The Craft of Coaching Module 9 // Coaching Endurance Athletes
Endurance coaching can be as rewarding as it challenging, yet knowing how best to tackle those testing times can help make the success stories all the sweeter. In this latest module, we lift the lid on some of the minutiae of endurance coaching.
Joe Friel
How to Build a Better Athlete
Strength and conditioning coach Erin Carson shares her insights and expertise on building durable, happy, successful athletes—and it’s about more than just lifting weights in the gym.
Erin Carson
Where to Draw the Line
The lines between life and sport can quickly blur. Difficult issues like weight loss or obsessive behavior can lead to big problems for coaches. Joe Friel talks to Alison Freeman and Ryan Kohler about some of the biggest lessons they’ve learned.
Alison Freeman, Joe Friel, Ryan Kohler
Common Challenges of Coaching Endurance Athletes
The typical endurance athlete is time-crunched, which triggers a number of challenges for coaches around rest and recovery. In this video, Joe Friel chats with coaches Alison Freeman and Ryan Kohler about how best to tackle this.
Alison Freeman, Joe Friel, Ryan Kohler
Defining the Athlete’s Goal, Some Hits and Misses
Goals are best evaluated in the rearview mirror. Joe Friel reflects on the goals of three endurance athletes, highlighting lessons learned.
Joe Friel
Criteria for Setting SMART Goals
The goal belongs to the athlete—not the coach. It’s the coach’s job to help the athlete give shape to the final product.
Joe Friel
Introducing the Fast Talk Femmes Podcast—with Julie Young and Dede Barry
Learn more about what female endurance athletes need to thrive with our new podcast, hosted by two former pro cyclists.
Deirdre “Dede” Barry and Julie Young
Fast Talk Labs Q&A #1
We get asked a lot of great—and nerdy—questions via our Fast Talk Labs Forum. Every month we’ll now be taking the best questions and publishing our answers. This month, our in-house physiologist Rob Pickels tackles the topics of altitude training and the impact of body composition on hypothermia.
Rob Pickels and Trevor Connor
Workout of the Week: Slow Frequency Bike Reps
Build bike-specific strength—and improve your pedaling technique—with this big-gear workout.
Julie Young
The Craft of Coaching, Live Q&A: Managing CTL
Coaches want to see CTL, or fitness, on the rise. But there are times in the season when CTL will go down. Joe Friel explains why this is critical.
Joe Friel
The Craft of Coaching, Live Q&A: How to Calculate TSS for Strength
Should strength sessions be factored into an athlete’s Training Stress Score? Joe Friel explains when and how to score cross-training.
Joe Friel
The Craft of Coaching, Live Q&A: How to Expand Your Coaching Services
Most coaches have additional expertise to offer their athletes as services, but there’s more than one way to grow your coaching business.
Joe Friel
The Craft of Coaching, Live Q&A: How to Grow Your Coaching Business
How many athletes should a coach take on? Many new coaches try to build their client list quickly, but it’s easy to trade effectiveness in the rush for scale.
Joe Friel
The Craft of Coaching, Live Q&A: How to Build Trust with Athletes
What’s the best way to handle an athlete who has a plan of their own? Joe Friel talks about the coach-athlete dynamic and how you can use doubt to strengthen the relationship.
Joe Friel
The Craft of Coaching, Live Q&A: How to Avoid Coaching for Free
Good intentions can lead many coaches to give away their time for free. It’s a costly mistake that will hurt your coaching business.
Joe Friel
If I Only Train 4 Hours a Week, Is the Polarized Training Approach Going to Work?
The benefits of polarized training are well known, but is there a minimal dose needed? We find out.
Trevor Connor
How to Bulletproof Your Legs As You Increase Run Volume
Looking to increase your run mileage and stay injury-free? The work starts in the gym—and we’ve got all you need to know to do it.
The Role of Self-Awareness and Emotional Intelligence in Performance Psychology
Dr. Julie Emmerman shares some fascinating insights into how your social-emotional development can impact the bonds you build—and the success you might achieve—with your athletes.
Dr. Julie Emmerman
How Sport Psychology Can Unlock Athletic Potential
Sport psychology is proving to be just as important—if not more so—than physiology, but how do you incorporate it into your coaching—for the benefit of you and your athletes? This module is designed to help you do exactly that.
Joe Friel
What is a Biopsychosocial Approach to Coaching?
We are products of our social, mental, and biological processes, but what does this mean for coaches and athletes? Andy Kirkland explains how to adjust training for better results.
Dr. Andy Kirkland
Which Comes First: Trust or Commitment?
Much to the surprise of some coaches, mental performance expert Jeff Troesch argues that you can have commitment from your athletes without trust. He explains how—and why—this is important.
Jeff Troesch
Understanding Motivation and How It Affects Performance
Motivation is key to the performance psychology puzzle, dependent on some fundamental human needs. If those needs are not met, an athlete’s passion for sport, their self-esteem, and their motivation will suffer.
Rob Griffiths
How to Score and Strengthen Your Relationship Game
The degree to which you cultivate a positive coach-athlete relationship will enhance your athletes’ race performances—and help you retain them as clients. We look at how this is best achieved.
Joe Friel
Polarized Training Pathway
External Load vs. Internal Response
Load, stress, strain—they’re terms we hear a lot in sports science, but what do they mean? Dr. Stephen Seiler explores how your internal response to external load will change as you become fitter and more durable.
Dr. Stephen Seiler
5 Things to Know About How Polarized Training Changes Over a Season
Get the right mix of intensity at the right time and polarized training pays off. Take a disciplined approach for best results.
Emma-Kate Lidbury
Workouts of the Week
Workout of the Week: Swim Sevens
Dive into this swim workout, which is great for rookie swimmers and seasoned athletes alike.
Emma-Kate Lidbury
Workout of the Week: High-Intensity Bike Wake-Up
Don’t make the mistake of doing all your base season riding at a low intensity. Spice things up with this HIIT workout.
Trevor Connor
Workout of the Week: Over Unders
Get your year off to a good start with this fun but challenging over-under cycling workout.
Time at VO2max is driving the recent research on what makes the most effective intervals, but is it a good metric to use? We find out on this week’s Fast Talk podcast.
We all need goals to help us stay on track, but what’s the secret to effective goal setting? Two top coaches share their secrets.
The Craft of Coaching, Module 7: The Versatile Coach
Performance Gains from Year-Round Training
Coaching works best as a process of building performance, rather than a hot pursuit of an outcome. Coach Julie Young describes the performance gains a busy executive experienced at the Leadville 100 mountain bike race. Breaking from his habit of cramming for the event with just six months of training, he committed to year-round coaching, incorporating strength and stability work and building the mental resilience that made him a better athlete.
Julie Young
Which Goes Further—Talent or Motivation—and What Does This Mean for Your Coaching Style?
Every coach wants to work with athletes who possess both talent and motivation in spades. In reality, your clients are probably lacking in one or the other. As we explore the four types of athletes, consider how your coaching style might be well-suited to a particular type, and whether your client list reflects this.
Dry January seems to gain in popularity every year. But just what kind of an impact can abstaining from alcohol have on athletic performance? We find out.
All athletes reach a point where progress depends more on the skills they can build between their ears, more than the strength of their legs or lungs. The very best athletes are as strong mentally as they are physically. Grant Holicky, Dr. Stephen Cheung, Dr. Simon Marshall, Lesley Paterson, Julie Emmerman, and Julie Young help us explore these critical and often overlooked mental skills.
We’re joined by coach and athlete Julie Young who helps us field questions on how to build an annual training plan, coping with race stress, and overcoming body image issues.
