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Joe Friel
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Total Heart Rate Training: Customize And Maximize Your Workout Using A Heart Rate Monitor Paperback – Illustrated, 1 Nov. 2006

by Joe Friel (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 173 ratings
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TRAIN SMARTER WITH THE NEWEST HIGH-TECH HEART RATE MONITORS
Whether you are just starting a fitness program or are an experienced athlete, you can greatly benefit from paying attention to your heart rate during exercise. Heart rate serves as a window into the body, giving you minute-to-minute feedback on your physical condition based on all the factors affecting it―exercise intensity, diet, temperature, humidity, altitude, fatigue, and more.
Total Heart Rate Training explains:

•Heart function during exercise
•How heart rate monitors work
•Simple ways to use a heart rate monitor
•Advanced heart rate training techniques

With Total Heart Rate Training, you can design a personalized program that practically guarantees you’ll achieve your fitness goals. You’ll be able to determine the precise and optimal heart rate for each day’s workout by using your heart rate monitor to keep you on target. It’s like having a personal trainer telling you when to go harder and when to back off.
This book also shows how powermeters and accelerometers enable you to compare your body’s input, as measured by heart rate, with its output-power or pace. It’s a combination that allows you to train at your peak for that competitive edge.
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  1. Print length
    176 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Ulysses Press
  4. Publication date
    1 Nov. 2006
  5. Dimensions
    19.05 x 1.02 x 23.5 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    1569755620
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1569755624
  8. See all details
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Product description

Review

"Joe Friel is arguably the most experienced personal cycling coach in the U.S.(and) his book, The Cyclist's Training Bible has become the, well, Bible of the sport." -Bicycling magazine

"Friel's reputation for strength and endurance training for serious athletes has made him a coach in demand." -The Boulder Daily Camera

"Coach and trainer Joe Friel's well-known Training Bible series of books for cyclists and triathletes has changed the way multisport athletes train." -Active.com

"His education and experiences as an athlete and a coach have given him almost peerless authority on real world training and competition." -Rocky Mountain Sports & Fitness magazine

Review

Triathlete's Training Bible|||1931382425|22.95|Velo Press|03/2004|17K + 36K of previous ed since '01||
Going Long: Training for Ironman|||1931382247|18.95|Velo Press|04/2003|13K||
Cyclists Training Bible|||1931382212|22.95|Velo Press|04/2003|19K + 12K of previous ed since '01||
Precision Heart Rate Training (cycling chapters)|Edmund|Burke|0880117702|18.95|Human Kinetics|12/1998|15K since '01||

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ulysses Press; Illustrated edition (1 Nov. 2006)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1569755620
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1569755624
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 19.05 x 1.02 x 23.5 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 173 ratings

About the author

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Joe Friel

Joe Friel

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"Joe Friel has a masters degree in exercise science and has trained endurance athletes since 1980. His clients include elite amateur and professional road cyclists, mountain bikers, and triathletes and duathletes. His clients have included national champions, world championship competitors, and an Olympian.

He is the author of several training books and is a contributor to several magazines and websites around the world and offers clinics, seminars, and camps for athletes and coaches. He also consults with national sport federations and with businesses in the fitness industry. He is the cofounder of TrainingPeaks.com and TrainingBible Coaching.

As an age-group competitor, Joe has been a Colorado State Masters Triathlon champion, a Rocky Mountain region and Southwest region duathlon age-group champion, and a perennial USA Triathlon All-American duathlete. He also competes in bicycle races.

For information on coaching, speaking, or consulting services, contact him by email at jfriel@trainingbible.com or through his blog at www.joefrielsblog.com.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
173 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

thutthut
5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding the heart.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 February 2018
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Item arrived promptly in good condition. A useful and interesting explanation of the benefits of training with a heart rate monitor.
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its worth the effort
4.0 out of 5 stars Total HRT
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 November 2011
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Excellent book. This takes your training from a high level to an extreme level. It explains in easy terms all aspects of the bodies physiology and the way to achieve those highs we all aspire to.

Buy it, read it and see your abilities soar
One person found this helpful
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Matthew
5.0 out of 5 stars Great!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 June 2019
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Enough info for those who train with a HRM!
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Brownie
5.0 out of 5 stars Changed my Training
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 January 2014
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my training WAS very un-organised. I know have a planned schedule and specific training goals to aim for. Perfect book for a novice like me to improve and a firm basis for future development.
One person found this helpful
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Dunners
3.0 out of 5 stars Some good theory but not ideal for novice/casual half marathon training plans
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 September 2014
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The writer is clearly an expert in the field of heartrate training but does not necessarily communicate some of the key themes especially well.

My main concern is that professional coaches like Joe Friel are so used to training top-flight athletes they forget what it's like to actually be a novice. In the preface he refers to the fact that "anyone" can benefit from HR training - even novices. Yet I would argue that the book is not suitable for novices. I consider myself a level or two above novice, having been a runner for a couple of years, so I managed to extract enough material from the book to make good use of my Polar HRM. However, I think an actual beginner to running - or even an experienced casual runner- would end up disappointed with the content.

The major source of frustration for me was is the core of the book: developing your own heartrate training plan based on the principles in the book. This sounded great for me as in theory I would be able to build a custom program to fit around my level of experience and time constraints. Having read the book I started reading the "Your Training Plan" section. After a fairly tedious and slightly patronising barrage of questions (eg. "How many training hours do you have": example question... "How long do you spend on personal hygiene/housework/watching TV" blah blah) we are confronted with having to calculate the number of hours per ANNUM we have to train, then using the provided table to work out the weekly hours and then go from there to daily. The THEORY of this is sound, except the lowest number of annual hours catered for in the table is TWO HUNDRED hours of training per year! Now, I trained for and ran three half marathons last year and my total hours training, based on running 3-5 times per week, was 125 hours - and I thought I was training pretty hard!

Of course, many people have got 200-1000 hours per year to train but I think the assumption that the reader of the book will be able to dedicate this sort of time puts the target audience firmly into the "experienced marathon/ultra" runner category. As it happened, I had to type the table into Excel and do some very fiddly mathematical adjustments to the table as this year I am targeting 150 hours training for the three more half marathons I'm running. Again, this is fine for you if you're happy with maths and using spreadsheets.

There are similar challenges when continuing to the next stage of the plan: allocating hours from weeks to days where again the assumption is that you are prepared to run 3 hours per week. This is quite a lot for a novice starting a half marathon training program and means they would not be able to use this guide.

The other peculiarity of the given tables is that if you are creating a half marathon training program by following the book you will end up not running for longer than eg. 75 minutes before the day of the race (I’m targeting 95m for the whole distance)! You might argue that it’s simple to adjust your training plan and throw in some longer runs, but I’m desperately trying to approach my training scientifically as I guess other readers will too in order to avoid injury but maximise my performance. Given this is my 7th attempt at this distance I’m gunning for faster times each time and understand that I will need to be putting in runs which are LONGER than the 13 miles. There is no allowance for this in this book, given my ‘meagre’ 150-160 hours of training per annum.

My other main gripe is the way the various micro-cycles of the plan are presented - very confusing indeed and a real struggle to actually put to use. Maybe it makes more sense in the paperback version than the Kindle App version I used.

The ongoing poor formatting of the Kindle (on Android tablet) version is also an issue - as it is with other books though. Some of the words seem to be wrong too - perhaps an OCR issue (“Then complete a total of 30 to 60 minutes of work that are 6 to 2 minutes long”!!?)… proof-reading?

The "Sample Workout" descriptions are sometimes vague and ambiguous and appear to have been written hurriedly. The numbering system is confusing and I'm frequently unsure whether I'm really doing what is expected. Some of the workouts don’t specify the heart rate zone for training so you are left guessing.

The idea of the TRIMP (training duration X intensity, based on HR) is introduced in the middle of the book. This sounds like an eminently sensible approach to ensuring one does not over/under train. However, there are no practical applications of this idea in the book. The BYO training plan section doesn’t reference it at all.

With all the above said, I've read a couple of other books on HRM training and this is disappointingly the best I've found so far. “Heart Rate Training” by Roy Benson and Declan Connolly bases its training plans wholly on %MHR – a simple but utterly flawed approach. At least Joe Friel understands and applies the idea of developing training zones based on one’s (easily determined) anaerobic threshold (AT).

Don't get me wrong: there IS a lot of good stuff in here and Friel’s style is generally readable. I’d recommend the book to the experienced and dedicated athlete, especially those who are doing long to very long endurance sports.

For the likes of me, a ‘keen hobbyist’ runner gunning for faster 10K and half marathon times there is still plenty of good theory in here but you won’t find this a huge help for developing your own training plan unless you are prepared to do some maths and are happy to re-interpret the sample workouts.
25 people found this helpful
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maria male
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 February 2016
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very please
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Robbo_97
4.0 out of 5 stars Good if you are already knowledgeable about your sport
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 April 2014
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The book covered everything I wanted to know and gave me some good tips, but he went a bit too deep at times, especially towards the end of the book.
3 people found this helpful
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Giuseppe
5.0 out of 5 stars Achieved my best running results!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 April 2013
I followed the training program in the book and I trained in the heart rate zones suggested for different events: I achieved my best results in two half marathons and corporate runs.

Concepts are supported by science, great explanation.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Zibert
4.0 out of 5 stars Tres bien mais très technique.
Reviewed in France on 30 April 2017
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Pour une étude très technique et comprendre des expressions utilisées dans les montres et applications d'activité. Mais c'est un cours.
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Patrick Bélanger
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
Reviewed in Canada on 4 December 2013
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I'm not going to build a program as a recrational rider but I will use the information given to apply it in my training.

I aslo recommend TCTP. Time crunched cyclist.
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Sideofpotatos
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding book for the serious athlete
Reviewed in the United States on 9 December 2011
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I recently have become a highly inspired runner and research lead me to this author/book. It ultimately teaches the reader how to plan an entire year's worth of training around 2 or 3 primary race events while simultaneously providing essential information on the secret to heart rate training. I found this book to contain so much information (without extra fluff to wade thru) that it reminded me of taking college courses! I took several pages worth of notes as I read, I reread some chapters multiple times, I wanted to soak in everything this extraordinary bank of knowledge had to offer because I knew it contained the secret to unlocking my potential as a runner and achieving my nearly impossible goals in the next year.

If running for you is a high priority and a way of life for you (comes in somewhere behind family and maybe ahead of work!) this book is exactly what you need. If you are more of a casual trainer than this book probably contains more info than you are interested in.

RUN FOR LIFE!!
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Manu
5.0 out of 5 stars Muy bien estructurado y ameno
Reviewed in Spain on 20 December 2011
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Joe Friel me vuelve a sorprender. Todavía no he encontrado ningún libro en español tan claro, conciso y bien redactado como éste. Se da un enfoque técnico al modo de entrenar con un pulsómetro para sacar el máximo provecho a los entrenamientos. Bien estructurado y muy fácil de seguir para cualquiera que desee mejorar el rendimiento en el menor tiempo posible. Muy ameno. Muy satisfecho.
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Benny
4.0 out of 5 stars Takes out the guess work
Reviewed in the United States on 30 November 2011
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Good book. Well written. It takes out a lot of the guessing when it comes to heart rate training. I have seen an improvement in my training and better recovery. But mainly less stress since i know exactly what to do each day.
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