When I periodize an athlete’s season I consider many issues. One is the general progression of training from a big picture perspective. I think in terms of three training elements and rank them in the order they will be introduced into the athlete’s annual plan. In order they are “skills,” “strength” and “specificity.” Skills refer to sport movement patterns necessary for good efficiency. The athletes I coach start working on this before anything else—in the Prep period. If skill is poor there is no reason to start doing endurance training which is usually associated with this time of the year. You will only ingrain poor movement patterns. Continued

JV to Varisty Ironman by Rich Strauss

This summer I’ve coached a solid 12 to 14 athletes to IMCDA and IMLP. I’ve been with several of these folks for multiple seasons and for the others this was the conclusion of our first season together. It has been great to be a part of their evolution across one season, often to their first Ironman, or across several seasons. For each, the conversation has turned toward “what’s next,” and specifically to “how do I go faster next time?” In short, they’ve been playing JV ball and want to red-shirt the Varsity squad. What’s it gonna take? Continued

Log-Only Customers. You know who you are. You haven't stuck to a program in awhile but you are still getting your daily email, right? Now is the time to activate your account and take full advantage of TrainingPeaks.com! Don't let the winter pass you by without putting in that little extra work. Be the leader of the pack this Spring. Don't start the season 5 pounds heavier. Activate your account today with a Virtual Coach subscription, or one of our many training plans

Dirk Friel outlines his keys to getting through a cold winter, mixing up training with cyclocross, cross country skiing, hiking and having fun. Check out his blog post over on Cycle Jabber and you may pick up a tip or two from a seasoned winter training vet.  

Also note that our CyclingPeaks products work with many indoor trainers, including CompuTrainer, CycleOps PT300, and Tacx. Checkout CyclingPeaks WKO+ today.  

Get the most out of your CompuTrainer
There are several ways you can build courses for your CompuTrainer using a combination of CycllingPeaks WKO+ and Real3D software. You can even re-create outdoor rides indoors! If you have done a ride with a Garmin Forerunner 205/305 or Garmin EDGE 205/305 you can download the device into WKO+, then, choose Save As and save the workout to ".gpx" format. Once it's in GPX format, just import that file into CylcingPeaks Real3D and save the file as a CompuTrainer .3dc file.

You can also use this handy Course Creator and trace a route that you have never ridden, then export it to GPX and repeat the import into Real3D, where you can save the file as a CompuTrainer .3dc file.

It's fun and really quite easy. Enjoy!

TrainingPeaks is proud to announce that we have been selected to work with a second pro-tour professional cycling team – Predictor-Lotto (Predictor-Lotto was previously Davitamon-Lotto in 2006). As part of the new Predictor-Lotto Team sponsorship, Gear Fisher and Dirk Friel attended the team’s first training camp in Mallorca this past December to work with all the riders and staff members. Read More

2007 USA Triathlon Tech Conference

"Training Technology in Triathlon and How to Use It". January 12, 2007. Don't miss this one day seminar. Instruction from Hunter Allen as well as hands on demonstration with Computrainer, Garmin, Cyclingpeaks and more. Get up to speed fast on today's technology with this one day seminar. Register Today