Episode 285: Off-Season - Foundation, Skills and Technique (Part 3 - Your Questions Answered)
Follow the Purple Patch Podcast at:
APPLE PODCASTS - SPOTIFY- AMAZON MUSIC - GOOGLE PODCASTS - YOUTUBE
Welcome to the final installment of our three-part series on the off-season, in which we frame the approach to building a foundation of performance, developing skills, and improving technique.
This week’s episode centers on you and the questions you have about Q4 and beyond. Matt shares the questions you’ve sent in over the past few weeks on how to connect the information from our previous episodes on the off-season to your own performance journey.
During our three-part conversation about the off-season, we discussed the various elements and significance of this training phase. This included insights on rejuvenation, mindset, and strategies to ensure that the next 2-3 months serve as a catalyst for improving our future selves while still allowing for enjoyment and flexibility. We also shared the Purple Patch approach and exciting details about specific plans for the upcoming block of training.
Although we have focused on season planning and triathlete journeys, we have received numerous questions from individuals who are not competing athletically. These questions pertain to health and overall life performance. Whether you are an athlete seeking to establish a foundation of performance prior to intensifying your training, or a fitness enthusiast aiming to maximize your winter months, Matt offers guidance to help you gain clarity and set yourself up for success in both work and life in the coming year.
Whether you're in Alaska or Hawaii, Detroit or Singapore, off-season is a key part, a fundamental part of your year. And in fact, I would say it is the highest predictor of creating a wonderful performance breakthrough no matter what your goal is in the months ahead. It's easier. You have more capacity. You take a step back, but it's so that you can take 10 steps forward. And by not doing that you're going to run into problems. - Matt Dixon
Episode Timestamps
00:00 - 04:05 - Welcome and Episode Introduction
04:12 - 04:57 - Matt's News-ings
05:12 - 9:24 - Word of the Week
09:36 - 45:06 - The Meat and Potatoes - Episode 285: Offseason - Foundation, Skills, and Technique (Part 3 - Your Questions Answered)
Purple Patch and Episode Resources
Purple Patch Video Podcast and More
Learn more about the Purple Patch Tri-Squad Join Tri Squad with the code POD10 and get 10% off your first month.
Nail Your Fueling and Nutrition with FuelIn and Purple Patch
More on Purple Patch Bike Live & On-Demand
More on the Purple Patch Methodology
Get a Free Taste of Purple Patch Strength
Join the Purple Patch Team - Director of Growth and Business Operations
The Purple Patch Center is Open - Learn More and Schedule a Visit
Purple Patch Coaching Consultation
Learn more about our Tri Squad Program
This episode is sponsored by our collaboration with INSIDE TRACKER. Inside Tracker and Purple Patch- Receive 20% off their services with code: PURPLEPATCHPRO20
Ask Matt Anything - Leave a voicemail question for Matt
Learn more about Purple Patch Squad High-Performance Training Program
Join Bike Squad - Don’t just exercise and work out; learn to train with our structured online cycling program
Join Run Squad - Increase your running performance through our progressive, multi-sport approach to running
Learn more about Purple Patch Fully Customized 1:1 Coaching
Learn more about Purple Patch Strength Programming
Stay Up-to-Date with Purple Patch News and Events
Full Transcript
SPEAKERS
Matt Dixon
Matt Dixon 00:00
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
The theme of the last few weeks has been offseason. And it is a time where you get a little bit of freedom, maybe a sense of decompression, but also a lens on thinking about your path ahead. This is the perfect time to establish a platform of health to ensure that you're set up for your season ahead for great performance no matter whether you're chasing finish lines, or simply chasing the kids around the house. The best tool that we use at Purple Patch is InsideTracker. Because by taking a look inside and assessing your biometrics, and then combining it with the advice and strategies from the team of experts at InsideTracker we get some precise focus and some measurable outcomes in the elements that provide you with a platform of health. That is a catalyst to enhance performance no matter what your quest is. Now, you don't need to be a Purple Patch athlete to take advantage of InsideTracker. All you need to do is head to insidetracker.com/purplepatch and use this code Purple Patch Pro 20. That's going to get you 20% off everything at the store. But if you want to supercharge it, if you want our help at Purple Patch, we are happy to oblige, simply reach out to us at info@PurplePatchFitness.com, reach out and let the team know that you are going to go through with an InsideTracker approach. And what we'll do is consult with you. We'll set up a consultation, we can help you filter the results and ensure that you have the best strategic approach. The little partnership of the team of experts at InsideTracker with our expertise around performance is going to ensure that we put gasoline on the fire. Now, all of that being said today, it is all coming from you. We are talking about off-season, but it's your questions and my answer to those questions. Enjoy the show. Cheers.
Matt Dixon 02:14
And welcome to the Purple Patch podcast as ever, your host Matt Dixon. And here we are folks, the last in our three-part series all around Off-season: Foundation, Technique, and Skills. We are going to dig into Q4 and beyond. But we have several questions to answer today. As promised, I said the first two parts of this series were going to be foundational, a little bit of a peek inside Purple Patch, but on the last one today, we're going to dig into the questions that you have for me. Let's be honest, we were a little overwhelmed with the amount of questions we had. We did our very best as a team to filter through them all and try and showcase the most broadly appealing and applicable. And so I commit today that I will respond to everyone who put in their questions. I'm sorry if we couldn't get them on today's show, but I will ensure that I respond privately and give you some context and explanation. Now for me, the highlight was how many of the questions that we got were actually received from folks who are not competitive in focus. While I have spent a lot of time discussing season planning, and the journey of a triathlete, it seems that many of the folks listening have done well to connect their dots to their own performance journey, despite not actually chasing performance through an athletic sense. And so what we're looking to do here is to try and deliver some questions that have a broad scope of interest from you guys, as the audience. There's plenty of cracking questions for the athletes and also some questions for those folks who focus more on health and life performance. There's a lot to get through. So I'm going to try and be as succinct as I can in my responses knowing that I'm always a little bit wordy. But just before we get going, we've got a couple of important things. First, we're going to do Matt's News-ings And then we've got a very important word of the week. Barry, let's kick off with the News-ings.
Matt Dixon 04:12
Yes, folks, Matt's News-ings. Let me provide you with an invitation. From the ground up there is no better time to embrace and lean into the Purple Patch coaches and of course the community of our athletes. If you want to upgrade your performance and gain access to unparalleled experience, support, and community, please join us. You get 10% off your first month. We don't usually do discounts at Purple Patch but we're going to tease you this time with a little one. All you need to do is reach out to info@PurplePatchFitness.com We can set up a complimentary call and see if we are a fit. And that is all I'm going to tell you on Matt's News-ings today because I want to dig into the meat potatoes. But first, we are going to do a very important Word of the Week
singer 04:57
we like the way he thinks It's serious with the waves. It's time to take Dixon every word of the week.
Matt Dixon 05:12
Yes, folks, the Word of the Week, Barry, it's always so nice to listen to your ukulele. Life is precious. Pierre Close became a part of our Purple Patch community in 2015. Based in Belgium, he had followed Purple Patch via my two books. And then he got on to listening to the show. And he was working hard because he was trying to understand English, which wasn't his first language obviously and he really hadn't had that much English growing up. And it was doubled in challenge because he was trying to listen to my English, that little cockney English that we all know. Well, over the last few years Pierre and his wife have become a huge part of the Purple Patch community, some of our most loyal athletes, and they both work hard to contribute, go as far as really improving his English just so that he could engage more could contribute more to the Purple Patch community. Last summer, Pierre Mary and their son Milo the same age as Baxter, my son came to San Francisco for their summer vacation. And the reason they wanted to is they just wanted to see the center that I'm recording from, they wanted to mix it up with the coaches. They wanted to spend a week or two just living in Purple Patch. They even went so far as to launch their own triathlon team and club in their hometown. And it was all based on the methodology and principles that we discuss so much in this show. A few weeks ago, Pierre was racing, a legendary triathlon Embrunman, which is in the Hautes-Alps region of France. And during that race, he had a freak or catastrophic accident. It was a bike crash, and it left him in a coma. Just a couple of days ago, Pierre succumbed to his injuries. The family had to make the incredibly tough decision to take him off of life support. Obviously, I'm devastated. The Purple Patch team is devastated. Our whole community is devastated. Mary has lost her husband, Milo his father, and the community has lost a beacon. And now Mary and Milo face a very uncertain future. I know they have strength, but it ain't gonna be easy. It's an awful time. And in this awful time, I have pride. Immense, overflowing pride. Another Purple Patch athlete, Jeff spun up a GoFundMe page, understanding something that we can all relate to. A freak accident, a catastrophic crash in which life changes. And in six days, the Purple Patch athlete community came together and they raised more than $35,000 just to support Mary and Milo in their future. It won't replace a husband or a father, but I hope it will provide some form of tangible help. This wasn't one person contributing. This was many many people stepping up to support one of their own. Despite many of them, most of them, never directly met Pierre in person. And it made me realize that the world is full of good people. And Purple Patch in itself I believe is more than a coaching company. I think it means something to be a Purple Patch athlete. And this situation, while terrible, shines a light on that fact. And that is why this week folks, the Word of the Week, with pride, is Pierre. Rest easy brother. And for all of you racers out there, you riders out there, a gentle reminder - be safe, stay aware. Improve your skills. Look after each other. And drivers, get off your cell phone. Alright folks, I know that feels somber but love all around. Our Word of the Week. Pierre. This one's for you, Pierre.
Matt Dixon 09:36
Alright folks, the meat and potatoes. Now let's get on with it. We are going to crack on and we are going to, with the celebration of Pierre now, we are going to talk about your questions and it's all focused today. Around the off-season we did get a lot of questions from folks beyond the off-season, don't worry we have stored all those up I will get back to you on those And we will do a show that is just around the general Q&A. I know that they're always very popular shows. But what we have done today is as it is a part of our three-part series on the off-season, we've chosen the questions that are only focused around the off-season. Now, if you haven't already listened, the last two shows feed into many of these questions, so we went back. And we talked about the principles, the importance, and some of the success criteria for off-season a couple of weeks ago. Last week, we peeled back the curtain and we talked about the Purple Patch approach and some of the specifics that we plan to do with this oh-so-critical block of training. And we've got some really juicy details in there. I went very granular and peeled back the curtain a little bit. And of course, it's not surprising that we received a ton of questions for that. So I am going to do my best we chose five or six questions. And so without further ado, let's get going.
Matt Dixon 10:54
Question number one. Here it is, I am returning to the sport after a few years off due to my health. We won't get to that it's complicated. But I'm a woman in my mid-40s. My name is Jenny and I'm from San Francisco. Right here, Jenny good stuff. The race that I have registered for is Ironman Wales in September. I've done it before. And I'm aware of how challenging a course can be. It is a challenging course by the way, Jenny, in fact, some rank it as the toughest course in the world, so it's fantastic that you're going to do it. Probably love to do Morro Bay in 70.3 in there as well. That's another great race well done. I am a back-of-the-pack age group or just participating in the sport for fun, and I aim to have a really good time but I don't really have a massive time goal. Aside from my personal life, I have a hectic schedule due to running a business. Good stuff. Alright. For the next few months, what do you advise that I focus on? I plan to begin training and coaching for Ironman in January. And I feel until now just rebuilding my base should be the goal. But if you have any particular suggestions, I'd love to hear them, especially around strength training. That is a great question. Jenny, thanks so much. And I'm so glad that you're taking on Ironman Wales, it's one of my favorite races. And it is just fantastic. And the occasion when they sing the Welsh national anthem there at the start is just absolutely terrific. So a couple of things that I will say here and first, the journey that you're taking on in itself, rather than just the destination. I sense from the question, that you get this, but the journey itself is the thing that should be magical. And it should be additive to your health, your life and so much more. And so I would love to see you enjoy it stay healthy, and at the same time, arrive prepared. And so through that lens, ironically, I think now as we venture into Q4, we start to lead into October, I actually think the next three to four months are some of the most important months for you. And I think that if we come up a level, I want you to or at least advise you to shift your lens a little bit. Because the way that you've written your question bubbles up a very common mistake that I see. Great, I've got a big race, it's in September, I'm gonna get through the holidays, and I'm going to start training in January. Boom, the Ironman hat is on in your case. And it's not a bad lens globally. But I think that you have an opportunity to do things in a little better way, at least from ramping up the very specific work. From now until about mid-February, I think that you can do some absolutely critical specific work to truly prepare your body to train. So what I don't encourage you to do is say Ironman is on the docket next September, I'm leading into 12 months ahead, let's ramp it up now. And let's get focused on that Ironman. Instead, I would use the next 18 weeks which synchronizes with our offseason, of course, the next 18 weeks to truly prepare your body to be ready to absorb the training. So what that means is getting on to a very specific strength program in your case. I think that's going to be important with your age, your profile, and everything else. Massively important. It's also the opportunity to establish some really good habits. And those can be around sleep, eating habits, etc., that you can dial those components in so that you're not trying to change too much at once. When you do start the heavier workload. And then from an exercise standpoint, I think it's less of a journey of building an old classic base, as they used to think, and instead developing tissue resilience, a little bit of cardiovascular conditioning, but you're not really driving for endurance right now. And perhaps Most importantly, as I've talked about over the last couple of weeks, a great opportunity for you to upgrade your skills and technique. So don't train hard right now, but really learn to do things better. And for the fear of sounding like a little bit of a used car salesman, because I'm not answering the question through that lens, I think you could actually borrow the approach of our offseason in last week's podcast, and apply that. Your training shouldn't be hard. But it's incredibly important. And if you wait, and you procrastinate, and then you get into January and hit go, I think that you've got a high risk of ramping too quickly without the body truly being able to absorb the work and potentially get injured again. And so I think you've got a lot of leeway. You can be hot, it can be fun, it can be flexible, and it doesn't need to be over-demanding in time, but I think you need to put some orders over the coming months. Okay, one more thing I would add as well is that even in January time, or mid-February, if you really do a most productive offseason, that isn't the time that you want to shift into your mind, "Now I need to train for an Ironman," because that's much too long of a runway through to an Ironman in September. In fact, I wouldn't even hit Ironman-specific training until about June or so. If you've got a September race, okay, so for the last 12, 13, 14 weeks before race day. Before that, I would just think about building an athlete. So it starts now, truly now, with a proper offseason, we talked about, preparing for training, tissue resilience, skill, acquisition, positive habits, etc, then what you would want to do is develop a higher capacity with some higher intensity training, a little bit of power and speed, maybe some tissue resilience. I want you to get faster, whatever fast is for you. Okay? And that's gonna give you lots of time then to build the endurance when the weather is getting better in the Bay Area ever over the course of June, July, August into that September race, very productive. And it's going to equip you to get Ironman-specific in a really positive way. So that's the focus, that's what I would look to go through, be happy to chat to you directly about it, try and give you a little bit of counsel. Even better. You're in San Francisco. So why don't you reach out to us and come and see us and take a class for free, you'd be my guest, whether it's a strength session where a master strength expert can come and look at you do some strength work and maybe give you some counsel on the side. Or maybe come and hop on the bike, go through one of our sessions, and give you a little bit of a taste. I would like to invite you and I'll even buy you a cup of coffee afterward. There you go. On everyone listening to the show, just me and you, Jenny, we're gonna go and have a coffee. How does that sound? Good stuff. All right, Barry, that's a cracking question to get us going. Makes sense. A lot of universal truth for many people listening there.
Matt Dixon 18:07
Question two is from Trina who has a question. And this is a nice one because this is about life performance. If we're going to label it that. Trina said I love listening to the recent shows in the off-season even though I'm not actually an athlete. At least I don't identify as an athlete. I want to use my pretty busy holiday months to reset and dial in a personal focus to hit the new year ahead of the curve, instead of what I do every year, which is feel like I'm restarting from ground zero again. I fell off my focus on healthy energy exercise over the course of the early winter months. And then I hit the new year and I have to recommit and it feels like starting all over again. Now I tend to exercise consistently. I think I have pretty good eating habits, but I just want to step it up for the year ahead. A side note for reference, I'm 47 and I'm a mum of two. If you've got any help or advice, I would love to hear it. Trina, thank you, terrific stuff. All right. Let's do this. This is very common. We start to get into, in fact, something that is particularly American, we hit Halloween and it feels like the year ends. It's Halloween. It's Thanksgiving, it's Christmas and Hanukkah, etc. And suddenly that last part of the year becomes chaotic, dark, and cold and people just bypass their whole performance spectrum. In order to be a high-functioning human being. We need to be consistent, and it's no time to turn our back on performance habits. And it's no wonder that when we hit the first of January, everyone's like oh, here we go. I've got to go again. But you're starting on the backfoot behind the eight ball. Let's get ahead of it this time and it doesn't need to be overcomplicated. I think there are a few things that are really important if you're focused on global performance for life and health. First, let's talk about what every human being needs. Always, every human being needs to move their body. So that's cardiovascular conditioning, what we would call zone two, conversational exercise. And you should move your body most days of the week. Now, for an elite professional athlete, that's doing some over-distance training at a zone one to zone two effort. For a regular recreational or live performance type person that might be just walking, hiking, easy running, elliptical, whatever it is, but you need to move your body most days. It doesn't need to be particularly long but that's important. A second pillar that I think is important is you need to at least once a week, get uncomfortable in your exercise. So what we would call do some high-intensity training where it's hard to breathe hard to converse, doing short intervals of higher-intensity work, and every human being would benefit from that. A third pillar that I think is important is some strength training, you need to commit to at least twice a week, you are putting your muscles under load, and doing resistance training to help you build muscle integrity, tissue resilience, and of course, helping you with a global platform of health. Finally, we never want to let go of how we function with our movement patterns, our stability, and our balance. And so under the banner of strength training, there's a whole bunch of little exercises and simple activities that we can do to help us with our proprioception, help us actually improve our posture, our balance, our stability. And so those four things you should be doing, we should be doing every single week of our life, even if we're not particularly focused. So where I would start with that is to hold yourself to account with good habits. Move the body every day, that might just be as simple as going for a walk after dinner. It might be saying that on the weekend, I'm going to go for a hike rather than a structured exercise. I would also absolutely anchor your week around strength training. Twice a week that you commit, whether it's one-to-one, whether it's a group exercise strength class, whether it's something online, like the Purple Patch, strength program, whatever it might be, but to help you get really focused around strength that encompasses those last two pillars, and that's heavier load and a whole bunch of stability and core movement. That's the first thing I would say, get that in order, and hold it to account. Now, how do you ensure that you can be successful when it's natural to turn your back on it? A second element that I think is incredibly useful, is a system of community. And with that support and accountability. This is a really good time to go beyond yourself and lean into some form of group. Now it might be a really small group, it might be a couple of friends, it might be a remote group online, like the Purple Patch community, or it might be an in-person group. But what you want to establish is sharing the journey and having a system of accountability to show up at a set time, and having some support in making sure that if you're struggling, you get back on the wagon. And that's really important. Because by sharing the journey, it becomes much more powerful. It goes beyond yourself. As I said, you're going to get accountability, you're going to get support. And that support can come with an arm around your shoulder, or it might be a frying pan around the head. But all of it makes that journey more rewarding. This is actually why we have at Purple Patch, a huge emphasis right now on education and community. Because this is the time when I really encourage people to lean in. And when you do that, when you become a part of a team, an interesting flywheel effect starts to impact all organizations across all teams. It tends to drive individual performance. But it also goes bi-directional and amplifies a performance culture within any group and team. So by buying in and leaning into the community, you're going to amplify the impact on your own consistency, but you're also going to help others and that becomes more rewarding. Finally, what I'd say is to get really precise on a couple of focus elements. So maybe it's Hey, I really want to improve my body composition. Let's make some goals around that. Or maybe I'm going to integrate a habit that's a common weakness. It might be sleep, it might be a particular habit around daily hydration, whatever it is, but this is a really good time for adopting new practices, refining weaknesses, and leveraging strengths. At Purple Patch, the team here are all identifying an individual goal for q4. So for me, it's I'm going to get on board with strength training, I'm going to do it twice a week, it's my particular nemesis. But across our team, it's really, really variable. The important thing is it's not really focused on getting faster, achieving more power, or getting to a qualification. It's about adopting habits, doing something that you can commit to for the next three months. And so it's good to give yourself a little bit of a target and goal. And when you have a target and goal, and you're transparent with that team, and community aspect, and you understand the key elements that we should all do, and then you're going to be more successful. I hope that helps.
Matt Dixon 25:52
All right, let's move on. Just got a few more here. This is a question that came in via the podcast page. Remember, folks, you can leave a voicemail. And you can do that via the Purple Patch website, PurplePatchFitness.com anytime that you'd like and you can just simply leave a quick message. And this is what Adrian left. Left us a voicemail. Why don't we play this please Barry?
26:16
Hey, Matt, it's Adrian from Singapore. Given we've got tropical weather here year-round, does off-season still make sense? Or do we just train lighter for the final quarter of the year? Thanks a lot for answering the question.
Matt Dixon 26:31
All right, simple. I don't have to read it out. Great question, Adrian. And let me answer that very simply. Yes, the off-season absolutely makes sense. Let's come back a level and let's talk about value. Okay? What an off-season it is not just a time to rejuvenate and reset. As I've talked about, in the last couple of weeks, it's not a time to go rogue and random and just go easy. And it's not just an occasion to hide from the winter months in the winter weather and get the value of this is this provides us with an opportunity to achieve a few things. Number one, a great opportunity to upgrade your skills. So you want to have your training focused on technical and skills development. That's a really important component. It's also a really critical phase of training where you want to do some more foundational work. That's not in the old sense of the word of piles of miles or base building, you might remember that - "you've got to build your base, get outside, and do loads of miles." That's not what I'm talking about here. As I talked about in a prior question, it's about preparing the body for hard work ahead. And so if you go right now, and follow an off-season mentoring structure, what it's going to deliver you is an amplified chance to get more from your hard work ahead. The body is going to be set up for greater adaptations, more prone to absorb the hard work that's coming in the months ahead. And you're going to have a better stronger robust platform of tissue resilience, to try and prevent such a high risk of injury. So that's really good. You also, simply put, allow your body and your mind space to heal, to have a breather from hard labor. We all need vacations in America, we're not so good at them, in Europe, we're better, in France, they're fantastic at it, for good or for bad. But you want to think about this a little bit like a rubber band. If you're looking to get a rubber band more and more elastic, we don't just stretch and keep stretching, because it's going to snap. Instead, we stretch to the limit, we hold it a little bit and then we release the tension. And then we stretch it again again and get just go a little bit more. And then we relax the tension. So we apply load, we integrate recovery, we apply a little bit more load, we integrate recovery. Off-season is a wonderful macro example of that rubber band, you've been stretching the band, and now it's time to let it restore its integrity. And you want to do that. Whether you're in Alaska or Hawaii, Detroit or Singapore, off-season is a key part, a fundamental part, of your year. And in fact, I would say it is the highest predictor of creating a wonderful performance breakthrough no matter what your goal is in the months ahead. It's easier, you have more capacity, you take a step back, but it's so that you can take 10 steps forward. And by not doing that you're going to run into problems. And so, enjoy the warm weather enjoy the tropics but make sure you embrace off-season Adrian.
Matt Dixon 29:56
All right. Good stuff. Here we go. This question, question number four is from John, based in Minnesota. Goodness me, that is a cold place. Getting ready to go into many months of indoor riding, he reminds me. And he had a question about the Purple Patch bike sessions. Good question. I'm glad you asked this. Okay. No wonder I picked this one, guys. Last week, you mentioned the upgrade of skills, and you discussed the Purple Patch platform, and how it was the quote-only software to truly help a rider improve their skills related to outside writing. It left me a little bit confused and would love to understand more about how you coach and build skills while sitting on a trainer. That's a great question. And let me respond. So the majority of bike platforms out there, software platforms, and there are many now, and many of them are actually really, really good, but the vast majority of platforms are designed from the ground up to deliver the best experience for specific interval training. And they do a good job of that. And so most of the choice for a rider or an athlete is around what platform experience you prefer. But the focus is execution of specific intervals, designed to drive physiological gains. So it's a lot around output, and heart rate, and some of them are more gamified. Some of them are video-based, some of the more tailored around blocks of training. But it delivers a lot of really positive aspects, good fun, maybe some elements of community, and even elements of real-world riding. But it's mostly focused around training from a physiological stimulus, and improving your fitness, your power, et cetera. And of course, that's a really important part of the equation. You need to do work, that work needs to be specific, whether it's endurance for long intervals, whether it's very short, high intensity, whether it's threshold, whatever it might be, that's a part of training. But when I'm interested in going beyond that, and thinking about the HOW. Trying to help people understand themselves as riders and improve their technical skills. And the platform that we leverage is a little different. Okay, it's built from the ground up as a coaching tool. So it's more built as a business-to-business platform to help me deliver the coaching that I want. It's just a different lens to come through. And so when they think about the tools that they're doing, it's how can I deliver a remote experience as a coach, and of course, that means that I need to be with you. And the best way to do that is via two-way video, a little bit like Zoom, Google meet or any of those, so that you can see what I'm asking you to do and I can give you feedback on the execution, around your posture, your pedaling, and so much more. But in addition to that, the platform itself is also designed, very smartly, with people way smarter than me ladies and gentlemen, to upgrade your skills. Because on the screen, what you have is a high degree of accountability, around two key tools in your riding - your output, which is your power, and your cadence. And throughout any block of work, any interval, if you want to call it you're getting live feedback on the quality of your execution relative to the intent. But this is where things get really interesting. Then as a coach, I'm able to design real-world simulated terrain. And what that gets me to do is then coach you through that navigation. How and when you should stand up without blowing your heart rate and power through the roof. How can you manage variable terrain with the proper use of gears? How can you navigate variable terrain by leveraging your cadence and your standing tools? And ultimately, how can you get the best speed return with the best variable Terrain Management? In other words, how can I get you to do less work and go faster? And guess what, this platform enables me no matter where you are in the world, it enables me to teach you. Now, what's going to happen here? Because the terrain shifts are so real world, every rider, including me, is going to feel the mistakes. But the good thing about this environment is those mistakes are visual with your outputs and you get to start to understand them and to feel them. And of course what that gives is an opportunity for growth, for learning, so that you can start to get it right. And what happens when you go through the sessions is you start to have a powerful tool, because you've got the most amount of accountability to fulfill the sessions as intended. And there is absolutely no shortcut.
Matt Dixon 35:17
There are all sorts of things that start to come out of this. An appreciation and understanding of what terrain and the variety of terrain feels like. It also establishes and helps you link the power and the heart rate with speed return. And it's so much more than a workout. So there are lots of platforms out there where you can get a cracking experience and a really good workout. But really what this is, in many ways, is bike school. You are coming to almost a session that is a conference where you get coached, and you deliver on-screen, via the platform, feedback to help you understand yourself so that you can apply it. And it doesn't take a genius to apply those skills outside. Guess what, if you wanna try it, you can. You don't need to be a Purple Patch-coached athlete, you don't even need to do a squad program. We have a free trial for everyone. So you can give it a crack and you can see how it is. Now remember, I would say, John, that we are just upcoming on our offseason phase. And this is where we're doing our technical and skills focus. But that doesn't set up in our programming until October the first. So right now we've got plenty of tougher sessions on the docket. So what I recommend, if you do want to give it a try to see what it's like, I would wait until about October 1, maybe sign up on September 30 or so. And then on October 1, that's when we lead in, we've got a couple of sessions a week that you can leverage any time that suits you, where you can experience it a little bit. It's really fun. You get a free two-week trial. And I promise you it's a really steep learning curve, when you first get on the platform it's like goodness, me, it's a little bit of an overload of information - by the end of the session, you're like us aah starting to get it, and you even start to dial it in. Barry, if you could, as you produce this, please put that link in the show notes. And it's a two-week free trial, it gives you access to just our bike sessions. And that's actually a subscription that we have for self-coached athletes for folks who don't need coaching or don't want to join our Purple Patch squad. $59 A month after the two-week trial. Very, very good, a great tool in your toolbox. Lots of people are starting to leverage that even though we haven't told the world about it too much. So I hope that helps. That's how we think about our bike training. And it's really applicable to the most important thing. It's really fun.
Matt Dixon 37:52
All right, so last question, folks, and it's about body composition. It's a good question. And this is from Marcus. And he said, Is this a good time of the year? I heard you talk all about the off-season. But is this also a good time of the year to think about trying to improve my body composition? I feel like I can lose a few pounds and shift up my ratio between muscle and fat. So let me know if this is a good time. So, Marcus, the answer to that is yes, it is. We had several questions about body composition. And so I'm glad that we got to pick yours. But we had lots of people asking about this. And I'll start with the global emphasis on training. So we spent the last couple of weeks spending a lot of time talking about the off-season, the structure of it what the training should be like. The truth is that the lower intensity and total training hours that should have more capacity is absolutely suitable from a physical standpoint, to place an emphasis on body composition. Now let me draw the parallels here. When somebody is training for a race, let's just pick it up, we had the question at the top of the show about training for an Ironman. You don't want to be chasing body composition changes when you're in the run-up to a race. And so now is the perfect time. And of course, the training right now is perfect from a physical standpoint. And so yes, body composition. These are the months I would say from October for most of the athletes all the way through until really the end of March is a wonderfully suitable time to try and shift body composition changes if that is important to you. Okay, the one thing I would say and this is a big flare, it is essential that you do it right. I would much prefer and in fact, it's important for me to say this, I would much prefer you to be doing these changes and seeking positive evolution in body composition under professional guidance. If you need to write a legal document, you hire a lawyer. If you design a major house renovation, most people employ an architect. We care about your health and your performance first. And so going on a journey to improve your body composition is not double bold, double underlined is not about going on a diet. It's not about just restricting calories. It's not about removing a food type from your diet, it isn't a short-term fix, it's really important you do it right, I would recommend that you leverage professional guidance to do it right for you. Okay, so you've got the physical environment is good, the training load is lower, and the body is equipped in a much better place to make positive changes, but do it right and do it with a long-term lens. This isn't about some intervention, where we're just trying to drop weight. We want to do it right. Now, a lot of people have asked about Fuelin, which is our nutrition partner. And it is a wonderful tool, a wonderful team as well. And the reason that I do like Fuelin is because the team at Fuelin understands this phase of training very, very well. And they actually have direct access to our training sessions. And the app and the individual nutrition coaches that fuel Lynn actually have access to and understanding of our training so they can synchronize the nutrition of fueling recommendations to your training plan, no matter whether you're more life performance-focused, or whether you're obviously chasing a race. And the nice thing I like about this is they're not dogmatic about their choices. This isn't some PDF nutrition plan where you receive a plan, and you think goodness, me, I have to eat gherkins, and shrimp for breakfast. It gives you a wide range of options where if you walk into a restaurant or a grocery store, you just can choose the foods that you like, but under the banner of their very simple stoplight system. So it's really, really good and they really understand the platform of performance and the platform of health. Now if you want to leverage them, super opportunity, they have a wide range of options. You can be highly tailored and work one-on-one with one of their nutrition coaches, or you can leverage their education and support system with the simple app, which is highly affordable. I would say it is a great time to do it. If you want to get onto fueling, simply follow the link in the show notes or you can head to our website and just apply directly, but ensure that you let them know that you're a part of Purple Patch, because that's going to give you some special treats in the door.
Matt Dixon 42:52
All right. And that team is a wrap. That is the offseason. Terrific stuff. Next week, we're going to shift gears, but I would love to have you join us for the journey. Stop listening to me sitting on the couch, or enjoying it as you're sitting in traffic in the car. Why don't you come and train with me instead? It's much more fun. And it's good for both of us. You're even gonna hear me swear a lot. But you know the good news guys? When I swear as an Englishman, it sounds like poetry. It's really nice. All right, folks, thanks for listening. Thanks for participating in the off-season section. Off to new ventures next week. We'll see you next time. Take care.
Matt Dixon 43:33
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 can 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 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. 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 on 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, and keep smiling doing whatever you do. Take care.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
patch, purple, week, ironman, training, offseason, performance, coaching, Pierre, athlete, season, year, platform, good, life, sessions, folks, important, body composition, hard