Joe Friel’s Cycling Abilities

Cycling Abilities

No matter what type of riding you do, we are sure you want to ride faster and farther.

In this post we explain the cycling abilities you should train as described by Joe Friel that will allow you to do so.

You may also watch this article in video in our YouTube channel

In the Training Bible series of books written by Joe Friel, he describes the cycling abilities that make it easy to understand what type of training to do.

Endurance

The ability to sustain prolonged efforts over extended distances and durations.

Builds aerobic capacity, allowing cyclists to maintain a steady pace for hours without fatiguing.

Force

The ability to apply muscular strength to the pedals.

This skill is necessary for climbing steep hills and accelerating from low speeds.

Speed Skill

The ability to pedal efficiently and smoothly at high cadences.

Fluid pedaling reduces unnecessary muscle fatigue.

Endurance, Force and Speed Skills are the basic abilities that all riders shall train regardless of the type of cycling they do.

They are represented by the vertices of the Friel Cycling Abilities Triangle.

By combining the basic abilities, we get the advanced ones

Muscular Endurance

The ability to sustain relatively high power outputs for extended periods. It is the combination of the basic abilities of Endurance and force.

Muscular endurance is essential for time trials, breakaways, and sustained climbs and efforts.

Anaerobic Endurance

The ability to sustain high-intensity efforts above threshold for short bursts. It is the combination of the basic abilities of Endurance and Speed Skills.

Used in racing scenarios like breakaways, attacking during climbs, and surges in criteriums or road races.

Anaerobic endurance is about producing significant power for shorter efforts of 1 to 5 minutes, above anaerobic threshold, followed by rapid recovery.

Power

The ability to generate explosive efforts over very short periods. It is the combination of the basic abilities of speed skills and force.

Power is critical for finishing sprints, short hill climbs, and fast accelerations.

So, the complete Friel Cycling Abilities Triangle looks like this, showing the combinations just described.

Cycling Abilities and Training Zones

The Cycling Abilities described earlier may be developed using the training zones obtained from any of the methods we explained in the Aerobic and Anaerobic Thresholds – the Foundation of Training post:

FTP – Functional Threshold Power

Critical Power/W Prime

or the CTS 8 minute test.

From the power point of view, we will use the 7 zones model derived from the FTP Method as it is the most spread-out system as of today and all platforms and training devices support it.

From the heart rate point of view, we will use the 5 zones model.

The ability of Endurance is trained riding in zones 1 and 2 either power or heart rate for durations above 1 and a half hours. The longer the better.

The training benefits are delayed fatigue and economy.

Force may be developed in different zones, from Zone 2 to zone 7 in power and from zone 2 to Zone 5 in Heart rate, depending on the training target.

The training benefit is muscular strength.

The Speed Skills is developed in Zone 2, both power and heart rate by doing high cadence intervals during and endurance ride.

The benefits are developing a high cadence and economy.

May also be trained for at higher intensities, making them a power ability training.

Muscular Endurance is trained in zones 3 and 4 in both heart rate and power.

The benefits are strength endurance, race pace comfort, increase velocity at lactate threshold.

Anaerobic Endurance is trained in zones 5,6 and 7 in power and zone 5 in heart rate.

Keep in mind that heart rate may not be the best option to train this ability, as its response to the very short and intense efforts required is not immediate.

The benefits are increasing the aerobic capacity known as VO2, increase speed at VO2 max, improve the ability of the body to tolerate and clear lactate.

The Power ability is trained from zones 3 and above and shall be prescribed in accordance to the training objectives.

The benefits are muscular power, fast starts, short hills and sprints.

As with Anaerobic Endurance, keep in mind that heart rate may not be the best option to train this ability, as its response to the very short and intense efforts required is not immediate.

Remember that, no matter what type of riding you do, always work on your Basic Abilities.

The Advanced Abilities do depend on the type of riding you do and you shall focus on the ones that will get the results you are looking for.

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