Joe Friel’s Blog

I suppose I'm a bit of a heretic. I seldom accept things at face value just because that's "the way we've always done it" or just because an "expert says" it should be done that way. Or my favorite is … [Read more...] about Unconventional Thinking

The following is a portion of an email I received today from a US serviceman in Afghanistan. He expresses quite well a common concern I hear from athletes in regards to their Chronic Training Load … [Read more...] about CTL Concerns

A hard workout only creates the potential for fitness. It’s realized when you recover afterwards. When you take it easy after a hard workout the body’s adaptive process kicks in and you become more … [Read more...] about Training: Stress, Fatigue, Recovery, Adaptation

I just got a DM from a guy who is experiencing what it’s like to try to train and race at the same time the family and career responsibilities are increasing. Here was my response: I can relate, Jim. … [Read more...] about Time, Family, and Training

Thanks for your email. I’m glad to hear that you have high goals for the sport and dreams of becoming a pro. Dreams at your age are always the starting place for anyone who eventually becomes a pro. … [Read more...] about My Email to a 16 Year-Old S African Rider

  I received a couple of interesting questions about max heart rate (HRmax) this week... Question: Does declining max HR with age affect max performance? First, there is no research I’m … [Read more...] about Max Heart Rate and Performance

Last week I received an email from an athlete who was concerned about her training for the coming year. She had wisely decided that she needed to include a rest and recovery week every third week. But … [Read more...] about How Important Is Training Volume?

The emailed question… Joe: I have been training for triathlon since 2010 and I use the concepts of your book for planning my annual and weekly training. I have a fundamental question about that. … [Read more...] about Travel and Training

The following is a list of the biggest changes in the All-New Triathlete’s Training Bible. It really is “all new.” That’s not just a marketing ploy. The only thing that stayed about the same was the … [Read more...] about What’s New About the All-New Triathlete’s Training Bible, 4th Edition

Muscle cramps are one of the most perplexing problems endurance athletes face in training. I get several questions on what can be done about them every year. Here is such a question I just … [Read more...] about Muscle Cramps Question

Since I wrote Fast After 50 I’ve gotten lots of queries from aging athletes about how to set up nine-day training “week” as I describe in the book. If you’ve read it you know that I suggest this for … [Read more...] about The 9-Day Training Week

I often get questions about cross training. This is one that came in today from “Jack.” Most of it had to do with the athlete’s advancing age and having read my new book, Fast After 50. I’ve omitted … [Read more...] about Cross Training and Performance

In Part 1 of this two-part series on setting up a Performance Management Chart on TrainingPeaks for strength training I only got as far as describing why you should only have one combined chart for … [Read more...] about The Weightlifting PMC, Part 2

I’ve been asked a few times recently how to set up a Performance Management Chart on TrainingPeaks for weightlifting. It’s that time of year when strength work is a major focus of training for … [Read more...] about The Weightlifting PMC, Part 1

I often get emails from athletes asking me how they should train as if there is a single answer that fits everyone. There’s only one answer I can give that fits everyone: It depends. It depends on all … [Read more...] about How Should I Train? It Depends…

There was a time when athletes believed that in the Base period one should only do long, slow distance. And in the Build period we were to primarily do high-intensity interval training. Those … [Read more...] about Periodization of Intensity

I’ve posted a few times here on how you can use the Performance Management Chart to manage your training with topics on CTL (“fitness”), ATL (“fatigue”), and TSB (“form”). If you are unfamiliar … [Read more...] about Managing Training Using TSB

I received a question today regarding what appears to be a contradiction in some of my books--the Training Bibles and Fast After 50. I suspect other readers have had this same question. First of … [Read more...] about Aerobic Capacity Intervals Year Round?

High-performance training demands risk taking. The typical risks come in the form of breakdowns such as overtraining, injury, and illness. Mostly moderately hard workouts are what you should be … [Read more...] about Training Risk

I get a lot of emails from athletes who are frequently injured or sick and are frustrated. They can't seem to make any progress. There may be many factors that are at the root of such … [Read more...] about Training, Greed and Patience

In the last week I’ve been asked several times to comment about a recent article in VeloNews magazine regarding the connection between a heart condition known as atrial fibrillation and … [Read more...] about A-Fib and the Master Endurance Athlete

About once every month or so I receive an email from an athlete asking if overtraining may be the cause of his or her current condition that is nearly always marked by lingering fatigue. When after a … [Read more...] about Avoiding Overtraining

The following appeared a few days ago on the TrainingPeaks.com blog. It’s the last of three-part series on the Performance Management Chart on the TrainingPeaks site and on WKO software. This is … [Read more...] about Part 3: Training Stress Balance—So What?

This is a continuation of my posts related to TrainingPeaks’ Performance Management Chart. It appeared recently on their blog. If you don’t use the PMC then this post probably won’t make sense to you. … [Read more...] about Part 2: Training Stress Score—So What?