Originally Posted by
Brian Ratliff
Read closer. Friel's book is really for Cat 3 and up; racers who have been racing for 2 or 3 years already. He says this explicitly. A new racer doesn't know enough about his or her body to make use of anything but the most general of information in that book. It does have good information for the new racer, but the specific training cycles and workouts and such that he goes though are really for more developed racers.
I don't believe this is true. Friel also has guidelines for new riders to create a plan. It's for anyone, but you are right in that it is more directed at experienced riders. On occasion, like in a workout description, he'll say "Do not do this workout if you have less than 2 years of racing experience", but only in a couple of them. To say that a beginner rider wouldn't benefit from proper recovery, hours on the bike and some tempo/intervals doesn't make much sense.