THE SHORT ANSWER
Base is the phase Friel built his whole framework around, and his case for it is patience. The long aerobic foundation isn't the boring bit you survive before the real training — it's where durability is made, the depth that lets the build phase actually take. He's wary of riders who skip straight to intervals because progress feels faster there; those gains come quicker and leave quicker too, because there's nothing underneath them. His off-season rule pairs with it — use the base months to work your limiters, when fixing a weakness costs you nothing in results, then sharpen your strengths once the season starts. Build the aerobic engine first, train the weakness while it's cheap, and the sharp work later in the year has a foundation to stand on rather than a hole to dig.
WHO IS JOE FRIEL?
Joe Friel wrote The Cyclist's Training Bible — the book that taught a generation of amateur cyclists how to think about periodisation, training stress, and the structure of a season. Co-founder of TrainingPeaks and former chairman of the USA Triathlon National Coaching Commission, he is the bridge between sports science and the home-trainer cyclist trying to peak for one event a year. Most modern amateur coaching software still leans on his vocabulary: periodisation, A/B/C races, base, build, peak, recovery weeks.
FRIEL ON BASE TRAINING
Friel’s key positions on base training.
- Periodisation: structure your year into base, build, peak, race, and transition phases — each with a different physiological focus.
- Train your weakness, race your strength — the off-season is for fixing limiters, the in-season is for sharpening what already works.
- Recovery weeks every 3-4 weeks are not optional — they are the mechanism that allows training stress to convert to fitness.
- Heart rate zones are still the most accessible intensity tool for amateurs, and pair well with power for the riders who have both.
- After 50, the priorities shift: more strength work, slightly fewer high-intensity sessions, longer recovery between hard days.
IN FRIEL’S OWN WORDS
Verbatim from Joe Friel’s appearances on the podcast.
“You really cannot have too much base. You can have too much build. You certainly can do that and you can certainly have too much peak or taper but you can't have too much base. So the more the base period we have the better fit more the more fitness the athlete is going to carry into the general as a specific preparation period.”
“Zone one, zone two accomplish things that three, four, and five don't accomplish. And but the athlete doesn't feel they have they're accomplishing what they want, which is more suffering. So consequently, I've got a really it almost always comes down to it almost like an argument that you must do these workouts otherwise you need to find a different coach.”
“Three a priority races becomes extremely difficult to do. It's possible. I've seen athletes do it, but it becomes very very difficult to have three a priority races and beyond three is impossible. It just becomes a a waste of time for everybody.”
“lifting weights also makes the bones stronger so that when you fall eventually you're going to fall down you're gonna have a crash on that bike um if you fall when you're 25 years old it's probably not going to be a problem you're going to lose some skin you're gonna be about bounce right back up and probably get right back and saddle again but you take a fall even a fairly minor fall when you're 65 years old big difference now you've got a huge chance of having broken a bone”
HEAR IT ON THE PODCAST
Episodes where Joe Friel covers base training and related ground.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
What does Joe Friel say about base training?
Base is the phase Friel built his whole framework around, and his case for it is patience. The long aerobic foundation isn't the boring bit you survive before the real training — it's where durability is made, the depth that lets the build phase actually take. He's wary of riders who skip straight to intervals because progress feels faster there; those gains come quicker and leave quicker too, because there's nothing underneath them. His off-season rule pairs with it — use the base months to work your limiters, when fixing a weakness costs you nothing in results, then sharpen your strengths once the season starts. Build the aerobic engine first, train the weakness while it's cheap, and the sharp work later in the year has a foundation to stand on rather than a hole to dig.
What is Friel's main point on base training?
Periodisation: structure your year into base, build, peak, race, and transition phases — each with a different physiological focus.
Which Roadman Cycling Podcast episodes cover Joe Friel on base training?
Friel discusses base training in these episodes: "Joe Friel's Cycling Training Plan Structure | Roadman Cycling", "The Training Secret To Going FASTER After 40 | Joe Friel".