Tech in 26.2

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

Listen Later

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/

        • 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! 

            ...more
            View all episodesView all episodes
            Download on the App Store
            Tech in 26.2By Kamal Datta