380 - Train Smarter, Race Faster: The Proven Method For Effective & Fun Off-Season Bike Training
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Welcome to the Purple Patch Podcast!
Welcome to the Purple Patch Podcast! In this episode, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon discusses the importance of off-season training for athletes, emphasizing the need for rejuvenation, flexibility, and building a foundation for next year's performance. He highlights the benefits of consistent, low-impact cycling, which not only maintains fitness but also improves cognitive health. Dixon advocates for a balanced approach, combining high-intensity interval training, skill development, and terrain management. He shares the inspiring story of Jenna Diliberto, who overcame significant challenges to achieve a top finish in an Ironman race. Dixon encourages listeners to join Purple Patch's coaching programs for personalized guidance and to enhance their cycling skills effectively. If you have any questions about the Purple Patch program, feel free to reach out at info@purplepatchfitness.com.
Episode Timecodes:
00-1:55 Promo
2:23-5:21 Intro
6:14-10:30 Jenna Case Study
10:30-15:29 Bike Training in Off-Season
15:29-18:08 Components of Cycling
18:10-end Skills & Technique
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TRANSCRIPT
Matt Dixon 00:00
Folks, today's episode is a fun one. We're right in the middle of off season, a massively important time for athletes of any level. First, you want to rejuvenate. You need to refresh. You need to have greater fun and flexibility. You need to be able to place emphasis in other areas of your life. But critically, you want to put the building blocks in place that are going to be the platform that you build great performance next year. I always argue this is the most important time of the year. Today's episode is going to focus on one of these elements, cycling, and if the idea of being coached by me directly on video, wherever you're at in the world, multiple times a week, where I can give you feedback, guidance and take you through sessions with great intent, where you dial up specificity, without it shackling your life or taking it away from the much needed rest and recovery. And then this is a wonderful time to join us, whether as a part of our one to one coaching program or our highly popular tri squad. Here's how we do it. You can go and look around the website, purplepatchfitness.com, but I'd encourage you to just book a needs assessment with us. We'll understand your situation, your goals, perhaps your challenges that we've had, and then we're going to create the first part of a blueprint so that you can see the roadmap ahead of what you need to do to up level next year. It's absolutely pressure free. If nothing else, you're going to walk away with some actionable tips and guidance from one of the purple patch coaches. But if it's a match made in heaven, we'll ensure you get the right program for you so that you can excel. Feel free to reach out info@purplepatchfitness.com. We'll have a nice conversation, and either way, I appreciate you being an avid listener to the show. Feel free to share this episode with all of your friends or anyone that might benefit All right, let's get on with it. 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 02:22
You and welcome to the purple patch podcast as ever your host Matt Dixon, and today, bike riding, one of my favorite strong light bull the mission of today's show is to make your off season riding more effective and fun, so that we can put the critical building blocks in place, so that you can be and let me whisper this faster next season. We've already said before that the worst thing that you can do in off season is go rogue, as I like to say, completely random. It's also going to create regression if you just completely take a break, it might be tempting. Hey, I'm going to have my bike up for a few months, especially if you're just dreading those mind numbing boring winter zone two rides. But let me tell you, consistency is the magic word of performance, and riding is a fantastic low impact way to maintain your fitness levels, as well as, by the way, your cognitive health, yes, has a direct link to the reduction of dementia, Alzheimer's and other cognitive illnesses. But more than that, off season is the time where we can narrow down our focus. It doesn't demand as much time investment that's really important, but it gives us space when we're not chasing race specific goals or, of course, intensities, space for you to refine your skills, develop your technique, ingrain habits and understand how you can actually get faster. And let me unlock a secret right now, it's not just about getting fitter. We don't lean on toughness and fitness to drive progression. That's a great add on, but it's about becoming a craftsman. And the good news, all of this includes time that's wholly efficient and doesn't demand that you spend hours and hours and hours in those dreaded Time Trial bars. You can do it all on your road bike. This is particularly important today. This is one that I would almost say is personal, because it is the great unlock. And much of what I'm going to tell you today doesn't get the attention in the broader media. You seldom hear coaches talk about it. You're probably sick to death about improving your FTP, getting fitter, what's your critical power? And all of these metrics based determinants on your fitness. But how do you actually get faster? How do you actually take your fitness and maximize it, optimize it so that you can yield faster bike splits? That's what we're going to unpack today, and it starts right now. It doesn't take much time, and it's a lot of fun. It's all in the meat and potatoes.
Matt Dixon 05:30
It is the meat and potatoes. And just before we dive into cycling, I want to tell you a story, a coaching story, that is unscripted and I feel like I want to share this because it's with great pride from all of the coaches at purple patch that were a part of this journey. But one of our athletes, Jenna Diliberto, had a an unfortunate accident. Several years ago, she was hit by a truck while she was cycling five or six years ago, and and she needed to be put back together around a little bit like Humpty, Dumpty, many people at the time, and this is well before we knew Jenna would have assumed that she probably wouldn't get back on a bike again, let alone race triathlons. And she was a pretty competitive amateur triathlete at the time, she went through a long journey, and about three years ago, she joined purple patch. She was still under a lot of pain, she had a lot of hardware in her body, and she had an aspiration to get back to racing number one and ultimately be able to do what was on her radar right before getting hit by that truck, which was to get across the finish line of an Iron Man race, and Coach Brad, followed up by myself, have partnered with Jenny over the course of multiple years, with a lot of setbacks, a lot of challenges, but always this inner belief from Jenna that she can get across that finish line. Now, Jenna's a good athlete. She is, and I don't think she'll mind telling me she's in the 45 to 49 year old age group. She's a mom of three, and she's done a tremendous job. Her focus was absolutely anchored around the bull's eye. Being strength does a terrific job on nutrition, and her magic word is consistency. And I would also say fun. A huge part of the community here doesn't over complicate the recipe. If she's feeling a little bit over fatigued, she has the courage to back off. If she's feeling great, she'll push on and go a little bit stronger.
Matt Dixon 07:34
She trains with others. She gives a lot to the team and community around her, and in return, that community and team give her a lot back. Well, a couple of weeks ago, she just she managed to race Iron Man California in Sacramento. This was going to be her first Iron Man finish, if she could get across that finish line. And I remember saying to the coaches, Jenna is going to go well, and the reason for that is because she had a very simple race plan. She trusted herself, but she was committed wholeheartedly to go and give her best, but she also understood the jeopardy of sport. And the day before I spoke to Jenna, she said, I'm ready. Let's go and see what's what I'm going to go and do an Iron Man tomorrow? Well, she went and did an Iron Man. She swam. Well, she rode incredibly well. There hasn't been another rider that's invested more than this topic today, becoming a craftsman on the bike. She was incredibly consistent. Didn't override, but certainly rode up towards her potential. And then on the run, we had a pre existing plan that she was going to walk every single aid station. Now, I've talked about the power of walk breaks in triathlon racing before, and for many, many people marathon racing as well, Jenna walked aid station, 1234567, all the way up to age. Station 26 every single age. Station 40 to five to 49 year old age group. She ran a 328, she didn't just finish her first Iron Man in her life. She was second overall as a female athlete, 45 to 49 second overall, that's exceptional, and that culminates in a journey where she has complete ownership, she deserves all the credit, and she's an inspiration. And I tell you this story right now to tell you something you are stronger than you think you are and whatever, but you put your mind to you can accomplish it. Sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes it can comes with a lot of challenges and setbacks. But if you understand your why, and you're deeply passionate and you're committed, while motivation might go up and down, you can go and achieve great things. Keep it simple.
Matt Dixon 10:00
Well, keep it fun. Step out of your comfort zone and be willing to stay there, and you will adapt. You will grow. And well, you can be just like Jenna. And so that's something that she can be incredibly proud of. We are proud of her, and it's a great case study. I'm hoping, I'm hoping that I can get Jenna on the show, alrighty. So with that, let's talk about bike riding, as I talk about with all of off season. This is a time that you don't want to feel like training is a monkey on your back. You don't want it to dominate every hour. You don't want it to compete with your other priorities in life, your professional life, family, friends, etc. In fact, you want capacity. And it's very, very important that when we get to the far end of off season, some athletes that will be leading into January, some people, it will bleed all the way through till the middle of February. You want to be mentally and physically rejuvenated. You want to be excited. You want to be healthy. But most importantly, with those in pairing with that, we want to have the building blocks in place so that you are ready to dial it up and yield the fruit of your hard work ahead. You want to be structurally ready. You want to have the skills in hand, and you'll be ready to work very, very hard. So if we narrow that focus down to cycling, what does that mean for off season? Well, what it means is that you don't need really boring, repetitive riding to accomplish it. In fact, many, many riders can excel when they're just committing to two or three hours a week, a week of riding short, 60 minute sessions, if you have more capacity, if you have the desire to go out do so it's fun, if you live in a place that it's still lovely, warm sunshine, or if you're brave enough to go in the sleet and rain, do it. There's nothing wrong with doing more if it fits your schedule, and if you're doing that extra stuff, Zone Two. Zone two. Zone two. It's great you can further build your base. I'm not against that, but the days are shorter, the weather's in. This is a time that we're a long way from off season, and you don't need to build your platform of excellence on the base of a robust pyramid of fitness. Okay, that's a very important element that we want to discuss. It. You need to do plenty of zone two. You need to focus on building a foundation. But the good news is you can do that concurrently when you're participating in longer endurance events. This is high value so the winter, you can actually shape an inverse pyramid. You can shrink down your training commitment. You can get highly efficient, which locks and meshes in with all of the elements that we think about as it relates to making sure you're rejuvenating, make sure you're spending other times, and you can do two to three hours a week. Now, these should be short.
Matt Dixon 13:13
They should be fun. There's a magic word here. They should be potent, and you should be looking for the minimal effective dose, and that's what we're going to focus on. Now, the key, though, is those two to three hours, they better be darn specific. You really want to dial in where you're placing your emphasis on these in order to put those building blocks in place. So it's not just about shrinking and pinking. It's not just about cutting down from 56789, 10 hours a week of riding to two or three and thinking you're doing great, you actually need to get more than any time of the year with those limited hours, you need to get pretty precise. And indoor cycling allows us to get pretty precise. I'm not talking about the what here, but what we can do with indoor riding is we can control the environment. We can tailor specific intervals. We can make short duration training more effective. It's also a wonderful school of learning and developing great internal habits, as I like to call it. In other words, if you commit to those two to three hours of every single pedal stroke executed with lovely, smooth tension on the chain shoulders that are supple, great posture and really thinking about the how that's ingraining three hours a week or so of habit development. So this is really important. So we want to get very precise, and that's what you want to unpack. We want to build habits on. There is one more thing as well. What I talked about in the introduction. How do you leverage those two to three? Hours as a learning opportunity to start to yield greater speed from any fitness you have, where the answer lies in a simple phrase, Terrain Management, that really magnifies. And there's a big if here, if you have access to the right platform and the right type of trainer.
Matt Dixon 15:21
So let's go through this and let's back it off a little bit, and let's just think about cycling globally. Now this is very similar to if I was discussing great swimming or great running, and I'll give you an example. What should we think about if we want to be a great swimmer? Well, number one, you have to have really good posture in the water. We sometimes call that tautness. We need to ensure that having a good recovery where the strokes are lined so you're not wiggling all over the place, you're not crossing over the front, you're not pulling under the body. You need to ensure that you're setting or collecting and getting enough purchase on the water quite often. That's referred to as the catch. And finally, you're looking to propel water and accelerate it backwards so you can create propulsion. So in other words, get the body in line, get the recovery in the connection in place, that's the catch, and then grip it after that, then rip it and propel the body forward. Do that repeatedly. Then it's about layering specificity of training. So those are the very core sort of elements of swimming faster, of course, all wrapped up in reduction of drag as well. What about if we apply that to great cycling? How do we think about that? Well, the first is obviously the engine. You do need a good element of fitness and power production if you are going to be a rider that can generate the most power possible over the longest duration. But let's bust a myth with that. If you think that you're driving up and boosting your magical functional threshold power your FTP with just ERG driven sessions.
Matt Dixon 17:05
And you think that's the best way to get faster, you're dead wrong, and unfortunately, that's the norm out there. Set a trainer derived off of some metric that was achieved through an assessment, either through blood lactate or some field test. Create a specific interval. Call it a pain cave, take some pictures and put it on social media, go and do those intervals. Harder, harder, harder. Use your toughness, use your hard work, drive up your FTP. All of that is great, but is that going to give you the biggest yield of speed in the long run, the answer is no, fitness and power is number one. It's important. We want to improve our fitness, to get faster. But the truth is, as an element of global great cycling, to become a great cyclist, it's just the tip of the iceberg. The second element that I would identify is skills and technique. And what I mean by that is a toolkit of assets to use the right tool or skill at the right time, relative to conditions and terrain, to apply that fitness, whatever you have to generate speed return. That's the Craftsman spot part of it. Fitness takes a long time to build. The gains are typically incremental, especially after you've been doing this a while, but the leveraging of that fitness to get speed return has compounding interest type returns. You can get a lot faster and a lot further with really good development of skills. So that's number two. Number three, when we think about becoming a great cyclist, is strategy and pacing. How do you actually distribute all of these skills, this toolkit over terrain on a course determined by the distance of the course or race, or, of course, the features that you're going to face. Is it flat? Is it flat and windy? Is it windy and Rolly, hilly? Or is it still and hilly and Rolly? There's many, many elements that go into it. And finally, you've got what I would encompass beyond skills, handling, your ability to actually control your machine, the master and the craft of riding.
Matt Dixon 19:33
Now this is really important, because when we think about this with athletes that are unskilled in the confidence in the ability to handle the actual piece of equipment, your bike, if they're unskilled, unfortunately, a lot of your conscious focus goes into handling that machine. But if you can, and that takes up, by the way, a lot of cognitive load, a lot of energy. So. But if you can make that automatic, where you become a highly skilled rider, and then you don't need to focus on the internal so much, you can have your focus be on the external, the terrain, the wind, the environment, the other athletes, perhaps, when you're riding around the city, the cars, you can actually anticipate there's a reason that very, very good cyclists, craftspeople, don't ride through potholes. There's a reason that less experienced cyclists do. It's because their focus is internal handling the machine. And so you want to make this this is an element of great cycling. So let's summarize this. You get your fitness and your power, great. You get your skills and technique, how you sit in cornering handling. You get the strategy and pacing, how you distribute all of that over the course. And you actually have your handling of your machine so that you can apply your cognitive focus up the road. So how does that apply to your 234, hours a week of training that you're going to do in off season? How can you actually leverage this and actually tackle nearly, not all of them, but nearly all of these to put yourself ahead of the pack, when you do dial up your focus, when you do say it's go time, when it comes to training, you're not behind the eight ball, but you're ahead 10% ahead of anyone else. Well, firstly, you have to first think about fitness, power production, and think about the vast majority of athletes that we talk about.
Matt Dixon 21:37
The truth is that if you're coming off a prior season of training and competition, you have probably done a lot of endurance specific work, and you have taken that work and you have built it into a race season for you to either participate in Olympic Half Ironman or Iron Man type triathlons. Great. So you've done a whole bunch of Zone Two as a part of your training. If your program is sensible and smart and zone two training is important. Let me double down on that. It is a critical component of athlete and rider development, and you can add some, as I said, but you don't need to obsess. The truth is that when the days get shorter and colder and more wet and miserable and you want to spend time elsewhere, it's a pretty low ROI to just lock yourself in a cave and sit at one power and intensity at zone two, because some guy told you that it improves your fat utilization. I'd encourage you don't make a shackle for yourself. Here. It is an important part of training. You don't have to do it in the winter. At least most athletes don't. And so instead, this is an opportunity to shift the lens and focus onto pieces of cycling that if you are a longer distance endurance athlete, they don't get the attention in other parts of the year. What I like to think about is raising potential. Push up your ceiling. The winter months are a wonderful time to get very uncomfortable. Now, remember, I said, this is a time for lower stress, less training, more flexibility, a lot of fun. And I'm just about to tell you that at least once a week you want to put yourself in a place of glorious misery. You want to go very, very hard. The way that you rise your physiological capacity is with a series of short, very punchy, what you might call vo two Max intervals, very, very strong. These are short intervals ranging from 30 seconds up to 234, minutes at the most, where you are sitting and accumulating work, where you get distinctly uncomfortable, your heart rate is very, very high.
Matt Dixon 23:57
The good news is that you get a big return of investment in a short period of time. So one session a week, you want to put in some very high intensity, and it's satisfying. You definitely feel the bang for the buck, but it doesn't create any looming, lagging fatigue. This is really important. So from a fitness standpoint, I would have one of those sessions a week. Another session will be technical. We're going to come on to that in a moment, and then any other riding you do can be soul filling and fun. And I don't even mean you have to be limited to sitting in a metric and religiously staying at zone two. There's a benefit to that, but in the big picture and a joy picture, I also think that you should go play, go ride your mountain bike. Go and have fun on a snow bike, if the weather's like that, if you get the opportunity, go play on your road bike. What. Whatever you have go and ride your bike, and depending if, if you have one extra hour, or five extra hours or 10 extra hours, that's going to be the determining factor of how much more riding you do. And it doesn't mean you're going to have or become a better athlete than anyone else. You're not falling about behind if you don't do that. So remove the guilt, remove the shackles, remove the metrics. Go right. Go, have fun. But the central sessions, that two to four hours a week that we're talking about, the first of them, is very, very high intensity training. That's what will integrate almost every element. The second type of training that you emphasize is the stuff that's actually going to make you faster, and that's skill and technique. So let's dig through this a little bit. The first is, these sessions, you want a commitment from yourself, and hopefully, if you're riding with peers, like I do every Tuesday and Thursday, a little bit of feedback, support and accountability from your mates to dial in body position. In other words, you want to have soft shoulders, really supple arms.
Matt Dixon 26:10
You want to have a robust core. Now, I hate that word, that's why I pause before saying it. But almost everything under the bib side bib shorts is taut, you'll have a nice long spine if you're down in TT, work on your posture, not make knock it, not ensuring that you don't have a stiff neck. This stuff is really important, because when you can be not soft but supple, there's a radical reduction in muscle fatigue. That means you're going to have more energy to divert into your pedaling, into better position for longer running better off the bike. For triathletes, you also have the opportunity to get into a more aerodynamic position, whether in row position or, of course, in time trial position, you're not going to be constantly shifting. You're building postural integrity, and that's high value, and also your handling skills can improve. A stiff body, locked elbows, wrists, shoulders, crunched up to the ears is makes that harder to handle your bike. Thus it's more likely that you'll have to slow down into turns and descents. If you're supple and aware and are skilled at that. You can have your energy, you can plan the corners, you'll have more flow. So this is really important. A second element of going faster is how you pedal the bike. Really dial in pedaling technique. Here's the key thing to focus on. Now I can't coach you via this podcast. In fact, if you join me for a nice session, then I can really coach you. You should take advantage link in the show notes, but I'll do my best to give you one or two things for you to think about and take home. The first is the vast majority of time when you're pedaling your piston, if you want to call it, that is your upper leg. That's where your quads, hamstrings and gluteus maximus are. So that's where your big muscles are, your power drivers. So from the hip to the knee, that's what we want to focus on. And for the most part, anything under the knee should feel a little bit like the end of a hose pipe. It should be supple. It should be tracing what the upper leg is developing. And so when you're pedaling, think about pedaling on the bike with nothing from the knees down, and allow that lower leg to trace a little bit. And as you're pedaling, whether you're at zone one, Zone Two, zone three, all the way up to zone four, you should feel, here's the thing, constant tension on the chain. It's a great opportunity to ensure that you don't feel gaps
Matt Dixon 28:53
pedaling, and instead, you're feeling a really smooth transfer. Interestingly, that smooth transfer is not developed by per by pedaling, what they often call circles. It's much more of an elliptical pedal stroke, and so don't think about stamping down on the pedals. Think about pushing through the front arc, but also at the same time, lifting with your retreating leg. It's a really valuable thing that you can dial in, pushing with the front one to four o'clock at the same time, just lifting and assist, assisting with that retreating part between seven and about 11 o'clock that creates what we call the magic word, constant tension on the chain. Here's the thing, the front part of the pedal stroke, between one and four o'clock or so on the clock face is biomechanically the most intuitive part of the pedal stroke. So you don't need to think about that push too much. It's going to happen automatically. So instead, where we want the athlete's brain to focus not to generate. More power, but where we want the focus to be is not on the push. It's going to happen anyway, but instead the opposing leg just to get a little assist that tends to smooth the transfer out and create the best tension on chain to yield the biggest wheel speed and also the best power. So pedaling technique is really, really important. And if you just start, I know that I just threw a bunch of information. But if you start with feeling, and you get used to riding at lower cadences, middle range cadences and faster cadences, looking to maintain a smooth flow on your pedal stroke with constant tension on the chain your body is going to give you the feedback. You should try and make it feel like the machine is a part of you, that it's sufficient, and so with that, you've got complete control. You're not weaving all over the place. You're just quiet on the bike. I always say when you're riding your bike really well, it looks much more like ballet than the toughness and greediness of a doorman on an Eastern European disco. That's not what we want. This is not agricultural riding. We're not plowing a field here.
Matt Dixon 31:15
We're looking to poetically get high power from a supple state. That's ballet right there. And when you start to get the pedal stroke right and quieten down the body and keep it supple, then you're gonna get more speed return from the fitness that you have. You see how it starts to lock together. You then layer in the final component, which is Terrain Management. This is the number one performance unlock. You've got to have the fitness you've got to have the technique and skills and pedaling efficiency. But now comes the unlock. How do you actually manage your effort? Your up hills, you're cresting over the top of hills, maintaining speed with lower output, maintaining momentum through the bottom of rollers. How do you make these transitions really smoothly and get the best speed return without putting any more effort in? How do you transition in and out of the saddle and make sure that your propulsion is moving forward, not going backwards down the hill? How do you crest? How do you how do you build so much speed that you need to put no input in and you just keep the momentum going? This is valuable. This is high, high yield. We have consistently had like minded, very similar traits. Type athletes ride the same course, the same fitness, one of them being on a more aerodynamic bike, better equipment, better gear, and gone consistently slower than the craftsman, the rider who understands how to distribute their power and speed over a course. The key thing about this is, if you're the owner of a smart trainer and you've got an education someone coaching you through this, you can learn it. In fact, you can feel it. It's very, very hard to do in a vacuum. It's why most coaches ignore it and just tell you to focus on FTP because it's hard to coach remotely. Guess what? This is what we do, and we do it despite it being difficult, despite it being challenging, despite us having to spend hours videoing sessions so that our athletes over the world can actually learn this stuff. But the reason we invest the time, energy and money is because it makes really, really fast bike riders. And guess what? Purple patch athletes are really, really fast bike riders. We had the reputation at the pro level. We take incoming newbies and we teach them how to ride a bike. And the reason for it is because it's important. I hate to get on my soapbox, but this is important. If you're not focusing on Terrain Management under supervision, you are leaving speed on the table, and you can never, unfortunately, this is a truth you can never get to your potential period. If you're not thinking about Terrain Management and how you yield speed from whatever fitness you have, you are leaving performance on the table.
Matt Dixon 34:30
That's a simple truth. And so I'd love to see you go to the next level, unlock, improve, and that smiley face that comes when it gets so much easier. That's what we're looking for. How about strategy and pacing? How in an hour or two a week can you actually improve when an athlete is riding two hours or three hours or four hours or five hours or even eight hours? In a race, how do you actually improve someone's strategy and pacing? It comes from not being outcome or output focus and instead build the inner animal. We love our riders on the trainer not to ride in ERG mode. We don't ask them to hit a specific cadence or power. Instead, we ask them to unlock a feeling with an anticipated outcome, cadence or power, but we get them to do it by feel. We then get you to check your work and learn how adjusting power, speed gears, Cadence influences outputs, and we do it in forced feedback loops. When it comes to our platform, when we're riding, you might be riding just as the session I did this morning. You're going to do a very strong output for two and a half minutes, quite demanding. We have your power. We have your speed. You can see it objectively. You're locking in. You get feedback. Are you doing it? Well, both of those dials will be green, fantastic. You get a rejuvenation. I want you to remember what that felt like. Your next interval is exactly the same. But this time we do what's called going blind. We remove the dials. There's nothing there. Your goal is to get green on the power, green on the allotted cadence. We want to turn the bar green, and you'll get the feedback at the end. But for that two and a half minutes, you got to feel it. And guess what? Athletes absolutely hate it, and then they love it because they get the feedback loop. That's what coaching is, trying something, failing and passing, getting the feedback, adapting and adjusting, doing it again. The truth is, and the reason this is important is our speed on the bike emerges from being able to be the most efficient in generating output possible over the course of the different terrain and distance. We don't want to undercook it. We don't want to blow up. And so having great intuition on our effort, on our power, it frees you up. Frees you up to watch the road. Make strategic riding decisions. Understand yourself. I talked about Jenna earlier. I had her go and ride 112 miles as a part of an Iron Man. I didn't tell her what power to ride her, not once. I didn't talk about power, and she didn't ask. She went and rode and self managed because feedback loop, feedback loop, feedback loop, feedback loop, for more than a year. She understood herself. We knew where it was going to mesh out globally. The key is self management. This is it. This is key. And remember, there's no ERG on race day. And so therefore, if you're stuck in it in training, you'll never develop the skill. You won't get internal pacing. And of course, what happens if your bike computer dies?
Matt Dixon 38:14
This is key. So these are the bolts. These are the bolts that tie down your foundation. Do some short, high speed. If you want to go play on your bike, go have at it. You have no limits on your time. You can build further base. It's great, but don't feel like you have to develop your skills on the trainer. Great posture, great pedaling, and then start to unlock your speed with understanding Terrain Management. You can do that in two to three hours a week. And if you commit to that, here is my promise. If you do that consistently over multiple months, you still get the rejuvenation. You still stay fresh. You're not even looking to drive foundational central fitness games. But if you just commit to that next year, if you can build on it and be consistent and train for your races, here's my promise, you will be a more confident and faster bike rider. What's my percentage guess of that. What's the likelihood, if you are consistent in off season, doing these two to three hours a week, and then you build in it at a consistent over the course of the coming year? 100% 100% you will be more confident. You will understand yourself. You'll go faster. Why? Because everybody goes faster. That's it. And so look, we'd love to have you ride with us. Not just level up your cycling, but allow yourself to actually enjoy indoor riding. It's a blast. You might need to listen to my music. Sometimes you might start to learn some of. Characters that fill your ears, whether it's Mrs. Jenkins making a tea, whether it's Angus my sidekick, whether it's Roger the pigeon, some other characters we have you might even get to share some suffering with some like minded individuals. We've got a great weekend ride coming up November the first. It's live. It's built with a two way, interactive video coaching, and this time we're just gonna have some fun.
Matt Dixon 40:26
What we're going to do is we're going to mimic the Marbella course. That's the half Iron Man World Championship that is coming up in a week or so. And you can feel free from anywhere in the world, you can join us if you're in San Francisco, why don't you come to the Performance Center and give a crack that's free for your first time. All you need to do to sign up and we'll concierge you. We'll make it streamlined, very, very simple. Head to go.purplepatchfitness.com/bike, that's go.purplepatchfitness.com/bike, we'll put that link in the show notes for you. It is a free session. It's fun. It's live coached. You're going to hear some tunes, you're going to get some coaching, and we're going to put every element we talked about. We're going to put some power in there, we're going to put some technique in there. We're going to get some train management, and what you're going to get is a taste. You're just going to get a taste of it. You have another 10 days on that trial, by the way, to just try the other sessions. Go and dip into a few, try and apply some of the lessons that we talk about in today's show. There's no pressure. You can exit stage left if you don't want to be a part of it. But I really would like you to take the lessons of today's show and look, touch and feel. If you've got any questions at all, feel free to reach out. Just say, Look, I'm interested in trying the bike. I can't do it this weekend. I know I want to do it. Whatever it might be. Is my tech? Okay? Info@purplepatchfitness.com will help you. Okay, but I would love you to join us. And so in summary, what does it look like minimum effective dose, shorten shot, have greater confidence, build your toolkit. Make sure you increase the size of the engine, become more effective, and, of course, comfortable in your position, and start to develop a sense of pacing. Get that and you even have the opportunity to get more speed out of your power. I hope that helps. This is application in real life, and so have a great day. We'd love to be a part of it on this Saturday's ride, but if not, feel free to reach out. You can join us at any time. That is bike riding for everyone, we're going to make it faster.
Matt Dixon 42:35
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
off season, cycling, performance, fitness, recovery, coaching, purple patch, tri squad, needs assessment, actionable tips, Iron Man, terrain management, skill development, pacing strategy, high intensity training