterday. As you might imagine, the old saying, "The devil is in the detail" holds true for training plan design. If you are...
-
Nov 17, 2016
The Top 3 Variables that Influence Exercise Program Design
Read more →When I design a ready-to-use training plan, I consider multiple variables. These variables influence the design of the plan and ultimately provide the athlete profile description that accompanies all of the plans. While there are many more variables than can be listed in a single column, let’s look at the top three variables to consider. Goals The first thing I want to know is what is your goal? Fitness goals typically fall into two broad categories. The first is health. People want to maintain or improve fitness in order to influence good health markers. For many, keeping good...
-
Sep 12, 2016
Subject: Completed my First Sprint Tri!
Read more →Love to hear from successful athletes using my training plans! From: Rowdy Garcia Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2016 9:09 AM To: gale@galebernhardt.com Gale, I recently completed my first spring Triathlon in San Diego, CA – Chula Vista Challenge 2016. It was an amazingly satisfying experience and has got me hooked on the sport. To help me prepare for the event, I used your book, “Triathlon Training Basics”. For an engineer and Naval Officer that craves data, references, and detailed planning, your book was everything that I needed and wanted. Thanks for doing what you do and helping people like...
-
Sep 10, 2016
What is the Optimal Cycling Cadence?
Read more →Q: Hey Gale—I'm hoping you can help answer a question. I'm relatively new to cycling and my cycling friends insist that my cycling cadence needs to be between 90 to 110 revolutions per minute (rpm). Looking at my cyclometer, I am usually around an average of 80 rpm. My friends tell me that 90 rpm is the optimal cadence, and that if I would train to spin at 90 to 100 rpm, I would be faster without changing anything else. But when I try to spin at a higher cadence, my heart rate skyrockets and I can't last very...
-
Aug 30, 2016
What Does a it Look Like to Periodize Training? (A Periodization Training Plan)
Read more →The photo above is a glimpse into my personal training plan periodization. The chart comes from the Strava Fitness and Freshness graph. TrainingPeaks has a similar graph, but the Strava graph is more visual for my purposes in this column. The left side or y-axis of the graph in the photo tracks fitness as measured by Strava’s calculations. Though I think it underestimates mountain biking difficulty and therefore fitness and freshness, overall I think it does track pretty close to my performance. The x-axis of the graph is time, 2011 through 2016. It is pretty easy to see that I...
-
Aug 23, 2016
Fueling During the 2016 Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race
Read more →Photo courtesy of Linda Kennedy I promised a few of you that I would get to letting you know what I ate and drank during the 2016 Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race. Here it is. You can find last year’s fueling report at this link. What I ate before and during the race was similar, but I didn’t include details last year. This year, details. Wake up at 4:00 am and aim to have breakfast down by 4:30am. Two large eggs scrambled with water and heavy whipping cream (I like the texture) and cooked in coconut oil. ½ cup of...
-
Jul 07, 2016
A sample day of eating as a Fat-Burning Machine for Ron Kennedy
Read more →In this column you can see a “normal” Fat-Burning Machine day for Ron Kennedy. On this day he commuted to and from work on his bike, which is normal for him. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)
-
Jul 06, 2016
What I ate on race day (Fat-Burning Machine)
Read more →In yesterday’s blog I noted that I raced the Firecracker 50 mountain bike race that took me 6 hours and 37 minutes. In a recent presentation, I was asked what I eat on race day. Before I give details on race day, I think it is important to know these two things: Race day looks different than any other day (I will post details about normal Fat-Burning Machine days in future blogs.) I have been following Fat-Burning Machine guidelines for about 17 months. As you learned in a previous post, you must be fat-adapted to burn more fat during exercise....
-
Jul 05, 2016
Comparing the difficulty of mountain bike races (Leadville 100, Breck 68, Firecracker 50, Dakota Five-O, Gunnison Half-Growler, Breck 32)
Read more →I will often get the question, “How hard was that race compared to (insert any other race).” I think there are many factors that determine the difficulty of the race: How fresh it is in my mind Race distance Total elevation of the race Altitude of the race Course difficulty (mountain biking this includes singletrack climbs and descents) Weather How fit I am on race day Yesterday I raced the Breckenridge Firecracker 50 for the first time. It is two loops of the same course, with four aid stations per loop. You can literally do the entire race with one...
-
Jun 28, 2016
Is a high fat diet best for endurance athletes? Can you become a Fat Burning Machine?
Read more →The design of the Fat Burning Machine Diet had many influences. One of the influences came from the ultra-running community. While these runners reported unbelievable training and racing fueling rates, I lurked from the sidelines, watching and experimenting with a very high fat diet. (I consider a very high fat diet to be one where fat is some 60% to 75% of total daily calories.) While I did try this high-fat diet, I found that for me the Fat Burning Machine program was much more sustainable and enjoyable. I could get the athletic and health results I sought, while enjoying...