Synopses & Reviews
Train with cycling’s most trusted guide!
Fully illustrated with an easy-to-use two-color format
“I find Friel’s book a treasure of information for cyclists of all levels.” — Andy Hampsten, 1988 Giro d’Italia winner, 1992 Tour de France stage winner at Alpe d’Huez
“This book will have you systematically training just as world-class cyclists do. If you scrupulously follow its guidelines, I’m confident your racing performance will dramatically improve.” — Tudor Bompa, PhD, from the foreword
Everything you need to train, race, and succeed in cycling is in this book. Incorporating all of the latest advances in technology and training methods, this new edition of The Cyclist’s Training Bible puts the proven benefits of a scientific, self-coached training plan directly into your hands.
Wheather you are a first-year amateur or a veteran of road racing, Joe Friel’s step-by-step approach to season planning and race preparation will help you obtain the best results of your career. This fully revised and expanded fourth edition delivers even more proven training strategies, including:
- Using a power meter effectively
- Adapting your training plan over the course of a season
- Maximizing form and fitness, managing fatigue, and speeding recovery from back-to-back days of training and racing
- Improving your body composition with smart nutrition
- Supplementing strength training to build efficiency and power for sprints, climbs, time trials, criteriums, and all-around endurance
Whatever goals you have set for yourself, The Cyclist’s Training Bible will help you reach them. Let Joe Friel guide you to your best performance and maximum potential.
Review
""Joe Friel is arguably the most experienced personal cycling coach in the U.S., and his book The Cyclist's Training Bible has become, well... the Bible of the sport."" — Bicycling magazine
""I find Friel's book a treasure of information for cyclists of all levels."" — Andy Hampsten, 1988 Giro d'Italia winner, 1992 Tour de France stage winner at Alpe d'Huez
""This book will have you systematically training just as world-class cyclists do. If you scrupulously follow its guidelines, I'm confident your racing performance will dramatically improve."" — Tudor Bompa, PhD
“Nothing else comes close to The Cyclists Training Bible's comprehensive approach to planning out a season, creating a training schedule and incorporating diet and resistance training to an overall plan.” — BikeRumor.com
""Packed with worksheets, charts, visuals and a dense index and references for further reading, The Cyclists Training Bible is an arsenal of encyclopedic information for ambitious riders."" — DailyPeloton.com
""The Cyclist's Training Bible has become a cyclist's best chance at achieving their goals. This is the ultimate manual for growth as a cyclist."" — BicycleSmile.com
Synopsis
With The Cyclist's Training Bible, cyclists can create a comprehensive training plan that's both scientifically proven and shaped around their personal goals. Suitable for riders of all ability and experience levels, it discusses every detail athletes need to consider when planning a season, lining up a week of workouts, or preparing to race. Riders learn how to use power meters and other new training technologies to maximize form and fitness and reduce fatigue, how to build muscular endurance through strength training, how to improve body composition and recovery with smarter nutrition, and how to make changes to their annual training plan over the course of a season. With more case studies to draw from and multiple contingency plans for those times when training doesn't progress as planned, this comprehensive yet easy-to-use guide is the ultimate resource for the self-coached rider.
Synopsis
The Cyclist’s Training Bible is the bestselling and most comprehensive training book for serious cyclists. New in this fourth edition are updates on all the latest advances in cycling training including training with a power meter, smarter approaches to recovery and fatigue management, a new approach to strength training, and updates to body composition and nutrition. All the charts, tables, and illustrations are now in a two-color format, making The Cyclist’s Training Bible even easier to use.
The Cyclist’s Training Bible has equipped thousands of cyclists for success in the sport. Using Friel’s Training Bible methodology, cyclists create a comprehensive, self-coached training plan that is both scientifically proven and shaped around their personal goals.
Synopsis
Coach Joe Friel is the most trusted name in endurance sports coaching, and his Cyclist’s Training Bible is the most comprehensive and reliable training resource ever written for cyclists. This new edition of the bestselling book includes all of the latest advances in training and technology. Using this book, cyclists can create a comprehensive, self-coached training plan that is both scientifically proven and shaped around their personal goals.
Friel empowers athletes with every detail they need to consider when planning a season, lining up a week of workouts, or preparing to race. This fourth edition includes extensive revisions on the specifics of how to train and what to eat. Friel explains how cyclists can:
- use power meters to balance fatigue and recovery and maximize fitness and form;
- more knowledgeably and accurately make changes to their annual training plan over the course of a season;
- dramatically build muscular endurance with strength training;
- improve body composition and recovery with smarter nutrition.
With more case studies to draw from and multiple contingency plans for those times when training doesn’t progress as planned, The Cyclist’s Training Bible continues to be the definitive guide to optimal cycling performance.
About the Author
Joe Friel's TrainingBible Coaching company is one of the most respected and successful in endurance sports. Joe has been training endurance athletes since 1980, including national champions, world championship contenders, and Olympic athletes in road cycling, mountain biking, triathlon, and duathlon. Joe is an elite certified USA Triathlon and USA Cycling Coach and holds a master’s degree in exercise science. Joe is a featured columnist for VeloNews and Inside Triathlon magazines and his articles and interviews appear in dozens of national and international magazines, newspapers, and websites. Joe conducts training and racing seminars around the world and online and provides consulting services for corporations in the fitness industry. He has also been active in business as the founder of Ultrafit, an association of coaching businesses, Training Peaks, a web-based software company, and Training Bible Coaching.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Tudor O. Bompa, PhD
Prologue to the Fourth Edition
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I The Self-Trained Cyclist
Chapter 1: Commitment
Change
Attributes of Champions
Chapter 2: Smart Training
Systematic Training
The Ten Commandments of Training
Part II From Lab to Road
Chapter 3: The Science of Training
Physiology and Fitness
Training Stress
Fatigue
Principles of Training
Chapter 4: Intensity
Measuring Intensity
Race-Fit Systems
Multisystem Training
Training Time by Intensity Zone
Measuring Fitness
Fatigue, Fitness, and Form
Part III Training with a Purpose
Chapter 5: Testing
Physical Assessment
Performance Assessment
Applying Test Results
Self-Assessment
Chapter 6: Racing Abilities
Limiters
Basic Racing Abilities
Advanced Racing Abilities
Meeting the Demands of Racing
Training of Abilities
Ability Regions
Part IV Planning
Chapter 7: Planning to Race
Training Systems
Training Periods
Periodization Alternatives
Chapter 8: The Training Year
The Annual Training Plan
Changing the Annual Training Plan
Chapter 9: Planning Workouts
Annual Plan Workout Categories
Weekly Training by Period
Weekly Routines
Chapter 10: Stage Race Training
Crash Cycles
The Training Plan
The Race Plan
Chapter 11: Case Studies
Case Study 1: Single-Peak Season
Case Study 2: Lots of Time and Limiters
Case Study 3: Three Race Peaks
Case Study 4: Summer Base Training
Case Study 5: New to Training with Power
Case Study 6: The Aging Athlete
Part V Other Aspects of Training
Chapter 12: Strength
Strength Training Benefits
Getting Started
Strength Training Phases
Seasonal Periodization of Strength Training
Determining Load
Miscellaneous Guidelines
Undulating Periodization of Strength Training
Strength Exercises
Complex Training
Chapter 13: Stretching
Benefits of Stretching
Stretching Models
Yoga
Cycling Stretches
Chapter 14: Unique Needs
Women
Masters
Juniors
Novices
Chapter 15: Using a Training Diary
Planning with a Diary
Analysis
Chapter 16: Fuel
Food as Fuel
Eating for Recovery
Periodization of Diet
Body Weight Management
Antioxidant Supplements
Ergogenic Aids
Chapter 17: Problems
Risk and Reward
Overtraining
Burnout
Illness
Injuries
Chapter 18: Recovery
The Need for Recovery
Recovery Periodization
Recovery Time
Recovery Phases
Active Recovery
Individualization
Recovery in the Real World
Epilogue
Appendix A: Maximum Weight Chart
Appendix B: Annual Training Plan Template
Appendix C: Workout Menu
Appendix D: Race Evaluation Form, Season Results Form, Diary Pages
Glossary
References and Recommended Reading
Index
About the Author