Legendary Cycling Coach, Co-Author of “Training & Racing with a Power Meter”, Co – Developer of Training Peaks WKO Software and Founder of Peaks Coaching Group.

Widely known as one of the top experts in the world in coaching endurance athletes using power meters, Hunter Allen’s goal has always been to teach athletes how to maximize their training and racing potential through professional analysis of their power data. This goes hand in hand with his power meter philosophy that a power meter is a tool to help discover an athlete’s true ‘strengths and weakness’, quantitatively assess training improvements, and refine and maximize the focus of their training. “Power Training can add a whole new dimension to your cycling. By using a power meter, you literally have a ‘second by second’ training diary, which allows me as a coach to not only see exactly what you are doing on your rides, but also to plan training using the ‘dose’ and ‘response’ method” , Allen states. Hunter’s power training method has built success at all levels of cycling and endurance sports, training such well known professional & Olympic athletes such as Jeremiah Bishop (Volkswagen-Trek), 2008 US National Champion Mountain Biker, Daniel Lloyd (CerveloTest Team), 2008 Vuelta de Extremadura, Sue Haywood, 2007 World Mountain Bike 24 Champion, Dan Fleeman (CerveloTest Team), 2008 Winner of Tour of Pyrnees and with the 2008 USA Olympic BMX Team.

Hunter is himself a former professional cyclist for Team Navigators and has raced for over 17 years in Europe, South America, U.S. and Canada and has over 40 career victories to his credit. Considered a great all-rounder, he was able to learn a wide variety of race tactics and skill necessary to succeed at the professional level.

Since retiring, Allen has become a USAC Elite Level Cycling Coach and Certified Nutritional Consultant and is a featured presenter for many USA Cycling Seminars. In 1996, he founded The Peaks Coaching Group focused on developed leading edge methods of efficient power training. For the past 10 years, Peaks has been a leader in the industry in the field of power training for endurance cyclist. This unique opportunity has given Hunter the ability to review thousands of power files and racer profiles and develop an “artful science” of power training and coaching. During this time period, he also co-developed Training Peaks WKO+ software and co-authored the book, “Training and Racing with a Power Meter” with Dr. Andrew R. Coggan.

As a coach, he makes sure to look at an athlete’s as a whole person and excels at designing custom programs design to maximize potential. “I believe we are human beings working closely with other human beings , and it’s important that as a coach, I work hard to find your strengths, weaknesses and help you improve your skills then develop a realistic plan that works for life.” He continues, “It’s important that a coach learn as much as he can about you as an athlete and as a person in order to better develop their success plan. I have coached over 400 athletes and I learn something new from each one.”

Hunter holds a B.A. in Economics from Randolph-Macon and lives with family in Bedford, Va with his “super-wife” Kate and three growing children; Thomas, Jack & Susannah. He is also a Certified Yoga and Tai Chi instructor, Certified Personal Trainer and Certified Coach for the Leukemia Society. In his spare time, he enjoys driving and tinkering with fast cars, hunting, and of course cycling!

Andrew R. Coggan, Ph.D., is an internationally-recognized exercise physiologist. He has published numerous scientific articles on a diverse range of topics, ranging from the physiological adaptations to endurance training in healthy young and older persons to the effects of nutritional interventions on cardiac and skeletal muscle function in patients with diabetes or cardiovascular disease. These papers have been cited over 5,000 times in the scientific literature, with 17 of them achieving Citation Classic status (i.e., cited more than 100 times apiece). This research has been supported by over $12 million in external funding.

A national-caliber masters cyclist and former TT record holder, Andrew is also widely recognized as one of the leading experts on the use of power meters in training. He has developed materials on power-based training for USA Cycling's expert coaches manual. His prolific posts to the "wattage" group hosted on Google have also helped many athletes understand the physiology of exercise and training, and more specifically, power meters.

Many of the concepts introduced in this book and featured in the WKO+ software - Normalized Power, Intensity Factor, Training Stress Score, Power Profiling, Quadrant Analysis and the Performance Manager - are the result of Andrew's work with cyclists and coaches. As a result of his contributions in this area, in 2006 he was honored by USA Cycling with their Sport Science Award and named by the US Olympic Committee as one of three Finalists for their Doc Councilman Award.

Dr. Coggan earned his Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology from the University of Texas and an M.S. in Human Bioenergetics from Ball State University. He lives in Ballwin, MO, with his wife, Angela (a former elite national champion track cyclist), and children Madeleine and Gavin.