Dr. Will O'Connor takes us through the nuances of using running power in training. Will and Dirk get into the scientific side of power meters, discuss the accuracy and data consistency from devices like Stryd and other wearables, and learn how to use critical power zones to break down the metabolic costs of running variable terrain. Will also touch…

Kristin Armstrong talks coaching strategies in a data-driven world filled with wearables and social platforms. With the advancement of technology and platforms, there is a growing tension between positives and negatives when it comes to data, wearable devices and social media. The challenges of managing this tension have become heightened for young…

In this episode, we have none other than Joe Friel, a legendary figure in the world of endurance coaching. As the co-founder of TrainingPeaks and author of several seminal books on athletic training, Joe has played a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of endurance sports. The fifth edition of the Triathlon Training Bible hit shelves earlier this…

In this episode, Dr. Brian Gearity, professor and director of the Master of Arts Sport Coaching program at the University of Denver, talks with Dirk Friel about the intersection of sociology and coaching. Dr. Gearity, with his extensive experience in sports sociology, coaching and exercise science, provides valuable insights into the complexities o…

Dirk Friel digs into Chris' approach to strength training. His philosophy is underpinned by thorough body movement assessments, identifying and targeting an athlete's limiters, and a belief in the vital role of strength work for injury prevention and performance improvement. He points out that he advocates year-round strength training tailored to e…

In this episode, Lance and Dirk discuss the importance of cultivating a multidimensional sports foundation for young athletes before zeroing in on a particular sport. Hear about the upsides of a mixed sporting background and the risks of early specialization. Lance also shares insightful experiences as a coach (guiding Brent McMahon from the junior…

Mike Ricci, founder and head coach at D3 Multisport and After 40 Reboot, joins the CoachCast this month to talk all things triathlon offseason. Mike shares several tips that any athlete can do to take the offseason into race season with more momentum. With over 20 years of coaching experience, Mike has worked with IRONMAN age group winners and nati…

Whether you're a coach looking to navigate the business landscape or an athlete considering hiring a coach, this episode offers valuable insights and perspectives from seasoned professionals. Three diverse coaches in business structure, sport type and location open up to shed light on their sources of income, ranging from subscription-based coachin…

The physical demands of cyclists and cyclors take center stage in this episode of the CoachCast. Ben Day, a retired pro cyclist and head performance coach of the American Magic team, shares his insights on his transition from pro cycling to yacht racing and the advent of cyclors crewing race boats. Cyclors, using their lower-body strength, can prod…

In this episode of the TrainingPeaks CoachCast, host Dirk Friel interviews Jill Colangelo, a researcher focusing on mental health in endurance athletes. Colangelo shares insights from her ultra endurance experiences, sports psychiatry work and research, highlighting the higher prevalence of mental illness among ultra endurance athletes. She discuss…

Renee Eastman explains the details of the five mistakes people make in losing weight as endurance athletes, which she published in a blog post on the CTS website. From overcompensating for nutrition deficits to fad diets to short-term fixes and misplaced belief that cardio drives weight loss, learn how to use slow and boring tactics to have the bes…

In this episode, Gordo Byrn explains the importance of base training, which he defines as "the ability to move for the duration of your goal event." Highlighting that athletes should focus on building general capacity before moving on to specific capacity training. He believes that many endurance athletes make the mistake of focusing too much on sp…

David Babbitt is an American ultrarunner living in Nepal and racing some of the most difficult multi-stage races on the planet. He's doing this at age 75. With the help of his long-time coach, Land Heintzberger, the duo have focused on core training basics to keep David in races and finishing faster than many younger competitors. Babbitt completed …

Listen in as Amanda Brooks and Dirk talk pre-hab, fueling as an aging runner, perimenopause and menopause and how she prescribes intensity even to those 60 and 70+ runners. Amanda Brooks is a running coach and author who has helped many runners achieve their goals. She is a perpetual blogger and author of several books, including "Run to the Finish…

Originally from South Africa, founder, CEO and head coach Natasha van der Merwe has built a unique coaching business in Austin, Texas. NVDM Coaching has seen explosive growth over the last two years, and while catering to athletes of all abilities, many have gone on to win age groups or podium spots in a number of Ironman races. Van der Merwe and h…

Dr. Iñigo San Millán is a professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, performing clinical and research work in cellular metabolism, especially in diabetes, cardiometabolic disease and cancer. He has been testing and coaching world-class endurance athletes for over 25 years. He is also the Head of Performance for the professional cyc…

Though coming to the sport later than most, John Gaston is the current U.S. National Ski Mountaineering champion and has won multiple prestigious U.S. events, including the Audi Power of Four 10 times. He is arguably the country's best ski mountaineering, or skimo racer, and competes on the world stage in the winter. During the summer, Gaston mount…

David Warden and Matt Fitzgerald are the founders of 80/20 Endurance, one of the pioneers of endurance training plans. 80/20 sold its first plan within the TrainingPeaks Marketplace in 2005. Their plans have helped hundreds of thousands of athletes of all experience and ability levels achieve their goals. David Warden is an internationally recogniz…

Sonya Looney is pushing the traditional notions of training for professional mountain bike racing during and after pregnancy while reinforcing patience and resilience in her clients as a health coach. Despite her results as a pro, she describes herself as a normal person who has accomplished extraordinary things through hard work, self-belief, dete…

Craig Alexander, or "Crowie" as many call know him, has formulated an approach to triathlon training through many years as a professional and now as a coach. He talks with Dirk Friel about his approach to hitting peak fitness while balancing a restorative taper for the best performance racing long course triathlon. Crowie and Dirk consider the sche…

Steve House sees the convergence of technical climbing and mountaineering as "New Alpinism." And the athleticism required to be an all-around alpinist demands a training regimen as diverse as the skills of the blended climbing disciplines used. His coaching company, Uphill Athlete, grew from his work helping lead other alpinists, mountaineers and a…

Despite establishing a career in the financial domain after college, Amy Charity took a big gamble, trading boardrooms for race courses. She is now a former professional cyclist and member of a World Championship time trial team for the United States, and author of "The Wrong Side of Comfortable." Her new career is co-founder and owner of the SBT G…

Dr. Ross is a clinical psychologist in Denver, Colo. specializing in athlete mental health and performance. He helps address issues such as anxiety, depression, disordered eating and insomnia while aiming to develop high-performance sports psychology skills within any field of play. Dr. Ross authored the Introduction to Sports Psychology for Endura…

Ultramarathon running is a complex sport. Jason Koop's updated book, "Training Essentials for Ultrarunning," dives into the complexity to help answer many of the questions that ultrarunners and other competitors face as endurance athletes. The book is filled with evidence-based methodologies that may be useful for athletes in other endurance sports…

Joy and Brian McCulloch are the husband and wife team behind the southern California-based Big Wheel Coaching. Joy was a high school P.E. teacher and professional mountain biker. Her vision behind Big Wheel Coaching was to bring P.E. to adults by providing structure, feedback and accountability to athletes. Brian joined the business in 2016 and has…

Recognized as one of the world’s leading sports nutrition experts, Asker Jeukendrup is the author of several books on sports nutrition and over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles on exercise and sports nutrition. He started a consulting business, mysportsscience.com, where he advises teams and organizations. Jeukendrup is currently head of nutritio…

Dr. Andy Pruitt, whose professional legacy includes the pioneering of 3-D bike fits, three patents for the development of Specialized Body Geometry shoes and saddles, all of which are designed to help optimize performance and comfort based on individual anatomy. Dr. Pruitt has spent his entire career helping thousands of riders from Tour de France …

Gwen Jorgensen won the triathlon gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympic games after a pair of ITU World Triathlon Series championships in 2014 and 2015. She has since retired from professional triathlon and is focused on marathon running. She will be inducted into the USA Triathlon Hall of Fame in August of 2022. After contracting COVID-19 recently, sh…

Ryan Hall left the pro running circuit in 2016. The U.S. half marathon record-holder and unofficial American marathon record-holder has a new passion these days — bodybuilding. From running a sub-2:05 Boston Marathon in 2011 to putting on 40 pounds of muscle, Hall found a new fulfilling way of expressing himself after his body told him his competit…

Peter Stetina was an accomplished World Tour road cyclist before embracing gravel racing in 2019. He quickly established himself as one of the best in the sport, winning Utah’s Crusher in the Tushar, the 2021 Belgian Waffle Ride San Diego and the inaugural Leadboat, which is the combination of two arduous endurance races for a total of 250 miles ov…

Ski mountaineering, or Skimo, has been gaining traction among winter sports athletes for years. With the recent announcement that the sport will be included in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Skimo will soon be elevated to a worldwide stage. Grace Staberg, 19, is an accomplished ultramarathon runner and a hopeful to represent the United States i…

Chris Hauth intimately knows the interworking of a master's athlete. He knows the family and social obligations, recognizes the desire to remain competitive but also owns the fact the motivation shifts dramatically as athletes age. The glamor of big podium racing fades thus requiring athletes to seek out a deeper ‘why.’ Listen as he and Dirk explor…

The National Triathlon Team of Norway has a fascinating story. Head Coach Arild Tveiten started with just a small handful of athletes interested in the sport. With the right investment of time (8 years!), dedication and a heavy focus on sport science (forget 80/20 training, they are using 90/10!), athlete Kristian Blummenfelt was able to bring home…

In this episode of the CoachCast, Dirk dives in with Will O'Connor to explore everything related to running power. Listen as they compare the value of running versus riding with power, discuss the best use-case scenarios for run power, as well as examine what it can teach us that GPS data and heart rate can’t. They even touch on the (literal) power…

If you identify with the mountain bike crew and or with the data nerd clan, this episode is for you. Matt Miller, mountain bike scientist and founder of BrakeAce sat down with Dirk to explore all ways of improving speed and fitness. They start out by discussing how, despite Matt's determination to challenge the idea that FTP rules all, his testing …

It's not every day that Dirk gets to interview his father and TrainingPeaks' Co-Founder, Joe Friel. Listen as Dirk and Joe discuss what it takes to stay competetive as Masters athletes (spoiler alert: incorporating high-intensity training, increasing protein intake and maximizing sleep are all super helpful!)…

Coaching both a track racing cyclist and a mountain biking cyclist requires an entirely dual approach. On the mountain biking side, Kristin is working with Hayley Batten’s innate lack of fear to ride the most technical of sections as well as encouraging her through her racing despite inconsistent results. On the track side, she is focused on transi…

The 2020 Olympics are quickly approaching and thousands of swim/bike/run training hours are about to be put to the test for five triathletes on Team USA; Kevin McDowell, Katie Zaferes, Summer Rappaport, Taylor Knibb, and Morgan Pearson. Listen as High-Performance Advisor for USAT Triathlon Ryan Bolton discusses topics such as preparing for the heat…

Ryan Cooper knows something about everything, especially in the realms of swimming, biking and running. In this episode, Ryan and Dirk discuss everything from how wind direction should dictate when you eat and recover during a bike race, how to feel out a connection between heart rate and your personal RPE, as well as technical skill-building.…

Unbound Gravel sits comfortably at the top of the gravel racing food chain. In this special Sprint Episode, Dirk chats with Ian Boswell about the training volume, strategy and nutrition planning that enabled him to take the win.Bởi TrainingPeaks

Racing bikes as a person with diabetes may seem like a great challenge for some, but Phil Southerland has always seen it as an opportunity. Diagnosed at seven months old, Phil's love of bikes has enabled him to think about glucose management and training in ways that few others ever have. He believes that the bike is a great way to create heroes fo…

On the 50th episode of the CoachCast Dirk chatted with Dr. David Martin about his 35 years of experience training professional and Olympic level athletes. Listen as they delve into the fascinating career of Cadel Evans as well as the evolution of nutrition and training technologies such as glucose monitoring, HRV, heat adaptation and supplement cat…

In this episode of the CoachCast Dirk and Jen dove into what Dirk refers to as "podcasting therapy." They explored the topics at the center of Jen's new book "Self Motivational Strategies for Women" including family, fitness, creativity and more. Listen as they delve into expressing gratitude for our sport and environment, how creativity is manifes…

Kevin Poulton, coach to some of the best cyclists in the world including Caleb Ewan, Alex Dowsett and Matthew Hayman, has more than a few tricks up his sleeve. Lucky for other coaches, he's a total open book and more than happy to share his learnings and insight into the sport with anyone who cares to listen. Listen as Dirk and Kevin talk heat adap…

This week on the CoachCast Sports Dietician Dina Griffin joined Dirk to discuss the intricacies of pre-race nutrition and hydration leading up to race day. They explore strategy variations based on race duration, climate, sweat rate, gut tolerance and more. If you or your athletes have a race planned for this year, this episode will provide you wit…

There are few things more satisfying than mentoring and helping others succeed, but in this case, we’re talking about coaches helping coaches rather than athletes. In this week’s special Sprint Episode, Dirk sat down with one of USAT’s Educators of the Year, Shelly O’Brien, to discuss her journey—from beginner triathlete to a renowned coach of othe…

If you ride bikes a lot, you've probably been there—nerding out about optimizing crank length, micro-adjusting seat post height and debating the value add of osymetric chainrings. Well, friends, this is the episode for you. This week, Dirk joined expert Bike Fitter and Physiotherapist Phil Burt to discuss the entire bike fit process from start to f…

The Phinney name is one of the most well-known amongst the cycling community and the prestige is undoubtedly deserved. Connie started kicked-off her racing career at age 14 when she was the youngest Olympian in the 1972 Olympics, competing in speed skating. Davis, her husband, is the winningest cyclist in US history and is thus recognized by his ni…

Today, Dirk joined Physical Therapist Nathan Koch to explore the prehab and rehab best practices. Topics include but not limited to preferred recovery tools, the contentious value of static stretching, and how concussion therapy and brain science are finally taking their long-overdue place in the list of training and coaching priorities.…

In the first episode of Season 3 of the TrainingPeaks CoachCast, Ultrarunner Abby Hall and Coach Jason Koop joined Dirk to talk about how they adapted to the emotional highs and lows imposed by the previous year. They explored the importance of the ability to continuously 'pivot' and examined why some athletes flourished with the instability while …