Purplepatch Fitness

It all begins with quality and education.  When I first started purplepatch I sat in planning meetings and consistently talked about a few key topics.  I began with a mission to bring a truly professional service, for all levels of athlete and fitness enthusiast, and behave as a professional organization from the very start.  With the mission came the goal of reaching as many people as possible with the knowledge and information I had, without risking a dilution of the cherished quality of service and program content.  As we have grown in the last four years, it’s became apparent that we have maximized the abilities of the old web platform (one that was built on my Mac computer in a basic program) and we needed to evolve.  We could not grow without running the risk of losing quality and true connection to our readers.  We also understand that we need to evolve to new ways of connecting with our community and athletes, but are always hesitant to simply grow for growth sake.

As we look toward 2012, we have taken the first steps to improving our communication, education and offerings.  We have shifted to a new web platform. This new site is a robust platform that will enable us to grow and extend our ability to showcase more education and topics of interest, as well as make it simpler to find information on topics that are of interest to you.  We can greatly increase the information flow and education from our partners, such as Gerry Rodrigues (swimming), Ryan Stockton (functional strength) and RestWise (recovery).  This will help to make purplepatch a resource for filtered information that we believe is helpful to you.  As we move into 2012, there are a few more fun and interesting things we will roll out:

Education and interaction with the experts:  We are also making over our current training and coaching options, with enhanced education wrapping around the entire program, from coaching and consulting with myself, to training with one of the purplepatch athletes. We will be rolling out a series of educational seminars, webinars, Q and A sessions, podcasts and videos on all aspects of performance and endurance training.  Some of this will be open to anyone interested in performance and the purplepatch methodology, remaining free of charge and sharing with your friends encouraged!  
We have completed the planned education calendar for the first quarter of this year, and will be posted it in the coming week or so.

Central to this education will be our adoption of Google Plus (+1).  The purplepatch page of Google Plus is going to be our hub of education, ‘hang outs’, community and news.  We highly encourage you to join up and become part of the community, as it will be the hub of our communication in just a few weeks.  Beyond the education, we are choosing Google Plus as it can really help you, the purplepatch athletes and community, to connect with one another.  You can learn from each other, support each other, and even engage in a little ego-free competition along the way I am sure!

To join us on Google Plus follow these three easy steps:
 STEP 1. You need a Google account. If you don’t have one, start with here.

 STEP 2. Once you are all setup and settled in,  link to us here purplepatchfitness
 STEP 3. Add purplepatch to one of your Google + circles.

That's it! You are now part of the purplepatch Google + community and we will add you to our ‘circles’ for all the fun and education to come.

Tracking your progress:  I personally think one area that purplepatch has done a less-than-stellar job in the last year is to objectively track our athletes’ progress and performance in training and racing.  I would like to see this improve!  As we shift to 2012, we will be introducing specific benchmark assessments, or field tests, for each endurance sport.  Every athlete, of all levels, will be able to track their performance evolution in key variables related to their experience, level goals and ability.  This will be an enhanced benefit for you as an athlete, as well as us to see if your recipe is working.  In addition, we will maintain performance metrics in your events, so that we can assess how you are doing, and tell every one of your great successes.  

Something new! - Supported Training Plans:  It a dream scenario, every athlete trains every session daily in front of a high-quality coach who adapts the plan to how the athlete is doing.  Unfortunately, this situation is close to impossible for the vast majority of athletes out there looking to improve.  A customized training plan with ongoing support and communication is great, but often quite expensive, so we wanted to bridge the gap with something new and a little unique.

In the coming weeks we will be launching more training programs, tiered for level and experience, for running, triathlon and cycling.  All plans will be supported with information on fueling, nutrition, functional strength and recovery.  Alone, they will serve as a good roadmap for you to train toward your goals, but curveballs and life changes often occur mid-plan.  To help you work through these situations, we will support every person on a purplepatch training plan with free support, education, guidance and feedback through group seminars, Q and A sessions and other supporting materials.  In addition to your regular direct interaction with me and other experts, we will connect you with other athletes who share the same goals, sport and level.  We all need a little support and community, and even a little friendly competition along the way.  Don’t worry; if you are a runner you won’t be stuck chatting to triathletes, we will guide you to topics, education and groups that are perfect for you!  Once again, Google Plus will be the communication hub that will allow us to filter athletes into their ‘circles’ and enable us to provide you with information that is relevant to you!

We will also help make you a smarter athlete, and keep you accountable, by keeping an eye on you (and nudging you if we see things we like/don’t like!) utilizing RestWise....

RestWise:  check your recovery status:  For the last 12 months our purplepatch pros, as well as a few of our busiest executives, have been using and testing a tool called Restwise (www.restwise.com).  The premise is that, through a daily collection of subjective and objective data, combined with a learning algorithm, the athlete gets a daily ‘recovery score’ that scales from 0 - 100 (80 is ‘normal’).  Some of the really interesting applications are not simply to see how recovered and athlete is.  We have seen great use in monitoring how different athletes react to different types of training load, how quickly they recuperate after training blocks, and other patterns that are often hard to monitor unless standing right next to the athlete daily.

In 2012, we will be recommending all purplepatch athletes utilize the system.  We will do our part, and keep an eye on you.  Whether you are a purplepatch pro working directly with me, or have simply purchased a training plan and participate in the education and support, we will track your status equally.  If we see things we don’t like, we will ping you.  Hopefully, through the support and education, we will enable you to make smart decisions.  Push through?  Back off?  Always the golden question to greater gains.

The goal is to allow you to be on a plan, while we monitor you and help you become smarter about all aspects of performance.  

We want to hear from you....  In the coming weeks, we want to hear from you.  If there are subject, topics, plans that you would like, or anything you feel we could improve on, we are all ears.  We listen, and try to evolve to your needs.  Simply email info@purplepatchfitness.com and we will do our best to follow through.

In the meantime, have a look around the new site.  We hope you like it.  This is version one... there is lots more to come in the coming months.

Cheers

Matt