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Fast After 50: How to Race Strong for the Rest of Your Life

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Fast After 50 is for every endurance athlete who wants to stay fast for years to come.

For runners, cyclists, triathletes, swimmers, and cross-country skiers, getting older doesn't have to mean getting slower. Drawing from the most current research on aging and sports performance, Joe Friel—America's leading endurance sports coach—shows how athletes can race strong and stay healthy well past age 50.

In his groundbreaking book Fast After 50, Friel offers a smart approach for athletes to ward off the effects of age. Friel shows athletes how to extend their racing careers for decades—and race to win.

Fast After 50 presents guidelines for high-intensity workouts, focused strength training, recovery, crosstraining, and nutrition for high performance:

How the body's response to training changes with age, how to adapt your training plan, and how to avoid overtraining How to shed body fat and regain muscle density How to create a progressive plan for training, rest, recovery, and competition Workout guidelines, field tests, and intensity measurement

In Fast After 50, Joe Friel shows athletes that age is just a number—and race results are the only numbers that count.

With contributions from: Mark Allen, Gale Bernhardt, Amby Burfoot, Dr. Larry Creswell, John Howard, Dr. Tim Noakes, Ned Overend, Dr. John Post, Dr. Andrew Pruitt, and Lisa Rainsberger.

367 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2015

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About the author

Joe Friel

66 books91 followers

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
Profile Image for Vivian.
538 reviews43 followers
May 21, 2015
I'm not exactly the target audience for this book: serious athletes hitting their golden years. I've got the "golden years" part down, but the serious athlete is only in my dreams...

However, my husband IS a serious athlete, and spends a substantial amount of time working on his fitness, and trying to avoid injury, while improving, or at least, maintaining, his speeds in his chosen sports. The first three chapters are the ones which most interested ME, a woman trying to become fit, with intermittent success, after a lifetime of laziness and physical issues. The beginning discusses why it is so crucial to stay active, especially after fifty, to be able to live a longer and more active life, with fewer illnesses, and less disability. The key is not only exercise, but strenuous exercise, pushing ourselves to the limit, to have the best chance at living the lives we want for as long as possible. The rest of the book - which I admittedly just skimmed - gives more details about improving, or reducing the decline, in the levels of fitness in hardcore athletes.

As much as I don't like pushing myself (I'm the queen of the couch!), the research studies quoted are compelling, and hard to dismiss. So I will be pushing myself harder, and longer, and trying to become acclimated to the idea of sweating, which is not my preferred state of being. There are just too many reasons to embrace activity, and exercise, if I don't want to end up stuck on the couch for good because I have no other choice. Recommended.
Profile Image for Mark Schuliger.
82 reviews4 followers
September 25, 2015
As someone who just passed the 50 year mark, this title was particularly intriguing to me. I'm competitive guy when I race, not in the sense that I'm vying for the podium, but by the fact that I'm always trying to better my times. This book felt like it was aimed squarely at folks like me.

The gist of this book is, what can we do as we grown older to maintain as much of our performance as possible? The author researched this idea at length and came to a few conclusions, the primary being:

Training fast is more effective than training long. The idea is that pushing yourself to your aerobic and lactate thresholds is important at all ages, but especially so at an advanced age. He compared studies among older athletes and showed evidence that among those who continued to exercise, athletes who continued to push their limits maintained more of their fitness. The main takeaway for me was that exercise itself is not enough -- it is the type of exercise that matters most.

Once this fact was established, the author provided ideas on how to make such exercise a reality as we age. Our older bodies may not handle the stresses of such exercise as well as they used to. As such, he provides tips for how to achieve the goals while reducing the risk of injury and setback. The idea that made most sense to me was prioritizing workouts for the week, and ensuring that only one of them was "high intensity". It rings true to me that I can't train four days a week at a "high intensity" and still expect to be fully recovered by the end.

The author also promotes the idea of longer recovery periods, but being just a hair over 50, I'm not quite ready to accept that reality just yet. But I did take his recovery ideas to heart, which I tended to blow off more as a younger man. My body always seemed to recover just fine without ice bathes, or passive recovery. I've added both of those practices, especially after long or hard workouts just to be safe.

So far so good! I've used his ideas for my current marathon training and my body has responded well. I don't yet know how fast I'll run during the actual event, but I must say that my knees and back have felt MUCH better than they usually do during such training. We'll see if this style of training can actually help me achieve my race goal of a PR!
Profile Image for Anna.
899 reviews23 followers
August 12, 2025
Chock full of data, risk-reward trade-offs, and plans, I will certainly consult this again if I get serious about running after completing my upcoming 5k.
Profile Image for Owen.
428 reviews
February 22, 2016
Interesting book - I have a short summary below. Even though the book is about bike training, and in this case by the author at 70, the discussions apply to most endurance sports since workouts are stated more in terms of time. The author doesn't waste your time with specific workouts - too many for too many sports - but stays focused on what to do. In some cases you make already know it all if you've research the topic, but for those cases where you don't the results will help you get better.

Hi intensity works are very important, perhaps the most important. Perhaps second to this is sleep and good nutrition.

Typical plan should have

1 - Interval work 1-3 min multiple reps
2 - threshold work 12 - 20 min multiple reps
3 - long work 1 - 4 hours
4 - weight work
5 - recovery - sleep (6-7 hours) and diet very important (greater need for protein)

The book speaks to both carbo diets and fat based diets.

One other interesting point / idea - consider using a 9 day cycle instead of 7 if you need 2 recovery days after a hard day.

The general nine days, to get two days rest after a hard workout, are

intervals
recovery
strength
threshold
recovery
strength / recovery
long
recovery
recovery

Interesting idea, but hard for me to have the long day move off the weekend.

A lot of info - including a section for women on menopause that I didn't read.
62 reviews2 followers
November 1, 2020
I was disappointed. I found it a bit of a laundry list of research findings. I did not actually read the whole thing.

The only clear message that I got from it is that athletes over 50 should do more high intensity sessions than younger ones. Which is in contradiction to the successful exploits of Ed Whitlock (RIP), who holds many masters running records. Ed would regularly run for several hours a day, often around his local cemetery.
Profile Image for Lianne.
10 reviews
August 17, 2017
I liked it. My take home message was to do a fair amount of high intensity interval training, which is something I love, but I must choose either HiiT or running as my focus for a particular season (because I get overuse injuries if I try to do both). I recommend it though to anyone who likes to read a lot of different stuff about elderly athletes like myself and the author.
Profile Image for Richard Hakes.
461 reviews6 followers
July 29, 2022
Very good book. I came across it by accident and as an aging cyclist suffering a bit at the moment due to something beginning with food poisoning and then something else? I messed up a cycling trip to Italy as I couldn't cycle. I was keen to get back to it all.

I have taken three things from this book. Intensity training. Read cycling hills (I live near some very good hills) and cut down but not stop on the long slow ones. Second is that working hard a few days in a row has to be interspersed with rest days as you do not get any better without. Lastly pork pies are not your enemy. Switching to a high fat diet is actually good for you particularly as you get older and taken with some protein (hence the pork pies) is really good. Sugar is bad and carbohydrate ok in small amounts. I also have got myself a Fitbit (I do not like to patronise brands but they seem the best ones) to monitor my heart rate. You do need to give yourself some measure and this seems about the easiest way to do it.

The criticism of the book is that he is very focused on being a high performance athlete and it sounds like he doesn't have much fun when he is training. I like stopping too much to take photos, look at the scenery or what else I am passing and not to forget the cafes with a bacon sandwich (which turns out to be good after all).

I can live with his advice.
Profile Image for Gene.
556 reviews7 followers
June 11, 2015
There are only a few books that I've read that I'd call "life changing ", but this is one. Not only does it explain that most everything we've been told about aging is wrong, but why, with scientific studies. He also gives specific recommendations of what to change and what you can expect. As a 60 year old cyclist, I have a much better plan now to get into better shape and get ready for the Senior Olympics.
Profile Image for Ta0paipai.
263 reviews5 followers
January 24, 2020
A training manual aimed at the masters athlete but also of value to any and all who train seriously. The material is presented in a logical manner, first covering how age affects us, then addressing how to train in response. However, the actionable variety of workouts, in-depth coverage of productive vs unproductive stresses and, perhaps mostly importantly, the well-versed knowledge in over-training makes it a valuable resource to all endurance athletes.
Profile Image for Rick Russotti.
2 reviews
February 2, 2019
Not what I expected. No revelations. Found this title difficult to read and focus on as much of the information repeats chapter after chapter. Three stars for content...a decent book for someone new to fitness/exercise.
429 reviews1 follower
January 20, 2017
Incredibly comprehensive and motivating. I learned so much about training from this book!
Profile Image for Michael.
212 reviews
February 6, 2024
I'm not 50 yet, but I'm thinking about what life looks like as I age and how to continue improving my fitness to live a long, healthy, and fit life.

I came across Joe Friel when I was trying to figure out the best way to do heart-rate zone training, which I came across in more developed fashion in Peter Attia's book. I was having an issue because I knew that I was at the peak of my heart rate capability, but my recorded heart rate on my Apple Watch (later my Garmin) wasn't showing me in Heart Rate Zone 5. No matter how hard I push (easily pushing the maximum amount of speed that I can maintain for 3-5 minutes) over a five minute period, repeated four times, I couldn't hit Zone 5. As I was doing research on this, I came across Joe Friel's proposed heart rate zones, and they seemed to capture my work in Zone 5 better than standard calculations.

In short, he says that there are three major areas that endurance athletes need to train: aerobic capacity (VO2 max), lactate threshold (when your muscles begin to produce lactic acid, which will produce muscle soreness), and your aerobic threshold (for building aerobic endurance).

According to Friel, aerobic capacity or VO2 is the level of effort (in terms of average HR, power, pace, or whatever) it takes you to run as hard as you can maintain for 5 minutes continuously, with as much speed/force at the end as you had at the beginning. Likewise, for lactate threshold, it is the level of effort it takes you to run as hard as you can maintain for 20 minutes continuously, with as much speed/force at the end as you had at the beginning. And for aerobic threshold, it is the level of effort it takes you to run as hard as you can maintain for 60-120 minutes continuously, with as much speed/force at the end as you had at the beginning.

Then Friel proposed various strategies, largely using VO2 max intervals, which are 15 minutes of working intervals in 30s to 3 minutes intervals with a 1:1 working interval to rest ratio, and lactate threshold intervals, which are 24 minutes or so of working intervals in 3 or 4 working intervals, with a 4:1 working interval to rest ratio.

I stuck with the 75-80% rule of mostly aerobic work for myself, but have started using Friel's approach to defining those training zones. It seemed like a better way for me personally than using a pure heart-rate zone method. I found that I was prone to run too fast early on to get my heart rate up, and then had to scale back dramatically to keep it from spiking out of the zone.

I was also having a difficult time with Zone 2. I knew I could maintain, for example, a 10:30-11:30 pace (average) for 1-2 hours regularly with enough left in the tank to still run hard at the end if needed, and yet I was well above Zone 2.

I also like Friel's separation of muscular strength into muscular endurance and muscular force. I am trying to do my weight training to work on both at various times during a week now, and I'm working on training VO2 max, lactate threshold, and aerobic threshold with specific running strategies.

One thing I am wrestling with is that, while I appreciated Peter Attia's focus on maximizing long-term vitality in life and being able to do what you want to do, Friel says that you are most likely to achieve that and be motivated if you are trying to improve your athletic performance (so long as you do so sustainably to avoid injury, and build in appropriate rest and relaxation).
Profile Image for David Knapp.
Author 1 book11 followers
August 13, 2020
Although their topics are vastly different, this book reminded me a lot of Brené Brown's "Dare to Lead."

While reading both books, I felt like a miner who has to wade through tons of rocks to find a few gold nuggets. Like Brown's best-selling work on leadership, Friel's work on staying competitive after the age of 50 was the classic example of a book that would have been twice as powerful if it had been half as long. Time and time again, I found myself thinking, "okay, Joe, I got it three paragraphs ago - or in some cases, three pages ago - can we we move on now?"

As a result, I regularly skimmed over entire sections, focusing just on the main points. And I could read it for only small stretches at a time. Consequently, this book took a long time to finish, something that is unusual for this typically fast reader.

Obviously, lots of readers will disagree with this review. And that's okay. All readers have unique preferences for those authors whose writing styles match the reader's personal reading style. Unfortunately, Mr. Friel and I have mismatched styles...to the point where I both struggled to finish this and was glad it was done when I did.

Having said all that, I'm still glad I read this book. It contained some great advice for aging athletes who hope to remain competitive in their age groups, and I've already incorporated some of these ideas into my training regimen. I just wish it hadn't been such a painful reading experience...hence the two stars: great content - but a challenging presentation of it.
Profile Image for Nicole Miles.
Author 17 books138 followers
October 17, 2023
My biggest takeaway is that, as we get older, we really need to keep intensity up and not buy into the idea that older people should only do really gentle movement as this can really hinder physical independence and vitality. And, in order to do this, we need to have recovery really dialled in. I’m sceptical about some of the nutrition section. Maybe I just need to read more, but some of it seems contradictory to the last book I read referencing similar things (Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance) and this section seemed to involve a lot of anecdote. Overall this was fine, but a little repetitive. It’s probably most useful in written form so you can look at the referenced charts/diagrams and properly go over the specific training recommendations. I listened on audiobook.
38 reviews
May 11, 2025
What a positive and optimistic book! I listened to an audio version on Spotify while on walks or runs, and I found myself smiling, shouting “yes!” and punching the air with my fist more than once.

The messages are quite simple:
- it is possible to continue performing well after 50 in endurance sports, and even improving,
- yes, medics advise normal people that there is a growing risk of injuries etc as we get older, but experienced athletes are not normal people,
- in order to keep performing well, athletes need to do high intensity training.

Being a book by an American coach, it is repetitive in some places but in this particular case it is only a plus. The positive message is drilled down into your head.

After listening to it, I bought a paper copy for frequent reference.
Profile Image for Jenny Luebbe.
47 reviews26 followers
March 18, 2018
This book has a series of articles written by different authors. Many of the chapters were interesting to me including:

Chapter 8 Body Fat: insulin resistance by Tim Noakes & menopause by Gale Bernhardt

I also enjoyed reading about high intensity training and recovery differences in older athletes and the appendix is useful with 3 guides for workouts, field tests and measuring intensity.

I'll definitely refer back to this book for reference
18 reviews
June 17, 2019
Too technical for me

I really enjoyed the early chapters, that emphasized the need for high intensity exercise to stave off the effects of aging. But the latter chapters were highly technical. The information may be invaluable of you place a high priority on getting on a platform after a race. But while I want to be faster, I run to increase my quality of life when I'm not running.
Profile Image for Mark Zodda.
800 reviews1 follower
June 25, 2024
I'm not really the target audience because I am not interested in racing, but there is plenty of good information for those who want to improve or at least maintain their performance levels. Since it was published in 2015 some of the recommendations may be out of date and not reflect current thinking. Overall it is a good resource for those of us who are aging, but still want to pretend that we're not. Recommended.
27 reviews
August 18, 2024
I’m not an elite athlete so I really can’t relate to Joe’s disappointment as his times went down. His take
on upping intensity and adding protein and watching calories are the big takeaways. I am curious to see
what happens to our perception of “aging ” as truly elite athlete who stayed competitive for 50, 60 years enter the landscape-much like young Olympians today staying competitive well into their 20s and 30s because they don’t stop training-
Profile Image for Matthew Englett.
29 reviews2 followers
September 19, 2025
I read his book named the triathletes training bible and I consult it almost everyday right now. It’s been a huge help to me. This author is really well versed in all the evidence based training, nutrition, etc. I have compared him to others that are the same and he checks out. This book is probably best for an older person that is just getting into exercising more vigorously. Much of it was already covered in his other book I previously mentioned.
Profile Image for Thady.
134 reviews2 followers
November 10, 2017
If you are and have been a serious athlete then this book will help you to coninue maximising your performance A wealth of knowledge and information. Fast after Fifty contains useful information even if you are a total amateur like I am I've used it to help me understand the science behind fitness and training
Profile Image for Alan Bevan.
207 reviews7 followers
January 23, 2023
I should have realised that this book was about racing. I was seduced by the 'after 50' part of the title. The book was far too focussed on scientific training regimes for me. Unfair to blame the author I guess, rather, my poor book selection. An example of the perils of buying a book online without the opportunity to peruse it first.
7 reviews
April 11, 2023
Sound advice for age group athletes

The best endurance training book that I read so far. I took up triathlon at the age of 58 and am now progressing from sprint to olympic distance. The key message of the book is the importance of high intensity training and increased need for recovery in between.
Profile Image for Mert Topcu.
167 reviews
July 7, 2023
Great addendum to Joe Friel's Bible of Triathlon book for people over 50 and want to be competitive in their age group.

In short, make sure to incorporate high intensity interval and strength training in your training plan, which have so many different benefits for sport performance and health as we age.
Profile Image for Noel Llopis.
Author 3 books11 followers
September 10, 2023
I agree with the premise of the book: You need high-intensity training. But it's the usual problem with these books: It has one or two interesting ideas that can be summarized in a page (or chapter). The rest is needless repetition and examples. Just go read his blog posts on the topic and that will be more than enough.
Profile Image for Joseph.
72 reviews6 followers
June 6, 2019
Lots of good info. A little too complex and impractical for the average serious amateur athlete I think.
Expensive gizmos and testing is a little out of my price range, although it would be cool to do.
Profile Image for Marc Fernich.
8 reviews
July 28, 2023
The book didn’t tell me much I didn’t already know. Its contents are a little dated, and the information it provides is too generalized and non-sport-specific to be actionable in practice. I’d recommend the author’s Cyclist’s Training Bible or just using his Training Peaks platform instead.
2 reviews
March 15, 2018
Great and useful book

A little bit to long, may be, but definetly provided a lot of useful practical material that can be used to define a training program.
2 reviews
October 11, 2018
The fountain of youth

I have tried this and am starting to see improvements in my aerobic performance. I’m fifty now and this really changed the way I exercise.
Profile Image for Eric Nelson.
94 reviews2 followers
October 19, 2018
Redundant. Not too much new information. Could have been done in a quarter of the pages.
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