364 - How to Nail Summer IRONMAN Training and Still Enjoy Life
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Welcome to the Purple Patch Podcast!
On this episode, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon from Purple Patch Fitness discusses strategies for balancing summer training for IRONMAN races with personal life. He emphasizes the importance of a flexible optimization mindset, weekly clarity through the "Sunday special," and intentional recovery. Dixon advises athletes to integrate training into life, plan around travel and family vacations, and perform specific IRONMAN simulators. He emphasizes the importance of habits such as sleep, fueling, and hydration. Dixon also stresses the need for fun and adventure in training to maintain motivation and performance. Purple Patch offers personalized coaching and consultations to help athletes achieve their goals.
If you have any questions about the Purple Patch program, feel free to reach out at info@purplepatchfitness.com.
Episode Timecodes:
00-:50 Promo
1:22-9:10 Intro
10:28-23:19 Optimization Mindset
23:19-27:00 Use Macro Planning
27:07-31:05 Reflect, Recalibrate, THEN Build
31:33-36:48 Strategic Reset
42:47-45:28 Bulletproofing
45:28-end Adventure
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Transcription
Matt Dixon 00:00
It's been more than 20 years now, Purple Patch has coached time-starved athletes to extraordinary results, from Ironman podiums to everyday breakthroughs in energy, health and life performance. Our tri squad and one to one coaching give you the access to the very best coaching team in the sport and our personalized approach that meets you where you're at. We'd love to help you integrate sport into life so it doesn't become a cage a monkey on your back. This isn't guesswork. It's a proven system backed by a team that truly partners with you. And so if you're ready to train smarter and live better, email us at info@purplepatchfitness.com we'll set up a complimentary call or see if we're a right fit for you, and also ensure that you get on the right program for your goals and budget. It's amazing what's possible when we do things together. Now enjoy the show. 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 full athletic potential, which in turn enables them to reach their full human potential. The purpose of this podcast is to help time-starved people everywhere integrate sport into life.
Matt Dixon 01:22
And welcome to the Purple Patch podcast as ever, your host, Matt Dixon, and today, there's no Max garing, I know you miss him, but it's all me, myself, and I today, and I tell you what, things are getting busy. In fact, my son, Baxter, he's getting out of school this coming week. It's crazy. I know the US love to get out very, very early, and that means that Summer is almost here. Today's show is for listeners that are chasing great Ironman performance in the fall. Perhaps you've picked an Ironman race in Arizona, or Ironman California, or many of the global Ironman races. Now, most of the concepts that we're going to talk about today directly correlate also, if you're doing a full marathon, a subject that we're going to tackle in the coming weeks, how to prepare for your best marathon, whether you're doing an ultra distance race, whether you're in a half Ironman, any major event in the fall. But we're going to shine our light on Iron Man today, and what we want to tackle is something that is often mismanaged by athletes when they have a looming race coming up in September, October, November, time frame, and that is how to manage summer training. Summer Training is a little bit unique. Now this isn't about the heat for one of the topics that's often associated with summer training, particularly here in the US. Instead, it's about integrating sport into what is quite often a really exciting time in the year. Let's start with the bottom line. You have an amazing summer of training and life, but it doesn't need to be one or the other of those. You can mesh them together and have a wonderful time that maybe you want to spend some quality time with your family, you're going to want to go on some adventures with friends, whatever it might be. But summer is a time to get outside and explore at the same time, it's often a time that you really want to double down in your training endeavor. And these things can compete, especially if you're pretty busy and you've got to carry on with all of the non negotiables in your career. Now, like most athletes, many of our Purple Patch athletes don't have 20 hours a week to train and a lot of flexibility and light life. Quite often. I'm sure it's like you, you've got to work, you've got family, you've got holidays, you've got travel, and yes, all of this is in context of also having an Iron Man is our topic du jour, an Iron Man to prepare for. So how in the heck do you do it? I want to try and reveal some of the tools that we have now. We've got a big race looming on the calendar, and this is a part of the reason that I wanted to do this show today, because in October, our designated team race for 2025 is Ironman, California. That's in Sacramento, and we've got a large group of athletes that are preparing for Ironman, so I thought it'd be a little selfish and help my Purple Patch athlete friends get ready for their Ironman race in California, of which most of the coaching team will be up there. We're going to have a whirl week of celebration.
Matt Dixon 06:12
So if you do happen to be doing that race, or you're looking for a full Iron Man, you couldn't, shouldn't look much further than that. We have a lot of festivities around that. But it's also, of course, for anyone that's planning a big event in the fall. All right, so we're going to break down today not the whole Iron Man journey, but really your approach to summer training so that you can unlock and nail your full Ironman race. This isn't about how you fit in workouts. It's not about training hours. Instead, it's upper level, how to globally approach your summer training with the right mindset, the appropriate planning and the principles that can maximize performance. Within your life, not at the expense of it. Before we dig into the meat and potatoes today, I think it's worthwhile just taking a step back and reminding ourselves of my perspective, the Purple Patch perspective on Iron Man's success more broadly, the first thing I'd say about that is that if you're already busy, you're time starved, I'd really encourage you, if you are choosing to train and prepare for an Ironman, not to do what we might label the Ironman squeeze. In other words, I much prefer athletes to avoid thinking about Ironman training as just a distinct three to four month endeavor. I find that athletes get into a lot of problem if they just try and follow a 16 week training plan instead. Real success comes when you integrate consistent, effective training over many, many months, and then off of that baseline, that platform, that foundation, you dial in the focus and a little bit of greater commitment, maybe a few sacrifices, self aware in those final few months. So it is a longer arc of a journey that you want to integrate into sport. At Purple Patch, we see athletes that are really successful, and we have a lot of success, and the most successful people that we see is when they broaden out their performance recipe and really try and integrate training into life ongoing. In other words, it becomes almost a part of the athlete's identity. And from this healthy baseline, they get to just uptick a little bit and really enable athletic success, race performance success, from this foundational, integrated approach. And so I can't overstate the importance of this broader perspective. I'd also highlight that in a similar way that a finish line of an Ironman race doesn't represent the finish line of your performance journey. You want to instead, really dial in intentional recovery, get back on baseline. And I think that that is how you really achieve magic over the years, not just the weeks. Is that, yes, an Iron Man is a major event for many people. It is something that is defining you. Might only be one and done, but that doesn't mean you're done with your performance recipe. And I think that's the unlock. And I think it's important to ground ourselves before we go into the summer training aspect of Iron Man. In fact, I think it's part of the reason that so many Purple Patch athletes stick around. They're with us for years and years, and the average life expense of a Purple Patch athlete is almost three years. That's a really long ongoing commitment. And so really what I'm highlighting there that if you get it right, this training lifestyle, this performance recipe, integrates your life, ultimately just becomes what you do. It becomes who you are, in many ways, snugly slotting into the context of life. It doesn't become self worth defining, but it becomes something that you do to amplify your health, to improve your longevity, to heighten the quality of your life, to engage with people that are like minded, but also enable you to show up better in other aspects of your life, and then all the way, then you can shine light on this IMM build as you go through. I think this is just really important perspective as we dial in now and narrow the focus on my recommendations, recommendations today, because it's all anchored in this lens that I'm looking for already. So back to the task at hand, nailing summer. That's what you want to do, so that then you can drive the wagons, as I like to say, and absolutely excel in an Ironman race in full substitute in Marathon, half marathon, Ultra, whatever it is, we're just going to shine the light on Iron Man today. I've got seven very lucky points because of that number to make today that we're going to build around some themes to discuss all seven we're going to go through one by one. And so I invite you to fasten your seat belt. Get ready, because, ladies and gentlemen, it is the meat and potatoes.
Matt Dixon 09:18
It is the meat and potatoes. The flowers are out. The heat is rising. The kids are getting out of school. Summers are coming, and way off in the future, starting to create that tension that you have is, oh, I got to start getting ready for this Iron Man. And it is the period of training, where opportunity to get outside often improves at the same time, quite often, you want to spend time exploring on vacations and not have all of your summer sabotaged by your commitment to Ironman. Can you truly have two things? At once. Well, it turns out that you can. So we're going to go through how you should nail your summer training if you really want to excel in an Iron Man. We're going to go through seven core components, and the first one of them, I think, is really foundational, but critically important. In fact, it might be the most important concept for you to lock in to have a successful summer build. We're going to label this flexible optimization. This is all about mindset, your perspective as you approach your training. It is a fundamental Purple Patch principle, and it is born from years and years and years of successfully working with time starved athletes who are chasing big goals. This started with my work, working with C suite executives with massive competing demands that were looking to improve their bike or train for an Ironman or get ready for a marathon. And it has continued to evolve over time, but it's a critical component, flexible, optimization. Let's think about the classic summer. It's actually pretty chaotic. I just did some planning with Kelli, and I looked at our lazy summer that we chose to have this year, and realized it's incredibly busy. There's a lot of stuff going on. And the truth is, while we've got summer plans all scheduled with vacations and everything else that happens. Work doesn't pause, travel carries on. Happen, happening. In addition to that, if you have kids, they're off school, our routine shift that creates a change in our life, and we understand that change, even when positive, it's really challenging, it's difficult, it creates a little bit of turbulence. And so we have to realize that we're approaching this period where it's not the same as the rest of the other three quarters of the year. It is a little bit more turbulent. And while it's really fun and exciting, it does represent challenge. And so what are the common mistakes that occur in Summon trading, the first thing I'd say, and this is when we're talking really about flexible optimization. The inverse of this, the reverse of this, is the main classic mistake that I see, and that is what we would label rigid expectations. This is the athlete that starts every single week of their training and says, I need to hit X number of hours every week. No matter what, I need to ride four hours or more every single weekend. I can only be successful if I check the box on every single workout prescribed, whether I'm planning it, I'm following an online plan, or I'm coached, I need to do everything right. Here is the roadmap.
Matt Dixon 12:45
Here is the magic plan. My job is to execute this plan, and what will come out the other end of the meat grinder is success. I promise you, if you deploy this approach to your training in the summer months, you're almost guaranteed to finish your full Ironman feeling burnt out from having one of these things occur. Number one, an accumulation of too much chronic stress because you have failed to hit your I need tos, and you'll be stressed about training, feeling like you're always not doing enough, just falling short. It almost feels like you're continually chasing training. Now, this is a really bad mindset to come into. It's not confidence building, it's an erosion of belief. In addition, you're going to feel burnt out, because you're going to realize that you may or may not finish that Iron Man. But what you do understand as a truth is that your life has suffered on the journey, because if you force training through a need to execute standpoint, you're going to be training at the cost of many other important things of life, and doubtless will suffer personal consequences. It's no wonder that burnout is the result. You might get away with it for a week, two weeks, three weeks, but by the end of summer, it's going to hit you. And so instead, flexible optimization is the concept. This is a really powerful tool, and it's important. Fitness is not built through perfect consistency of hours. It is developed through smart, layered, specific training stress over time. So a few things to keep into mind when you deploy this practice over summer. Number one, lean into accept the variability of summer training. I really invite you to be open minded. Be pretty flexible when looking at your calendar. And planning your training. If you've listened to the recent case study of David, our time starved athlete that was so successful at Ironman Max and I broke down how you can build incredible fitness without the traditional stock training plan in which you need to do something every single day and the program needs to progressing load over weeks, over weeks. When you've got life that is classic, in summer, that is variable, it doesn't make sense to try and apply a spreadsheet like program of progressive overload to that life. Instead, you want to be opportunistic. You want to develop an optimization mindset of, how do I integrate the most effective training that's going to yield the stimulus to drive adaptations given the constructs of my life, and that's going to vary every single week, I remember a case study of a one to one athlete program where we made real changes from baseline, and we looked at the athlete and we helped them identify the trips and the travel that they had. And quite often, over the course of the summer month, they had multiple times where they were going away, travel for work, travel for family, and he arrived to the consultation, looking and planning ahead. And his question was, how do I execute this training into this travel? We said, Let's shift it. Let's look at opportunities, and let's not battle and fight with the joys of life. And so instead, rather than trying to fix or force a fixed training program into this life, what we did with the athlete is say, let's look at those as opportunities to do mini run blocks. You've got three or four opportunities over the course of the summer where you're going to have limited access to swimming, limited access to cycling, and so let's, in some weeks, really double down on that. When you're at home and you're stable, and let's let running be a little bit more of a passenger, keeping frequency, and we'll come to that a little bit later on the how tos and when you're traveling, let's reduce total training time, but let's build muscle resilience. Let's build run frequency. Let's do some overload. And suddenly the travel became a thing that wasn't competing with his ability to get ready and force training into life. Instead, it was a little running block opportunity, and it really helped free up. He started to see and work with the travel. All he needed to go with was not try and find a swimming pool 1015, 20 minutes away, pull himself out of the family vacations, etc. Instead, he just needed a pair of running shoots. You can run anywhere in the world, at least almost anywhere, and so it's a key component of an optimization mindset. Now this takes some macro planning.
Matt Dixon 18:01
Let me really put some meat into the bones on this. And let me give you an example. Imagine over the summer months. And let's just identify the start of June. I know that's the infinite fit, not the official start of summer, but let's call the start of June the start of our summer mindset all the way through to August. Over the course of these months, you are likely going to have some weeks where you're at home in your regular routine, and so you can maintain a pretty regular training schedule in there. Perhaps you've got some travel from work that you're going to integrate, and maybe you've got some opportunities where you're going to go away on family vacation or friends vacation, whatever it might be, really encourage athletes to look at the macro program and do two things. Number one, plan ahead with those moments where you are going away on vacation or trips, and they can have two types of personalities, trips that you're actually got an opportunity to train more, or trips where you really want to invest and unwind and be with family or friends. So those have different personalities, and you build the appropriate training that integrates with the spirit of the holiday. So if it's more a training camp environment, you lead into that training camp, if it's more of a restricted family type time, you lean into that. And then you plan pre and post that opportunities to do some training blocks. You also look ahead and look over the summer months, and look at all few, a few opportunities where you can cluster up and do some big over distance rights. And you leverage those into them. You get all of the constituents in your life, and you look at them and you say, okay, June, 3 week of June, that's good. Fourth week of July, and that's group. The first week of August, that's good. And you use those as opportunities to help you do some over distance type work. Now this time. Of the year, you're starting to move to a little bit of race specificity. But a lot of that stuff can be, for example, for an Iron Man some over distance riding, a really core component of training, with always a little bit of the runoff, because we want to train the body for familiarization of getting used to that modality. So more of that and specifics later, but that's how you do some mac, some macro planning. The reason this optimization is really important, the planning is really important is that we're looking at training not as a classic annual training program. Instead, we just know that over the course of the 16 or 12 to 16 weeks of summer, we're looking to build a through line of consistency. We know that sometimes you're going to be busy and do less training. We know we're going to do more and we're going to take those opportunities that looks very, very different than a classic training program that builds up three weeks on one week off, layered over the course of time, and it ends up competing. So that's the principle driving mindset that we want to think about. The key takeaway is that if you lean into this, it's actually liberating. It's not only going to result in better training, it also is going to give you a little bit of clarity of confidence. Because instead of training, chasing total training hours, something that I think is a really limited barometer of success of athletes, and worrying if you're doing enough, it's going to enable you to have training work with your summer plans. So it's not about doing more, it's about being better, and what works for you, that's the optimization mindset. What this means, just to really cement this in, is that a week of seven hours of training might be appropriate some weeks, maybe you're traveling and really busy of work, and it is way better to do seven really good hours on any given week, rather than 12 hours forced into life, competing with life and creating burnout and physiological fatigue. And so have confidence to scale back when life flows. On the flip side, there's massive value if life ebbs, for you to take advantage and layer in more training. And maybe if you typically average 10 to 12 hours, you get to do 1416, 18 hours a week of training. Fantastic, if that fits into life, and that can be really valuable. So it is optimization, looking to always do effective training. And if you dance with that, you might look from the outside and say, training load doesn't progress in a sensible, or at least classic mindset. I did seven hours, I did 10 hours, I did nine, I did 14, I did nine. That's okay. In the summer months, when life is really variable, it's critical, alrighty. And so that is principle number one, principle number two, weekly clarity.
Matt Dixon 22:22
This is a critical second component. There's a Purple Patch Cornerstone saying clarity drives performance. This is the same in triathlon training as it is in business performance. Clarity drives performance. This the cornerstone of how right, when I started working with Purple Patch professional athletes, very busy, time starved executives, this was a cornerstone principle. It is now how every Purple Patch coaches approaches every week of training for their athletes. So this is the micro This is where we bring back the concept of the Sunday special. If you don't know what the Sunday special is, it is a weekly reflective and planning tool. It's basically a prioritization exercise to give you clarity, what are you looking to establish? Where are you going to apply your focus? And perhaps just as important, what are you not going to focus on this week? This is a key cornerstone. Now we do this on the macro level, season planning, what we just talked about with the optimization approach. But I think in the summer months, it becomes really, really important to do this every single week. What I'd like to do first is have a little bit of reflection and look at the prior week. What was it like? What were the demands, what went really well? What were the things that maybe didn't do well? Where am I right now? What do I need to think about when I look at the next week, I've ahead in context, and then when you look at it, really understand, across the seven days of potential training, what are the sessions? Workouts that rise above what are my key workouts that I have to protect, protect to make sure they're executed, ensure that I can try and place them in the wheat where I can execute them with the best performance. I can show up for them. I can be present, physically, emotionally, and they are the ones that are there to drive the performance needle. Typically, for most athletes, there's usually two to maybe three workouts a week that are head and shoulders above the others, either in terms of over distance intensity or both. These are the key sessions that's where you can really push, and you want to place those in the days of the week, at the opportunities where you are most likely to bring your best,
Matt Dixon 25:44
then you want to think about the supporting workouts. What are the ones that are there? But maybe need to be a little bit more flexible in execution. Maybe we'll reduce total duration, maybe we'll remove some of the intensity. Maybe we even have to eliminate some of them so that we can come back to principle number one, weave the web of optimization and consistency. This exercise isn't just about gaining control. It's about agency. It's about building confidence, being proactive ahead, rather than reactive, being prepared. And so this is a fundamental shift. This is the takeaway that I should never hear you asking the question, Where am I going to fit all this training in? Instead, you start to ask the question, how do I enable this training to fit me this week with intent? How do I get to do this? And so you start to plan it every single week. So we have two components, the driving mindset of optimization, and then we have the second practice of the Sunday special. The third principle is what I would label, reflect, recalibrate, and then build it's really important. Summer is almost the perfect halfway point in the season, but most athletes just simply charge forward. They want pause. There's no break. They don't want to obsess. Well, let me tell you, don't be like most athletes. Chart your own course, one that is filled with more success every at the end of every quarter, we do something called the arc process at Purple Patch, assessment, reflection, and then a checkpoint that's an opportunity to get out of the daily weeds, come up a level, look back and plan forward. This is the most critical component for me as we lead into summer. This is such a massively important component. If you have been consistent, maybe you've done an off season, you've prepared and you've built through, you might have even done a couple of races, but now you've got this Ironman, and it's starting to trigger in your head. Here we go, before you charge forward and just keep battering, ramming all the way through work and life, start to have a little bit of a deep breath out. This is really important. This is something that we help athletes with consistently. Our one coaches. We love athletes too. Come up, come back up. You come and reflect before we charge forward. Our athletes are on the squad program. This is a time of the year that we probably do more consultations than any and it's not just about what's my race fueling, or how should I execute my race, but instead, it's an opportunity to come up and talk to a coach and reflect, look back. All right, what have I done? Really well? Where am I as an athlete? And with that information, what should I do now with my focus, and it defines a sense of mission for yourself as you move forward and so as you reflect before you just charge into the summer, it's really valuable. Here are the key questions that you want to ask yourself, and you can be objective and honest with yourself, because it's not about judgment, it's about calibrating where you want to apply your focus. From here, what's gone really, really well for me this year. Be kind to yourself. What have you done? Well, think about it. Where did you lose focus, or perhaps not execute quite as well, and out of these two core questions, then what are the things that I really want to double down on and keep doing?
Matt Dixon 27:43
What should I start doing? And perhaps even, what should I stop doing? Those are really powerful questions that then you get the opportunity to calibrate, adjust your mindset, adapt the plan, if necessary, because there's always things that you don't execute as intended, or even that you didn't think about, and build out your next phase of training. Now I don't want to just say I'm going to swim more, or I need to work on my mindset. Get practical. What are the things that you're going to do? Map them out what it looks like on a weekly basis, and understand how you're going to know that you're on track in a month or two months. This is something that our coaching relationships at Purple Patch always lean into. This is why so many squad athletes leverage our coaching consultations to define this vision. It's really empowering. And you know what it does? It makes things simple. It removes cognitive load, because you have clarity and understanding and you have an action plan, this is a critical component. So we've got three main things so far, defining the mindset, optimization, integrating a habit of the Sunday special, making sure before you just charge forward into the summer, you do spend a little bit of time with focus, pausing, coming up and looking back, reflecting, so that you can cab, calibrate your plan going forward. Really, really challenging to do solo. That's why we love coaching at the same time. If you are I still encourage you to do it. Okay, drive forward. And then number four, you're going to think I say, now train your booty off. But you know, the one thing I know I encourage you to do before you dive into summer, take some intentional recovery, particularly if you have been training consistently for many weeks already, take a break. Hang on. I've got an Iron Man to do. No seriously. Take a break. Strategic reset. It doesn't need to be
Matt Dixon 31:38
wrong. It doesn't need to mean that you turn into a sloth or a couch potato, and it is I understand, one of the most counter intuitive lessons, but it is something that separates great athletes from good ones. Performance is not built on a linear trajectory. It ebbs and flows, and smart athletes know how to hit the reset. Here's how we apply. If you've been training really hard and life's maybe been draining, it's not soft or weak or negative to take seven to 10 days where you reset and recover. It's a sign of strategy and intelligence, athletic intelligence, especially at the summer months. This is where fatigue starts to accumulate quite often. Now don't worry, I'm not talking about taking a full week off of any exercise. I'm talking about changing pace, removing some of the structured training, allowing yourself a little bit of a mental and physical break. You can be active. You can even go and ride your bike, go and play. Maybe shift up modalities. You can go and do easy jogs, but just not looking at your garment. Maybe you go and do a master swim or something like that. Maybe you have a few extra days that you just go for a hike, something different, but just remove structured training. There are two ways to do this, and they're both really, really good in the summer. The first is align that break with a family vacation when you plan to be away anyway. It's really good because it enables a radical mindset shift. You lean into it. And perhaps when you're going away on that vacation, you haven't got access to your traditional training routine, or even your training equipment, etc, and so take a step back, align it with the family holiday and while you're away, just focus on really soul filling training sessions. Do it for the love of it. But even don't do it if you don't want to, if you want to, just spend more time. Get some steps when you're away, lie on the beach, whatever's your thing, do it, I promise you, and this is the one promise I can give you in today's show. If you do that as an investment for a week or so, it will not have a negative consequence on your full Ironman performance. It can only improve the potential of success. Think about that. It will not this is a promise. Have a negative impact. It can only create upside. That's it. And so if that's the case, you've got to have a little bit of trust in my experience here, invest and lean into it. So one way is to align it with a family vacation. But you might have an opportunity to go and take a vacation, and that might be a wonderful time that it is really simple and accessible to go and do a huge training block where your vacation is almost like a training camp. So you don't want to force yourself to take rejuvenation while. You've got this opportunity. So instead, plan it just before that. Give yourself a week or 10 days where you go on that unstructured time, and think about it like a week of transition. So you might be carrying on with work, you might be carrying on with other life commitments, but you're just really turning your back on structured training. You do a whole bunch of soul filling stuff, and then a week or two or three weeks later, when you do go away for your trip, that the world opens up and you can go and do a big training block, you're going to go and execute it with so much excellence. So that is the way to do it. Key takeaway, it's important to find it is not lost time. It's an investment, a performance deposit that pays you back in spades with better energy, resilience, training, effectiveness and greater readiness. Physiologically, you cannot lose all your fitness in a week, especially if you're just keeping the body ticking over, and if it scares you, that's a reason to do it. This is putting into practice Purple Patch philosophy that's been around for years. There's a reason that I was labeled the recovery coach. Training doesn't live in a vacuum. Your performance isn't just about today's bike ride, tomorrow's track session. It's about managing your energy, making sure that you're fresh of mind, long term, sustained high performance and a break is critical. Principle number four, principle number five, over the course of the summer, take some opportunities to train the way that's actually going to prepare you for your race demands. So now we get to some specifics. Over the summer, it is a time that you get to ride your bike outside a little bit more, and a key part of nailing your full Iron Man, or your autumn Iron Man, is to take advantage to get race ready. So many athletes simply go about carrying on training, completing workouts. What they miss is actually this wonderful opportunity in the training routine, under the umbrella of everything we've talked about so far, preparing for the demands of race day. And so think about a few opportunities over the course of your June, July into August, months of training that you are integrating a few, and it doesn't need many, but a few Iron Man simulators. So this is how we do this, you want to gain a few things. And a classic session this might look like for an Ironman is you might program a big day that integrates into the rest of your life, as we talked about it, that perhaps is four hours of bike riding with some intervals that are at or above your planned Ironman race pace, and after that four hour bike ride, you might run 40, 5060, minutes off the bike. It's pretty demanding.
Matt Dixon 35:44
It's not an Ironman itself, but it's four hours plus up to an hour, so a five hour workout. And over the course of this time, you have a wonderful opportunity to gain an understanding of yourself, to develop the tool that we talked about in a recent show your internal compass, a sense of perceived effort, and master some of the key components that we know unlock race day performance in Iman. So let's go through number one, start to develop your mastery of perceived effort, you've got to know what it feels like. You need to dial in your feel of race pace and so, yes, leverage your metrics, your heart rate, your power meter, your pace on the run, etc. But the most important thing to realize is your body is your most effective power meter. Now, we did a whole episode on this recently, so I don't want to walk over well trodden ground go back and listen to that episode on perceived effort, but realize that Iron Man simulators are a great way to understand what happens as you start to get fatigued. And it's a little trickier to hold time position, it's a little nasty to get off the bike, open up those hip flexors and have good posture and get to good leg speed. Start to develop an understanding of what fatigue does to your form and posture and pace, and start to master that, because you're going to want to on race day itself, have a keen understanding of what it should feel like, so that you can moderate your effort. And so that's a wonderful opportunity that you can do multiple times over the summer. The second link thing that you can think about is your equipment, setting your bike up on the planned equipment that you're going to use on race day. Even, I know there's a little bit of nerdery here, wearing your race gear, your aero helmet, maybe you'll race wheels. If you do need to train and race on different wheels for racing, start to lock it in. And with that, go through your routine. What are you going to have for breakfast? What are you going to do the night before? What's your pre planned meal? Getting out there on the bike and going through the fueling and hydration that you intend to leverage, and being keenly aware even weigh yourself before and after the session to see what it does to your fluid balance, and try and nail down that specific session, four hours with one hour run off whatever it might be. That's a part of the training program we won't get into, but some form of simulator at or above your race intensity and make sure that you're locked in. How you're going to carry your fuel and hydration, what your timing is, what it's going to be comprised of, how does it react? How's your stomach, how's your energy management, lock it in, and that becomes really important.
Matt Dixon 41:05
Now these simulators come back to point number one. Need to be programmed in advance, and it's really valuable if you have important constituents in your life, your partner, your wife, your husband, as well as your kids, etc, that they're locked in. And everybody understands that this weekend, maybe in June, one in July, a couple in August, these are the weekends where these simulators are going to occur and they fit into life. They're not competing with life, but it helps you practice your mindset, practice your pacing, understand your energy management, and force you into a bit of problem solving. I can't tell you when you really do these well, and they become key little moments. Quite often, they're more valuable than just racing another half Iron Man. They really valuable. Simulators treat them like a mini race, not to see if you're ready for validation, but to enable you to make mistakes, to learn from to develop, so that when you show up on race day, it is familiar. You're still going to have the bright lights of the race and all of the competition, but your body, your mind is ready. You have a plan, and you understand it's something that works for you, not for Johnny, your neighbor, not for Jenny, who's great athlete and has done a million of these things for you. And it's really powerful. Now I can't talk about summer training. I can't talk about Ironman racing without talking about habits very briefly. Bulletproof yourself. Remember habits, the supporting ones, they are your secret weapon. This is the bedrock of Purple Patch. We can't talk about setting yourself up for a successful four Iron Man without at least tipping our hat to habits. I've said it for years, you're not training for a race. You're building a lifestyle that sustains high performance, the race will emerge out of that. And so training for an Ironman isn't just about being physically tough and committed. It's not about checking the boxes of sessions. It's about building resilience to handle the training inside a full and complete, busy life. This means that if you're going to do this this summer, I know life is chaotic. You've probably got some travel coming up, but you got to realize sleep is your superpower. That is your performance enhancer. And guess what? It's absolutely free sleep. Get it smart. Fueling, not just on the race simulators that we talked about, but day to day. Consume enough calories post workout fueling, lock it in, make sure that outside of your training sessions it's hot and it's humid outside, dial in your hydration, maintain your strength training, and ensure that you integrate breathing room, intentional recovery, go on the rhythm. This is what it looks like. It's important if you don't have these habits in place, and it's why in post season and pre season, we talk so much about it for our athletes, ingrain these as habits, because if you haven't locked in by now and you don't focus on it, you're going to struggle. I really want you to dial this in now realize that over the course of the summer months, there are going to be times you've got late nights your schedule is way outside of the norm. Maybe you have a little bit of extra alcohol over the course of holidays or a barbecues, or whatever you like. All of that is okay. It's great. You want to have these moments. You don't want to let life be shackled. It's okay to go out onto these nights and occasions, but build a bedrock of baseline where most days you're doing things right, and it's going to really, really help you. And so what's principle number seven? I talked about habits, but now let's talk about the final defining component. We still. Started with an optimization mindset.
Matt Dixon 46:44
We talked about flexibility. We talked about not being so static in our training. I want you to remember this over the summer, if you're getting ready for something that is incredibly challenging and really important to you and you want to excel in the fall, you're doing a big iron man. It's going to help you to remember principle number seven. This is an adventure. I don't want you to lose the joy. This is Max what's that word? That's right, fun. This is fun. Over 20 years of coaching, I've seen this over and over and over again, the best performances of athletes seldom come from perfect training. I'm going to say that again, the best performances that I've seen from athletes seldom come from just checking the box on perfect training, they emerge when the athletes are smart and they show up to races energized, focused, but excited, joyful, ready to go if you're constantly through This journey of weeks and weeks and weeks, months and months and months that it takes to get ready for an Ironman if you're consistently dragging tired counting down the days, that's not toughness. It's a warning sign this summer, journey should feel meaningful, not always easy, but filled with a sense of purpose, a little bit of progress, maybe a flywheel of momentum. It's not about avoiding struggle or being scared of fatigue, but it's about having fun. Have a little bit of flexibility in it and enjoy it. I just had an athlete who's gone through a huge journey of turbulence after being hit by a car, priming training for an Iron Man and getting hit by a car and having a body put to that together again, a multi year journey coming back and a couple of weekends ago, Jenna went and raced the Alcatraz triathlon. And I said, Go and do the race, but treat it like an adventure. Don't take it too seriously. I know you're a good athlete, but don't take it too seriously. Swim, ride a road bike on this course that's very twisty and turning, go and run. Have fun. Just go and treat it like an adventure. We didn't even have a race plan. I said, Let the body do what it wants to do. Do the swim, ride your bike, strong run, and when the body feels good, run stronger and go from there. She ended up an age group winner. She had the freedom of exploration, and it emerged out of a really, really flexible training mindset, where she was just having fun in training in under a structure of specific sessions, much of what we talked about today the epitome of a Purple Patch athlete, she wove consistency in training mixed with joy and fun and adventure. And so here's the recap. Number one, adopt an optimization mindset. Try and enable life to be your training partner, not your enemy. Number two, plan every week with intention. Understand what you want to get out of the training block, but also what is the most important thing that you can do this week to ensure that life and training partners together. Number three, integrate the reflection before you charge into all of this. Look back. What was good. Where did I lose focus and not do so well? What do I need to do now? Really important. Number four, reset. I really encourage you to have five days, seven days, 10 days of unstructured training before you just charge through and start to get ready for annoyment. I don't want you to show up in a fog of fatigue. I want to show you see you show up as a fit and fresh athlete. Number Five build the habits that support it's an always there. I have to say it. Number six, don't forget your simulators really important. Over the course of the summer. It's a great opportunity do some bike and runs. You can also do some big swims into bikes and things like that. Simulators take all sorts of different kinds of sessions, but you get the principle, simulators are key. And finally, a bubble. Make sure this is an adventure. Keep it fun, keep it fresh. This is the Purple Patch way. It's my way. It's forged from years of coaching many of the best athletes in the business. You've got the tools. You've got the roadmap. The question is, are you ready to live it? Thanks for tuning in. And if you're a part of Purple Patch, lean in. Let us help. Feel free to reach out for a consultation. It's a great time to plan your full lineman. And if you're not well, if this resonates, feel free to reach out to us. We'd love to help you guide your journey, either with a consultation or, of course, welcoming you to the team. We are always available, always available. Info at Purple Patch fitness.com let's make it a powerful summer, and let's thrive in your iron man in the fall. Cheers. One more time is coming back.
Matt Dixon 50:39
This is the Purple Patch way. This is my way. It's forged from years of coaching some of the best in sport. Let me tell you, you've got the tools. You've got the roadmap. The question is, are you ready to live it? If you're listening as a Purple Patch athlete, particularly if you're on the try squad program, this is a wonderful time to grab a consultation with one of our coaches. Of course, let's dial it in and make sure that summer is locked in so that the full race can be fantastic. And if you're not a Purple Patch athlete, well, if it resonates with you, let us help you, guide you on your journey. You can set up a consultation with one of our coaches so that you can really dial in the personalization. Or, of course, we'd love to welcome you to the team. We're quite a friendly punch. I like to say we put the human in human performance. You can reach out to us for a complimentary call to see how we can best work with each other. Info at Purple Patch fitness.com we're always here. But either way, let's hold hands. Let's look forward and let's make this a really powerful, fun summer. Let's lock it in. We'll speak to you next week. Take care, 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
Ironman training, summer training, flexible optimization, weekly clarity, perceived effort, race simulators, recovery, habits, sleep, fueling, hydration, adventure, performance, coaching, Purple Patch