395 - Fueling, Workout Timing, and How to Find Your Edge: Insights from Real Athletes
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Welcome to the Purple Patch Podcast!
On this episode, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon and Coach Max Gering discuss high performance through reflection, managing training in a busy life, and athlete stories. They emphasize the importance of reflection for athletes, suggesting weekly and quarterly evaluations to track progress and set goals. They advocate for morning workouts for consistency but acknowledge the need for flexibility based on individual schedules. They highlight the significance of community and support in athlete success, sharing stories of athletes overcoming challenges through simplification and team dynamics. The conversation also touches on the integration of AI in coaching to enhance efficiency and human connection.
If you have any questions about the Purple Patch program, feel free to reach out at info@purplepatchfitness.com.
Episode Timecodes:
00:1:52 Episode Promo
2:21-10:16 Episode Intro
10:35-23:56 Power of Reflection
43:18-end Athlete Stories
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Transcription
Matt Dixon 00:00
Team. It's a great show. Today I'm joined by Coach Max Gering. We're going to talk all about high performance through three lenses. Number one, we're going to tell some athlete stories. Number two, we're really going to focus on a high performance trait, which is reflection really important understand how it can empower your journey. And also, we're going to unpack some secrets in how to manage training in a very busy life. If today inspires you and then feel free to reach out. Max would love to have a strategy call with you, help you on your journey. It's complementary. Why don't you take advantage? If nothing else, you are going to get the opportunity to set your vision for the next quarter, and, of course, the rest of this year. Info@purplepatchfitness.com
Matt Dixon 00:44
also a call to action for all coaches out there. Are you interested in joining the purple patch team? It's very rare. We have a very tight knit coach of our group of coaches, but we are looking to add to the team. This is an absolutely full time position. It has benefits, everything that you might expect from a world class organization that is purple patch. If you or if you know someone who might be interested, feel free to check out the link in the show notes. You can also go to purplepatchfitness.com and scroll all the way down to the careers page. It is posted up there. This is a wonderful opportunity to gain some mentorship from me, but also be part of a team that's dedicated to help people getting the most out of themselves. Finally, when you listen to today's show, just a quick little request, can you please, please, please subscribe and share it with anyone who you think might find this topic, or, of course, the purple patch podcast at large helpful. It really helps us gain more ears and, of course, inform the athletes to help you get even better. All right. Thanks so much. 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 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 02:23
and welcome to the purple patch podcast as ever. Your host, Matt Dixon, and today, well, let's call it co host Max. Welcome back purple patch coach. Max gehran, thanks, Matt. It's always a pleasure to be here. I'm excited for this one today. Well, we had a lot of fun a couple of weeks ago and and you put me on the hot seat, I think we're going to evolve this a little bit, and you won't be quite as punishing for me, but, but we are going to dig in and have a little bit of a discussion around three core topics I think are really relevant and and somewhat disassociated with each other, all under the banner of obviously thriving and getting the most out of yourself as an athlete. But the first that we want to dig into is reflection and and it's such a critical trait, and we have been doing a lot of that as a team lately, so we thought this was a good one to dig into. We also want to talk about managing training as a as a busy athlete as it is getting to that time of the year, a lot of athletes are really starting to prime up. We've got a lot of racing going on and and so we want to sort of revisit that topic a little bit, and then we want to tell a, I think, a couple of athlete stories, if I'm right. So I've got one, and I know you've got one that you're you're very keen to talk through. So it should be an interesting show and and I, for one, love this format. I've got my cup of coffee with me, and even though it's in the afternoon, I'm breaking my own rules, but, but it feels more like a coach ish chat than anything. So, so I guess we'll kick it off before we get into the meat and potatoes. I'd just love to hear how things will be for you. Everything is good. We are We are busy at purple patch. When listeners are listening to this episode, we will be at Napa camp, which is one of the camps we do every year. So in January, we were in Kona. This week will coming week will be in Napa. So that's really exciting. It'll be a terrific camp with almost 20 athletes, really super stuff there, and then the team has been hard at work, evolving programming, always, constantly meeting and thinking about, how can we evolve what we do at purple patch to give the best product to our athletes and a lot of really fun stuff. How about how about you? I know you've been been very busy with some really exciting things across the board. Yeah. Well, the all sort of build on the evolving part of it as well, because the something that we are all facing, every organization is facing, is AI, obviously, and the evolution of AI, which is just changing the landscape, I would say, for us as human beings, but also across every industry. And it's one of those.
Matt Dixon 04:59
Things that I think that leaders and teams can either shy away from, hide from, or really lean into and say, How can we actually in our the purple patch arena? How can we leverage How can we maximize our efficiencies so we can spend more time on the human coaching? How can we deliver better programming and options for our athletes and the people that we serve to drive up our coaching and and I keep coming back to coaching because that is at the heart of what we do. We are coaches. We help get the most out of people. And so we've looked across the board and are doing a lot of projects across that we're already leveraging, AI, but I think over the course of the coming months, there's going to be some really deep integration that will help the athlete experience without turning our back on, on what we are, which is coaches. So that's been an incredibly empowering and and fun journey. You know, it's anyone really, you know, can predict the future. It's moving so fast at the same time, what I've seen, and I'll just include you in this max, our team globally, I would say if we got went back a year ago, there was a lot of hesitancy, a lot of questions, maybe even a little bit of fear. And now you guys as a team. We are one team, but you guys really leaning in, really in, almost saying, okay, look, let's, let's really make sure that we're putting effort in the right place to really drive to the outcomes. But it, but it's really, really fun to have a team that's really engaged and looking into it. So I think that's been a big project of ours. And then the other thing that's worthy of sharing, which which is ironically somewhat related, but the last couple of weeks, yeah, I've been traveling quite a bit, and geographically, not very far, but I was with the Wall Street Journal, the Leadership Institute down in in Menlo Park. So Silicon Valley, for folks that are nodding at a part of the Bay Area, working with CFOs and CEOs at their summit, that was really interesting. And then this last week, I was with a great private equity organization, Sixth Street Partners and their CEO Summit. And the reason that's relevant is there were really in both of those very different summits, I can identify only two real themes that people just kept coming back to. And the first was, unsurprisingly, AI and the impact on organizations and teams. The second was the huge increase in demands and concerns, very real concerns about executive burnout, and that's that's a huge component. And there's no jokes about it. You know, it's a very, very challenging time for everyone, and in lives that are already busy with this change. It's really, really difficult. So it's very interesting. I was talking on in both of these about human performance, team development, and if ever there was a time for this, it is now, that is for sure.
Matt Dixon 08:10
That's awesome. And to add on to the AI stuff, without going on too much of a tangent, I think, as always, there's a lot of parallels between what we do in the sport world and what we do in our training to our other endeavors in life. And I think for me, there's two big things that come up with AI that are direct parallels from what we do in sport, which is leaning into discomfort. That's number one. So I had a conversation with an athlete of mine who's an executive in the tech world, and he's in the tech world, fully immersed in it, and he admitted that even as an executive in the tech world, there's discomfort for him with AI and with how much it's changing, and he said you have to be okay with feeling stupid at different times when you're using it and feeling uncomfortable. And those are the words that he used and leaning into the discomfort of using it and not having that be a sign that you're doing something wrong, or that you're that you're ill equipped, but actually a sign that you're on the right path, because you're leaning in. So that's, that's number one. And then the second one is focusing on what you're going to focus on, but also defining what you're not going to focus on. So a conversation we've had a lot recently at purple patch is, what are we not looking to do with AI and making sure we're clear on what we're not trying to do, so that, you know, addition by subtraction, that's another thing that I think has been really valuable. Yeah, I think that is an absolutely critical focus. I love the thought on you've got to be willing to look stupid. Think about skill acquisition thinking, you know, I often taught when I was coaching kids and saying, Look, in order to become great, you actually have to be willing to look a little silly. And I bet most listeners can sort of pause and think about whether you're looking to ride a bike, whether you're looking to shift technique, it's going to look and feel really, really strange. And that has great analysis.
Matt Dixon 10:00
Is all the way across, so it's terrific. But anyway, that's the catch up. Shouldn't we dig into the meat and potatoes? Let's do it all right. Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, it is Matt's gowing. Matt Dixon, we are going to talk about the meat and potatoes.
Max Gering 10:22
I right, it is the meat and potatoes. So that means it's gonna be over to you. I think you're gonna guide us in this conversation. You are our spiritual lead. Is that the rumor? That is what they say. Matt's on the challenge. All right, so Topic number one is the power of reflection. And we have not covered yet, covered this yet on the podcast in q2 of 2026 so I thought, better late than never, something that obviously we're doing internally with our athletes and as an organization, but I wanted to take a few minutes to touch on why reflection is really important, why it's such a key trait for high performers, and what reflection As an athlete looks like at this time of year. So that's what I want to talk about. Well, I'll kick us off, because I think it's, I think reflection comes in layers and
Matt Dixon 11:14
and I'll dig into that. But before I do you mentioned something there, which is high performance traits. If we close our eyes and just think about a world class athlete, the first things that we jump to beyond their talent level is that they're gritty and they're really resilient and they're adaptable and focused on the right things, but the thing that is often forgotten about, or maybe the light doesn't shine quite as naturally as reflection and and I see reflection as a trait built into something that was always a part of my most successful professional athletes I coached. It sort of was almost the key ingredient in athletic IQ, as I like to call it, always think about an athlete, Jesse Thomas, who was just such a smart athlete, not just successful, not just physically gifted. Obviously, worked very, very hard. He was great at self management. And at the center of it all was reflection. And it extends to athletes. It extends to
Matt Dixon 12:22
any any arena in life, and is critical in teams, and in fact, it will shine a light on the purple patch team, the coaching team, in a few moments, and talk about reflection as it relates to us. But when should reflection occur? Well, obviously, reflection occurs intuitively or to or to magically in a way after a race. But for me, reflection can start on a day to day and a week to week basis, and also at checkpoints along the way. So I'll dance into the purple patch coaching team a little bit
Matt Dixon 13:02
towards the end of March. So two and a half weeks ago or so, we all, as a team, myself, Kelli, yourself, Max, and the whole coaching team and everyone that works at purple patch had a very structured process of reflection over the first quarter relative to what our mission was. In the first quarter, we're looking for what we were going to achieve. Where did we what were the wins? And I think that's very, very important, because as human beings, we do we build confidence, we build commitment, when we feel progression and improvement. So what were the wins that was good, also objectively, where did we fall short? What were the things that we failed to get done or we didn't achieve or didn't execute as well as we could all for a lens then, so that we can then look forward and say, Great, now, what should our focus be in q2
Matt Dixon 13:58
and that was at an organizational level, but it was also an individual level. So as a part of that, for q2
Matt Dixon 14:07
every single team member at purple patch has effectively got three or so core objectives to achieve in your role. You have got four objectives beyond just you doing your job, beyond me, just doing my job. But those goals, or objectives, the mission for q2 are born out of the reflection that occurs at the end of q1
Matt Dixon 14:31
and so as we correlate that to an athlete, I think this is a great anchor point on the show. We've talked a lot about the Sunday special, which is a prioritization tool, making sure that any athlete can manage all of the competing demands of life. Everything around life non negotiable is what you're doing with your family or friends and kids and going to the dentist, etc. What you've got your with your work and then integrating training into it, is.
Matt Dixon 14:59
And with that is ruthless prioritization, and another core trait that we would say, but at the end of each week, we like people to do that every Sunday, hence the Sunday special at the end of each week, the first step of that is to first look back and reflect, and really what it is is coming out of the weeds and going through the same process that I just highlighted, that we did as an organization and individually, is at the end of q1 what were the wins? Great. I feel progression. I've got a sense of traction. There's a little bit of purpose and understanding of things I'm doing well. What did I not do so well this week? And therefore, what informs my actions in the coming week? Where do I need to place my energy and focus? And that filtering enables progression, confidence, and, of course, focusing on the things that are the boulders, not on the distractions, because we get to remove those. So that's, that's, I think, such an important part. What did I miss there?
Max Gering 16:00
No, I think you covered it really well. I think a few things to add for for an athlete, really translating that to to training is,
Max Gering 16:10
you know, you mentioned the goals go beyond us just doing our job, and so that's important for an athlete. Because as an athlete, let's say you're training for an Ironman, there's some very basic parts of your journey that are non negotiables of your journey. So I would encourage athletes to come up even level higher. And it's not just I'm going to swim, bike, run this month, but what are the things that you're looking to achieve within each discipline? Where did you fall short in your recent months of training? And then that becomes your goal, and push yourself to get a little bit tactical about, okay, what am I now going to specifically focus on to achieve that goal? Maybe that's getting to the pool an extra time a week. Maybe that's shifting the type of training that I'm doing to get a different stimulus. But you don't want it to just be show up and work out more consistently. That's too general. It's not going to really give you the direction that you need. The point of this is to get you to give you clarity about what you should do. So if you walk away from it and you don't have clarity about what actions to take, you're missing something. I think it's a really important point. And I'll rebound two things. I'll give listeners actually a real athlete example here an athlete that I coached, David, who over q1 it was a very, very busy time of work for him. He had a lot of travel. He's a business leader and and it was just, you know, a lot of what comes as you kick off the year. And and training was taking a little bit of a back seat. But one of the casualties. He's a very keen half Iron Man and Iron Man athlete. One of the casualties that we knew we wanted to do, but it was just tactically impossible in q1 was to really do a swim project. It is a source of weakness for him. We would have loved to have done it, but instead we shifted, and we did actually a run project, and we really focused on running more flexible when he was training, we anchored mostly bike trainer. And of course, we kept strength in there. Q2 emerges, and things start to settle down for David a little bit. And it's a wonderful point where rather than just driving and carrying on with work, hard work getting up out of the level. And it's really important. Get out of the weeds. That's sort of a nice metaphor. Get out of the weeds. Get up to the 5000 foot level. Look back and say, Okay, I have under swum. Now I've got this commitment. This is my focus. I need to swim. And he's actually progressed up and over the first two and a half weeks, he's averaged four and a half swims. He's done four and five swims each week, and that's incredible. He hasn't had any travel. He lives very close to the pool, so logistics are a little easier. So he's enabling to do that. But that, that's a that's a really sort of clear example of that. The second thing I'll say that that's very, very important on a week to week basis as an athlete context, is, let's remember why the Sunday special actually was born in the first place. And it was born because the professional athletes were having a really hard time the purple patch pros managing all of their competing demands. And so what I was observing as a coach was that they were just charging into sessions and almost looking at their week of training like chicken casserole. All the workouts are the same. They're all mixed up. I just need to show up and do them. And the reflection as a part of the Sunday special enabled them to actually, once again, come out of the weeds. Look back at what was successful and good, and then look at the week ahead of training and say, what is the intent? What am I looking to get out of this week? Where are the key sessions, where I really need to bring great presence, focus?
Matt Dixon 19:59
My best self, where are maybe the more supporting sessions that I can be a little bit more low key, both in terms of emotional and obviously physical effort, and that's really important, because we can't always be on it the whole time. That creates intention in training and in broader life, intention in our calendaring of life. But that only occurs if every single week we do actively come out and we reflect and we look at where we've gone, because then you start linking the weeks together. And so that's the big point of reflection, is you're not living down in the murky weeds, even though we have to, because we are CEOs of our own sport. We do have to do the doing. You know, we're doing everything, so we've got to be able to come up a level. We've also got to be working the weeds, because that's where the hard work is. So reflection is such a critical point of it. I would say, yeah, it's not, it's not one of the sexy things to talk about, but it's super important, and it becomes ingrained in the way you think, and then just becomes a natural part of your operating system. Yeah, I would,
Matt Dixon 21:09
you know, I would, I would put a challenge out to the listener, to and it's not too late, by the way, it's the start. It's the middle of April, but you still look ahead. You know, we still got 10 odd weeks in me in the quarter. What are your objectives? What defines success for you at the end of this quarter? And what are three things? And as you say, Max, it's not oh, I want to sleep better. Oh, I want to be consistent with training. What are some things that you can really point to that will have and ask yourself another question, and this is exactly the same question as I asked you and the rest of the team, what are your three key objectives? And
Matt Dixon 21:53
I answer this question, if I nail this objective, the impact on the business will be x.
Matt Dixon 22:00
And so for an athlete, it's if I nail this objective, the impact on my sport, my performance will be x
Matt Dixon 22:09
what does that look like? And that's really helpful. And then secondly, how do you integrate reflection on that week to week? Well, if you are not integrating the Sunday special. If you are listening and you don't know what the Sunday special is, we'll put a link in the show notes, but that is a absolutely non negotiable fundamental practice, I would say, for any athlete coached by anyone, if you can integrate that, you're going to become smarter on your own journey. You're going to make better, real time decisions, and going to retain perspective. And that's a lot of what reflection is about. Yeah, I love it. The only thing I would add is, if you're listening to this and you want some help and you want a little bit of guidance, email us at info@purplepatchfitness.com,
Max Gering 22:50
and you can set up a call with me, and we can meet for 30 minutes. We can review what you've been doing. We can look ahead. Maybe your race is in 13 weeks, 12 weeks, 14 weeks, whenever it may be, we can map out what you should and shouldn't focus on over the coming months. So email in and we can connect. But massively, massively valuable. And I would say this is, I mean, we talk about it like it's ingrained, and it's very, very simple, and it is, but the first time you really do it, it's great to have some coaching through it, because once you sort of know you're like, fantastic. And that's why so many of our athletes that are on squad programs do decide to have consultations. Is because what's the role of a coach? It's a great sounding board to help people get the most out of themselves. And so it's very, very difficult to do this in a vacuum, particularly first time through, yeah, yeah. It's great, awesome. Let's do number two, let's keep it moving. All right. So this one came up because oftentimes I talk to athletes and people that are not purple patch athletes, and I talk about training as a time-starved athlete, and they think to themselves, well, am I a time-starved athlete? What does that really mean? And I always have to refine it for them and say, Well, if you're not paid to play and you have other important things in your life beyond your sport, then you're, by definition, a time-starved athlete, because you don't have unlimited time and energy to dedicate to your sport. So yes, maybe you specifically have 16 hours a week some weeks to train. That doesn't mean you're not a time-starved athlete. And so a lot of these questions that we're going to cover now stem from that, which is, as a time-starved athlete, we had an athlete say the other week. It's very similar to what Sammy, Sammy said to you when you coached him, when truly went public and he won World Championships, which is, I want you to train me for this Iron Man as if it's the third most important thing in my life, and get the most out of me for it being the third most important thing in my life. And that's what the athlete said in the onboarding call. You know, first was family for him, and then it was his career, and then it was his Iron Man goal.
Max Gering 24:59
And then.
Max Gering 25:00
And from that with some practical conversations about some training adjustments that you should make. So that's where this segment of the podcast comes from, which, by the way, is a wonderfully healthy perspective in the role of sport. Because by doing that, you will be fueling this athlete will be fueling performance, energy, excitement, enjoyment in the other aspects of life, because he's not chasing performance at the consequence and the be all and end all of everything else in life. So that's a great perspective. I really like that. Yeah, so one of the questions that we talked about with with him specifically, was less about the overall organization of the week, but it was managing training on a day to day basis. And so brings us to the point of talking right now about morning versus evening training and the nuances around it for time-starved athletes looking to get the most out of their schedule. So for starters, the question is the classic, when is the best time to train? Is there a best time to train?
Matt Dixon 26:01
There is no there's no physiological quote best time to train, although if you actually look at really latest research, athletes do tend to perform better physiologically at about three or four in the afternoon, moving into five or six in the afternoon. But that's not the reality of life, and that's something just different. So we can put that aside. What we shouldn't be doing is organizing our life so that we can do our sessions at this theoretical, physiological, great time. The simple and kind of snarky response to it is the best time to train is when you genuinely can block it out and you have availability. Here's what I will say. From years of working with people that are managing other competing demands, the magic word of performance readiness, getting ready, whether you're getting ready to just improve,
Matt Dixon 26:57
you know, in broader life, whether you're training for a marathon, for a nine man, the magic word is consistency. And what we're looking to do is string together not just a great week of training, but weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks of training, where as few of those weeks as possible crater out and are really disappointing, where you really don't get much done at all. So success is much less about the big training camps, the heroic type, you know, big sessions that we all remember and have a role. It's really about creating this fabric of consistency.
Matt Dixon 27:38
And
Matt Dixon 27:40
if you have a throw a blanket over everyone, everyone. Some people have different logistics here and live as shifts and everything else. But as a general rule, people tend to be more consistent when they can do most of their training in the morning,
Matt Dixon 27:56
if they have managed, if they are managing competing demands. It just tends, for most people, that life has a tendency to get in the way if you wait till the afternoon versus if you get up in the morning and get it done. It tends to we see patterns where athletes are more consistent, so frequency is bigger than heroism, and for that, I really like morning sessions. There's another reason that I really like it as well, which is it
Matt Dixon 28:29
energizes after sleep, and assuming people are doing the right practices, it tends to be a little bit easier to manage nutrition and hydration. You get up in the morning, you have a really robust breakfast. That's very, very important post workout fueling, because the brain needs the glucose and the energy for the day you rehydrate, and then for the rest of the day you can effectively, assuming you've done great post workout fueling. You can eat a really healthy diet in the week to week, so Monday through Friday, when most people are working like a regular human being and and so it's easier to manage and it's much less likely to get disrupted. So why Lean into as a general rule, morning being great,
Max Gering 29:20
but it doesn't mean evening workouts are bad. Something I wanted to ask you about is something that I've experienced with several of my athletes is, you know, they're very busy. Work starts early in the morning. They come home from work. There's kids and family life, and that's also very important to them. In order to work out in the morning, they need to wake up very early, right? 4:30am wake up consistently in order to get 45, 5060, minutes on the trainer in before work and having a demanding job as a doctor, let's say, is there a threshold that you say it's better off for you to do the workout? I.
Matt Dixon 30:00
Seven to eight in the evening, a little tired from the day, and not wake up very early to work out. How do you help athletes manage that? Well, I'm in this. Let me give you a real world example, and I'm going to do something that I don't like to do on the on the show, or as a coach generally, and say, I'm going to talk about me, even though it's my favorite subject. I know, but you know, currently, interestingly, Baxter, our 13 year old, he loves swimming, as you know, and his swim practices are early evening. So they're, they're 615
Matt Dixon 30:32
six, six till 730 basically. So for me, logistically, at this time of the year, which is going to be a couple of months, as much as I love to work out in the morning, it fits really well with the family that I can drop him at swimming, go and do my run for 45 or 60 minutes, then grab my laptop and check my email and whatever else I need to do and pick him up and drive him home. And that just fits where it's not a distraction for anyone. So I've shifted my compass so there is a time to do that. So far as sleep, it all depends on when the person can go to bed. For me, typically with the sort of the body clock, 430 is about the earliest that anyone should really be getting up consistently for morning workouts. And I would really argue five like that, five to six window for unless you're genuinely going to sleep at about 830
Matt Dixon 31:37
at night. And then 430 is practical potential, even with that and me
Matt Dixon 31:44
really prioritizing sleep, I sometimes do that. I sometimes get up at 430 in the morning for one reason or another. If I do that, I'm making sure that I'm going to bed at 830 which is really early for a lot of listeners. I'm also going to be taking a seven to 13 minute nap in the middle of the day so that I can really perform in the afternoon at work. I do that as an investment. It's 10 minutes or so and it sparks me up, and so it's doable. But what isn't appropriate for anybody is getting up at three, 330 even 4am on a regular basis. I don't see how you can live in a different time zone, in a consistent time zone, and that's effectively what you're doing there. It's a really great way to explain it to an athlete that is having a hard time changing their mind about it, that you're living in a different time zone. You're living in a different time zone. It just doesn't a mesh. And so, you know, the biggest thing I will add, just as a, you know, as a point of reference for people as well that tend to get up early, you've got to also be really, really smart on the day to day decisions. So if for one reason or another, whether you've got a work dinner or a school event or whatever it is, and you end up getting getting to bed later, where you can't just say, Well, I'm just going to sleep less and just barge through it. It's better than to do an evening workout and get that extra sleep. If we that, we care about two things, which is around sleep. We care about sleep duration as much as possible. We want to try and protect seven plus hours, but we care about sleep quality, and the number one predictor of sleep quality is going to bed at a consistent time. That is the number one thing. So whatever I can do to protect athletes bedtime, and it's not perfection. We're not chasing perfection. There's always travel and big party time and all. That's okay. But if 300 of the days you can be going to bed within a 30 minute window, that's the biggest predictor we have, is quality. And then sometimes, if you have to get up earlier to squeeze a session in, that's okay, yeah, it always brings us back to the Sunday special, which is what we talked about in the beginning of the episode. Is if you're not doing the Sunday special, and you're not looking at your week of life and training at the same time. You're never going to be able to get ahead of these decisions and understand, oh, I have an engagement on Thursday night. I should push my workout Friday morning to Friday afternoon, whatever it may be. So it starts on Sunday. That's your key to being able to make these good decisions. Or you just get caught in the loop of exactly, and then, you know, we need to understand as athletes and human beings, you know, there's an old saying you can't outrun a bad diet. You've heard that, well, you can't beat physiology. That's a coaching saying that I've said you just can't beat physiology. So we so often have very short term memories of this. If Thursday night is a big late night and you've got to pull it, you've got to realize that if you are, if the legs are tied, the system's tied, and you're not performing, that's not a point of, oh, I'm going backwards as an athlete. There's a correlation. There.
Matt Dixon 35:00
It's and so you we need to keep that perspective. And so you come back to your first point of today. Reflection is the only way. And Matt's Sunday special, as you say, is the only way that we start to understand the rhythms and say, Oh, I'm really tired two days later because my sleep was compromised, and I pushed through that wasn't smart. Maybe next time I'm going to do it a little differently, super I want to cover a few more things about this topic.
Max Gering 35:31
First is, if you're working out in the afternoon, I've heard you talk about this with athletes before. Are there any different things that you should do about your nutrition throughout the day, hydration, fueling to ensure that you set yourself up for a good quality workout in the afternoon. Well, you certainly, you know, across any day, when you first wake up, you want to have a big, big glass of water. We always talk about a liter of fluid. We do. We do get even if we're hydrated the day before, we do dehydrate overnight. So that's, that's a great practice and habit,
Matt Dixon 36:02
just like if you are working out in the morning, I think a robust breakfast is one of the best practices that we can have plenty of carbohydrates, plenty of protein, protein center forward on the morning, fuel for the day. That's critical if you are working out late afternoon to evening.
Matt Dixon 36:19
Nine times out of 10. I think it's really smart to have a good snack before you work out. Now I'm someone that does not like to exercise. I find myself talking about myself again, but I'm in the group of athletes, let's call it that that really doesn't like to exercise on a full stomach, so I just do something right before I start working out. And it's a small and it might be a slice of toast with almond butter and jam or something in there, but something that gives me substance, and I have it, you know, five or 10 minutes before I go, then I just go and work out. But if, like, you Max you're less sensitive to having that and then a really robust snack is good, and the reason for that is post workout fueling is still really important.
Max Gering 37:09
But if you're finishing your workout at 730 at night and you're trying to go to bed, let's just make up at 9pm you don't want to have a huge meal afterwards, because that's going to compromise sleep a little bit. So you need to get protein afterwards. You need to get carbohydrate afterwards. But if you can bolster up front with a bit more calories, then it's going to be more successful, and you've got a better chance of having a slightly more empty stomach before you actually fall asleep and want to get into deep sleep, super. And I will give you validation, not that you're looking for it, that it's okay, that you're talking about yourself. You've been coaching for for many years, and have a lot of experience, so you've seen it all. So it's it's valuable advice. The other thing I wanted you to touch on is something that you talk about, you wrote about it in fast track to athlete, is, I'm an athlete. I have a lot of stress in my life. I'm trying to manage my workouts.
Max Gering 38:05
I had a long day, or I had a long day yesterday, and I'm not sure if I should hit the hard workout, the key session, the morning after quick decision matrix for an athlete to be able to decide, am I going to lean into the tough session and do the tough session? Am I going to pull back and change the session? Am I going to take a day off? How should athletes think about
Matt Dixon 38:24
that? So I think a great rule of thumb, let's set the lens first, whenever an athlete is feeling over stressed and tired and for one reason or another, yeah, whether it's work demands, whether it's training accumulation, whether it's travel,
Matt Dixon 38:42
going into the workout without a pass, fail mentality and more with the one of Here's something to remember, Curiosity is really empowering. Goodness me, I feel pretty tired this morning, or my legs are really heavy. I have absolutely no idea how this is going to go, but the best thing to do is to not think this is going to be good or bad, but instead be curious. And the action that we can take is allow not our mind to give us the answer, but our body to give us the answer. And the only way to do that is to go through warm up, whatever it is, if there is a pre main set where you're typically building up some progressive efforts in any sport, that's when you're going to start to get the answer. Once the oven is hot, I call it, and you start sweating, you start to know. And if, after that, you really don't want to be there, like you're doing it, and you're just like, I don't want to be here, like, there is an emotional I am just not here. I'm not present. I don't want to do it. Goodness me, it's still daunting. That's one signal, and that's a time that you may choose to say, You know what? I'm going to save the work for another day. If the body is starting to come and it's become a little bit better and good.
Matt Dixon 40:00
And the mind still is willing, but the body is not there. Go through the first interval, start the interval, and if it's starting to respond, great, go have at it. Go rip it up. But if the body, the mind might be willing, but the body is not responding there, then you've got to do one or two things. Number one, lower expectations and execute to the intent of the session. It might be lower power, it might be lower pace, not a failure. I'm just going with it now and just going to have slightly slower, slightly less power. That's okay. It's still stimulating. It's still a good training session. Just because you were lower than two weeks ago doesn't mean it's a bad training session. Or, you know what? Body's not there. You know, mind is there. Body's just not responding. I can't get my heart rate up. Probably a better day to shelve it. I'll come back to that session, and I'm going to convert it then to something very easy, Soul filling, that's going to process the stress and going to set me up for a better day the next day, and that's an art. And so it's not an algorithm. It's not solving, you know, we're not building a bridge here. It's an art. But having the courage to back off, if the body and mind is truly telling you, is a superpower. To come back to what we talked about, the through line of consistency, that's what we're looking to do. That's great. I think that really sums up this,
Max Gering 41:24
this section. And it comes down to a few things, everything we talked about as an athlete listening, you can only do all of this if you understand the intent behind your programming and why you're doing what you're doing. Right? You need to understand and have clarity about why you are doing the workouts that you're doing. Otherwise you don't have the ability to make good decisions. And you also need to have a really good mindset and understand, as you said, the through line of consistency is not having a pass file mindset, having that long term approach, understanding your progression as an athlete, and that's why it's so much more than just following a plan, having access to coaches. As coaches, we know the value of it, and having a sounding board and having someone to give you that perspective, even if it's only once every six weeks you're hopping on a call for a consultation, that's really valuable, because it's going to give you the perspective you need day to day, to do all of these things, to manage morning, evening training, to pull back, to push when you need to. Yeah, exactly, exactly. I think our coaching team,
Matt Dixon 42:28
look, look, we're pretty darn good at prescribing sessions appropriate for the athlete. I think if you, if you throw a blanket over the whole team, and we've got very different personalities and skill sets in the team, but the one thing I think that we are, as a team, incredibly good at is helping athletes feel empowered to own their journey and make smart decisions with that great feeling of support. And you know, I look at our our coaching team like you guys are masters at Matt, and I think that's one of the biggest unlock for athlete performance, is that soft skill of that. I think that I love that which takes us to our next
Max Gering 43:11
part of the podcast, and we're going to close with which is two athlete highlights, athlete wins, which are different, different than typical athlete wins. They're not podiums or qualifications for World Championships, but they really highlight the human aspect of performance and going on the performance journey, as we talk about here.
Max Gering 43:28
I'll start with the first one. The first one is an athlete that actually reached out from the podcast talking, we always talk about book a call with me, chat with me if you want some help. So they reached out from the podcast, and we got them going on one of our programs, but it became evident that right away they needed a complementary coaching consultation to really help them get going. Reason being, this was an ambitious athlete who is struggling with an immense amount of fatigue and feeling very, very stuck in their training. And from getting talking right away, it was very clear, as you said, they kind of had chicken casserole for a training approach. So they didn't have any real structured training. They were pulling workouts from a lot of different places, which was an initial part of the problem, doing too many sessions, chasing too many hours and miles, all from a really great intention of, I want to be better, and I want to be the best I can. But that, combined with the stress of their life. They had no time to recover, not from stress of life, and not from stress of training. And one of the things that they did with the coach that they met with is, right off the bat, it was, we need to simplify. And so that's the lesson number one, is if you're feeling overwhelmed, if you're feeling stuck, sometimes the most important thing you need to do is pause and simplify and strip some stuff away and get really clear on what it is that you need to focus on and be okay with removing some of the things reminds me of the Chris Harris story that you had Chris on the podcast not too long ago,
Max Gering 44:56
and so it's a good lesson for anybody listening.
Matt Dixon 45:00
Mean going through a challenging time of life where they feel stuck or feeling like they're going through a lot of fatigue. I thought it was a valuable story to share. Yeah, I I, you know when I hear that story, because I didn't know what story you're going to you were going to tell there. And what bubbled up for me, Max was a question that I would so often get right when we were in the heart of coaching the the pro squad, and we were having athletes, you know, racing every weekend, and it was, and we're having this, this incredible success, male and female athletes showing up, winning races, podiums, etc. And quite often, you you know, I'd get invited onto podcasts and and the interviewer from the media or the host of the show would always want to understand and dig into what are we doing? And I would always the first thing I would always say, and I wasn't being difficult. It was authentic, is it's actually just as important to talk about what we're not doing. It is always amazing to people to understand pro athletes across any sport, the pursuit is simplification, and there's a lot of noise, there's a lot of distractions. And if we can really shrink, while we always talked about focus on the boulders, not on the sand, what are the things that are going to drive the performance needle? And if you're,
Matt Dixon 46:19
you know, working hard and seeing no progress, the answer is, typically not to add more, not to work more, but actually to remove and filter the focus and do a few things really, really well. And a couple of things happen there. Firstly, it provides the body the opportunity to progress and develop, but also you start to feel as soon as an athlete sees improvement a mini victory, it's a step in the right direction. And as soon as you see one more mini victory, it starts to build confidence. And as soon as you build another one, it's a double down on commitment of something that's valuable. And as soon as you see one more victory, you start to drive commitment and love again, and that's where it starts to emerge. And so simplification, I think, is really valuable.
Matt Dixon 47:09
My story was, is very, very different. Actually, an athlete John, who's, who's a newer purple patch athlete and and is coached by Will. Will has been on the podcast recently. He is
Matt Dixon 47:20
a an extreme athlete himself. Is a master of mindset. He's incredibly wise and really smart. Is four months or so. John is four months or so into his purple patch journey. And the interesting thing about John is he has a lot of experience. He's already done 10 Ironman races, and
Matt Dixon 47:40
despite going well in those, and he has done those in the midst of an incredibly busy life, as many of our athletes have, and he came with the the sense and the feeling that he was loving it, but there was a lot more. He had a lot of room to grow and and he went through. And the thing that I want to highlight about John's journey so far, and at recording his
48:08
he is he is
Matt Dixon 48:12
getting ready to race, but
Matt Dixon 48:14
it's more than the race for him. It's the catalyst of change that occurs when you have the right partner. And if we think about coaching, I mentioned it before, the coach has a role, not to own the journey, not to tell the athlete what to do, but to help them get the most out of themselves. And a discussion that I had with John last week, he said two things. Said, number one, I've just got incredible trust and a great connection with Will he I know he's got my back and he's given me it is empowering me to make smart decisions, and that's incredibly helpful. The other part of it is something that's really caught John by surprise, which is I really didn't anticipate the power and the impact of being a part of a group, and it's makes the journey more exciting. It is empowering and incredibly helpful as well, to share the journey with others, and the reason that I wanted to bring that up is because John isn't in the Bay Area with us. He's based in New York City, but he's understanding the impact of doing something that's a challenge, getting out of your comfort zone, but still being a part of a team.
Matt Dixon 49:39
And I can't overstate how much of a catalyst that is for athlete success, and I think that's a big part of it for coaches to think about, of how do you drive community? Because it's a huge part of athlete success. It is, and I think it's a real challenge, because you take the type of personality that tends to do triathlon a lot of our athletes.
Max Gering 50:00
It's the people that are busy and, you know, really ambitious in their careers, and that's oftentimes with comes with long hours and being focused by yourself working, and then you have a sport that is an individual sport, and it comes to training, and that's another domain of their life now, where they're spending a lot of time by themselves, if they're not training with a local group, which most busy athletes don't have the schedule ability to go to a track session or even go to a master's workout, because they need to do things on their own time. And so if you can make athletes feel a part of something bigger than themselves, it's a huge fuel to the fire. Yeah. I mean, ultimately, look, this was, I think one of the huge catalysts serve our on enduring success with our pro athletes is we took a team approach to an individual sport. And I was coaching, you know, any one time, 10 to 12 athletes that were competitors against each other, competing for podiums, prize money, sponsorship dollars, but it was our mechanism, and they were training, training geographically dispersed all over the world. Tim reed in Australia, Lindsey Corbin in Oregon, Meredith in San Francisco, Jesse in Bend, Oregon, different town Oregon, all over the world, and creating the structure of team and belonging was, I think, if not, the thing, certainly one of the top three things of why we had so much enduring success. Because we managed to ultimately develop a high performance culture, yeah.
Max Gering 51:24
And John's that, and John's story really also highlights that it's emotional, right? Like, yeah,
Max Gering 51:31
being a part of something bigger than yourself chasing these big podiums, whether it was the Para athletes or chasing an Ironman PR and a first time accomplishment, it's a very emotional sport, and having something to guide that, I think is really fantastic for which is why, as you walk into the Performance Center in San Francisco and you walk over the threshold of the door on the concrete place mat in gold letters, because gold is one of our colors, purple is a feeling, not a color.
Matt Dixon 52:01
It says it's emotional. So it's a it's a great guiding principle. It's about feeling. It's good stuff, super that's, that's what we have today. For you folks, this was a fun on that. Thanks. Thanks so much for joining Max. A lot of fun. Really enjoyed it and and folks, as Max said, as ever, if you would like to set up a consultation with Max needs assessment. You can talk about our programming and a coaching at all. Max and the team are waiting. It's just info at purple patch fitness.com and then one more thing as before we leave, that's very, very important. If you do like the show, please subscribe. It's it's really, really helpful. And of course, we love it when you share this episode or any episode that you find helpful with any of your friends or anyone that you think might benefit, the more people that listen well, the better it is for all of us. So thanks so much Matt's. We'll see you again in a couple of weeks. I think we're going to do this again. Bye, 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
Matt Dixon 53:49
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
Reflection, high performance, athlete stories, training management, busy life, AI integration, executive burnout, human performance, team development, Sunday special, consistency, morning workouts, nutrition, hydration, community support.