A conversation with Dirk Friel, Co Founder & Chief Evangelist, TrainingPeaks

In this episode of Tech in 26.2 podcast - I sat down with Dirk Friel, Co Founder and Chief Evangelist of TrainingPeaks - All in one platform providing coaching, training plans, performance analysis, and data syncs for athletes and coaches. TrainingPeaks solutions are used by Tour de France teams, IRONMAN® World Champions, Olympians, and age group athletes and coaches around the world to track, analyze and plan their training.  Some of key focus areas of our conversations were:

• Founding Journey of TrainingPeaks to solve a problem Dirk and his father, legendary coach Joe Friel had on their coaching business


• Hoe TrainingPeaks is built to help people achieve their best through deliberate practice


• How does TrainingPeaks platform help to run & scale coaching businesses


• Top 3 trends in the endurance sports industry in the past 25 years :




• Triathlete paving the way for adoption of technology and coaching


• Cycling and power meters and innovations


• GPS and smart watches




• Can AI coach be as effective as human coach and future of endurance sports coaching in the age of AI.

Podcast Outline

0:05 - Introduction

2:40 - Journey as ProCyclist

5:56 - Founding story of TrainingPeaks over a beer with Gear Fisher

14:26 - Getting first paying customer

16:16 -  help people achieve their best through deliberate practice - overview of TrainingPeaks platform

18:48 - Scale of TrainingPeaks - if you care about heart rate, speed or distance, TrainingPeaks the right platform

23:23 - How does TrainingPeaks platform supports coaches to run their Coaching businesses

29:32 -  Enabling accountability through deliberate practice

33:43 - Trends in endurance sports tech industry in the last 25 years

39:34 - TrainingPeaks university

43:19 - AI and personal coaching in endurance sports

46:24 - Can AI coach be as effective as human coach?

References

• TrainingPeaks platform - https://www.trainingpeaks.com/


• The George Restaurant in Vale, CO - https://www.thegeorgevail.com/


• Foot of the Rockies, Fort Collins, Co (Oldest running specialty store in US) - https://www.footoftherockies.co/


• Endurance Sports books by Joe Friel - https://www.amazon.com/stores/Joe-Friel/author/B001JP0ANM?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true


• Dirk Friel Instagram -  https://www.instagram.com/dirkfriel/


• Dirk Friel Profile -  https://www.trainingpeaks.com/partners/dirk-friel/


• TrainingPeaks CoachCast -  https://www.trainingpeaks.com/podcasts/


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Podcast production tool credit:

• Planning - Notion


• Research and show notes  - Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot


• Recording - Zoom


• Transcription - Restream.io


• Media editing and mixing - Canva MagicAI

Episode info:

• Youtube - https://youtu.be/EIA5dU-qRTM


• Apple Podcast link - 


• Spotify podcast link - 

Transcript and Shownotes:

- https://www.traxamo.com/tech-in-26-2-dirk-friel

Enjoy the episode!