Episode 225: Triathlon in a Time-Starved Life: IRONMAN & IM70.3 in 8-14hrs/week
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“Real success comes out of sustainable training that's highly effective, and then race readiness emerges from that.”
For the time-starved athlete, the traditional approach to training for an Ironman or half Ironman can sometimes feel like a part-time job. Some athletes struggle to meet the demands of programs built on a foundation of accumulated weekly training hours. They often come up short when attempting to balance the demands of life and sport.
Many athletes come away feeling as though the training is consuming their life, yet their race results are not reflecting their efforts or they are left trapped in a cycle of injuries.
Today Matt highlights the flaws in the traditional approach that so many athletes and coaches take when preparing for an IRONMAN and half IRONMAN, and offers a more pragmatic approach to setting sustainable training hours and realistic goals within the context of each athlete’s life.
In today's show you will learn 3 things:
Flaws in the system - Why the common or traditional approach doesn’t work for a time-starved triathlete.
(22:40) “For a time-starved athlete, I don't believe that weekly training hours can be a barometer of success in any way. We have to remember that life is not a spreadsheet."
(26:08) “So, we're first looking to integrate training into life. We've got to think about things in terms of the right training intensity for the athlete, and you have to ensure that success is not built around hours of accumulation. Instead, it's about specific training that you can weave consistently over several weeks."
The Optimization Challenge - An approach to building an effective and customized training program with reduced hours.
[36:25] Paint a Picture of Life - Where does training fit in?
[41:36] The Hierarchy of Training - Knowing when to show up
[46:25] Training Cycles - Layered long-term training
(35:55) “There are 24 hours in a day. We are committed to work, we are committed to family, and into that, we need to integrate training."
Matt’s tips: Insights on plotting training opportunities for long rides and other training sessions for readiness.
[53:52]Training, Habits and Management
The purpose of today’s discussion is to try and add to the conversation of what it takes for a time-starved athlete to thrive and achieve personal success in both Ironman and half Ironman distance racing.
The hope is that you will apply these lessons to your own approach and develop a training methodology that not only maximizes your return on effort but allows you to enjoy the pursuit of your sporting goals without detracting from other aspects of your life.
Episode Timestamps
0:02-04:17 Introduction
4:25-7:53 Matt's News-ings
Purple Patch Video Podcast and More
FREE Webinar - IRONMAN & IM70.3 in 8-14hrs/Week with FREE Roadmap PDF resources
Purple Patch Coaching Consultation
Training Camp - 2022 St.George Triathlon Camp
The Purple Patch Center is Open - Learn More and Schedule a Visit
Purple Patch Website and Newsletter
7:54-The Meat and Potatoes - Triathlon in a Time-Starved Life: IRONMAN & IM70.3 in 8-14hrs/week
Purple Patch and Episode Resources
This episode is sponsored by our collaboration with INSIDE TRACKER. Inside Tracker and Purple Patch - Receive 20% off their services with code: PURPLEPATCHPRO20
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Full Transcript
Matt Dixon 00:02
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 00:24
Today's show is for a time-starved athlete, someone that is looking to take on big challenges in a big life and still thrive. And by definition, this is an optimization challenge. Success is built on a platform of health and of course, consistent training so that you can yield positive training adaptations and results. So why not leverage every tool that you have available so that you can shine, and be successful. We use InsideTracker. A look inside at your biometrics, followed by advice and recommendations delivered by a team of doctors, physiologists, and nutritionists. You get dialed into the areas to focus on, how to adapt your diet, and a trackable suite of metrics to ensure that you stay on track. All you need to do is head to insidetracker.com/purplepatch. And you can use the code purplepatchpro20, that's Purple Patch Pro two zero, and you get 20% off everything at the store. All right. Now with that, let's dial in some methodology, successful Ironman and half Ironman racing all in a time-starved life. I hope you enjoy the show.
Matt Dixon 01:42
And welcome to the Purple Patch podcast. As ever, your host, Matt Dixon. And this week, we have one of those landmark shows. I wrote a book called The Well-Built Triathlete, and it was - well- it feels like years ago now but it was earlier in my career and it was focused on the fundamental need for athletic performance to be built on a platform of health. The follow-up to that book was called the time-starved triathlete. And this book took it a step further, it paved a roadmap for you to successfully train a racing long-distance triathlon while juggling the demands of a time-starved life. Now, I haven't done a book for a while. Do you think it's time, to do another one, maybe? I will tell you that things evolve, experience grows, and I get a little wiser. We navigate a pandemic, I think it's time for a refresh. But rather than me going away, scribbling on my notepad, and building a whole brand new book, we've got the show. And so today, it's a little bit of a biggie. From the ground up, what we want to talk about today are the building blocks of how you can excel in Ironman or half Ironman racing. In an Ironman, I think it's possible in 10 to 14 hours a week, half Ironman a little bit less than those 8 to 12 hours a week. It's all about performance within the context of life. We're gonna go through three main things today. The first is we need to dissect the common approach the traditional approach on why it doesn't work for a time-starved athlete because we need to ensure of why that doesn't work so that we can go about building an approach that actually does fit into your life and schedule. The second section we're going to dive into is what we're labeled the optimization challenge, I'm going to reveal an approach for you to leverage so that you can set up your training in a reduced number of training hours but still get great effectiveness. And then finally, a few other tidbits, let's call it Matt's bonus section, we've got some other tips and tidbits to ensure that you can still plot opportunities to do things like get some of the big rides in, get the accumulated muscular and tissue resilience so that you can be successful over the long haul, while still fitting within the framework of those training hours. Overall, it should set you up for great success, it's going to take a little bit of bravery, it's going to take a refresh on your mindset and what you might think is important and necessary to be ready for these types of events. But we have the results to prove it. And we think you can get your cracking. Just before we roll into it. We are going to do one of my favorite sections, Matt's News-ings.
Matt Dixon 04:25
Yes, Matt's News-ings. We have two things to go through today. The first speak to us. I always forget to mention this, but I thought this was a good show to bring it up and so we should note, that we believe at Purple Patch that every athlete is more than a number. We don't we just want to add you to the squad. And if you ever want to chat with us, feel free to set up a call. We absolutely love having conversations and natters with folks just like you so that we can answer any questions that you have or at least guide you on some of the best programs that might be a good fit for you. If you want to dance and think, hmm, is Purple Patch a good fit for me? And we want to say, well, is this athlete a good fit for us? Why don't we talk about it, there's absolutely no pressure at all, you can head to the website and look at the programs or more preferably, set us up, have a complimentary call for 15 to 20 minutes where you can ask all of your questions, understand the programming more, and really ensure that you can get onto a pathway that is suitable for you and your needs. All you need to do is just reach out to us info@purplepatchfitness.com, a very simple email, we respond very quickly. We'll get back to you and set up a call at your convenience. And hey, at the back end of it, if it's not a great fit, great, at least we had a nice conversation, and we're off on a good path. So feel free to reach out. That is the first news-ings of the day. But the second one, I also want to highlight and bubble up something that's upcoming and really fun. The Ask Matt Anything episodes that we have. We have two shows coming up over the coming few weeks. The first one is all about racing, whether it's planning, execution, training, hydration, handling adversity, whatever it might be, even if you want to think about outfit choice, whatever you think whatever questions you have, we're going to have a whole show dedicated to your questions where I'm put on the hot seat, and I provide the best answers possible. In fact, even if you want to ask me if I think that wearing compression socks in an airport is a good idea. I am happy to give you my opinion. Episode Two in the following week is going to be all about pre-race anxiety. Yes, pre-performance anxiety is a big thing that hampers a lot of folks, the possibility of great performance. So I want to help. And so if you have a question on either setting up and executing great racing, or pre-performance anxiety, these are great opportunities for you to ask me your questions, all you have to do is head to the podcast page of the purple patch website, purplepatchfitness.com, and right there, you'll see an easy place where you can leave a voicemail. Now drop me your first name, and your location, so I know who you are and where you're at. And we'll filter through all of the questions and on the show, I will answer the best ones. We'll play your voicemail, and I'll give you the best response I can. Who knows maybe I'll even invite you to the show live so that you can ask your question in person with me. All right, that's good to go. Now you can just fasten your seat belt and get ready because we are not going to do word of the week this week. Once again, Barry's got rather tender fingers. So his ukulele skills are a little bit down this week. And we don't want to shame him. So instead, we are going into a very beefy meat and potatoes. Yes, ladies and gentlemen. We hold hands we dive in. It is the meat and potatoes.
Matt Dixon 07:54
Yes, the meat and potatoes. Here we go. This is all about nailing your very best Ironman in 10 to 14 hours of weekly training. Or if you're more inclined to head towards the Half Ironman distance the Ironman 70.3 as they like to call it, you can absolutely excel, no matter what your goals are, in eight to 12 hours a week. So why are we having this conversation? Why do we think that this is important to have? Well, the truth is that we want to help, I really want to help and be out there. We see consistently so many frustrated athletes, athletes that are carrying around symptoms of underperformance. Many feel like this sport, this great sport that we love, multi-sport training, long-distance triathlon - they're following through, they're committed, but it just feels like a monkey on the back. Ultimately, it's not sustainable. It's no wonder that Ironman races have an incredible drop-off rate. There are so many athletes that do one and never come back to the sport again. We also see so many athletes that are frustrated with their race reports. They're putting so much effort in and yet they don't get the results that that effort deserves. And finally, the constant cycle of injuries. When you combine those three things, we believe there's a better way. There's a better way for athletes to improve their results, to maximize the return of their efforts to actually enjoy the process. And on top of it all by taking on this journey, not just achieving sporting goals, but to amplify the other areas of their life, their health, how they show up in the workplace, what version of themselves they bring to their friends and family. And so while Purple Patch is so focused on education, it seems like it's really good timing. We're at the mid-year point of 2022. We're looking forward. There's a whole bunch of racing ahead for this summer, and of course through the autumn and the fall. And so let's fasten our seat belts. And let's dive in. Let's peel back the curtain. And let me explain how we go about it. Now, as we dive into this session, I feel like, I have to start with a little bit of a caveat. Because I know by putting this show out here today, I'm going to receive a lot of feedback, as I always do. And some of the feedback some of the critique it might be is that the advice that I'm delivering is based on some form of a promise of getting results from less. And every time I do some discussion around performance in a time-starved life, there's always a tidal wave of naysayers, who come out of the woodwork and complain that this approach is either - well - it simply doesn't work, or certainly doesn't work for folks are actually looking to get real performance gains. And I read it all the time. Sure, yeah he says it, but you can survive an Ironman on that type of training hours, but if you want to podium If you want real success, you need to pile on the hours, there's no easy way.
Matt Dixon 11:10
So I feel like as we dive into this episode, we should have a little bit of grounding on the content that I'm delivering because I think it might help set your lens on how to review these lessons. A few things that I think are important for us to establish. First, I want you to realize that the key lessons we go through today or not, I repeat, are not about less is more, I want you to erase that phrase, what it actually is about is gaining performance within the context of your life. So with that in mind, if you have tons of time, very little stressors in life, and then it is true, more training hours are better. That's why I prescribe more training hours to Purple Patch pro athletes. If I believe that 10, 12, or 14 hours was the optimal training dose for every athlete out there, then purple patch, professional athletes would be doing 10 to 14 hours, but they don't they do many more hours than that. And that's really key. Because what we are discussing today is getting the best possible racing results from a set of sustainable hours that fit into your fabric of life. And that is not a message of less is more. Secondly, I want to absolutely underline that this approach we're talking about is not a shortcut. I'm not outlining any pathway that's easy. Let's establish and hold hands and realize that success requires commitment, dedication, and hard work over a long period of time, the only way for you to be successful, is to buckle up and enjoy the journey. There's no secret here, there's no shortcut. So instead, what we're looking to do is ensure that you can optimize the results of your training over the long term. And that means that we must find sustainability so that your body can accept and absorb the training that you'd put onto it. Really, really important. And finally, let's talk about results. For all of you naysayers out there. Thank you very much. You're part of the reason that I love this journey. What I'm going to discuss today is not hypothetical, it's not something that I just made up. It's something that's proven over more than 20 years of coaching. And it's an approach that we are constantly looking to evolve and grow and nurture as we learn more and more because we constantly learn more and more about how to fit training into a time-starved life. But make no mistake, this is my absolute passion. But the good news is, is that passion is backed up with results. And yes, it is really suitable for first-timers or folks that are just looking to complete the distance and enjoy it. But I think we should remember here that we have successfully qualified hundreds and hundreds of athletes to the Hawaii Ironman World Championships. And we've supported many athletes to become champions at the Hawaii Ironman World Champions. And the vast majority of these athletes, these podium athletes that Excel across races all over the country in the world are following the exact recipe that we're talking about today. They are time-starved. And so there are results to back this up. I'm not doing it to pat myself on the back or say Oh look at me puffing
Matt Dixon 14:30
my feathers. I'm saying that it is grounded in very tangible results. We have case study after case study to show that this is the case. And so at the high end of the performance talent level. We've had athletes that have broken nine hours at the Hawaii Ironman World Championships, but only follow 12 hours a week of training. And as stunning as that seems it's true. We've had multiple athletes that have broken 8.5 hours in an Ironman. Amateur athletes under 8.5 hours, that is getting very fast, faster than me I should point out. But they've done it within the context of a really busy life having families having executive positions in the workplace, wherever it might be. Now, these athletes are outliers, they're outliers of their performance level, and they are physiological beasts, but they are still great models of how pragmatism will always victor over dogmatic approaches to training. So I'm encouraging you to be pragmatic, sensible, and take the long-term lens. My goal today is to try and add to the conversation of what it takes for a really busy time staffed athlete to thrive, to achieve personal success, whatever your performance level in both Ironman and half Ironman distance racing. And so all I'm asking is for you to listen with an open mind, and maybe consider applying some or all of these lessons to your own approach, because I really, honestly believe that it will help you. So with that, let's get going. And the only way to get cracking on this is to get out my sledgehammer. Yes, we are going to take the sledgehammer to the traditional and common approach that so many athletes and coaches take, I get to be a little bit contrarian. You say, How do I say this? Let's say this: Most folks are getting it wrong. I hate to be the naysayer myself. But most folks are getting it wrong. But we can fix it. And we can fix it by first stepping into why the common consensus on training for longer distance triathlon doesn't work for you, the time-starved athlete, section one. So to dig in here, we just need to pause. And we need to think about what you the time-starved athlete has to manage in your daily life. And there are three big components that we can break it apart. The first is what we might call your training and your training plan. And that includes all of the habits and the logistics that accompany it. And it's important, there's a lot of planning, there's a lot of execution of training, there's a lot of management of fatigue, and all of the other components that make up you being a successful athlete, good sleep, good eating habits, preparing your hydration, whatever it might be, let's just call that training. Good. So that's one key component, then you have the second big component, which is really everything in your life, your family, your friends, your social network, your downtime, vacations, whatever it might be, but everything around your normal life that you're living. And then thirdly, whatever constitutes work, and you have to manage everything around that. Doesn't matter whether you're a parent, and we're labeling matters work, or whether you're a leader and an executive, it doesn't matter. But that thing that we might call work. So we have three big components of life. And they all are related to each other. In fact, if we layer them all on top of each other, what we end up coming up with is this big thing called life. Okay. Each of those areas is really important. And each of them has non-negotiable components in them in their own way, really important. And none of them, none of them, can become victims, just because you are training to do your best in your sport, you have to try and find a way where it's integrated. And with that management framework, really highlights the first issue or challenge with the traditional approach. And that's the fact that most programs, most training programs are designed and managed in a vacuum. coaches and athletes go about designing and building their training plans, really without consideration of all of the other stresses or components that they must manage for the rest of their life. And part of the reason I know this is the very first question that the vast majority of athletes ask when they join Purple Patch. How many training hours do I need to do each week? Now, the answer that is given to them by other coaches or friends or associates is Oh, you got to get ready for an Ironman without 16 to 24 hours a week Half Ironman, the same maybe 14 to 20 hours a week. And then the coach and athlete get really busy heading out on a journey to work out how to cram these mythical amazing hours into a really busy life. They're already busy and suddenly they're adding 16, 18, 20, 22, and 24 hours a week of training into life. They go on that journey and guess what happens? It never works. Because over the weeks and the months, something has to give. Do you know what nearly always gives? Sleep, recuperation, positive habits around nutrition, and hydration. And what ends up happening is that the candle is burning at both ends, someone's gonna get burnt here. And what happens is fatigue creeps, sneaks up, and even worse, injury cycles start to rear their ugly head. And that becomes an unsustainable program. It's no wonder that we have short-term living when it comes to this sport. A second breakpoint is an absolute misunderstanding. An athlete misunderstands what it is to commit to a plan. You're always going to hear coaches highlight the importance of seasoned planning, and committing to a structured training program. And this is true. The problem emerges when you start to work that plan into life. You see, most coaches and athletes dedicate themselves to following and checking off every single training session of every single week of that magical plan. They've spent so much time building it, it is the blueprint to their success. So surely, if I can just nail the training program, I can be committed and check the box of every session. It's going to deliver me to greatness. And this pass-fail approach is anchored in turning every session green in your training app, I know you guys do that, I've got to turn them green, don't I, it plays havoc with the health as well as the performance of the athletes. You see, the truth is that when you're working with a time-starved athlete, we're not building a bridge here, what we're playing with is the dirty and chaotic world of human physiology, all within the chaos of an ever-changing set of stresses within life. And so it's great to plan.
Matt Dixon 21:57
But we must then adopt a dynamic mindset on every single week of that plan, with the freedom to scale training load, if life commitments and stresses ramp up, and then even actually increased training load. If we tend to find that we have a little bit more freedom. And either way, you can do so without guilt without losing or eroding confidence. This adds up to having to dismantle the common approach of what it is about building an athlete training program. If you're building an athlete training program about the accumulation of weekly training hours as the pathway to success, it's not going to lead to success. In fact, for a time-starved athlete, I don't believe that weekly training hours can be a barometer of success in any way. We have to remember that life is not a spreadsheet. So what else is common here?
Matt Dixon 22:53
Let's talk about zone 2. Goodness, me. If you go on to any social media right now, zone 2. What is this new thing? Zone 2. iI's magical. It's gonna -- the Norwegians do it. Did you know that? Zone 2, it's all the rage, build your base, polarized training, have most of your training hours at zone 1 and zone 2, and keep it very, very low intensity. So if you're training for an Ironman for 10, 12, or 14 hours, let's call it restricted weekly training hours. Basing the vast majority of those hours at low low intensity is simply not going to provide the training stimulus to deliver great success and big results. Now, as we sort of dive deeper into this, let me be really clear. If you are an athlete that has 20, 25, or 30 hours a week, and then yes, absolutely the majority of your training hours should be in that case, with considerable training hours, the majority should be low intensity. And in addition to that, if you are a time-restricted athlete where you are doing 10 to 12 hours, there are still important sessions that you need to keep easy. In fact, one of the most common mistakes for a time-starved athlete to make is not to adhere to the easy sessions. Sessions that are prescribed to be easy, should be done really easy. So low intensity training has an important role. Now I'd even add to this that as a time-starved athlete, where you are juggling and integrating training into a life that is full of commitments, you also need to have a joker card where you might prescribe higher intensity training, you might have some intervals ahead of you, but if life flows, and you're feeling suppressed mentally or physically, you need to be able to convert those hard intervals to a more soul-filling day. One in which your body is not ready to absorb the hard intervals because maybe life flowed a little bit, but with that in mind, as a time-starved athlete who can only hit 8, 10, or 12 hours every week, it is going to be better served for a higher proportion of those training hours being at higher intensity training. Well above zone two, I promise you that. Let me give you a little example. Imagine in your cycling training, if you were riding five times a week, and those weekly training hours accumulated up to 15, training hours every single week, and then much of those 15 hours should be absolutely low stress. But if you've got two 60-minute bike trainer sessions that you can squeeze in, and just one outside ride, that maybe accumulates a total of five hours of bike riding, you don't want to keep all those zone two, you'd better believe that those two bike trainer sessions are freaking hard, high intensity, and then maybe the outside is a little bit more supportive and lower intensity. So that becomes a really important component. So we're first looking to integrate training into life, we've got to think about things in terms of the right training intensity for the athlete, and you have to ensure that success is not built around hours of accumulation. Instead, it's about the specific training that you can weave consistently over several weeks. All right, so let's move on. And let's break the mold on another traditional component. This is the race build mindset. It is unbelievably common, to have a mindset around race preparation, being based around some mythical magical 12 to 16-week race build. If you are time-starved, you simply cannot expect great results from deep focus training over only a few months, you are way better served by having an approach that allows consistency of many, many, many months, that integrates into life without domination of that life. So that you can yield ultimately, performance readiness. That's why we always talk about integration over domination. And it becomes really important. In fact, when building to a race, yes, some race-build focus is important, but I do believe that generally, it's greatly overvalued in the big picture, at Purple Patch, we tend to keep athletes on a progressive structure of what we call baseline training for much of the year. And this allows several things, it allows great consistency, but it also allows connection of athletes, great support, and a wonderful community aspect to it. And then our athletes tend to complete much, much shorter, highly specific race builds towards key races. And that's only once or twice a year. But over the course of it is still successful. You see real success comes out of sustainable training that's highly effective, and then race readiness emerges from that. We only need to get highly race-specific for a few weeks going into the race. And you know what that becomes liberating, but also performance building. Now, the final little sledgehammer that we're gonna do on the traditional approach, something to turn upside down is anchored around a single word, focus, toughness, commitment, dedication, they're all important, but they're often misunderstood. Coaches encourage athletes to show up, be present, be focused, and ensure that every single training session is a stepping stone to success. And the only way to yield everything out on that training session is to immerse yourself in it be dedicated, and bring absolute focus. And there's a partial truth to that. But let's consider the bigger picture yet again when you're really time-starved,
Matt Dixon 29:07
you're often managing a really demanding job. And that job more often or not requires plenty of deep focus. And then you might have your family and your kids. And they want you to be present when you're with them, and rightly so by the way. So then as a coach, I'm going to ask an athlete to be absolutely fully focused in every session 10, 12, or 14 hours every week. You know what I've just done there. I've created a part-time job for that athlete. The key for the time-starved athlete is knowing when to show up. You don't have to show up to every session mentally engaged, and still, yield positive adaptations and results from every training session that still - here's the thing - you want to ensure that you are fully immersed, fully present, and focused around the key sessions, those that are full of intervals placing the greatest demand. And it's absolutely true in order to yield great results from those training sessions, you need to be fully engaged. They absolutely require its essential, great presence and focus. But a lot of the other training - the supportive general sessions, they beyond playing a great role in building cardiovascular conditioning, muscle, muscle tissue resilience, etc. - yes, they are an opportunity to play with your technique and form and you want to check in with that, but they also have a big role in broader life as well. Because those types of sessions are maybe a little less structured, and less demanding, physically, they can be great pressure release valves, on the stresses of life. Think about it as a little bit of me-time. And so coaches out there, don't expect your time-starved athlete to be fully present in every session. Instead, look for them to really be equipped to show up in the key ones. And athletes in the lower stress days, the soul-filling 50-minute easier runs, the social bike rides, et cetera, go, have fun, go play, decompress, listen to an audiobook, it's great, you can reap the general benefits. But you also gain decompression, which comes with low-stress training, hopefully in nature, and doesn't demand too much focus. And that's really important because training can ultimately build mental fatigue. And we want to try and reduce that toll and leverage it to actually be an escape from life. So I hope that picture that is painted there starts to give you a little bit of an appreciation of what is wrong or misguided was so much of the traditional or common approach when it comes to training an Ironman or half Ironman athlete. And what should be clear from this
Matt Dixon 32:19
is that as a time-starved athlete, you're actually faced with a challenge, what we might label an optimization challenge. So what I want to do in part two, is break down that challenge a little bit, get a little bit to the nuts and bolts of okay, if that doesn't work, how can you build an approach that does work for you. And so what we should do in this is begin really basic, because it's a nice way to ground ourselves. Let's talk about training very simply. Now, I'm a really nasty coach. And what I do, and I'm very good at this, by the way, I should say, is I prescribe a training session. Now that training session is a stressor. Yeah? It's a demand. And I say, Okay, you need to go to the track. And you need to do these terribly horrible intervals and bring a bucket because you might throw up. So that is a stressor that I'm placing on you, the athlete, and then you because you're obedient, you go and execute that training session as intended. That is the response to the demand. And it's uncomfortable. And it's challenging. And it's hard because I'm a nasty coach. But that is your response to the demand. Now from this, assuming that I'm smart, and I could deliver an appropriate training session, and you do your job, and you train very, very hard and do the session, we should expect adaptation. It is the catalyst for growth, super. And if we repeat that process stringing together lots of workouts over multiple weeks and multiple months, even years, what ends up happening is we weave something called consistency, and it's consistency of specific training. And what we experienced out of that is we get fitter, stronger, more powerful, and therefore we are race-ready, and we get performance gains, simple and good. But remember something and that is that I, as the nasty coach that I am, am prescribing the training - so the stressor, the demand - within the context of all of the other stressors in your life, work, travel, financial, family, all of the other commitments, let alone a little bit of self stress how we see ourselves in the world, sickness, illness, whatever it might be. Let alone then potentially some other additional stresses that we actually have control over that could be you stressors, in other words, things that promote and limit the harmful effects of other stressors, but are only you stressors if we nail them, habits in sleep, nutrition, hydration, etc. And if those habits are poor, then we're dumping even more stressors onto life. And what we're seeking here is to build capacity. We're seeking to build the capacity to absorb the demands, total demands from life, but also your demands from the thing that you care about in a sporting context, which is your training, and yield positive adaptations. So we need the capacity to absorb demand and gain positive adaptations. Now, most of us cannot move away from family just to get into training, and we're not going to quit working. And we can't suddenly create a 24 into a 30-hour-a-day existence, there are 24 hours in a day, we are committed to working, we are committed to family, and into that, we need to integrate training. Hence the optimization challenge. That's why I call it an optimization challenge. And so the truth is - the question is, with those reduced training hours that most people have, how do I optimize my physiological adaptations? I've probably got one. I'm really objective, fewer training hours than what the tradition demands. But with those hours, how do I optimize? So let's go step by step.
Matt Dixon 36:25
Let's map a process. The first thing you want to do is paint a real picture of your life. Let's actually look at those - of the three demands that we talked about, you have your training, yes, that's what we want to get to, that's what you want to plan. But we have life and we have work. And so let's first look at our life commitments. What do we have? And when do we need to show up? What are non-negotiable as it relates to life? Well, you might coach Jenny's softball team, you might have consistent family dinner time, you might have different travel and vacations going up, you've got to be present with your partner and your kids, whatever it might be. But there's a whole bunch of life commitments, and you want to stretch those out because they should be appropriately non-negotiable. The second step in the process is then to go to the other part that's really non-negotiable. What are all of my demands for work? Now, sometimes work has to take a little bit more priority over life, but you get the idea. And you go through and you say, let's paint a picture of my traditional or typical demands in the workplace: Non-negotiable meetings, what time I have to be into the office or be available on Zoom calls, et cetera, et cetera. And you paint a picture of suddenly a calendar of a week. The third step is one that is often bypassed and really important. Okay, now I need to make sure that I give myself time and capacity for sleep, downtime, and opportunities to reset, stepping away from the non-negotiable commitments in life, be it, family, be at work, or big training is a really important part to carve into your daily and weekly existence. And so sleep downtime a little bit of me-time, that becomes really important. And you go through that process before you even think about training hours, and what types of sessions you do, but now with what is left over, you start to have your answer. Do I have five hours a week? Do I have seven hours a week? Do I have 12? Do I have 30 hours a week? But whatever it is, and let's assume in an Ironman, to do it really successfully, you've got to have at least 10 to 14 hours a week, to do a half Ironman, you've got to have somewhere between 8 and 12 hours a week, it is with those training hours, that you then on a big picture level can start to plot your training program. What's gonna give me the biggest yield for that training program. So that's phase one of that part of the process. You also want to repeat that process in a more simple and really time-efficient way, every single week. And that's what we call the Sunday special. That's where on a Sunday traditionally, you have a look at the week ahead. What have I got coming up with family? Oh, goodness it’s Swimming Championships for Joey or it's whatever it might be. And then you look at your week of work. What's the focus? What have I got for upcoming meetings? What do I need to prepare for? Is there any travel for work and of that picture, then? Then you start to understand, Okay, what's the fabric of my week now?I still need some downtime for myself. I still need sleep. And with that, all built out, what is left over from there. Now if on the big macro level, you sort of think well, I'm sort of 10 hours a week athlete. Some weeks you're only going to have six or seven hours a week because things are really busy in the other components of life. Sometimes you might say, hey, it's great, works on a little bit of a down suite right now, family and kids are away. And I've actually got 14 or 15 hours. And you can throttle back and forth, the training response that comes with it. And so this is a really important tool in the toolbox to establish upfront. Now, let's actually consider the training plan itself, the real nuts and bolts. If I look at the vast majority of training plans out there, every single day, and every session seems to hold equal priority for the athlete, I might look at it and spend some time looking at this carefully crafted training program. And I think goodness me, there are some really interesting good sessions in there. But all of them, when you put them together, I can't really work out where the priorities are. They might be great sessions. But they're all just blended together with equal priority. It looks like some form of prison chicken casserole. And so if Monday swim is just as critical as Tuesday's brick session, as is Wednesday strength and run. How on earth can you the athlete manage the training week? Especially if that week gets really crazy in life or work? Goodness me, if every session carries the same priority? What do I do here?
Matt Dixon 41:25
And that's where the only barometer of success that an athlete has is to check the box, and turn the box green. And that's what we want to try and dismantle a little bit. In addition to that, if you just have every session just really important, how do I as an athlete, how do you as an athlete know, that's where I need to show up. That's what I need to be present and focused on, that one's really important. But this one is maybe a bit more of a soul filler. It's something that is a decompressor. It's important still, but it plays the other part of life that we talked about. And that becomes really important. It's very, very difficult if all of the sessions just look exactly the same. So instead, as a time-starved athlete, I'd encourage you to build every training week, with a very clear hierarchy. Maybe two or three sessions, or two or three days at most, are key workouts or sessions. And those are typically the toughest workouts, they're the ones that are more challenging in terms of focus, intensity, duration, etc. They're really designed to move the performance needle. And it goes without saying, of course, if you highlight and bubble those up, those are the ones that I need to protect. I need to make sure that no matter what happens this week, I get those sessions in, and I'm in a place where I can show up and be present and focus from. Because they're the ones that are designed to challenge me the most to move the performance needle, great. Then the rest of the sessions, the other 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 depending on how many sessions you have, the rest of the sessions are supporting workouts, they're really important. They genuinely are lower stress. They are by nature, more supportive. They deliver general conditioning. They might also deliver recovery, or maybe even prepare for an upcoming key session. They might even have a little bit of a technical element where you can think about technique and form, et cetera. But in general, those supporting sessions are still invaluable in playing a role. But they are also highlighted for the ones that are a little bit more soul-filling in nature. Now, when you build a week like this, you start to create a really natural hierarchy. One week, you might check every workout off. It just might be a normal week, you've built the training program to fit into the fabric of your life. And Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, all the way through Sunday, great, all of the boxes are green, and that's wonderful. That works really, really well. But in another week, you might have to go and travel for work. Or maybe you're coaching Jenny's softball game, and they've made the playoffs and the championships they got two or three games, and they're in that week, it might be prudent and smart and performance facilitating to maintain the priority sessions, and then scale or reduce the number or the intensity of the supporting ones. And if you do that, you're not going to lose consistency. You're not going to diminish specificity. You're not going to hamper progression. In fact, that's what you're gonna gain. A value or runway of consistency, you're maintaining specificity in there and you're still enabling to continue to progress the journey. And so even when life is flowing, almost to an overwhelming standpoint, you get to stay on track, especially if you the athlete haven't got logged in their brain, weekly training hours, weekly training hours, pass/fail. Last week I did 14, if I don't do 15 and then I'm not progressing. If we can then remove that from an athlete's mindset and psyche, and then it gets the athlete equipped to hang on to the progression of specificity and consistency. Great. And guess what,
Matt Dixon 45:23
when you repeat and repeat and repeat, I found that athletes are not generally lazy. They're not trying to do less. And so over the long term, many, many months, why those race builds don't work very well, those little compressed, I'm going to get ready for an Ironman in six, or 10 or 16 weeks. Instead, when you put it out over the long term. And then you start to flow with consistency, some weeks end up being more some weeks less, but over the course of many months, you create many hundreds of hours of training. And that is the thing that creates success. It is absolutely why this highlights the point that short term thinking, I'm going to sign up and do an Ironman in the next 12 weeks is not the best approach, particularly if you are time-starved.
Matt Dixon 46:16
All right, so we've got your planning, then we've got the hierarchy of building a week of training. Now let's think about step three, you want to think about your training program in cycles, not in weeks. So while we plan every week of training, and we execute as intended, the way that you want to think about your training program globally is in cycles. Let me explain here. The first two steps we talked about being really logical, this one is liberating, it really starts to free up the mind a little bit. Now, let me state this. So that we can highlight the point with something memorable. To be successful in Ironman racing, or half Ironman racing, you do not have to hit every type of training session every week. And that is the gateway to what we're talking about by cycles here. Okay, what I mean by that, is you don't have to hit every training session, every single week, you don't need to ride long, or run long every single weekend. And every week doesn't need to include every type of interval session out there. Tempo swim, tempo run, tempo ride threshold swim, threshold - it's going to become too much. So instead, what we think about is building a training program in three-week cycles. Now, not three weeks of training, and one week of recovery as commonly out there, that doesn't work. That's a whole other thing. We haven't even talked about that today. But we build it in three weeks cycles.
Matt Dixon 47:55
So let me give you a little bit of an example of that. Week one, let's call it training week one might include over the course of several sessions in the week, that might include an over distance ride, you might do an endurance ride with maybe a little speed run-off, and maybe it's including another session, that's maybe some higher intensity running intervals. Okay, so that's week one. And those are the two key sessions in there, a whole bunch of support. Week two might be tilted a little bit more in emphasis towards running resilience. And you might have in there a big long run, yes, it's important to do some long-running to get ready for these types of distances. And so great, week two is got some specific intervals in them, maybe some higher intensity bike ride, but the big long run is it. And then week three, remembering to iron in the recovery week, will be more transitional. So that's where we have multiple days of a little bit of recuperation and recovery. So that we can refresh the system, the mind, and the body a little bit. And then it might build up into a weekend session, that's maybe a bit more of a race simulator, very challenging, big bike, big run off of it. And it's one of which it great creates a great opportunity for you to work on your fueling your hydration, your pacing, and components like that. And when you put together and span out those three weeks cycles, there is a whole bunch of high-value training sessions in there. In fact, over the course of those three weeks, you can identify all of the different components of your training program, whatever methodology you're building up, you're building it around that cycle, and it works really well. And what ends up happening when you come out to this level, is you achieve a training program that is both sustainable, and still at the same time specific. And that's really, really helpful. Now, you take this three-week cycle, and you layer it as a pattern, cycle over cycle. Rinse and repeat and evolve, rinse and repeat and evolve, rinse and repeat and evolve. And suddenly, you are creating weeks and weeks and weeks, and months and months and months of training. Now, the great thing about this is when you do this successfully, the training actually fits into life and doesn't create too much of an accumulation of fatigue. That's good. Secondly, the actual training week always remains pretty fresh, and pretty fun. Because it's slightly different. You're not just every Tuesday doing the same bike ride every Thursday, doing the same hill repetitions on the run, it's always something quite fresh, even though it still fits into your life. But the best thing is you actually get to track your progress, you see measurable gains, because you're going to revisit sessions or be sometimes evolved, but about every three weeks. In other words, that Tuesday bike ride that you do on week one, you're going to do a similar evolved session, again on week four of the program. And then week seven of the program, and then week 10 of the program. And you might see it three or four times that you get to repeat and execute and become better executing. And just before it gets stale, you change the training stimulus. That's what structured and progressive training is. And so you have a natural thread running through the training program without it becoming mentally stale. And that simply put is the backbone of what we do. We start at the other end of the equation, we build out the fabric of your life, then we integrate training into it, and we ensure that every training week, has a hierarchy in it so that you've got a management tool. And then we build training. layer after layer of cycles of training, two weeks on, a little bit of recuperation, and a big simulator, go and do it again, don't do it again, go and do it again. And over many, many weeks, and many, many months, the athletes show up really fit but fresh, both mentally and physically. And it is from that platform of health with great specific training, that they get to achieve some really magical results. It's the backbone of what we do.
Matt Dixon 52:15
Now, of course, I should add that underlying this, there is an ongoing commitment that we haven't really discussed today. And that's that commitment around habits. Yes, you do have to think about things like hydration, your sleep, your downtime, your nutrition, and your fueling. And we made passing reference to that, we're not going to go into the nuts and bolts of those today. It's a conversation for another day. So allow me today to take those components as a given, you're doing those really well on your journey. But I did promise, the little bonus section, some of the other tips and tidbits that can really go into amplifying your performance. And so for the last section here, I just want to break down a few other things to consider.
Matt Dixon 53:01
Now, these are in no particular order, but I've tried to structure them under three main components that you might think about. First, training. Some of the other things that you might think about with training. The second is some habits that we talked about. Some things that are really important that I can't leave today's session, without prioritizing or bubbling up because I don't think you can amplify your training results without doing these things. And finally, some of the components to help you with the management side of it. Because this is the nuts and bolts of how we do it. But when you start to work on the plan, you are going to come against some challenges, some adversity, and unforeseen circumstances and you have to be able to - with great, well, great courage, but also great pragmatism - you are going to need to challenge. So let me go through a few things. A few things in no particular order.
Matt Dixon 53:52
Firstly, training. Okay, how do we get athletes really ready for the component that elicits a lot of fear for many Ironman athletes, and even half Ironman athletes, the run portion. We talked about not needing a long run every single week. And that can elicit a lot of fear. Goodness me, I'm only going to see a really long run about every third week, how am I going to have the muscular resilience to go and run a marathon or a half marathon. There's a great way to do this where you actually stay really healthy, and you get to build muscle and tissue resilience, but you tend to limit your injuries. And we're going to combine their number one: run really frequently. Frequent, often daily, almost daily in your training program. And that's sneaking in almost threading the needle to add very short runs onto the back ends of bicycles following a strength session after a swim. But having runs occur frequently and often is a really powerful way to build muscular resilience without disabling muscular fatigue. And in addition to that, be brave enough when you're doing that, to integrate, walk breaks, as a tool walk breaks are incredibly powerful. And even some of the fastest athletes that we've worked with, absolutely love and embrace walk breaks. So in your training, think about however you build your program, frequent and often when it comes onto the running side of stuff, it's good. And then the periodic long run, you'll be ready, I promise you.
Matt Dixon 55:30
Number two, a bit of a time efficiency tool in the toolkit, so far as training: double up. I talked about running a little bit after strength sessions, using bricks, not just as specific sessions to run off the bike to get you ready, but actually is a time efficiency tool. It's really good if you've only got 75 minutes to do a 45 or 15-minute bite trying to work out, but just add a run in there. And we often call that tissue resilience. You just sneak it in there. Or sometimes if you're doing a strength session, add a little bit of an easy bike ride afterward. But actually doubling up sessions is a really good efficiency tool. I'm a big fan of it. Now, what about in this with training, whatever it is 8, 10, 12, 14 hours a week - How do you get ready for the unmistakable demand of some big over distance training? It's true that ultimately, we're talking about getting ready for an Ironman in 10 to 14 hours a week. But do you benefit sometimes of going over distance? You do. Here's the way to sneak this in. And it's an important one that takes - particularly if you've got a family - it takes a little bit of collaboration and planning, what we would call it is a cluster approach to training. And so rather than thinking about there are two components to this, but rather than thinking about training in just single sessions, think about building hours and resilience over multiple days. Maybe you do a bike trainer workout on a Friday, follow up with a trainer or an outdoor ride on a Saturday, come back again on Sunday and do another trainer ride.
Matt Dixon 57:16
You can do the same sort of thing over the course of running. Maybe periodically, you're gonna do a weekend where over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, you're gonna accumulate the total distance of a marathon. But you're gonna do it over three or four sessions over the course of that weekend, Friday morning, run Friday evening run bigger run on Saturday, run on Sunday, there's your marathon, and it's really good to execute. Secondly, you can occasionally come through and partner up with the other collaborators in your life and say, okay, as we start to move into the hot zone, as we are into the last three or four months getting ready for one of these key events, let's look ahead, and let's choose one, two, maybe three opportunities that I can have freedom to go out, leave early in the morning, and say, I'm going to be gone. I'm not going to be back until one or two in the afternoon. And I'm gonna go out and do that one big over distance ride. And it's amazing. If you do that 2, 3, 4 times, on top of your consistent 8 to 12 hours a week of training, it is the catalyst that you need to be ready. If you're a professional athlete that's training 30 hours a week, you might be training three hours on a Tuesday, five hours on a Thursday, four hours on a Saturday, and two hours on a Sunday, it's a different thing. In a time-starved optimization challenge, you're going to have to say every third week, every fourth week, that's the focus. But the key there is if everyone understands in your family or friends, etc, that you're going to be out that day, the following weekend, you don't go, don't go and do it again. That's where okay, maybe I am going to stay on the trainer, I am going to have just a couple of hours of training on that weekend, Saturday day. And the rest of the time I'm completely available for everything else that I need in the workplace or with my family. And it ends up working.
Matt Dixon 59:09
And then the final component of training that I want to bring up: is swimming. I think it's a really important tool. Now traditionally, it is the logistically most challenging component of your training. You got to head to the swimming pool, it's a bit of a hassle. So how do you approach your swimming in general, this isn't a discussion around swimming today, but in general, if you're only going to get to swim a couple of times, you better leverage swimming at high intensity. There is little value in you going to the swimming pool and swimming easily. Instead, I encourage you to go and hit high-intensity training. Short intervals high-value high intensity training is really good. So those are just a few little tidbits, a little bit of salt and pepper when it comes to the training.
Matt Dixon 59:54
What about habits? What are some of the things that I want to leave you with under the big banner habits? So here are some non-negotiables. Number one, no matter how many hours a week of training, whether it is 30 hours as that mythical pro, or, more likely, as a time-starved athlete, somewhere between 8 and 14 hours, here's a habit that is non-negotiable. Fuel, that means consumed calories after every single training session, even those long 30 or 40-minute, very easy social runs. And you want to consume protein and carbohydrates. Make that a habit. In addition to that, ensure that you really focus on daily hydration. What we're doing there is the protein is helping with rebuilding muscle tissue, but also lowering your cortisol and other stress hormones. And the carbohydrate that you consume is ensuring that you facilitate recovery from the training and make sure that you show up to the next training session really fueled up, but on top of it, you're feeding your brain so that you can stay focused in the day. And then with hydration, that's really important because of several things, maximizing recovery, ensuring that you have the best immune system possible, but also as a route to actually maximize your energy, your focus your decision making capability in the rest of the day. And so those components, those two things fuel after every session, and hydration are important. I would add to it, of course, prioritize sleep, it becomes important never to let that fade away as an afterthought. And one more thing, make breakfast a priority as well, consuming a breakfast every day, particularly if you train in the mornings. It is a wonderful habit, why we have to wait till next time on that one.
Matt Dixon 1:01:44
Okay, finally, the last bucket of Matt's little special tidbits and extras is around management. All right, well, I talked about it in today's show, but I want to bubble it up again: Know when to show up. The only way for you to know to show up is by understanding your training program, looking ahead, and planning it a little bit. And when you have a great hierarchy, then you can know when you need to be present. I think that's a great and really important component for the athlete to have. This is a session I'm going to be present and focused on. And I'm going to make sure I show up. When you do that, it's really powerful. So good. That's number one. Number two, make sure that whatever you do in any given training session, you optimize the day. That doesn't mean do more power or run faster than you ever have. What it says is to get the most out of that day. It's never about passing a session or failing a session. It's whatever your resources mental and physical are for that day, you get the most out of it. So if you've got an interval day, and your power is a little bit less than last week, do the best power that you can on that day, and be happy with it because it's still positive, it's still a training deposit. And if you're really, really crushed and tired, don't beat yourself up. Because you can't do the intervals that day, instead, do something that is really, really beneficial to circulate blood, move, and get tissue resilience by having it more soul-filling. And when you start to reflect and think about training in those terms, you can build consistency. But you're not always trying to go to an examination every time that you put your running shoes on, or you get your cap and goggles on for a swim. And that becomes a really important component. And the final component when it comes to management is to get your mirror out. I love to look in a mirror. I love to check that I'm still just as beautiful as ever. Joking aside the honest mirror to stare yourself at and give yourself a harsh dose of reality. You need to look in the mirror and be honest with yourself. Because it's only with perspective, and starting to look back - I'm really tired, why? - and understanding, you've got a sick kid, you've got work commitments, maybe sleep wasn't quite as good. But you can start to make really smart and pragmatic decisions. And when you become brave enough to make those decisions, you're not retreating every time you have fatigue. But you have knowledge and perspective. And that is powerful.
Matt Dixon 1:04:22
Guys, in essence, this is how we do it. We consistently enable athletes to fit training into life. On top of it, they progress and they keep smiling because the sport doesn't have to feel like it's a monkey on your back. We don't face the same one-and-done problems that so many athletes end up falling into. Goodness me, I made it I survived. I did it. I'm happy. But I can't do it again. It just doesn't fit into my life. It's really not something that faces many of the athletes that we work with. And I think mostly it's because we're absolutely committed to ensuring that we create sustainable performance over many times. And so if your sport right now, your approach, makes things feel like it's a part-time job, if you constantly struggle with the inconsistency of training performance, up and down, up and down, it's random, whether you feel great or really fatigued, or if you feel like you're failing at your plan, just because you can't check the box of every session, perhaps, just perhaps, it's time to evolve, it's time to grow a little bit. I hope that the perspective helps Half Ironman and Ironman performance in a time-starved life is not only possible, but it is also highly accessible. It takes bravery and requires the same hard work and commitment. But you've got to have the courage to apply and evolve methodology. But the good news is, it is there for the taking. And so I wish you all the best of luck for the season. I hope this helps. Let's go on and conquer. Until next time, take care.
Matt Dixon 1:06:07
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 on 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
training, athlete, sessions, week, important, life, ironman, starved, training program, hours, build, run, stresses, race, training session, performance, approach, components, ensure, swim, run, optimization