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In an interview with Cycling Weekly, veteran coach Joe Friel said the power meter was the biggest game-changer in endurance sport, pointing to its role in making cycling training more precise. He also said many wearables have not lived up to their hype, and discussed periodisation, motivation and simpler training.
Veteran endurance coach Joe Friel has called the power meter the biggest game-changer in endurance sport, saying the device made cycling training far more precise. In an interview with Cycling Weekly tied to an updated edition of his book Fast After 50, Friel also argued that athletes can overcomplicate training and that many current wearables have not lived up to expectations.
Friel said power meters began changing endurance sport in the late 1980s. In his view, cycling moved from being the least precise and technical endurance sport to the most precise because riders could measure their output. He said knowledge of how to train with power has continued to grow, including through concepts developed by TrainingPeaks, the coaching and analysis platform he co-founded in 1999 with his son Dirk and colleague Gear Fisher.
Friel contrasted power meters with newer wearable devices, saying many are inaccurate and have not matched the expectations around them. He predicted that continuous lactate monitoring could lead to further changes in training once such a monitor reaches the market. The interview does not identify a product, release date or evidence supporting a specific timeline for that development.
The interview also revisits ideas central to Friel’s coaching. He said periodisation—organising training into phases—has had more impact than training zones or structured planning among the principles he has written about. He described easy workouts as a foundation of endurance fitness, rather than sessions used only for recovery, and said training should change over time instead of staying constant year-round.
How Power Changed Cycling Training
Power meters gave cyclists a direct way to measure work output during training, supporting more precise comparisons between sessions and more structured plans. Friel’s assessment highlights how measurement tools can change coaching practice: a training decision can be based on recorded output rather than relying only on how hard a ride feels. The interview does not quantify how much performance improved as a result, so the scale of the effect should be understood as Friel’s expert judgment, not a measured finding presented in the article.
His comments also speak to a current tension in endurance training: athletes have access to increasingly large amounts of data, but more metrics do not necessarily mean better decisions. Friel’s skepticism about wearables is his assessment, not a general finding about every device. His suggestion that motivation matters more than talent is also a coaching view, rather than a quantified conclusion established by the interview.
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Friel’s Coaching and TrainingPeaks
Friel has coached endurance athletes since 1980 and holds a master’s degree in exercise science, according to the Cycling Weekly profile. He began in marathon running and coaching before moving into triathlon coaching in 1983. His book The Cyclist’s Training Bible was first published in 1996 and is now in its fifth edition, the report says.
He co-founded TrainingPeaks in 1999, linking his coaching work with tools for athletes and coaches to track and analyse performance. The updated Fast After 50: How to Race Strong for the Rest of Your Life provides the immediate setting for the interview. Friel’s remarks on technology sit alongside his broader advice that training plans should reflect changing fitness phases, recovery and athletes’ individual needs.
“The biggest game-changer in the history of endurance sport was the power meter in the late 1980s.”
— Joe Friel, speaking to Cycling Weekly
Limits of Friel’s Technology Claims
The interview presents Friel’s professional opinions; it does not offer comparative research measuring the effect of power meters across endurance sports or establish that they were the single most influential innovation. It also does not specify which wearables he considers inaccurate, what standards he used to judge them, or whether his assessment applies across sports and use cases.
Friel’s reference to a future continuous lactate monitor is a prediction. The supplied report gives no manufacturer, launch date or technical details, and does not say when such a product might reach the market. The date of the interview’s publication is also not included in the source material.
Updated Book and Future Monitoring
The immediate development is the updated edition of Fast After 50, which accompanies Friel’s discussion of training methods and technology. The source does not provide an edition release date or a schedule for any product launch.
Friel expects continuous lactate monitoring, if it reaches the market, to prompt further changes in training. Until a device is available and its accuracy and usefulness can be evaluated, that remains a forecast rather than a confirmed next step. For now, his interview emphasizes established coaching principles—planned training phases, appropriate easy sessions and attention to motivation—alongside the continuing use of power data.
Key Questions
What does Joe Friel say was endurance sport’s biggest game-changer?
Friel named the power meter, saying it made cycling training more precise from the late 1980s onward.
What is Friel’s view of wearable fitness devices?
He said many wearables have not lived up to their hype and that some are inaccurate. The interview does not identify particular devices or provide independent testing results.
What training principle does Friel consider most influential?
Friel said periodisation—dividing training into phases that build, sharpen and refresh performance—has had the greatest impact among the principles discussed.
What is Fast After 50?
Fast After 50: How to Race Strong for the Rest of Your Life is Friel’s training guide, discussed in the interview alongside its updated edition.
Source: rss
