Joe Friel

If you follow this blog, you've heard me mention Joe Friel before. He's written many, many books on endurance training and trained athletes for over 30 years now. I'm currently using his book, "The Triathlete's Training Bible" as my guide through my 2010 season.

Joe Friel came to Louisville this past Saturday for a day of coaching and lecturing. Athlete's could opt for an entire day with Joe for $100 or just go to his 2-hour lecture for $10...I went with option #2.

Most of what Joe covered was how to set up your training season, based on the principles outlined in his book. Even though I've already implemented most of what he said, I did pick up a few good ideas and tools. I was starting to think that I had thrown 10 bucks away when he mentioned the words "dealing with an injury or illness during your training." I immediately got my pen ready.

Before I tell you what he said, first I will show you what my training plan originally looked like:

 

Base phases are used to build up endurance (all those Zone 2 workouts). Build phases are used to focus on getting your body up to race speeds and working on specific limiters that you may have.

After taking it easy for 5 weeks, I wasn't exactly sure how the rest of my training heading up to the Triathlon on May 15th. Thanks to Joe's lecture on Saturday, I now know that I need to cut off some of the Build phases and just pick-up where I left off on the Base building. For a long-course race, such as a half or full Ironman, the Base phases are most important. So here's what the plan looks like now:

 

So it's a couple more weeks in Base 2 and then on to Base 3. Build phase now becomes one long 4-week period instead of 3 smaller 3-week phases. 

TODAY'S WORKOUT:

2:30 on the bike in zone 2. Nice workout with 45 minute spin class at the beginning. 

10 min. warm-up Avg HR = 113

2:10 workout Avg HR = 135

10 min. cool-down Avg HR = 99