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ENTITY · PERSON

JOE FRIEL

Author of The Cyclist's Training Bible (now in its fifth edition), co-founder of TrainingPeaks, and former chairman of the USA Triathlon National Coaching Commission. The coach who taught a generation of amateur cyclists how to think about periodisation, training stress, and the structure of a season.

The reason most amateur cyclists have a vocabulary for talking about training. When Anthony talks about base, build, peak, A/B/C races, or recovery weeks, he's using Joe Friel's vocabulary — and so is most modern coaching software.

CANONICAL NAME

Joe Friel

ROLE

Endurance sports coach and author

ROADMAN PODCAST APPEARANCES

2 episodes

WHY FRIEL’S WORK MATTERS TO YOUR CYCLING

If you have ever talked about your "base phase" or your "A race" or your "TSS for the week", you're speaking Joe Friel's language. He didn't invent periodisation — that was the Eastern Bloc strength coaches in the 1960s — but he was the coach who took the principles, translated them for the cyclist with a job and a family, and wrote them down in a book that has now sold more copies than any other training book in cycling.

The Cyclist's Training Bible, first published in 1996 and now in its fifth edition, is still the closest thing the sport has to a shared vocabulary. The framework is simple enough to fit on a page: divide the year into base, build, peak, race, and transition phases; identify A, B, and C races; train your weaknesses in the off-season; sharpen your strengths as the targets approach; take a recovery week every three to four weeks. Every one of those ideas now feels obvious. None of them was obvious in amateur cycling before Joe wrote about it.

He went on to co-found TrainingPeaks, which made the framework navigable for anyone with a power meter or a heart rate strap, and the same vocabulary now powers most modern coaching software — including the Vekta plans the Not Done Yet community trains on. He served as chairman of the USA Triathlon National Coaching Commission and has spent the last decade publishing increasingly detailed work on training the masters athlete: how the priorities shift after 50, why strength work becomes non-negotiable, what an honest recovery schedule looks like when you're no longer 25.

For a serious amateur cyclist trying to build a real training plan rather than collect workouts, Joe's body of work is the foundation. Anthony's coaching frameworks lean on it directly. The articles below are the ones where you'll see his vocabulary most clearly.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

CYCLING PERIODISATIONSEASON PLANNINGTRAINING STRESS SCOREHEART RATE ZONE TRAININGMASTERS CYCLINGLONG-TERM ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT

NOTABLE POSITIONS

Positions Friel is publicly on the record for. Each one is something the rest of the Roadman content network leans on.

Periodisation works. Structure your year into base, build, peak, race, and transition phases — each with a different physiological focus.

The framework that the rest of amateur coaching has been built on for thirty years.

Train your weakness, race your strength. The off-season is for fixing limiters, the in-season is for sharpening what already works.

The clearest decision rule he's given amateurs for what to actually do in any given block.

Recovery weeks every 3–4 weeks are not optional — they are the mechanism that allows training stress to convert to fitness.

A position that most self-coached amateurs nod at and then ignore. Joe's career is a long reminder of why they shouldn't.

Heart rate zones are still the most accessible intensity tool for amateurs, and pair well with power for the riders who have both.

Useful pushback against the assumption that you must have a power meter to train properly.

After 50, the priorities shift — more strength work, slightly fewer high-intensity sessions, longer recovery between hard days.

Anthony cites this directly when coaching the Roadman masters cohort.

ON THE ROADMAN PODCAST

Every appearance by Joe Friel on The Roadman Cycling Podcast 1 episode in total.

FEATURED IN THESE ROADMAN GUIDES

Articles that lean on Joe Friel’s work, either directly or through Anthony’s podcast conversations.

TRAIN WITH THE KNOWLEDGE

Apply what Friel has put on the record to your own training — coached by Anthony, $195/month with a 7-day free trial.

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