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Ride Inside

The Essential Guide to Get the Most Out of Indoor Cycling, Smart Trainers, Classes, and Apps

Published by VeloPress
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

About The Book

From bad weather to business travel to traffic safety, there are dozens of reasons why cyclists and triathletes take their rides inside. Although indoor cycling workouts offer the ultimate control over workout conditions, most inside riders don’t get the most out of their trainers or spin bikes.

RIDE INSIDE offers cyclists and triathletes a smart guide to getting more fitness from every indoor cycling workout. From the world’s most experienced personal cycling coach, Joe Friel, RIDE INSIDE reveals all the unique aspects of indoor riding:
  • Mental aspects like motivation, focus, and enjoyment
  • Changes in upper body stability, posture, and pedaling technique on a stationary bike
  • Respiration, hydration, and cooling
  • Inherent changes in power output
  • Lower leg tension and eccentric loading from flywheel momentum
  • Lower effort from lack of terrain changes, headwinds, and crosswinds
  • Road-like feel
  • Different shifting patterns

All these differences of indoor riding add up to a big impact when the rubber hits the road.

Drawing from the foundations of Friel’s classic training guides, The Cyclist’s Training Bible and The Triathlete’s Training Bible, RIDE INSIDE shows how to apply smart and proven training concepts to indoor cycling. Riders will get expert guidance on the best ways to set up a trainer or smart trainer, how to modify outdoor workouts for indoor cycling, how to better monitor power and RPE, and how to use social online training platforms like Zwift to make training better and not worse.

Most critically, RIDE INSIDE shows cyclists and triathletes how to do indoor cycling workouts that actually meet their training goals instead of compromising.

About The Author

With a masters degree in exercise science, Joe Friel was a marathoner and running coach throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. After his first triathlon in 1983 and falling in love with the sport he began coaching multisport athletes becoming one of the first triathlon coaches in the country. The following year he opened a triathlon store in Ft. Collins, Colorado—probably the first in the world. Throughout the 1980s his race management company organized several triathlons in Colorado. He left retail and race management in 1987 to focus on coaching. The athletes he coached for over 30 years ranged from novice to high-performance amateur to professional to Olympian. In 1997, he was a founding member of the USA Triathlon Coaches Association. He served as co-chair in 1999-2000. In 2000, he attended the Sydney Olympics to assist with team preparation. The following year he was the coach of team USA for the World Triathlon Championships. Throughout the 2000s he was a frequent speaker at USAT coach seminars. He wrote 17 books on training, the most notable being The Triathlete’s Training Bible, which is now in its 5th edition and translated into 15 languages. It remains the best-selling book in the world on triathlon training. In 1999, he co-founded TrainingPeaks, online training software for endurance athletes. As an athlete he competed in hundreds of events including national and world championships, was an All-American Age Group Triathlete several times and a USAT-regional multisport champion. He stopped competing after a bike crash in 2014 restricted range of shoulder movement. He continues to present at triathlon camps and clinics for triathletes and coaches around the world. Joe currently lives and trains in the mountains of northern Arizona and is working on his 18th book—this one for coaches.

Product Details

  • Publisher: VeloPress (October 6, 2020)
  • Length: 216 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781948006231

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Raves and Reviews

"This primer explains everything you've wanted to know (and more) about a somewhat mysterious sport."

– Chicago Tribune

"Absolutely entertaining from start to finish. The book finishes up with ways non-cycling friends and family can start enjoying the favored pastime of their bike racing friends. Terms, strategies, and ideas are explained so well that even someone who really doesn't care for cycling will stay interested, maybe even enough to pique their interested and get into the sport."

– RoadBikeReview.com

"After spending years explaining the little idiosyncrasies of being a bike racer, Jamie Smith decided to write a book to bring understanding to the masses. Roadie acts as a complete guide to the life of a bike racer. I found myself nodding in agreement with each page, as Smith picked apart everything it means to be a bike racer in a way that only a true roadie could. It's engaging, entertaining, and downright fun, from front cover to back."

– BikeRumor.com

"This witty primer offers lively insights into race formats and techniques, including drafting, breakaways and strategies employed in professional and amateur bicycle racing. Get it for family members and friends who are interested in the lingo and politics of bicycle racing, if not up for the experience of actually pulling on a pair of padded Lycra shorts."

– Denver Post

"A well-written and informative insight into the world of road racing."

– Lightweight News

"I wish I had a copy of Roadie when I started racing 35 years ago. Jamie Smith's wealth of knowledge, insightful comments about racing, and wonderful wit and infectious enthusiasm certainly would have helped me explain cycling to all my friends and family who thought I was crazy."

– Paul Alman, President, Michigan Bicycle Racing Association

"Jamie Smith has succeeded, with a light and amusing style, to convey the joy of the sport with an unblinking eye…There is no question that Roadie will keep the interest of someone new to the sport."

– TinDonkey.com

"We should be very grateful for this epiphany; members of my family had to ask me to stop laughing so much while I was carrying out the perfectly respectable and serious task of reviewing the book."

– TheWashingMachinePost.net

"You will recognise yourself in many of the actions and situations described in this gently amusing and well written book."

– Arrivee magazine

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