Endurance sports started as a family affair for co-founder and Chief Evangelist of TrainingPeaks Dirk Friel. His parents were runners who also participated in triathlon, leading Friel to dabble in swimming, biking and running activities.

He developed a passion for biking through the sense of adventure gained from testing his skills at a young age. Traveling long distances and exploring new cities on two wheels gave him freedom before he was old enough to drive. Coupled with a part-time job at his parents’ running and bike shop, Friel put all his energy into his newfound passion for cycling.

“It was like endurance was part of the family DNA, you know, our family’s pursuits,” said Friel. “When I was 13 years old, on a family vacation we rode from Oregon to San Diego on our bikes, together – and that's what we love to do”.

Friel stuck with cycling, and after one year of college, he decided to drop out and buy a one-way ticket to Belgium to pursue a professional cycling career. He turned pro a few years later and raced for 12 years before retiring. Family ties remained constant throughout his experience. Friel remembers that behind the scenes of and during all his racing was his father, who had sold his store to become a full-time coach. His father became one of the first for-profit endurance coaches in the world at that time. At the end of his career, Friel naturally joined the family coaching business.

The idea for TrainingPeaks was born out of the necessity to connect with athletes and coaches around the world through something more reliable than emails, fax machines and handwritten training logs. In mid-2000, the web-based platform was up and running, and being used to manage personal clients. By the end of the year, they realized that through integration with other coaches they could effectively deliver a better-quality service to their athletes, in turn, allowing them to grow the coaching platform. This realization and organizational shift helped cement their purpose of helping athletes and coaches reach their goals.

TrainingPeaks follows the philosophy that there is a right way to go about training, and that is deliberate practice. This starts with setting a specific goal, getting expert instruction, performing purposeful training, and lastly, getting immediate feedback. With thousands of athletes coming to them, making the connection between coach and athlete is essential to the execution of deliberate practice. Through deliberate practice, TrainingPeaks remains accessible by understanding that coaching means something different to everybody. Coaching can include a simple, free, four-week training plan and doesn’t have to cost hundreds of dollars a month.

“Not enough athletes view themselves as being worthy of having a coach. You might only train eight hours a week, but that level of commitment is huge with work, family and everything else. You might be training to do your very first sprint triathlon. You’re worth it,” Friel said. “Let’s make the most of the eight hours that you have to train a week because you'll have a much more enjoyable experience during that event, or whatever your goal might be. Everyone deserves a coach.”

TrainingPeaks may technically be a software company, but 21 years later, they still have the same mission – to help coaches and athletes get better at the things they love to do. This purpose is one that Friel has followed closely in his life and one that has allowed TrainingPeaks to help coaches and athletes across the world find their #PowerWithin.