Joe Friel’s Blog

Once again I must apologize for the big gap between my posting of Part 1 and today’s Part 2. This is my busy time of year with lots of travel for clinics and camps so time is quite precious. It seems … [Read more...] about How to Optimize Your Economy, Part 2

I’ve written before about the three markers of endurance fitness: aerobic capacity (VO2max), anaerobic/lactate threshold (AT/LT), and economy. In my last blog on economy I noted that sport science … [Read more...] about How to Optimize Your Economy, Part 1

The diagram here (click to enlarge)  illustrates what happens to heart rate, rating of perceived exertion (RPE), speed, and power while riding a bike steadily uphill, coasting downhill, and then … [Read more...] about More on Power Meters

Should you buy a power meter? After all, they aren’t cheap and sport is already expensive. You’ve spent a small fortune on bicycles and all of their assorted and costly components. And don’t forget … [Read more...] about Why You Need a Power Meter

Fatigue is a primary limiter standing between you and better performance. If you could delay or resist the sensations of fatigue you would go faster and last longer at a given effort level--the … [Read more...] about What Is Fatigue?

It’s common for athletes to take in some carbohydrate after a workout. The desire for sugar is typically high at that time. This is beneficial in that it is known to increase the glycogen stores in … [Read more...] about Should You Use Protein After a Workout?

Someone asked me a while back what books I had read recently that I particularly liked. I read a few in 2011. Some were sport-related and the others were just for fun. Here are the three from the … [Read more...] about My Favorite Books from 2011

On February 4 the FASTER* cycling center and I will present a workshop in Scottsdale, Ariz., for about a dozen athletes I handpick to attend. The purpose of the selection is to have a small group of … [Read more...] about Select Athlete Workshop

It’s that time of year when athletes have gained a couple of excess pounds of flab and are starting to think about taking it off. The traditional method for doing this is by doing lots of long, slow … [Read more...] about The Fat-Burning Myth

In case you missed something, here are lists of my most-read blogs since I started posting in January, 2007 along with my most-read blogs of 2011. Most Read of All Time It’s remarkable how little … [Read more...] about My Most-Read Posts of 2011

Perhaps the greatest thing about the training technology we have now is the ability to track how training and performance are progressing. Before the digital age this was done largely by guesswork and … [Read more...] about Inconsistency

I was asked this question 3 times in the last 3 days, so it must be a common concern. Let’s take a quick look at it. If you have a power meter and set up your zones based on your FTP using Coggan’s … [Read more...] about Why Don’t My Power and Heart Rate Zones Agree?

Someone recently reminded me of the following which appeared in my blog on November 3, 2009. The subject came up because an athlete asked how he should adjust his training when injured. These sorts of … [Read more...] about When Things Don’t Go Right

I’ve commented here before that what I like to see for intensity in base 1 (block 2) for those athletes I coach is a lot of zone 2 time. The accompanying power distribution chart for an athlete shows … [Read more...] about Early Base & Zone 2 Intensity

Along with PowerTap, I’m hosting a series power certification workshops for coaches this winter. Athletes are welcome also, but these technical sessions that may well be beyond novice and many … [Read more...] about Power Certification Workshop

Quite a while back I received the following question from a reader. It’s a good one, but it seems there is never enough time. I’ll just give a brief answer here along with links to related blogs I’ve … [Read more...] about Base Intensity Question

Other than workouts, the most basic element of planning for the athlete is laying out the week’s training routine. There are a lot of individual variables to take into account when doing this … [Read more...] about Training Week Design

This seems to be magazine-interview month. I recently received another set of questions from a cycling publication. The focus was on aging athletes. This is a favorite topic of mine given my … [Read more...] about Q & A: Recovery and the Aging Athlete

Today I received several questions from BIKE, a European-mountain bike magazine. I thought they were good ones so I am sharing them—and my answers—with you. Question: What are the biggest changes in … [Read more...] about Q & A for Cyclists

 Once again I must apologize for the long gaps between posts. I’ve got a backlog of topics I want to write on (running shoes, periodization, and strength training, to name but a few pressing … [Read more...] about Compression Garment Update

In 1980 when I started coaching adult athletes (I coached high school before that) it was strictly with local athletes (Northern Colorado). I'd meet with them and conduct the workout. This was … [Read more...] about The Origins of On-Line Coaching

If you follow sports other than your own at all you’re undoubtedly aware of Tiger Woods’ problems in the last two years. I won’t go into details here, but the bottom line is that he’s been playing … [Read more...] about Self Belief

It's Ironman week in Kona, Hawaii. I don't have any athletes racing this year so I won't be there. I've had several first-timers do the race over the last 22 years. Here are some tips … [Read more...] about Hawaii Ironman Novice Suggestions

Today I received a note from an athlete wanting me to predict his future fitness relative to power. I’ll get out my crystal ball and take a look. Here’s his question… Q: My power avg. jumped from 190 … [Read more...] about Question on Power & Weight