Teacher Exercises 900 Minutes Weekly Through Chemo, Writes Book

When Beth Krasemann got the phone call saying she had breast cancer, she was in the middle of a bike ride through the Colorado mountains. Her husband offered to pick her up. She kept pedaling.

"This is not going to stop my bike ride," the Colorado Rocky Mountain School history teacher decided in that moment. It became her philosophy for the next 18 months.

Krasemann just published "900 Minutes," a book documenting how she maintained an extraordinary exercise routine throughout her entire breast cancer treatment. While doctors and friends often tell cancer patients to "take it easy," Krasemann did the opposite. She averaged 900 minutes of mountain biking, running, and ski mountaineering each week during chemotherapy.

That's at least four times what the American Heart Association recommends for healthy adults. During treatment, Krasemann even completed the Power of Four, a brutal race up all four local ski resorts. She calls it the hardest thing she's ever done.

The approach wasn't just about staying active. Krasemann's research uncovered 10 studies showing exercise actually helps chemotherapy work better. Raising your heart rate spreads the medication more effectively into tumors, she learned. It also fights fatigue, improves sleep, reduces stress, and lifts mood.

Her doctors saw the difference. Every appointment brought a blood test to check if her body could handle another full dose of chemotherapy. "Every time I went in, they're like, 'You're ready to go,'" Krasemann said. Many patients get too worn down and need reduced doses.

Why This Inspires

One of Krasemann's friends survived breast cancer twice without realizing that staying active was even possible during treatment. That's exactly who Krasemann wrote the book for.

"Movement for me was just a way to manage the stress," she explained. "When I'm out in the mountains, I didn't feel sick, I didn't feel like a cancer patient, I felt like I had agency."

The book isn't a prescription for everyone to run marathons during chemo. Krasemann knows her athletic background made her journey unique. But the deeper message reaches beyond cancer and athletics: we're tougher than we think, and life doesn't have to be linear.

Her book is available on Amazon and coming soon to local bookstores and outdoor recreation shops, with the promise that people facing hard things don't have to let those things define them.