TrainingPeaks.com for Self Coached Athletes
I’ve been a Track and Field coach for most of my 21 years in education. So I’m comfortable being a self-coached athlete. My specialty in Track & Field is coaching middle distance and distance runners and a lot of the techniques I use in coaching these athletes carry over well to cycling. But only to a point, so I did a lot of research on coaching techniques specific to cycling. During my research I came up with Joe Friel's "Training Bible" books and the wealth of information they provide. His book discusses an on-line coaching service called TrainingPeaks.com. I looked it up on the ‘net, studied it carefully and subscribed. I started in October of 2004 and believe the program has given me a focus in my cycling training that I lacked before I started.
Training Peaks Title Page
There are a lot of components to the TrainingPeaks experience, Annual Training Plan, Race Tracker, Workout planner, Daily log, and much more.
Keeping a journal or daily log is important to all athletes. I always encouraged my athletes to maintain a log. TrainingPeaks takes the difficulty of formatting a log for you. The log keeps track of many biometrics and has a cool graph function. You can also upload data from many heart rate monitors as well as GPS unit data. Here is a couple of screen shots from my daily log as well as graphed data from my Timex Heart Rate Monitor and GPS system.
Daily Log
Graph of Interval Hill Workout
The core of Joe Friel’s program, and any program that uses periodization, is an annual training plan or ATP. The ATP allows you to build your whole program for the whole year. In other words you can see the “big picture” in regards to your racing and training plans. Here is a screen shot from the TrainingPeaks web site.
Here is a screen shot from the weekly workout planner. I love this part of the system, it gives you recommendations for your workout but easily allows you to edit and reconfigure your workout.
Workout planner
Payment for this service runs anywhere from $16.99/month to $119/year.
It can be pretty tough to coach yourself and this program can really help the “self coached” athlete. I know there are other programs on the ‘net out there. I just recently heard of a service set up by Lance Armstrong’s coach, Chris Carmichael, and I’m eager to check out this service too. It is called Trainright.
If you want to race bicycles you need coaching – by you or others. Check out the services available on the internet and get going.
Training Peaks Title Page
There are a lot of components to the TrainingPeaks experience, Annual Training Plan, Race Tracker, Workout planner, Daily log, and much more.
Keeping a journal or daily log is important to all athletes. I always encouraged my athletes to maintain a log. TrainingPeaks takes the difficulty of formatting a log for you. The log keeps track of many biometrics and has a cool graph function. You can also upload data from many heart rate monitors as well as GPS unit data. Here is a couple of screen shots from my daily log as well as graphed data from my Timex Heart Rate Monitor and GPS system.
Daily Log
Graph of Interval Hill Workout
The core of Joe Friel’s program, and any program that uses periodization, is an annual training plan or ATP. The ATP allows you to build your whole program for the whole year. In other words you can see the “big picture” in regards to your racing and training plans. Here is a screen shot from the TrainingPeaks web site.
Here is a screen shot from the weekly workout planner. I love this part of the system, it gives you recommendations for your workout but easily allows you to edit and reconfigure your workout.
Workout planner
Payment for this service runs anywhere from $16.99/month to $119/year.
It can be pretty tough to coach yourself and this program can really help the “self coached” athlete. I know there are other programs on the ‘net out there. I just recently heard of a service set up by Lance Armstrong’s coach, Chris Carmichael, and I’m eager to check out this service too. It is called Trainright.
If you want to race bicycles you need coaching – by you or others. Check out the services available on the internet and get going.
posted by Bob Grove at 11:23 AM
<< Home