The Cyclist's Training Diary [Spiral-bound]

Joe Friel (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2007

Endurance athletes of all ages and ability levels invest countless hours in tough rides and workouts so they can race farther and faster from year to year. Whether they work with a coach or train independently, cyclists rely on their training log to tell them when to push harder and when to back off. With all of the recent technological advancements in training, it is more important than ever to have a place to consolidate training data, track progress, reshape goals throughout the season, and, perhaps most importantly, listen to the way the body responds from day to day.

Designed with collaboration from cyclists and coaches, this next generation of training diary will make it easier than ever to record and interpret every component of cycling training and is a companion to Joe Friel's bestselling book The Cyclist's Training Bible. Coach Joe Friel gives athletes a thorough introduction to the essential details of training and keeping a log. For athletes who are designing their own annual training schedule he provides a guide to planning the entire season.

With 53 undated weekly spreads, these diaries are the most comprehensive training logs available with space for:

• every training detail, from weather conditions to resting heart rate and daily nutrition
• charts to organize race results and fitness indicators
• physiological test results such as VO2max and lactate threshold
• power meter data and weekly race results specific to cycling

The Cyclist’s Training Diary takes training seriously. Athletes can be confident that they will be better prepared for competition and have insight to the progress made along the way.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Whatever your goals as a cylist, you need a place to record your workouts and the way your body responds to training from day to day.

The Cyclist's Training Diary will help you make every workout count. Coach Joe Friel Guides you through the essential details of tracking your progress toward your racing and fitness goals. If you are designing your own annual plan, Joe will show you how to map out your entire season.

Use this diary to:

• Monitor daily vital signs -- sleep, fatigue, stress, and soreness -- to protect against overtraining
• Plan a full calendar year of training and racing on a fold-out spread
• Record every detail of each cycling, crosstraining, or strength workout, with space for weekly and monthly summaries
• Highlight your accomplishments by tracking race results

The Cyclist's Training Diary is the ultimate training companion. It will help you identify patterns in your performance and give you valuable insight on when to push harder and when to back off, making you a smarter faster cyclist.

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.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 260 pages
• Publisher: Velo Press (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934030082
• ISBN-13: 978-1934030080
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"Joe Friel has trained endurance athletes since 1980. His clients include elite amateur and professional road cyclists, mountain bikers, and triathletes and duathletes located around the world. He has a masters degree in exercise science, is an Elite-level USA Cycling Coach, and serves on the USA Triathlon Coaching Certification Committee.

Joe is the author of The CompuTrainer Workout Manual, The CyclistÂ’s Training Bible, and The TriathleteÂ’s Training Bible. He is a contributing editor to Inside Triathlon and VeloNews and frequently writes feature stories for Performance Conditioning for Cycling. He has written a weekly fitness column for the Fort Collins Coloradoan newspaper since 1981.

As an age-group competitor, Joe is a Colorado State Masters Triathlon champion, a Rocky Mountain region and Southwest region duathlon age-group champion, and is a perennial USA Triathlon All-American duathlete. A member of several national duathlon teams, Joe is a top five contender in world class events. In addition, he competes in road running and United States Cycling Federation races.

Joe speaks at workshops around the country on training and racing for endurance athletes and provides consulting services for corporations in the fitness industry. For information on coaching, speaking, or consulting services, contact him by email at [e-mail] or fax him at 970-204-4221.

From his home at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Fort Collins, Colorado, Joe enjoys mountain biking in the foothills with his wife Joyce, trail running with friends, and riding with his son Dirk, a professional bike racer."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tracking the Miles, November 16, 2010

By 

RJP - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Cyclist's Training Diary (Spiral-bound)

I like the format of this training log. Plenty of room for workout details. I also keep track of maintenance and repairs. I download my workout info into the computer but I'm a belt and suspenders type of guy so I like having a hard copy as well. It's a good compainion to Friel's Cyclist's Training Bible.
I like to set up my training week in advance so it helps me to stay focused. I also like to refer back to previous weeks or even seasons to gauge my fitness level and determine what aspects of my training need a bit more attention.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great format; Really Helpful for Goal-Setting, July 19, 2011

By 

S. A. Taylor "seeker" (Louisville, ky) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Cyclist's Training Diary (Spiral-bound)

The Cyclist's Training Diary

Last year, I decided to bite the bullet and jump feet-first into 'cross racing. I think I was dead last in my first race, but I finished. A lot of guys didn't, so that was pretty good -- but I suspect if I'd laid hands on Friel's excellent training diary last spring, I would've done even better.

-Strengths-
Organization: I really like the way this training diary is organized. I'm organizationally-challenged at my best, so it really helps to have everything laid out for me. The diary pages are laid out two days to a page, with some check boxes to help you record how you were feeling and sections for planned workout, weather, route, distance, time, zone, average heartrate and power, a workout rating, notes, and nutrition. The lion's share of space is divided between planned workout, route, notes, and nutrition -- so even when you're riding without a heartrate monitor or power meter, you can still collect useful data. Moreover, the layout makes it really easy to glance back at earlier days or weeks and compare how you're doing now to how you were doing then.

Introduction: Joe Friel has written an excellent introduction to his very-useful diary. I'm not great at setting goals -- mine tend to be either too vague or difficult to achieve within a reasonable timeframe: with the guidance of Friel's introduction, I was able to set some very concrete season- and training goals that I feel pretty confident about meeting over the course of the next year. Just as importantly, Mr. Friel devotes a segment of his introduction to avoiding the curse that plagues so many of us -- the tendency to obsess. He reminds us that the diary is just a tool, and that it's better to enjoy riding the bike than to get hung up on 'the numbers' in the diary.

-Weaknesses-
Content: I think there are a few points that could be explained a bit better in the introduction, and which could be a bit mystifying if you're new to bike racing (or whatever your chosen discipline may be) and -The Cyclist's Training Diary- is the only resource you're using in planning the year's training and goals.

That said, it's hard to count this as a weakness -- the book in question isn't designed to function as a cycling manual. Harness it to a couple of other good books (for example, Bike Racing 101 (Paperback Book)) and some good advice from seasoned riders, and you've got a solid foundation to build on.

Perhaps the best thing I can say about Friel's diary is that reading through the introduction and using it leaves me feeling optimistic and inspired. I have concrete goals to work towards, a plan for how many training hours I'll be putting in over the year (and during each week) and what kinds of workouts I'll employ, and a good plan to make all these things happen.

I'm looking forward to seeing the results of this slightly-more-formal approach to training during 2011's 'cross season and especially next spring, when I plan to hit some road races. Like Mr. Friel says in his intro, 'using a training diary ... won't guarantee your success as a cyclist. It will, however, increase the likelihood.'

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Electronic alternative available, December 24, 2007

By 

Joseph L. Mack "holme.cookin" (San Diego CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cyclist's Training Diary (Spiral-bound)

This book is exacty what it says: a training diary, very important. I opted for the online version from TrainingPeaks because I can download my ride data.