Book Review: Training Plans For Cyclists By Gale Bernhardt

I seem to be coming down with some sort of nasty head funk that is making me feel like sitting down and doing nothing else, so I finally finished Gale Bernhardt’s “Training plans for cyclists” tonight. The cover claims it will help you with road and mountain biking, be it 30 mile, 50 mile, 100k, century, multiday tour, 3 hour, 100 mile, or 24 hour rides, a tall order for one book. But one that is ultimately met.

The book starts off with the basics, nutrition, equipment, training intensity and volume, and the “elements of training.” Bernhardt has coached multiple Olympians, and has a list of accomplishments a mile long. I was impressed with the simple and easy to follow instructions, as well as the straight forward way in which each section is delivered. She even takes the time to explain the role of genetics, how no one plan will fit every athlete and tries to get the reader to be realistic about their goals without ruining there excitement.

The book then goes into a series of…well plans. Lots of charts, graphs diagrams. Laying out in detail what you need to do every day to get ready for your event. It is not super interesting reading, and honestly I skipped most of them, if you see one graph laying out what you do, you have seen them all. However for a person trying to do their first century ride, or trying to improve on their time, this book is great. I would have liked to see more pictures, as in there are like ten in the whole book (mostly in the equipment and workout sections where pictures are much easier than trying to describe bike fit or a bench press), but the book is not “fancy pictures of bike training” it is “training plans for cyclists”. It does what it says on the tin.

Get this book if you want detailed day by day instructions on how to get better at your chosen event. This book is comprehensive, and while dull is a great resource (it even has an index of more resources which I thought was pretty rad). I would say that if you are a beginner and have never followed a training plan before getting a reading this book would give you a solid foundation to start some “serious” cycling events, and then to go on to improve at them. This book even has a lot to offer experienced riders who have been following training plans for years, if only because Bernhardt seems to know her stuff.

You can pick up the book on Amazon here.

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