Mapping a Season of Training

Anyone can make a training plan. But a good coach knows how to plan a season that unlocks an athlete’s true potential. Joe Friel is joined by a full line-up of master coaches in this module that will expand your thinking.

Legendary running coach Arthur Lydiard revolutionized the sport with his approach to periodized training. In the 1960 and 1964 Olympics, his athletes rose to prominence, putting his 100-mile training week on the radar of running coaches worldwide.

Goal assessment and season planning are two details you must attend to in taking on a new athlete.

USA Cycling’s Jim Miller reviews everything a coach must take into account to prepare a training plan that cultivates both performance and longevity for the athlete.

Mary is in search of building a big aerobic fitness base for Ironman-distance racing. Ultimately, she has wants to qualify for Kona and she believes Alan Couzens is the coach who can help her make that dream a reality.

There’s plenty of information to gather when deciding whether to take on a new athlete. Coach Alan Couzens responds to Mary to learn more about her training history and lifestyle.

Athletes often underestimate the amount of fitness that they lose in tapering for, and recovery from, excessively frequent racing. This is especially true in Mary’s case where she is looking to make a significant jump in training load in order to properly prepare for the Ironman distance.

As head coach and founder of MAD Science Coaching, Alan Couzens works primarily with triathletes—amateurs, serious amateurs, and a few pros. More recently, MAD Science Coaching began providing training plans and testing to amateur athletes, leveraging Alan’s experience in the lab, testing pro athletes competing at the highest level of the sport. 

A young, ambitious triathlete with limited race experience reaches out to Coach Andy Kirkland for help in making it to the Olympic Games in 2024.

Dr. Andy Kirkland outlines what it will take for an aspiring young triathlete to go pro, illuminating a biopsychosocial approach to season planning.

Andy Kirkland is a Lecturer in sports coaching at the University of Stirling in Scotland. He works with coaches from the grassroots to the highest level of sport on the MSc. Performance Coaching Programme.

Coach Trevor Connor reflects on his work with a masters cyclist with big hopes for Nationals. Find out more about her athletic history and lifestyle in the lead-up to the racing season.

Coach Trevor Connor presents the season plan he created for Cynthia, a female masters athlete based in Colorado. Connor’s plan includes the training detail for the final weeks leading up to Nationals.

Recovery is at the heart of training adaptation. Without rest the body can’t rebuild and get stronger. This is why recovery is fundamental to how I coach and a focal point for my athletes.

The principles of block training can be applied across endurance sports, whether the athlete is elite or amateur. The biggest difference is that elite or pro athletes have more time to train.

Trevor Connor has over 20 years of experience in bike racing and coaching. His love of cycling led him to work in national performance centers, collegiate cycling, team management, and to write for a major cycling magazine. He has a master’s in exercise bioenergetics and nutrition.

Dean Golich is Performance Director at Red Bull and Chief of R&D for the Brooklyn Nets. He also serves on the Sports Advisory Council for the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, a multidisciplinary venture that leverages science and expertise to implement meaningful changes for all people.

Joe Friel outlines his method for analyzing sport-specific movement patterns. After establishing a hierarchy to the movements, he teaches athletes each subcomponent until mastery is achieved.