356 - Win the Race Before It Starts: Race Prep Secrets from the Coaches' Table
Follow the Purple Patch Podcast at:
APPLE PODCASTS - SPOTIFY- AMAZON MUSIC - GOOGLE PODCASTS - YOUTUBE
Welcome to the Purple Patch Podcast!
Welcome to the Purple Patch Podcast! IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon hosts a roundtable discussion with three Purple Patch coaches—Brad Hunter, Nancy Clarke, and Max Gering—on race preparation. They discuss the importance of taper, emphasizing energy conservation and maintaining some intensity. They highlight the need for a structured approach to race week, including planning and reducing cognitive load. The conversation also covers mindset, the significance of defining success beyond just time, and the importance of staying present and managing emotions during races. They stress the value of post-race reflection to learn and grow, regardless of the outcome. The session underscores the team's collaborative approach to coaching and the individualized needs of athletes.
If you have any questions about the Purple Patch program, feel free to reach out at info@purplepatchfitness.com.
Episode Timecodes:
:00-1:20 Purple Patch Promo
1:50-5:20 Coach’s Roundtable Intro
5:12-22:15 Taper & Preparation
33:56-53:34 Pacing & Self-Management
53:35-end Post Race Reflection
Purple Patch and Episode Resources
Check out our world-class coaching and training options:
Tri Squad: https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/squad
1:1 Coaching: https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/11-coached
Run Squad: https://www.purplepatchfitness/com/run-squad
Strength Squad: https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/strength-1
Live & On-Demand Bike Sessions: https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/bike
Explore our training options in detail: https://bit.ly/3XBo1Pi
Live in San Francisco? Explore the Purple Patch Performance Center: https://center.purplepatchfitness.com
Everything you need to know about our methodology:
https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/our-methodology
Amplify your approach to nutrition with Purple Patch + Fuelin
https://www.fuelin.com/purplepatch
Get access to our free training resources, insight-packed newsletter and more at purplepatchfitness.com
Transcription
Matt Dixon 00:00
Folks, I'm excited about today's show. It's a first time ever. I don't just welcome one Purple Patch coach to the show. Nope. We've got three. It is myself, Brad Hunter, Nancy Clarke and Matt Scarran. We are doing a show all about race, preparation, mindset, nailing your taper, making sure that you're ready to perform. And what you're going to hear over the course of the coming hour or so is some really treasured insights from really some incredibly smart coaches, and it gives you a little peek behind the curtain of Purple Patch. It's not just about me, it's about the team. We operate as a team, we support each other, and we are driven by helping people to improve no matter what their goals are. And it turns out, we've done pretty well. I know that I become a better coach because of just this little sample, these coaches that we get to hear from today. And so if you'd like to become a part of Purple Patch, whether individually coached by one of the coaches here, or one of the other coaches on the Purple Patch team, or, of course, via our tri squad program, in which you get access to all of our coaches. Feel free to reach out info at Purple Patch fitness.com we can set up a complimentary consultation to see if we're the right program for you. Here it is, say coaches, round table, race preparation. Enjoy the show.
Matt Dixon 01:22
I'm Matt Dixon, and welcome to the Purple Patch podcast. The mission of Purple Patch is to empower and educate every human being to reach their athletic potential. Through the lens of athletic potential, you reach your human potential. The purpose of this podcast is to help time starved people everywhere integrate sport into life.
Matt Dixon 01:51
And welcome to the Purple Patch podcast as ever your host, Matt Dixon and today, well, we have got a very special show because you find us on location at the Napa training camp. We are actually halfway through this thing. We were two days down, or two and a half days down. We've already got some tired puppies that are campers. They've done a very, very big early morning swim. They did a very meaty running session this morning. And we've got a little break. So we thought, You know what, we'll take the opportunity here. And some of the coaches that are on site, we're letting coach John Stevens, who is a prior podcast guest here, he's going to get off the hook, but we thought we get four of us together and do a little bit of a coaches round table. One of the themes of this camp has been race preparation, not just training for the sake of training, but training for the pursuit of improved performance in our racing, and of course, that includes preparing through taper mindset, some of the mistakes that can occur and on and on and on. We thought, You know what? We've got a lot to share. We're having a lot of discussions. So why don't we get together? So we are very, very lucky today, because most of you will recognize Max Goering joining us today. Good morning, Matt. Good morning. Good afternoon. It's well be back. Welcome back. Good afternoon. It feels like it's it's 24 hours a day. And for the first time on the Purple Patch podcast, two more senior coaches with Purple Patch. Young Brad Hunter, welcome thank you. Matt, pleasure to be here. Welcome to the show for the first time. Nancy Clarke, thank you. I'm happy to be here rock and roll again. We're going to do a little bit of a round table here, so hopefully we're all going to contribute, and we're going to go through four main topics, all under the banner of race preparation. Race season is coming. We've already had some great races at the time of recording. The big, meaty one that we had a couple of weeks ago was Oceanside. Of course, we had a lot of athletes down there racing, a lot of successes, and just earlier this week, Boston Marathon, with some cracking performances I should know of all age levels. And maybe we'll talk about your athlete, Nicole, with her wonderful 307 performance that she had down there, who got to run with her dad, which is pretty cool. Who's your athlete who got to run with her dad? Pat Romano, who's been on the show almost 60 years of age, 325, pretty impressive for young Pat there as well. What we want to do, and I got my notes here, I want to break this down into four main areas today. The first is taper preparation. So as we're coming to land the plane into a race, some of the what are some of the things to get right in your table, what are some of the mistakes that athletes make and and we'll dig in around that. I want to also talk Secondly, about mindset and racing mindset, particularly in flight during the race. And try and pack up some unpack some topics around there something that I think is really important as well, which is pacing, self management, so we get into that side of it. And then finally, once it's all done and dusted, rather than just going to the beer tent, we want to also talk about post race reflection a little bit. We might get some bonus takeaways depend on time as.
Matt Dixon 05:00
Go. So Nancy, Brad, Max, fasten your seat belt. So we ready to go. Ready to go. Alrighty, let's rock and roll. Let's start. So we're going to start with taper first, and maybe Brad, I'll start with you on this one. We talk about the taper, and before we hit the magic record button, we're saying it's pretty different than track and field or swimming those types of races, particularly as we go into longer distance triathlon. What do you think some of the things to get right in a taper are?
Brad Hunter 05:33
Well, the first thing that comes to mind when we start talking about taper is the classic Purple Patch saying showing up feeling fit and fresh, not fit and fatigued. So I think when you say land the plane, make sure that you get kind of in the right landing zone at the end. Energy conservation, being able to rebound, collect energy as you're coming into the race is the most important thing. But it can be super challenging as you're doing the taper, because it can feel like maybe you're not doing enough, right? It becomes a confidence, confidence killer to actually back off and restore energy for 70.3 and especially for an Iron Man distance race where it's like you want to, you want your energy tank at full when you hit the
Matt Dixon 06:12
start line, it's, it's a funny thing, because, you know, maybe we'll combine this question, what are the things to get right equally with what are some of the common mistakes as well? But it's a balancing act. You want to retain fitness. And of course, the the question that every athlete has is, Am I ready? Am I ready? Which is an unanswerable question, by the way, you will never feel ready, even when you get ready for a for a great race. But there's, I think it's, it's such a difficult balancing act for coaches and athletes to really get right, because you want to maintain every element of fitness and hard work that you put in at the same time, you want to ensure that you are incredibly fresh, so that you can up level in many ways. Yep, and
Brad Hunter 06:56
you have to have a bit of faith in the process, which is
Max Gering 07:00
just faith, yeah. One more that comes to mind. Both of you are the ones that do all of our video, our bike recordings, and a lot of our race prep sessions. We use the word primer priming. So I think interesting thing there, which is, yes, you want to conserve energy, but you don't want to feel flat, and so you still do a little bit of work. Your total work is going to be a lot less, but there's still some nice bits of work, and those, especially the two weeks before the race that you're getting continuing to maintain your feel for a race pace, so that you can go into it feeling confident. Primed is something that I think about. That word primed,
Matt Dixon 07:36
yeah, but before we we got in, we were talking about rhythm a little bit. And I think rhythms, the part of it, I think a big part of of a successful taper, if you want to call it that, is not actually changing too much. There's a phrase that we use a lot performance predictability. So Can Can you get the body to actually up level? And one of the ways to do that is to not change too much, whether we're talking about daily eating habits, whether we're talking about sleep patterns, etc, and, of course, when we're talking about rhythm of training. So if your regular cadence of I swim on Mondays, I bike on Tuesdays, I run on Wednesdays. I think as much as possible, we'd like to try and keep that really familiar, and we're just dialing down the total load. But I think Max, what you said there is really important keeping some intensity in there. So if bike Tuesday of Tuesday tends to be a higher intensity bike, you want to have some intensity. You don't want to rest and just get stale. I
Nancy Clarke 08:36
think that's one of the bigger mistakes that athletes will make, right? So we're reducing volume, so we can help shed that fatigue for race day, but we also need to maintain some intensity, so that we're feeling really sharp. And I think athletes sometimes can either go one way or the other in terms of being afraid to hit some of that intensity. Is it too much? Is it going to make me too tired? No, we want to maintain some of that intensity, because we are making that drop in volume, we had
Max Gering 09:02
that conversation about athlete viewers, I think, was training for a marathon, right? You ping me on Slack and yep, this athlete strength training was a key part of their training throughout the process. And they also really like it. It makes them feel really confident. We were talking about, okay, what should that athlete do in their taper phase? And what we settled on was, they need that rhythm. They need to keep strength training, because if they stop strength strength training, they won't feel very good about themselves physically. They won't feel primed, but they need to reduce load. So we settled on Nancy and I was just switching over to a lot of body weight strength training, so their muscles will still feel full and strong and they'll feel confident, but it just won't create deep fatigue. And that's a good example of how to balance that keep the rhythm but reduce the intensity slash volume. I'll say
Matt Dixon 09:44
something that is unscientific, but maybe easily understandable. Body memory a little bit. And I think as we go longer in racing, I think this becomes a really important factor. I see a lot of athletes i. Over resting, particularly when it comes to if they're going to go and do an Ironman. And three weeks out, they think, I've got to taper now. And they go into lethargy mode, not just with intensity. A week out or two weeks out, they think, oh my goodness me, I've got to recover. So therefore my bike ride's only going to be 90 minutes or two hours, and three weeks before it's only going to be two or three hours, and by the time they actually hit race day, the last time they had anything of duration was a month ago. And I think that, you know, it's not just cognitively, but physically. The body's not familiar with that. So you want to sort of have these, if anything, you keep that rhythm of the big key sessions, and then you really reduce the intensity around it, and you make your moments to activate. And then the throttle is those, as we talk about Purple Patch, those easier sessions, you can scale back duration even more. You can scale back intensity even more on those so that it keeps the body really fresh Absolutely.
Brad Hunter 10:59
And I think the other thing about tapering is that it's really individual. And so when we're working with athletes individually, you know that? I mean, we're always trying to track, okay, what worked well this time? And I know we'll get to those questions down the line, but it's like some people respond, there is no perfect taper, right? Yeah. The the answer we're saying here is there's no perfect taper, and some people will respond to different things differently, and so tracking that for yourself becomes a really important piece, piece to that puzzle. I
Matt Dixon 11:28
think that's really key. I remember going with the Purple Patch pros in an athlete. In fact, I mentioned two athletes, Laura Siddle, who were all remembering Sarah pian piano. And they were athletes we learned over time that really needed to keep up workload. So it wouldn't be uncommon for Laura to go for a two or three hour bike ride the day before the race, and it helped her, both mentally and that's a part of it. Ultimately, confidence drives success, whether it's all about education or race performance, but also physically, she just really responded, on the flip side, someone like Jesse Thomas wanted to sit on the couch and play, you know, try and get him out for a couple of days. He's like, I don't want to move my body. And so it is. And i The one thing I'll add to that, just bringing people back, particularly if you're listening as a Purple Patch athletes, you know, the way that we set up our training rhythm throughout the year is in three week cycles. And as we move a little less in off season, but as we move into this part of the year at recording sort of April into May, you know, have a week of work, a second week of work, that third week that we call transition, we try and set that up as a rhythm of training, where we're peaking to have Saturday or Sunday be a kind of a simulator, a challenging day. And that personality of the week, if you want to call it, that, is very, very similar to a race week. And I think that physically, the body likes familiarity, the mind likes familiarity. So that's the way that we sort of infuse it into it. What about Nancy? Eating and eating habits? I think that, you know, I see two sides of the eating habits, which is, oh my goodness me, it's taper, and my workloads dropping, so therefore I need to go on a diet and start reducing, or I'm going to turn into a foie gras goose and start pumping up calories, you know, 10 days out, or whatever it might be. So what do you think about it?
Nancy Clarke 13:27
And neither one is, is, yeah, the appropriate approach there. So just as you were saying, maintaining that rhythm and that predictability, we're not going to make big changes to our diet until just a few days out, and then at that time, we're going to start looking at increasing our carbohydrates depending upon the distance of the race that we are doing. Yeah, right. A big, a big influence on that. But
Max Gering 13:53
keep it familiar, yeah. Still keep protein high. We all love,
Matt Dixon 13:58
yeah. Daily protein is a bedrock. And then, you know, the sort of addition to it is, if we think about our regular daily eating habits, big protein, plenty of carbohydrates, plenty of vegetables, if we maintain that pattern, and our training load is dropping, therefore our resources in a build, and that's going to prevent us from adding the 234, pounds that makes us feel bloated. At the same time we're restoring energy and we're fully and then we can ramp up. And there is some credit 48 hours, 72 hours before, particularly as we're going longer in the duration, races to start adding greater carbohydrates into
Brad Hunter 14:35
the mix, yeah. And that's, I mean, the important thing there is making sure they're eating good, simple carbohydrates, like plain white rice, bread, pasta, that's where you want to make sure you're putting those into your system of glycogen.
Matt Dixon 14:47
I want to think about mindset and the taper a little bit. We're going to go into a whole thing on mindset, but reducing cognitive load in that last week you try. Travel to your race, and those last 48 hours can be chaos. You've got to register, you've got to you've got to make sure your bike's working, you've got to do the training that's necessary, or traveling, etc. So what are some of the things that you talk to your athletes about in that last not just in the last sort of 48 hours before the race, when they're at race site, but in the 10 days before, some of the tools and tricks to help people reduce cognitive load and keep it simple, I'm gonna go to you first. No, I mean
Brad Hunter 15:32
first. So one of the things, one of the things that I think is super beneficial to get people set up on is working through a timeline of the really, really busy stuff for when you land at race site, right? So you land, you're there, and you're kind of that's where your brain flips over and you go through and work a good structured agenda or itinerary for yourself that you can hand write in a journal, right? Actually take the time to say, this is where I need to be on race morning. This is when my check in is write all that down and write it and let your brain process through that, because then that becomes a nice framework that you've already put into your brain ahead of time, and that you can go, go through and visualize then once you're on race site as well, right? But putting all some of that out of your head and knowing that you've got everything under control, because you wrote it all down ahead of time, and you have that kind of built in. I think that's super helpful in terms of navigating some of that cognitive overload going in. I think
Nancy Clarke 16:26
you can build on that earlier in the week, right, especially when you start to see athletes spin and get nervous about all the things that they need to think about, and when do they pack their bike and after what workout, and what do I need to take, and should I take this? And they're looking at the weather, but taking that same approach, and taking 15 minutes a day and putting it in your calendar, blocking out that bit of time. And during that time, you can think about whatever you need to think about. You can make those phone calls to the hotel. You can figure out, I'm going to pack my bike on this day. I'm going to do X, Y, Z on this day. And then after that, you're done for that day, that 15 minutes you set aside, and then you go on with the rest of your life. I
Matt Dixon 17:04
think that's a great I love how you sort of put it in a box, in the way feels. So it's time bound, because it it can become overwhelming. You know, we always talk about races as but by the time that, particularly if you've got a little bit more of a grinding personality, you know? And it's something that's exciting and it's a big moment, and it's like, you know, it's like, going to a big concert or something, and here it comes. Here it comes. And so often you wait, you're waiting for New Year's Eve, and it's going to be a big, huge night by the time New Year's Eve come, you know, I just want to go to bed, you know. But that that happens, I think. And I think what both of you, you guys say there is, it creates a framework and a structure, and it really it allows control. I can't hear how many athletes I know that. And the most perfect arena for this is the Hawaii Iron Man, where there's so much going on by the time they're at the start line, they're exhausted, mentally and physically, not just physically, because they've been out in the sun out there, and so much of it is because of making things random and almost getting getting pinballed around. You know, we were doing Hill repetitions yesterday, and I talked a lot to the group around navigating up this hill, and we were seeing as coaches that the hill was controlling them, almost like a boat bobbing around. The Warner said, take control of the hill. So try and actually use the grade change to get greater speed. I think that applies to a taper at race site. Take control of it. Get structured and organized so that you can get predictability, therefore you can carve in some rest
Brad Hunter 18:42
as well, totally. And so the thing that that brings to mind, I'd love to hear the, I'd love to hear the coaching round tables thoughts on this, because we're not, we're not coaching professionals. Most of the athletes that we're coaching into races are time starved, busy professionals or busy, busy, busy, busy in some form or fashion. And part of navigating race week is also, how much are you working? How are you clearing the decks of work stuff? Or do you advise people to try and shut down on email ahead of time? Which is like you could suggest that to some folks, and it's literally the most shocking, you know, shocking thing. So what do you guys do in terms of trying to help people set themselves up around work and being able to focus on the race once they've arrived at the race. I think it goes
Max Gering 19:23
back to what you're saying in the beginning of everything being really individual, and everything all of you just said. I think as coaches, our job is to help athletes navigate the unknown. Even if you've done 10 Ironmans, you've never done your 11th Ironman. So every experience we coach your athletes through is helping them navigate the unknown, and having them write down things and create a timeline of what they're going to do on site once they land at their race location, we're helping them get things out of their head, put it on paper, and that reduces anxiety, because when you work to create known amongst the unknown, control where you can control, you have a reduction of stress and anxiety. And so I think the same thing with i. Those work schedules, it's you add that to the list of the things that they're working through in taper week. So depending on what's athletes may be traveling the week of the race, maybe traveling from work to the race, whatever it may be. And so just adding that to the list of things that you help them map out and work backwards from is the answer. And there isn't one right approach. I think, in general, if someone can shut off email, if someone can focus a little more on themselves, and that helps them, then that's great. But going back to your athlete that wanted to play Playstation, maybe another athlete, an athlete, wants to be distracted. So maybe they want to be answering emails for work. Maybe they want to be doing be doing some some stuff to get their mind off of the race. So they'll just sit around their hotel room and stew over what they're about to do. So I don't think there's a one size fits all. I
Matt Dixon 20:53
agree with that. I will say like my, I think my, my best energy I can come up with on athletes getting ready for racing is actually coaches getting ready for a training camp. So we're all here, and in many ways, this is our race, because it is absolutely all consuming. We have to be at our very best, and there's a whole bunch of stuff out of our control. And at the same time, we've got a bunch of athletes that we're coaching, and we've got all of our responsibilities at Purple Patch, which vary amongst all of us. So we do prepare last week, we were getting ready for this week, not just the logistics of this camp, but we were training ahead. We were maybe taking some extra calls last week. We were communicating to our athletes that were out of pocket and will be restricted so that here we do the really important work with, maybe athletes that are running into trouble or got some, you know, and I had to go to a couple of meetings here, etc, but we have, it's not a tidal wave of work where we're trying to just maintain a regular work week and add this on. And I and we have got as a team, and adding John here, that's not the show, but we've got better and better and better at that that I see as a coaching team over the last 456, camps, we are wholly present for the athletes, and we are able to perform our best because of what we did over the last two weeks, being prepared and Talking through this camp very designated times, but removing it outside of that. So I want to move on, because we've got a lot of topics to go through, and I think that that's some, that's some, some really good stuff. I want to move to frame your success a little bit. So I want to shift into mindset. Do we have a brain mechanic on this show for listeners that don't know Max has a master's degree in performance psychology, so step up to the podium. We should put up rights, right, and we can just sit back and relax as we sit here, graciously hosted by Joel and Sarah got a Joel got wines. Nancy get the wine, because Max. So thank you very much. But let's talk about race day mindset a little bit. And I've got a few questions here that I want to go through. And it's the first one is defining athlete success on race day and and this is as we're going into a race it is so easy for athletes of all level to define success purely in terms of either time. You know, I've been X hours and an Iron Man, I need to go faster. So PRs, obviously placement, qualification, pass, fail. When we're coaching our athletes, how do we talk to them about defining success? How do we try and put their their mind space leading into a race so that we can get the very best performance out of them? I'm going to put you on this spot. I've put bear in the spot first last time, so I'm going to lead you in. I
Max Gering 23:55
think it starts with way before taper, way before the race. If you're just talking about that two weeks prior to the race, you're not doing good job as a coach. In my opinion, we recently had a checkpoint within our Purple Patch ecosystem with athletes called Arc so assessment, reflection and checking in. And it really even starts at those at those moments, having open communication with your athlete. What are your goals? What's your why? What are you working towards? Why are you engaging in the sport of triathlon or running marathons? And then, based off of that, you can start to have the conversation of, what does success look like in this race? Because if an athlete, for example, is starting to get caught up in the time but three months prior, you had a really several conversations about their Why is their family and to be a better leader at work, you need to go back to that and say, Hey, remember the conversations we had? It's not about whether you finish in five and a half or five hours and 45 minutes. You have other goals that we're working towards, and this race is a part of that picture. So I think framing what success looks like in the race you. Starts with getting clear with your athletes on their goals, on their why, prior to engaging even in the race, build, and then you can move forward, and you can then within the race, start to break down specific goals that they want to accomplish within the race. And that's going to depend on what the race is. Is it an A race, or is it a B race? Maybe there's some more process driven goals of something specific to a specific discipline. So there's a lot of context there, but I think it starts prior. Is my initial bird's eye view answer.
Matt Dixon 25:33
I have a lot to say, so
Nancy Clarke 25:37
I think it's okay to say I want to see if I can hit the podium. Yes, I think it's okay. I want to try and bake break five hours for the first time. I think it's okay to have those goals. But I also think it's really important that we don't get shackled to that expectation right on both sides, right? Don't be limited by what your potential could be, and don't sell yourself too short. So
Matt Dixon 26:05
yeah, I, I'm gonna jump in here go. I, I'm so glad you said that, because, uh, let's, let's not lose sight of the fact that winning is really fun. You know, whatever your version of winning is, and it is really important to have really lofty, really ambitious goals to be like, Yeah, I do want to qualifier. I do want a podium, or I do want a PR, etc, and, and I also want to give my scope to if my mythical time that I want to go is under five hours in a half Ironman, that actually you can go 440 maybe, you know, like, you want to be free to absolutely smash it at the same time. And so when I, I like to have those discussions first and be like, Yeah, like that, that's really and make it exciting. But they'll say, Okay, how do we get there? And because the truth is that all of those things are still ultimately outputs. You know that their end results and so much can happen and will happen in the chaos of racing. So that is a aspiration, that is a goal, that is something that that is going to keep us going when things get really tough. Now let's focus on the inputs that are going to get you there, and let's define that. And I always like to talk to athletes about two things. The first is a commitment, and it's not a motivation. It's a commitment that when the gun goes off and they're at the start line, no matter what happens over the course of the day. The one way to guarantee that you can get pride satisfaction and learning is to remain committed, to get from A to B as fast as you can. That's so that's and that is a commitment. That's the important thing. It's not a desire. So you got to get that to the depth of yourself, no matter what happens, flat tires, mechanicals, legs feel bad, cramping, etc. That's your first commitment. And then the second thing is, what are the actions, what are the inputs necessary for you to go around, your pacing, your fueling, your management stuff to lead you to then the best result of the day? That's a that's a stepping stone. That's, that's what I have with mindset.
Max Gering 28:18
My point, I completely agree with both of you. My point. I think it goes back to that in the beginning of the build, you need to know if the athlete wants to hit a certain time, you need to know their loft, ambitious goal, because then you can hold them to the standard. I think athletes go into races really anxious and not confident, because they say they have one goal, but they haven't done they haven't had the inputs yet. You know, if you want to qualify, well, there's a standard that you need to hold in your training to be able to qualify. And if you haven't done that in training, well, then maybe going into the race, you need to set expectations. So I think part of it is based on what's happened in the athlete's life going into the build, helping them set some really realistic expectations based off of where they are going into that race, yeah, and if they're really fit, and if they've managed to have a good build, and if they're primed, then yes, it's let's get really nitty gritty about we're trying to hit specific paces in the run. Want to bike in a certain time, and really get detailed about the race. And for athletes that are on the other end of the spectrum, they may need a little bit more broad stroke goals for how they want to feel at different points in the race, and some less metric driven race goals. How do
Matt Dixon 29:29
you help athletes avoid being derailed by things that are out of their control? So weather, logistical challenges, equipment challenges, competition is one, people get distracted. How do you how do you focus on that?
Brad Hunter 29:44
It's a trainable that that mindset approach is trainable, and so that's something you should be thinking about week by week during training sessions, when you're stuck out on weekends, whenever you're doing your your hard work. Again, we have tons of time starved athletes. A in Purple Patch. We can talk about it a lot. And one of the one of the hallmarks of being a time starved athlete is that your training week rarely goes as planned. And so in an in and of just navigating your training week, week by week, and having to go with the flow about that perfect rhythm that we've already said we really want to see, rarely does that happen, I think for a lot of for a lot of athletes, just how you navigate that week in, week out sets you up to then navigate that same type of uncertainty and unpredictable conditions that you can arrive at on race day, right?
Matt Dixon 30:34
And perhaps this is a slightly different point, but, but you talked about uncertainty and and training opportunity, because ultimately, race day performance is really just an expression of your preparation. Yeah, so, so let's talk about if we can get for a triathlete, for example, your best swim training session, your best bike training session, your best run training session, in a single day. That is a dream race performance like that. That's really what is just an expression. But it comes back, even yesterday, at this training camp, one of the things that we really realized, we were doing a bunch of Hill repetitions on the bike, and a lot of people were struggling. They were, by definition, as we love to do here, out of their comfort zone. You had one particular athlete that was very much out of her comfort zone, and we realized she wants to do an Ironman this summer. We realized, okay, in that Iron Man, she is going to be incredibly uncomfortable, and she is going to go through, we can promise, at very dark times. And it was the most powerful experience for her, because she didn't turn her back on yesterday, she lent into the exposure with your coaching, and she really grew. So training is an opportunity to actually get the mind ready for racing in many ways. Yeah,
Nancy Clarke 31:49
well, in your trade, in in that particular situation yesterday, there was a lot of I can't do this. I can't do this. I think I need to stop. But it's changing that narrative in your head. What if I can what happens if? And that's a pretty powerful change to see what can happen. And sure enough, she got up that hill. Confidence swells.
Matt Dixon 32:14
Joy swells. Yeah, confidence builds,
Nancy Clarke 32:17
yep, you just get stronger. What else can I do now? It builds on itself.
Matt Dixon 32:22
That was really interesting, because I thought for sure that this athlete would maybe pull back from today's run. She was there. She leaned in. She did her longest run the year so far, her best run lean
Brad Hunter 32:35
year so far. Yeah, walked away with a smile on her face. Exactly. So
Matt Dixon 32:39
training is the proving ground, in many way, not the pass or fail, but it really can build confidence. So getting out of your comfort zone, I can guarantee you this, that she, she would, she wouldn't have done that by herself. That was, that was the power of a training camp, anyways, which I know, I know that we're off, of topic a little bit, but I want to talk about one thing in particular that I think is is an important mindset for many, many Iron Man athletes, particularly because the Iron Man is a beast. It's, you know, swim, 2.4 miles, ride, 112 miles at least. The last time I checked and I think you got to run a marathon at the end of it. It's a long day for anyone, and particularly for athletes that are not podium finishers in this you know, the vast majority of people that are, let's call it just above 10 hours. Anything above 10 hours for an Ironman, and if you're going 11 hours, it's very respectable and very good. 12 hours, fantastic. When I think about Iron Man racing, I think a good little nugget for listeners to take away is people struggle in Iron Man with pacing. It's very difficult to get right, and you're stringing together three different sports. And I think one of the biggest causes of blow ups is people getting into too much of a racing mindset in an immense so one of the very simple things is if you go and train all day without blow drying your hair and without taking huge break, but if you just consistently go and train all day in the swim. It's probably your best racing performance. I think that's just a really good mindset to frame. And someone that I used it with was PlayStation boy Jesse Thomas, who had was one of the best half Iron Man athletes in the world. Had never done an Iron Man. Had a tough half Iron Man when it was in Austria. I can't remember the year, but I threw him into an Iron Man two weeks later with no training in Wales. So he stayed in Europe, and he said, I am not ready for this. I don't do Iron Man said, Just go and train all day, and then if you get four miles from the finish, you can race. You. And did that, and he won the race. But he really and he really committed. He said, I just went training. And, of course, the output was good because it depressurized. So I think putting things under control again, it comes back to that is, is really, really important. One
Max Gering 35:14
thing about pacing. Before this had a call with an athlete who's racing Ironman Texas this weekend, and I think it's sometimes hard for athletes to conceptualize athletes that aren't professional athletes, the ones that you coach. And the more advanced the athlete is, the easier it is for them to gage pacing in zones and their gears and really tap into that feel, that inner animal that we talk about. So one thing that I like to do for athletes that maybe have a hard time with that is help them base their pacing strategy using the race course. So for example, I sat with this athlete on on Google meet, and we pulled up the race course and we broke each the swim, the bike, the run into sections on the map, and you can see, okay, like the swim, you can kind of break it up into three sections. The bike is an out and back loop, so you do it twice, and then the run is three loops. And we talked about how you can progressively build your pace through each the swim, the bike and the run, so that on each through each discipline, she's getting progressively faster within each discipline. So it's kind of, it's that training session type mentality, which is, you're starting smooth and slow in the swim and building, and then the bike, you're also starting smooth and slow in building, and same for the run. So that's something that I like to do, is match it with the actual race course to make it practical.
Matt Dixon 36:31
Yeah. I mean, we've never spoken about that before. We did that the Hawaii Iron Man the whole time, because it's such an important section race. I think the other power of that is a marathon can feel a long way when it's a standalone a marathon can feel a really long way when you've got concrete legs coming off the bike, but you're taking something that's very hard for the brain to wrap its head around, and you're breaking it down into sections. So that creates projects, and that project suddenly is like, okay, good. And it creates refresh points. And I think that's a really powerful way to think about it, in many ways. So
Brad Hunter 37:07
something that we were just talking about, I think you were standing next to me, we were going through the run, the run today, something we were talking about pacing. I think it applies to pacing. So we were doing a longer run session today where pacing and progressively building effort was the goal, right? That was the mission of the session. And the thing that we were queuing the athletes around was, this is about speed efficiency, not necessarily just going harder, right? So especially when you're talking about doing an Ironman race day, where it is a beast of a day, the goal is not point A to point B, as hard as I can go, the point it's point A to point B as fast as I can go. And that is efficiency of your energetic resources, right? And so we do a lot. I know we do a lot, you know, bike sessions and run sessions about using terrain to your benefit and maximizing speed. But even just having that switch of you have a limited amount of energy you're applying it over 10 plus hours, which is a really long time, right? Like, how do you make that speed return the best you can without just completely blowing up and just having that switch when you start to talk about pacing, can help a lot of athletes, like you were saying, who are not racing at the red line the entire time, help them start to manage the day and break it
Matt Dixon 38:20
down. You talked the other day about staying present as well. I think that's a big thing in racing of not while you're managing your effort over the course of a long period of time, not getting too upset about the length of journey that you have ahead of you, and actually really staying in the moment and building awareness. And I think that's one of the cues of people staying fueled and hydrated is that they're not getting distracted by what's happened behind the ears. You know what happened in history? Oh, my swim wasn't as fast as it were. Or, of course, what's coming? Oh, my Goodness me. I'm tired at mile 80, but I've still got a marathon to go. For examples, I think staying present is big.
Max Gering 38:57
Yeah, I think it's the anchor that allows the athlete to do everything that we've all said, like, everything that Brad, you just said about progressive and it's not as hard as you can go, but it's about energy efficiency. Staying present allows you to remember that, because it's such a long day. If you don't stay present, everything you think you or you want to think about in the race, you'll just forget and it'll go out the window if you're not staying present, because you'll be too distracted. So I think being present is the anchor that allows you to put to practice all the different things that you've trained. And interestingly enough, in Oceanside, I had an athlete a podium, but mid run, she had a horrible mile, objectively, compared to the rest of her pace, just a terrible mile. And then she pulled it together and had a really good continue to have a really good run. I'm keep telling that story to other athletes I have now, because I think it's a really good point of when you stay present and you don't get ahead of yourself, you don't use any one moment in the race to project how you think the race is going to go. Yeah, the athlete that was on the Hill with you, same. Thing, she was getting ahead of herself, yeah, well, and I
Nancy Clarke 40:02
think the other team thing too, athletes will look down at their their watch and go, bad, post, bad, right? And then they lose focus. But what they need to do is ignore what's happening here, yeah, feel what's happening in here. Know what they are capable of, yeah,
Matt Dixon 40:23
and take action, of what's needed. Yeah, it's I always and every, every sort of champion will tell you how you feel in any moment. Is no prediction of how you can feel in a miles time, in 10 minutes time, and and quite often. I mean, it's always the thing. If you're moody, if you're grumpy, if you lose focus, if you start to get annoyed, and you start to think you're going to fire your coach. It's calories. Take sugar. Take Coca Cola, because it is
Nancy Clarke 40:51
handed out a few cokes yesterday,
Max Gering 40:53
yeah, go through all the emotions. That's what I tell people, is you're going to go through every all of your emotions in a race cyclically, and so don't get so caught up when you feel X, when you feel y, it will pass. And you may feel happy, sad and happy, sad again, or proud and frustrated. You may feel fast, slow, and just being willing to ride that wave throughout the race. Being present in that moment will allow you to tap into push yourself otherwise, and not let
Brad Hunter 41:19
it dictate how you respond right? Like, yeah, the
Nancy Clarke 41:22
race isn't over until your feet cross that finish line, so stay in it.
Matt Dixon 41:27
I remember after Chelsea Sodaro, obviously was a was a Purple Patch Pro, but after she won the Hawaii Iron Man, which was a surprise, not necessarily to her and her coach at the time, but certainly to the world. She wasn't a favorite, and she was over at the house afterwards. Very great, great relationship still. And she said, You know, I had one of those days where I never had a bad moment in the swim, in the bike, in the run. I was just unstoppable all day. I never had any energy crash. I never had anything go wrong. So that's amazing, and you'll never have that again, if, like most athletes, will never and in fact, if you spoke to Jan Frodeno and all of his wins from whether it was an Olympic or the Half Ironman championships, the Hawaii, I mean, I guarantee that he went through massive adversity. Every champion has she had one of those moments. And the next year, she had a really tough race, and and she was way behind. She had a terrible bike race, relative for her really, really demanding and, and she managed to fight her way back. And I think she got six that day. She might have even got fourth, I can't remember, but that day was the day that she probably learned more and could be equal. Obviously, very proud of winning the Hawaii Iron Man. She absolutely should be. But that day that was just a special because it would have been so easy, and she stayed in the moment. That day, she didn't give up, and she was well off the pace. And I, I think there are lessons from pros that you can take of like, yeah, that's the sort of stuff for
Brad Hunter 43:01
sure, right? Like, the magic days happen once in a lifetime. Yeah, right. So, like, everyone going in and thinking, Oh, my race didn't go the way I planned it. Well, professionals, who have dedicated their entire lifestyle around putting together perfect races on a regular basis, can really get it right. So, you know, like it's, it is part of the sport, and it is part of it. Is part of why we do it, the learning, right? It's all of it. So don't be so upset when that happens. But I think
Nancy Clarke 43:28
you can walk away with a lot of pride when you look back on the race and think, did I do everything that I could under my control? Under my control?
Matt Dixon 43:39
The best of my ability? Yep, yeah. The only way that we can actually define arsehole failure, it's not by what the outcome is. It's actually, did I do everything under my control to my best of my ability? And if you do, even if you've had a tough day, you absolutely walk away with pride, satisfaction and opportunity for growth. Because, yeah, the finish line of any race is not the finish line of our performance journey. And and I know it's a sort of a trite thing to say, but I think it's really, really true to memorize that.
Max Gering 44:09
So what add? One practical thing about both of you just said, I think when we're coaching athletes, and everybody has their own tendency to have some sort of negative thinking pattern, we all have something that we're working on that we want to not do in race day to help us tap into our potential. It's one thing to say, okay, focus on what you control. I think it's good to give each athlete an if then scenario of if this happens, then shift your mindset to this, like, how will the athlete actually maintain presence, actually not be out the fight? As you said, the race isn't over till it's over. And so for each athlete, it's going to be different, but helping them pinpoint what their sticking points could be in the race, what they're feeling anxious about, and then giving them something to think about intentionally when their mind starts to wander to the place we don't want it to wander, like helping them bring it back. And that's going to be different for every athlete. Whether it's a mantra, whether it's remembering something else, but giving them some like with self talk, you want them to have short, clear, concise things to think about that are present, focused and action oriented to keep them going.
Matt Dixon 45:16
Yeah, we have a saying amongst our athletes of form, fueling and pacing. And so that's something that you can always remember in any given mile of like and what is the form? So it might be a little bit different. For you, it might be like when you're running, keep your arm speed up, so your leg speed is up. For me, it might be, well, I run like a stack of potatoes and a donkey dipped in cement, so I've got to stand tall, so whatever my cue is. But there's my form fueling, of course. Is okay checking in. Am I getting grumpy and moody? Do I need sugar, or am I feeling a bit gurgly? Do I need hydration? So you take that and then pacing. Is that okay? How can I get through this mile at the best pace possible? Do I need to take a walk break? Do I need to increase my pace a little bit more so that that's sort of, in many ways, what you're talking about? I do, I do want to say, because we're sort of getting into some negative talk on when things go sideways, which, which I want to go into. But before we just dive into that section, I want to talk about fun enjoy as well in racing, because I think that's a really important perspective. Racing for me, well, not racing for me. I don't believe racing should be like you're going on trial and and I think a lot of races, a lot of athletes fall into that trap of, oh my goodness me. You know, my goals were so important, and I puffed my feathers six months out, but now it's Pass Fail. Everyone's going to hate me if I don't do well, and they allow the occasion to bypass them. So joy, playfulness, and it's okay to have fun, isn't it? That's
Brad Hunter 46:45
why you're doing it, right? I think for everyone who's not a professional, you have to be like, get anchored back into that. When you're going into a race and you feel the anxiety coming up, you have to be like, I'm I remember I'm doing this because I like this sport, because I've put in the time and the training, and so no matter where you're at, you want to make sure that you're staying connected, for sure. But it's hard. It's really, really hard. And I think one of the things that's really challenging for a lot of athletes is when you've only got one a race a year, for example, and that. And, you know, like a lot of athletes, don't have the opportunity, right? I would tell, I've, I tell, I tell some athletes who are here at this camp, you should just race more, right? Like you're you're limiting yourself, but we understand that's not possible for everybody. So then you're putting that one anchor on your calendar every year, and that adds even more pressure to the to the mix, because it's just that one opportunity to do the thing that you're doing. So it's just, it creates distance. I'll come
Matt Dixon 47:36
back you. You started with a question before around our our moments, you know, we have four main moments in a year plus, individually, with athletes, but we like to come out and define what success is. And I think that really starts. I love talking about athletes have already succeeded by the time they get to a race because of the journey. And it's absolutely true, most of the rewards that come are out of the journey, but certainly the lessons you gain, the fitness that you develop, the longevity that would create, most of the memories truth come through the training sessions. And so reminding the athlete of that is really good, and it's a balance, but let's not dilute winning is fun, and we still want to chase that. And so there is a happy, there is a happy, happy marriage of that. And then the other thing I'd say is, some, a lot of athletes confuse pre race, priming, the body, priming itself, and all the sensations, you know, the nerves, of of of a reason that, like, goodness me, I'm getting nervous, so therefore I must not be ready. Um, I'm getting anxious, so therefore I must be fearful. It's like, no, don't confuse the body getting ready and the the absolutely appropriate nerves of coming with with a signal you're not ready, you know. And if, if you go, and if you go and stand in a waiting room of an Olympic swing final, there's a lot of nerves in there. There is a lot of nerves and so and those athletes are ready. That's That's what occurs. They go from there. I'll talk about negative self talk a little bit, and I want to talk about what happens when things hit the fan, the custard moments. So what do we do? You talked a little bit the other day to me about loudspeakers. You go back to that of it's really normal, I think, for athletes, when you're suffering, when you fatigued, when it feels like the walls are closing in, maybe you're in the middle of a race that feels like it isn't going your way, that you can go dark mentally. And what do you tell your athletes when you're when they're going to that moment? Yeah, so to put it in perspective
Max Gering 49:45
for the listener, what Brad said in the beginning about mental skills is really important for everyone to remember is they're trainable, and self talk is one of the mental skills that we have, how we talk to ourselves. And I think there's lots of ways to split it up, but ways to think. About it, are are my thoughts productive? Are they empowering? Not just because positivity can be are we photographs? Yeah, so are they empowering? Are my are my thoughts in the way, as the way I'm talking to myself, helping me go faster, helping me accomplish my goals in this race? Or is it pulling me back and holding me back? And one way to gage that for an athlete is to have this loud speaker frame, which is, if my self talk was put on a loud speaker right now, and everybody could hear me, around me, the athletes around me, would I be proud of what they hear. And then take that a step further. Is if you know, we're at the training camp. So the athlete that was having a hard time going up the hill, if her partner or her teammate were at the training camp with them, and she was speaking to a fellow teammate the way she was speaking to herself. Would that make her a good teammate? Would that be helping that athlete get up the hill? And that's a very easy way for an athlete to realize, Wow, I have a bit of an issue. The way I'm thinking is no, but that's, it sounds intense, but it's the truth. I mean, yeah, I think we've all gone there in different stages outside of sport, and that's why training in sports really, really effective. Because we need to do the same thing in our life, in work and in relationships, at home, is, is the way we're speaking to ourselves and processing things help us, helping us accomplish our goals. So that loud speaker frame. And then, Nancy, you said something yesterday when we talked about this, using it about, like, how would you talk to your kid that way?
Nancy Clarke 51:30
Right? Yeah, exactly. Well, I think you can practice it, not only on race day, but in training. Because I know athletes that will get into the pool and in there will berate themselves, you know, doing their swim workout, and I will ask them, Is that the way that you would talk to your child, if your child was swimming up and down the lanes, would you say those things, same things, to them, and all of a sudden it's that, you know, they'll take a step back and go, Oh, well, you shouldn't be talking to yourself that way. You've really got to change that message and that narrative in your in your head, I think
Matt Dixon 52:02
as well, what you mentioned there, and all three of you sort of mentioned shifting the narrative or being trainable. You do have you are empowered. We are all empowered to evolve and change. And I think quite often, oh, this is what I'm like. It's like, no, no, that's you passing the buck on yourself. Actually step into that and grow take control a little bit. And I really like what you said there. You know, this is one of the things that is so powerful about sport, is that sport, in many ways, is the purest crucible of stepping into a place of discomfort, peeking over the edge, as I like to say, into a place ever been challenging yourself and having to go through a really uncomfortable experience and hopefully emerging the other side. And when you do that training and ultimately racing, it actually builds a toolkit that you can apply to anything else in life and and I think that's, that's why so many people that are very busy, that at times starved, that are professionals, really lean into these big challenges, because they realize it's not just about the outcomes. It's become, ultimately, a better human being on it. You know, it's, it's pretty empowering. It's
Nancy Clarke 53:16
a little more than just sport. Yeah,
Matt Dixon 53:18
it is just a little more than just just sport. So let's dive in, because I know we're running on time. We've been going hammer and tongs here, and we've got some athletes that are trying to barge into this. So let's just do two minutes here, post race and and maybe I'll just kick this off, because talking about, when should athletes review their race and and that's gonna be my first question, but, but I'm gonna just suggest something first, and then to ask that question, one of the things that I say as a coach is, when a race goes wrong, they don't Have a performance, an athlete is always incredibly eager to dissect it to the nth degree to find the answer the culprit. But interestingly, when a race goes right, they tend to bypass it and be like, it's great, all right, I've got it crap to move on. Just think post race reflection, in fact, reflection globally end of the week, as we like to do as a part of our Sunday special process, arc moment. So every quarter or post race, etc, these moments are really important, looking back of what went well, what did I not execute as well as I could have done, not in a vindictive way, but as a growth opportunity. So what did, what I didn't do as well as I could? And then what do I learn from that? And I think we need to do this equally when things go great, so that we can build on the strengths and make sure that we understand why it went well and and equally when things didn't go well, the question is, what's the right time to do that? It's not in the beer tent afterwards, that's for sure.
Nancy Clarke 54:59
I. You, like my athletes, when they are first done with the race, do a quick hot take, right? Send me a quick hot take of, you know, the big moments. But then after that, you need to take some time and sit with all the emotions, either the high highs, because you might have that high high or the low lows, right? You just need to ride that wave for a little bit and sit in those feelings. And then after a few days, maybe a week, maybe 10 days, then let's sit down and dive in to all of those aspects that you just described. Yeah,
Matt Dixon 55:29
that's we have a process through, basically with with our coaching. We're very lucky as as a coaching group, as we effectively got trained by the head sports psychologists of British Olympic Association. So we went through a whole extensive course on that. And that was the really empowering thing of like, feel the emotions, good, good, good, bad, bad, bad, bad, get through those and not try and suppress them or repress them and let them swim part of it, and grieve, if you need to, and then reflect on that. And I think that's really powerful. I do really like the reminder there of the hot take as well. Like how you emotion it, how you're feeling on that going from well,
Brad Hunter 56:11
you have to, like, it's inevitable. There's no way for you to shut down your immediate like, I did well today, or like I didn't do well today. That's going to happen. So you the important thing is just to know it is going to happen. It's okay. You roll with it, but you don't do any like, I always tell athletes, you know, someone who'll do an Ironman and have a good day or a bad day will immediately say, Oh, I'm never doing that again, or I'm signing up for one right away. And it's like, yeah, hey, let's take 48 hours at least, right? Like, think about it a little bit. So ride the emotional wave and and, yeah, have a call schedule, right? So when we're working with athletes, we just say, Hey, we're gonna do our official, you know, big breakdown debrief in seven days. Put it on the calendar, and that lets you just have that end point to say, Okay, we're marching towards that seven days. I can do what I need to do, and ride the ride, the roller coaster, as we say, and then, you know, dig in at
Max Gering 56:53
that's key, that giving the athlete that clarity of we're gonna talk about this then, and framing that so they're not giving yourself that clarity, if
Brad Hunter 57:01
you know you're doing it yourself, right?
Matt Dixon 57:03
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah, put it on the counter for yourself as well. I think it's great. They it coming back to the success side of things as well. Which, which? Wanted to make a point that suddenly gone through the back of my head. So hopefully, as I'm talking, here's what I was going to say. I think it's important, particularly when I think about this, I think about that the pro athletes actually that I coaches, sometimes some of the pros that I was coaching would win a race and it wasn't a great performance. So actually, it's like no. And so thinking about the athlete, we talked about how it's not tied to outcomes. I had many pro athletes that won races that I was very, very critical of them afterwards. They didn't do everything under their control and to their success, and they won despite themselves, in many ways. And you know, I was very collaborative, supportive coach. I'm not dictator, per se. But other times we had athletes where they didn't win, they had a really tough day. And in fact, I just talked about Chelsea, I wasn't coaching, and when she did that, but where it's like, this was fantastic. This is something that's going to actually be a catalyst for growth and and that's sort of part of the reason I think reflection is so important. I also think it's part of the reason they're giving yourself a bit of space afterwards to go through those emotions so that you can actually come to clarity and look back objectively, is how you march forward and grow.
Brad Hunter 58:30
And the other thing, just to tie it back to the earlier conversation about tapering your race day or your your post race analysis, not the hot take, but when you actually are breaking everything down, that's not just how you did on race tank. That's also the week before, the two weeks before, and pulling, yeah, anything that you change in that taper to help you identify. Okay, I really responded to this thing that we did, or I'd never done, extra carbohydrates for 48 hours ahead of time, and that did or did not work, right? You want to make sure you're looking at that with a nice scope, as opposed to just being I crushed it on the last day. Yeah, right
Matt Dixon 59:01
now, next time I race, I have forgotten it all, and I'm back to the round. Yeah,
Brad Hunter 59:06
that's a great that's a great point as well, right? You always want to make sure you're taking notes.
Matt Dixon 59:10
Team. We look outside. We've got many, many athletes standing on the grass, swinging their arms. Are they are either dancing or or I'm not sure. They're also dogs out there, and we've got coach John out there leading mobility, and he looks very nervous, but at least it's not me doing it. Two and a half more days of camp, they're doing well so far, we're reporting. All we can say is, thanks very much. Guys. Really appreciate your wisdom and your experience. And thank you for halfway through, at least having a great camp. We've got some nasty bike rides to come. I hope you enjoyed it. We'll be doing some more round tables with this, but everything you need to know about race preparation and taper, we'll see you next time and share with your friends and anyone that's got a race coming up that might find this beneficial. Take care. You. Guys, thanks so much for joining and thank you for listening. I hope that you enjoyed the new format. You can never miss an episode by simply subscribing. Head to the Purple Patch channel of YouTube, and you will find it there and you could subscribe. Of course, I'd like to ask you if you will subscribe. Also Share It With Your Friends, and it's really helpful if you leave a nice, positive review in the comments. Now, any questions that you have, let me know, feel free to add a comment, and I will try my best to respond and support you on your performance journey. And in fact, as we commence this video podcast experience, if you have any feedback at all, as mentioned earlier in the show, we would love your help in helping us to improve. Simply email us at info@purplepatchfitness.com, or leave it in the comments of the show at the Purple Patch page, and we will get you dialed in. We'd love constructive feedback. We are in a growth mindset, as we like to call it, and so feel free to share with your friends, but as I said, Let's build this together. Let's make it something special. It's really fun. We're really trying hard to make it a special experience, and we want to welcome you into the Purple Patch community with that. I hope you have a great week. Stay healthy, have fun, keep smiling, doing whatever you do, take care.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Race preparation, taper mindset, pacing, self-management, post-race reflection, athlete success, cognitive load, energy conservation, training rhythm, mental skills, performance psychology, race day mindset, Ironman training, athlete goals, race performance