With a masters degree in exercise science, Joe Friel was a marathoner and running coach throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. After his first triathlon in 1983 and falling in love with the sport he began coaching multisport athletes becoming one of the first triathlon coaches in the country. The following year he opened a triathlon store in Ft. Collins, Colorado-probably the first in the world. Throughout the 1980s his race management company organized several triathlons in Colorado. He left retail and race management in 1987 to focus on coaching. The athletes he coached for over 30 years ranged from novice to high-performance amateur to professional to Olympian. In 1997, he was a founding member of the USA Triathlon Coaches Association. He served as co-chair in 1999-2000. In 2000, he attended the Sydney Olympics to assist with team preparation. The following year he was the coach of team USA for the World Triathlon Championships. Throughout the 2000s he was a frequent speaker at USAT coach seminars. He wrote 17 books on training, the most notable being The Triathlete's Training Bible, which is now in its 5th edition and translated into 15 languages. It remains the best-selling book in the world on triathlon training. In 1999, he co-founded TrainingPeaks, online training software for endurance athletes. As an athlete he competed in hundreds of events including national and world championships, was an All-American Age Group Triathlete several times and a USAT-regional multisport champion. He stopped competing after a bike crash in 2014 restricted range of shoulder movement. He continues to present at triathlon camps and clinics for triathletes and coaches around the world. Joe currently lives and trains in the mountains of northern Arizona and is working on his 18th book-this one for coaches.

Prologue

Acknowledgments

PART I: MIND AND BODY

Chapter 1 Mental Performance: Motivation | Dreams, Goals, and Missions | Mental Toughness | Patience | Commitment and Tenacity | Consistency and Routines | Your High-Performance Team

Chapter 2 Physical Performance: The Right Stuff | Training Beliefs | Four Steps to Training with a Purpose

PART II: TRAINING FUNDAMENTALS

Chapter 3 Basic Training Concepts: Training Principles | Duration, Intensity, and Frequency | Volume and Intensity | Dose and Density | Training Load | Supercompensation | Fitness, Fatigue, and Form

Chapter 4 Training Intensity: Training with Effort, Heart Rate, and Power | Intensity Reference Points | Intensity Distribution | Functional Threshold | Setting Training Zones | Training Stress Score

PART III: PURPOSEFUL TRAINING

Chapter 5 Getting Started: Training Tools | Seasonal Goals | Assessment

Chapter 6 Preparing to Race: What Is Fitness? | Abilities | Ability Limiters

PART IV: PLANNING YOUR SEASON

Chapter 7 Planning Overview: Periodization | Planning | The Annual Training Plan

Chapter 8 Planning a Week: Schedule Weekly Workouts | Weekly and Daily Training | Missed Workouts

Chapter 9 Planning Alternatives: Linear Periodization Alternatives | Nonlinear Periodization Alternatives | A Simple Plan

PART V: STRESS AND RECOVERY

Chapter 10 Training Stress: Risk and Reward| Avoiding Overtraining | Managing Overreaching

Chapter 11 Fatigue, Recovery, and Adaptation: Measuring Fatigue | Recovery and Adaptation | Strategic Recovery

PART VI: THE COMPETITIVE EDGE

Chapter 12 Muscular Force Training: The Nervous System and Force | Weight Lifting | Functional Force Training | TSS and Weight Lifting

Chapter 13 Tapering to Race: Fitness | Form | The Components of Tapering | Peak and Race Period Routines

Chapter 14 The Training Diary: Diary or Log? | Planning with a Diary | What to Record | Training Analysis | Race Analysis

Epilogue

Appendix A: Annual Training Plan Template

Appendix B: Workouts

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

About the Author