Rating: 
Summary: A Great Resource that Requires a Little Work
Review: This book is for someone who wants to race a bike and doesn't want to look foolish doing it. The book has everything you need to organize and create a training regimen that will lift your racing fitness to an entirely new level. Based on the concept of periodization, i.e.-training broken into four week blocks with scheduled increases in intensity and active recovery, the ideas presented by Friel will allow the reader to schedule and implement a year-long training plan.The main drawback of the book is its complexity. The book never claims to be a one-size fits all sort of plan so there is a lot of information that will allow the reader to customize his or her own training. This can be overwhelming at first. The best approach to the book is to read it through a couple of times to get a feel for what is being said. Once this is done, the material will feel a lot less overwhelming. In any case, there is some effort to be put into understanding the book just like there is effort that must be put into training to achieve the result of better performance. Short of going out and hiring a coach to do your thinking for you, this book is the best way to start training for competition.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Resource that Requires a Little Work
Review: This book is for someone who wants to race a bike and doesn't want to look foolish doing it. The book has everything you need to organize and create a training regimen that will lift your racing fitness to an entirely new level. Based on the concept of periodization, i.e.-training broken into four week blocks with scheduled increases in intensity and active recovery, the ideas presented by Friel will allow the reader to schedule and implement a year-long training plan. The main drawback of the book is its complexity. The book never claims to be a one-size fits all sort of plan so there is a lot of information that will allow the reader to customize his or her own training. This can be overwhelming at first. The best approach to the book is to read it through a couple of times to get a feel for what is being said. Once this is done, the material will feel a lot less overwhelming. In any case, there is some effort to be put into understanding the book just like there is effort that must be put into training to achieve the result of better performance. Short of going out and hiring a coach to do your thinking for you, this book is the best way to start training for competition.
Rating: 
Summary: This book will improve your cycling!
Review: This book offers easy to understand, and easy to follow guidelines on how training works, how to measure your training efforts, how to gauge your progress, and how to get the most out of your training time. It's a great book, and my cycling has improved beyond all expectations after following Joe Friel's training principles for a year! If you are planning to race against me in next year's Leadville 100, and Vail Ultra 100, PLEASE don't read this book!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: This book should come with a calculator!
Review: This book takes the wonderful sport of cycling and turns it into a science project. If you anylize every aspect of your training, then this book is for you. As stated in a previous review, the Testing chapter is totally ridiculous. Does the author really think the average Joe-cyclist has access to a Compu-Trainer? If I could afford a Compu-Trainer, I would probably be able to afford a personal cycling intructor as well, in which case I would not need this book. I feel a little bit misled by the title. "Training Bible" led me to believe it would teach me everything about training on a bicycle. This book only teaches periodization. I ride and race year-round, so periodization is not my cup-o-tea. I was hoping for more information about technique; hills and sprinting etc., and more about cross training. This book is all charts and graphs, it literally gave me a headache! The book says it is meant for people who have one season of racing under thier belt. I'd say it's meant more for people who want to take cycling to the semi-pro level and beyond.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for serious cyclists
Review: This is a bold book in my opinion, and the author doesn't cut corners. Friel states up front that cycling requires tremendous dedication and makes no apology for this nature of the sport. Other books are soft in comparison. Sometimes I re-read this book simply for inspiration to train well because the author is so passionate about optimizing one's ability. The only downside may be that his training advice is very hard to follow for most people. The natural inclination is to do fairly idle rides without purpose, but the book emphasizes always riding with a purpose and gameplan. The very act of organizing a yearly calendar and planning for peaks can be daunting. In fairness, he does provide some good advice for riders who have limited time to commit to the sport, but one can gather from the tone of his writing that the book is really meant for the individual with at least 15 hours a week at his or her disposal for training. Afterall, this is the cyclists training *bible*. I have found personally that the book was helpful for me to become versed in the language of cycling training. I use a coach on my team for my training regimen, but this book has educated me so that I understand that purpose for what I do. This alone has improved my dedication and enjoyment in following a regimen.
Rating:
Summary: comprehensive training book
Review: this is the most comprehensive book on training for cycling that I have read. The book is not filled with "I-already-knew-that" information such as buying a bike, proper equipment, and other information intended for beginners. The book provides the reader with the information necessary to establish a custom annual training schedule.
Rating:
Summary: Great motivational book too!
Review: What a great book. Friel's approach to training is excellent, and easy reading for someone who WANTS to race faster. Friel himself is a very accomplished bike racer, and his son Dirk is on fire this year (just raced against him in Arizona.) Now, if this New England snow would just melt... NOTE: Ths book is for experienced, motivated cyclists, probably too much too soon for beginner cyclists or those w/ little patience.
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