Joe Friel’s Blog

On Tuesday this week I had the rare experience of speaking to a group of upper-level managers from Airbus at a resort in Travemünde on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast. Airbus makes commercial airliners … [Read more...] about Airbus Symposium

Some time ago a magazine asked me some questions about recovery for runners for a piece they were writing. Recently an athlete asked similar questions and got me to thinking about this topic once … [Read more...] about Recovery for Runners

It’s been almost three months since I lasted posted anything here. That’s a record for me, and I’ve been pretty good over the years at leaving big, empty gaps from time to time. This gap has been … [Read more...] about Personal Update

I received an interesting question from an athlete today. He asked... Question: "Is there research available on recovery time vs. Intensity Factor (IF)?" Explanation: "IF" is … [Read more...] about Recovery and Intensity Factor

“Polarized training” is a fancy new name for a basic old concept—train either at low or high intensity, but keep the moderate training time between these extremes relatively small. So what are low, … [Read more...] about Hard-Easy Training

This is my last aging post. I started this series back in June as a pre-birthday gift to myself. I wanted to understand what was happening with my performance that seemed to be in decline. There was a … [Read more...] about Aging: The Last Post

So far I’ve covered all of the common periods in the season and how they might be tweaked to match the unique needs of the senior athlete – Prep, Base, Build, Peak and Race. That brings us to … [Read more...] about Aging: The Veteran’s Transition Period

We’ve now got the Prep, Base, Build and Peak periods behind us. We’re almost there: The race is just a week away. Actually, there isn’t much to change in this period from what’s described … [Read more...] about Aging: Customizing the Race Period

The Peak period follows Build 2b and is one of the shortest of the season. Now you’re down to just a couple of weeks until race day. Gaining fitness is out of the question. There isn’t enough time to … [Read more...] about Aging: Customizing the Peak Period

In my last three posts (here,  here, and here) I offered suggestions for how a senior athlete may customize the training routine in the Prep and Base periods to allow for more frequent and … [Read more...] about Aging: Customizing the Build Period

I’m back home after a two-month stay in beautiful Tuscany. As much as I enjoyed the riding there, it’s a great relief to back where the two-way roads are wider than one car. Taking the many blind … [Read more...] about Aging: Other Base Period Training and Microcycles

I’ve been writing about aging here since June. This rather long series started when I realized this past spring that in December I’d age up to 70. There’s an old saying that it takes 10 years to get … [Read more...] about Aging: Customizing the Base Period

In recent posts I’ve been describing how you can alter periodization to allow for better recovery and higher quality training at the same time by altering the length and design of your microcycles and … [Read more...] about Aging: Customizing the Prep Period

In the last few aging posts I’ve been walking you through how you can customize your periodization to more closely match your age by focusing on the recovery side of the training equation. I hope you … [Read more...] about Aging: Flexible Periodization

A reader asked me a few days ago if aerobic capacity training, which is what I suggest you probably need a bit more of in your training if you’re a typical senior athlete, means you should aim to … [Read more...] about Aging: Matching the Mesocycle to Your Recovery

Yesterday on a recovery ride around Tuscany with Jesper Olesen, a Dane I met in Lucca where I’ve been training for the last several weeks, he asked me about something that always gets me going – … [Read more...] about Reverse Periodization

Training dose and density are really all about recovery. Dose has to do with how great the daily training load is. Density is how many high-dose workouts you can do in a given period of time, such as … [Read more...] about Aging: Designing a Microcycle to Match Your Recovery

Emailed question: I'm going to be purchasing your book "The Cyclist's Training Bible", but in the meantime I have a question for you regarding cycling within specific heart rate … [Read more...] about This Week’s “High” Heart Rate Question

Let’s review some critical points before moving on. I’ve been making the point, based on the aging research, that experienced senior athletes are most likely to improve or maintain their endurance … [Read more...] about Aging: Risk, Dose and Density

Emailed Question: I had my last sprint triathlon of the season today, and for the first time (and won't be the last!) I wore my heart rate monitor. On the bike, I was feeling good, and actually … [Read more...] about Today’s Heart Rate Question

Since I started this aging series I’ve been getting lots of emails from older athletes. Perhaps the most frequent comment I hear from them has to do with recovery. Almost all tell me they recover … [Read more...] about Aging: Hormones, Training, Risk and Reward

Remember my recent post on a study that found well-trained athletes had lower max heart rates than sedentary people? Well, here’s another related one. Researchers at the University of British … [Read more...] about More Interesting Info on Max Heart Rate

Can the loss of performance with aging be overcome by training? Can you maintain your 35-year-old aerobic capacity and muscle mass, the keys to aging performance, when you’re 55 or even 75 years old? … [Read more...] about Aging: The Problems of High-Intensity Training

Ralph Heath, a 62-year-old cyclist and former client of mine, asked me recently if what I was suggesting in my previous posts is that older athletes should do high-intensity training even in their … [Read more...] about Aging: A Clarification