Friel - The Triathletes Training Bible: The World’s Most Comprehensive Training Guide

PRAISE FOR JOE FRIEL AND
THE TRIATHLETES TRAINING BIBLE

One of the most trusted coaches in triathlon.

LAVA MAGAZINE

Joe Friel is one of the worlds foremost experts on endurance sports.

OUTSIDE MAGAZINE

Joe Friels wealth of knowledge in triathlon is astounding, and he has a wonderful way of sharing that knowledge with all athletes from beginners to elite professionals.

SIRI LINDLEY, TRIATHLON WORLD CHAMPION

As a multiple triathlon world champion, I would consider Joe as one of the leading figures in triathlon coaching today. Joes professional approach and practical understanding of sports physiology has helped many endurance athletes of all abilities reach their full athletic potential.

SIMON LESSING, FIVE-TIME TRIATHLON WORLD CHAMPION

The Triathletes Training Bible is a fantastic guide. You cant go wrong using the advice in this book.

SCOTT THE TERMINATOR MOLINA, TRIATHLON WORLD CHAMPION

Joe Friel has spent most of his life in devotion to the understanding and teaching of sport. Joe has managed to focus on the key components to athletic success while weeding out the noise. This book will play a substantial role in helping you take the next step as a triathlete.

JUSTIN DAERR, PROFESSIONAL TRIATHLETE

As a triathlon coach, 2004 Olympian, and former top-ranked triathlete in the world, Ive used The Triathletes Training Bible as one of my key references. Joe Friels training books have made the once crazy sport of triathlon accessible to the public while also guiding seasoned athletes to their full potential. Joe does the hard work for the beginning triathlete by condensing, prioritizing, and simplifying all the science and practical experience, which he has mastered over decades of coaching.

BARB LINDQUIST, 2004 OLYMPIAN

The Triathletes Training Bible combines scientific research with the experience of a top endurance coach to provide the best training resource book available.

GALE BERNHARDT, 2004 TEAM USA OLYMPIC TRIATHLON HEAD COACH

The Triathletes Training Bible can help you train for any distance and is most useful to newbies and self-trained athletes who want traditional training advice.

LIBRARY JOURNAL

As an athlete with the unique ability to race multiple Ironman races every season, I have always been trouble for any triathlon coach. To coach myself successfully, I needed a reliable and strong tool. I searched all sources carefully until I found the one The Triathletes Training Bible by Joe Friel. Whatever my problem, there is always a solution in this book. This book makes my understanding of training, racing, and recovering more complete with every page.

PETR VABROUSEK, PROFESSIONAL TRIATHLETE

The Triathletes Training Bible is an invaluable tool for every triathlete looking to improve.

CLAS BJRLING, PROFESSIONAL TRIATHLETE

The Triathletes Training Bible is a must read for both athletes and coaches.... It captures the essence of multisport training by outlining both the science and the art of the sport in a detailed, yet practical format. It is one of the most valuable resources I have on my bookshelf.

LIBBY BURRELL, FORMER USA TRIATHLON NATIONAL PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Any author who includes the word bible in the title risks comparison to a very high standard. The original was divinely inspired, after all. Those with some tri experience who lack the time or the budget to hire a coach should find this book just what is needed to improve performance. Do I hear a chorus of hallelujahs?

IMPACT MAGAZINE

Friel has combined scientific and technical information with his considerable experience as an athlete and coach of novices, elite amateurs and professionals, to create this very useful reference for triathletes of all types. It would be very surprising if you did not find something useful in The Triathletes Training Bible .

TRIATHLON MAGAZINE CANADA

Friel explains the science of training in a language you can understand.

AMATEURENDURANCE.COM

What Friel is best at is reverse engineering how top athletes perform and then explaining it to the reader in simple, easy-to-use terms.

BREAKINGMUSCLE.COM

Copyright 2016 by Joe Friel

All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America by VeloPress, a division of Competitor Group, Inc.

Ironman is a registered trademark of World Triathlon Corporation.

3002 Sterling Circle, Suite 100

Boulder, Colorado 80301-2338 USA

Distributed in the United States and Canada by Ingram Publisher Services

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

For information on purchasing VeloPress books, please e-mail .

Cover design by Kevin Roberson

Cover photo by Nils Nilsen

Illustrations by Charlie Layton

Art direction by Vicki Hopewell

v. 3.1

A note to readers: Double-tap on illustrations and tables to enlarge them. After art is selected, you may expand or pinch your fingers to zoom in and out.

To Team Friel

Joyce, Kim, Keara, and Dirk

CONTENTS

This is a love story. I fell in love with triathlon at my first race in June 1983. It was a bit shorter than what later would be called the Olympic or standard distance. That day, I swam 1,000 meters in a pool, biked 20 miles, and ran 10 kilometers. It was more fun than running a marathon, which was the type of racing I had done before that life-changing day. In fact, marathons were what led me to triathlon in the first place.

I had frequently been injured as a runner. Whenever an Achilles tendon, a balky knee, an aching hip, or some other overworked body part broke down because I was running too much, I would ride a bike to maintain fitness. That happened all too often. One day, while I was cycling my way through yet another injury, I crashed on a high-speed descent in the Colorado Rockies and ended up with some broken bones in my shoulder. Oh, great. Now what? My doctor told me the best thing I could do for the shoulder after it had healed would be to swim (there was no injury rehab back in those days). I followed his advice, and one day in the pool, it dawned on me that I was now swimming, biking, and running, which sounded a lot like a strange new sport I had heard oftriathlon. So, heck, why not give it a try? I did, and my life changed. I was in love.

Back in the early days of triathlon, athletes came to the sport much as I had comefrom another sport. Most of the early triathletes were runners, but a few cyclists and swimmers also crossed over. Now that triathlon is part of the sports mainstream, most participants simply start their athletic careers as triathletes. The sport has also changed in many other ways. In the early days, training for triathlon was haphazard. We tried all sorts of things to see what would produce the best race performances. Because I had a running background, I applied what I knew about running to swimming and biking. Others, with backgrounds in swimming and road cycling (there was no mountain biking yet), applied their original sports way of training to the other two. Triathlon in those early days was a melting pot of training ideas. It was an exciting time.