Episode 307: Case Studies From the Purple Patch Squad – A Conversation With Mike Kane

Follow the Purple Patch Podcast at:

APPLE PODCASTS - SPOTIFY- AMAZON MUSIC - GOOGLE PODCASTS - YOUTUBE

This week on the Purple Patch Podcast, Ironman Master Coach Matt Dixon discusses high performance with Purple Patch athlete Mike Kane.

Mike is the Chief Manufacturing Officer at Framebridge, a framing company based in New Jersey. He has been training with Matt as a Purple Patch athlete for a couple of years.

Mike is the epitome of a time-starved athlete. He's a busy senior executive who travels a ton while trying to integrate sport into life by competing in athletic events such as marathons and Ironman competitions.

In this episode, Matt and Mike detail the challenges and struggles they faced while attempting to decode Mike’s athletic success in his first year with Purple Patch. However, they explain the shift in perspective that eventually transformed his performance.

By chasing a platform of health rather than fitness, Mike was able to unlock dramatic results. He saw significant improvements in his body composition, energy levels, training efficiency, fitness, and overall sense of control.   Instead of solely working harder, the emphasis was on improving eating habits, adjusting meal composition, hydration, and his weekly sleep schedule, generating magnified results from the effort already being put in. Now he has a platform where he can achieve much greater success. 

Throughout their conversation, Mike and Matt outline the steps they took to identify areas for improvement and what factors led to the change in their approach.

Mike’s story is the essence of what it means to be a Purple Patch athlete. It’s not only inspiring but also a valuable source of lessons for your journey. By adopting the right perspective, cultivating the correct mindset, and integrating healthy habits, you can improve not only your athletic performance but also your overall well-being and how you approach life.


Episode Timestamps

00:00 - 04:32 - Welcome and Episode Introduction

04:40 - 07:06 - Matt’s News-ings

07:21 - 09:04 - Word of the Week

09:12 - 43:00 - The Meat and Potatoes - Episode 307: Case Studies From the Purple Patch Squad – A Conversation With Mike Kane

Purple Patch and Episode Resources

Purple Patch Video Podcast and More

Click here for the SPECIAL Fuelin Landing Page

2024 Purple Patch Performance Camps - SIGN UP NOW for our Napa Valley and South Carolina Training Camps

We've reimagined indoor cycling - Find out more about Purple Patch Bike Live & On-Demand

Learn more about 1:1 Coaching

Come try the Purple Patch Tri-Squad

More on Purple Patch Bike Live & On-Demand

Get a Free Taste of Purple Patch Strength

ORDER NOW - 2024 PURPLE PATCH APPAREL

Everything you need to know about the Purple Patch Methodology

Join the Purple Patch Team 

The Purple Patch Center is Open - Learn More and Schedule a Visit

Purple Patch Coaching Consultation

Learn more about our Tri Squad Program

Send us a message

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 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

Purple Patch Swim Analysis

Stay Up-to-Date with Purple Patch News and Events

Purple Patch Upcoming Webinars and Events


Full Transcript

Matt Dixon  00:03

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. Today, we're talking to Purple Patch athlete, Mike Kane is an inspirational story about how the transformation of performance occurred, not through chasing fitness, but instead first creating a robust platform of health. And from there, he yielded a great return on investment for all of the effort that he put in. It wasn't about doing more. It wasn't about committing or being tougher, he was already committed, it was about him finding his performance recipe. One of the key tools that we leverage at Purple Patch to help create precision around our pursuit of health is InsideTracker. By taking a look inside, assessing your biometrics, and then combining it with the results and action plan from the team of scientists at InsideTracker, we can filter out distractions and ensure that you're focusing on the right elements to yield performance readiness on a day to day basis, whether you're chasing world-class performance and athletics, or you're simply chasing the kids around the house. You can leverage InsideTracker as well, you don't need to be a Purple Patch athlete, all you need to do is head to insidetracker.com/purplepatch, that's insidetracker.com/purplepatch. And here's a sneaky code for you. Purple Patch Pro 20, that's Purple Patch Pro two zero, you get 20% off everything in the store, I recommend it. And of course, if you want to amplify your efforts and make sure you're getting good traction, feel free to reach out to Purple Patch info@purplepatchfitness.com, we can always set up a consultation with you to go through the results and ensure that you're getting things put into action. Alright, enjoy the show.

Matt Dixon  02:12

And welcome to the Purple Patch podcast as ever, your host, Matt Dixon. And today we're talking about performance, high performance. But we're not talking about podiums or victories. We're gonna have a conversation with Purple Patch athlete, Mike Kane, and I've coached Mike for a couple of years now. And he is a chief manufacturing officer at an organization called Framebridge. It's a framing company based out of New Jersey. And he's been coached by me, but I will say the first year or so we had as a partnership, challenges, and struggles, we couldn't crack the code. But suddenly, there was a shift, a transformation that occurred. And it was initiated by a shift in perspective, rather than chasing fitness, Mike decided, on my encouragement, to chase health. By creating a platform for the health boom, the results were dramatic. He experienced a huge improvement in his body composition, his daily energy, his return on investment from his training efforts, improving his fitness, and a sense of control. It wasn't about just getting tougher, doing more. Instead, what it was about, was shifting how he was eating, some of the composition of those meals, his hydration, his sleep organization over every week, and the effort that he had already been putting in, suddenly magnified, he got the results. Now Mike is the epitome of a time-starved athlete. He's a senior executive, he travels a ton. And at the same time, he's trying to integrate sport into life, competing in things like marathons and Ironman events. But now he's on a platform where he can have greatly more success. And so you're gonna find his story, both inspirational but also a treasure trove of lessons from your journey. Set the right perspective, get the mindset correct, and ensure that you're integrating habits, not only you're going to get faster, but you're also going to improve your health and how you show up in life. And that for me, is the epitome of what it means to be a Purple Patch athlete. I think you'll enjoy the show. Before we get cracking. Why don't we do Matt's News-ings?

Matt Dixon  04:40

Yes, Barry is indeed Matt's News-ings Let me ask you a question. Are you working hard? Are you committed? Are you chasing your goals? Great. I love that. It's really valuable. I think every human being should take on a challenge should chase success. And it's fantastic. You should be chasing stuff. And you have 168 hours in every single week. Our mission at Purple Patch is to ensure that you're doing the right things to maximize your effectiveness of those hours. You, you're the one that owns the journey, you invest the time, you commit, and you put in the right amount of hours relative to the competing demands that you have in life. Us. We're your guide, we help you optimize, create the right focus, and make smart decisions, it's a partnership, and out of it you achieve in both sport and life, we're just your guide to help you optimize the journey. The journey is also more fun because you're committing and going on a journey with a whole group of like-minded and supportive folk who are in similar situations as you're taking on their similar journey to yours. And for me, this is what it means to be coached. This is what it means to be a part of Purple Patch. And we'd love to have you join us. It's three simple steps. Number one, reach out to info@purplepatchfitness.com and have a free call with us to see if we're a good fit for your journey. Number two, get into the right program for you, we're going to help you make that decision. And within a day or so we can have you dialed in and on plan. You can optimize your performance within 24 to 48 hours. And step three, if you don't like it was so strong in our belief that you will but if you don't, we'll give your money back. If you feel like the program isn't right for you, after the first 30 days, hey, it's risk-free. We'll give you your money back and you can go back to your merry way. Feel free to reach out to us for step one. info@purplepatchfitness.com. And with that, guys, we're gonna make sure you get dialed in. If you reach out to the team, tell them that you listen to me on the podcast. They're gonna take extra special care of you. With that, Barry, I want to do a bit more education this week. Let's do Word of the Week. 

singer  07:06

We like the way he thinks Sirius with the waves. It's time to take the Nexen every word of the week. 

Matt Dixon  07:21

Yes, folks, the word of the week this week. Well, let's carry on the flow a little bit. It is the number one, six, eight, 168. Look, I'm busy. You're busy. We all are. We all must manage huge competing demands from work and family life and into those demands, I'm the guy asking you to consistently integrate fitness and exercise and all of the other supporting habits that we talked about on the show. Can you fit it all in? Yes, that is the answer. In fact, by you taking on a 4 to 12-hour commitment each week, that's a pretty broad range. But it depends on your goal, 4 to 12 hours. With that commitment of 4 to 12 hours. The promise is that with the remaining 156 to 164 hours that you have every single week, they are going to be greatly more effective and productive. And for me, that is a hugely positive return on your investment. And so simply put, stop viewing your fitness and your performance habits as a luxury or a nice addition if you have time. Instead, invest in yourself. It is the best way for you to optimize the 168 hours that you have every single week to achieve. That is you being a performance human and that is why 168 is our Word of the Week. And with that, let's introduce Mike Kane he's one of my favorites. It's a great story. You're gonna love it. It is time for the meat and potatoes.

Matt Dixon  09:12

all right, yes, folks, it is the meat and potatoes. And this is a conversation that I've been excited to have for many weeks now. I have the honor and the privilege of introducing one of the most bitter disappointments in the whole Purple Patch family. Mike Kane, Mike, thanks so much for joining us.

Mike Kane  09:33

Thanks for having me, man. are excited

Matt Dixon  09:35

for the conversation Joking aside, we've been working with each other for for quite some time now. And I appreciate your giving me time on this show to share your story which I think listeners are going to are going to enjoy but also get a tremendous amount of lessons about performance in life, let alone sport and so swiftly, you're locked and loaded and you've got your seatbelt on shall we get going in this thing.

Mike Kane  10:02

ready to go, yes. 

Matt Dixon  10:04

Alright, you're in the hot seat genuinely. So, as we like to say, Don't eff up here.

Matt Dixon  10:09

So as we, as always like to do just want to dig back into sort of heritage and family growing up, just tell the audience where, where you sort of grew up what your family was like growing up and, maybe start from there. And we'll dig into the weeds a little bit. 

Mike Kane  10:31

Yeah, I was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and I spent all of my time growing up there until I went to college. I lived in West Hartford, for the most part, I have a brother and two sisters. And my parents, of course, and it was, it was a close-knit family, my relatives all lived in that same general area. So it revolved around family, sport, and then the two combined over.

Matt Dixon  10:59

It's fantastic. And now you're in Lexington, Kentucky. Yeah,

Mike Kane  11:03

my wife and I have moved quite a bit for work. This is our ninth home in Lexington. We'd love it here though.

Matt Dixon  11:11

Fantastic. And then why don't you just explain your role company in the organization? framebridge. Yeah, but what you're gonna do is give us insight into your role that you do a very busy life.

Mike Kane  11:22

Yeah. framebridge. We're an omni channel retailer. So we have brick-and-mortar retail stores. That's the fastest-growing part of our business based in Washington, DC. I'm the chief manufacturing officer. So I'm responsible for the operations and supply chain. Our major factories are in Kentucky, New Jersey, and Mexico right now. Oh, wow. So it's been a good deal of my time on airplanes, going between both facilities. It's a fantastic company. And I love what I do.

Matt Dixon  11:53

It's an - a lot of listeners without perhaps even realizing it will probably have some of your products hanging on their walls and elsewhere. Yeah. So it's one of those. And you go through these tornadoes of time coming up to Valentine's Day coming up to Thanksgiving, whatever is coming up to all of the holidays, it gets very busy for you guys. Yeah?

Mike Kane  12:14

It does. Or we call it how many, how many peaks that somebody's gone through if they lived through our holiday season with us, but it's a very exciting time, and very proud of the team. They you know, the peak season for us, we hire hundreds of people, but it's like another day in our factories. That means our team has done a fabulous job.

Matt Dixon  12:34

And it's fantastic. And how about growing up? You mentioned sports a little bit. And I'm always intrigued because you're extensively I mean, you're you're running the Boston Marathon in a couple of weeks’ time but extensively you you're a triathlete, and you do multi-sport. So go back to sort of high school age why did you do sports when you were young? Were you what type of sports did you do? 

Mike Kane  12:58

Yeah, I did. I did organize sports from the time I was very young. I played football, baseball. I boxed, I played golf. And I did that I played football, boxed, and played golf through college. So sports has always been a really important part of my life. And triathlon was the next step for me.

Matt Dixon  13:20

Yeah. How did you how did you stumble into that? Because that's quite a divergence for him. I mean, some of the open water swims are aligned to sort of boxing, but you wouldn't necessarily put the two sports together. So what led you to the crazy sport?

Mike Kane  13:37

I was it was at a time when triathlon was really just coming into its own and I had met a friend or a made a friend from work, and he was doing the Olympic and sprint distance triathlons. And he just said, you should try it. And I did. And the first one, like for many, I think the first one was pretty rough. But after that, I fell in love with it, and I raced as much as I possibly could. So that's how I got involved. And I've never looked back, I love to race.

Matt Dixon  14:08

It's fantastic. And you're you're just just to ground everyone. So CMO, not chief marketing officer, manufacturing officer, so you had a lot of operations very busy, you also have we work together. So you also have extensive travel International and, of course domestic. So the epitome of a time-starved athlete, and you are integrating sport into that very busy life. And so the puzzle that we're trying to work on together is to unlock readiness to go and compete at half Ironman and Ironman distance races, as I said, Boston coming up and lots of fun, different stuff like that, while also of course showing up in life. So right from the start, what we've been looking to unlock is sort of as many listeners know, but both sporting performance, and improving health, and improving the way that you show up in life is that a fair enough perspective? Through your lens, that's my lens, but through your lens of the importance of the sport as it fits into your life?

Mike Kane  15:13

Yeah, I think that's definitely how the sport fits into my life. And I think the work that we've had together, I think is most successful. It's coming into being the most successful part of integrating sport and life together, I think we're really on to something now.

Matt Dixon  15:33

We are now, it took us a little while. And that's why that's why I wanted to invite you to the show. Because if you go back over the last year, 18 months, and I think it's best coming from you, not not from the coach, but from the athlete, you've had some real challenges both in the sporting results side of things that I think from a coach's lens have dovetailed into the life performance, energy and everything else. So if you had to sort of pause and reflect, let's go pre-Thanksgiving of last year backward over the last year or so. How would you highlight some of the more negative experiences you're going through some of the challenges, can you give listeners a little bit of insight into of what the world looked like for Mike over that last year or so?

Mike Kane 16:22

Yeah, when we started working together, and I think from all the time I had done triathlons or endurance sports, for me, it had always been chase fitness, it was if you do more, it's better. Never miss a workout, if you miss a workout, you're gonna stack it on another workout. And that's, those are some pretty busy days. And for me, they were not productive. And in some of the setbacks that I had, during that time, I didn't finish several races. And that's something that hadn't happened before. And that was certainly the negative experience of that, that I owned, of not finishing races because of how I was pursuing things. And there were some injuries as well along the way that kind of led me up from the ability to run for several months. So I think the most important part of this is the shift in focus away, not away from fitness. I feel like I'm more fit today than I was six months ago, a year ago, two years ago. But chasing health a lot more than I'm chasing fitness these days. 

Matt Dixon  17:27

Well, we're going to come to that. I want to hover on the negativity for a little bit because there were two from the coaching lens now, and there were a few observations that I had had over last year to two key moments - The first which was very early last year, or even maybe late the year following was you're going to a race and not even starting. Because there was the collision of so much work stacked on top of it that you weren't sleeping, you were just exhausted and pulled the pin before. And that that was sort of that that organizational side of stuff that was a challenge. But the one that that was the the I don't want to call it Rock Bottom because it is overdramatic dramatizes it and et cetera, et cetera. But the one moment for me that was fundamentally key from a coaching standpoint was IRONMAN Florida last year, where it's a two-loop swim. And I remember tracking you very early in the morning, you go around the first loop of the swim well ahead of - the swim is not your strength, naturally, like relative, - but you went around the first loop, you're well inside of sort of any cut-off, you're well on pace, and then you didn't finish the swim. And you called me afterward, and I hope you don't mind me sharing this. But you said that wasn't physical. That was just, I couldn't will myself on the second thing, that is that is that your recollection there? Is like really I need to shift something.

Mike Kane  18:58

Yeah, that was that was a low point. I think that that's exactly what the conversation was. I think that there was a collision of really wanting to race and do good things on a race course and in work and personal life. And that was the low point. That was the collision where something had to change.

Matt Dixon  19:22

Yeah, and and changed it, and I know the date randomly because I was looking at the document just the other day in preparation for this conversation. So it was November the 21st and November 22nd. And what I asked you to do was to outline a day in the life just choose two random days. I think it was a Friday and a Saturday for you. But by memory, but I said I would just want you to write down you know when you wake up, what you do when you first wake up, whether it's coffee, water, whatever it is, when you go and exercise or train when you have when you're consuming food, what your meetings are like just on a broad level. And, and you wrote it down. And I'm just going to summarize this a little bit. Now you're probably going to cover your eyes and, and wilt a little bit when I do this, but but I think it's important for education for everyone. You - both mornings you got up pretty early, when you got up very early, just because you went to bed very early in the night before. So you're up about four o'clock in the morning, something like that. But the more typical was five o'clock in the morning, there were multiple, multiple cups of coffee, to try and get the engine on, you would - So five o'clock in the morning, we'll just use this as a case study, you'd get up, you would read a little bit, you prepare the day, which is two thumbs up. And then maybe at about 630 or so you went to the gym, you did about an hour of exercise, had a quick shower, drove in commuted. So now you've got up at five, you've had cups of coffee, and not much else, you've gone and done a 50 or 60 minute run, you then have a shower, go to the office, right into the office, walk the floor, because manufacturing plants, you gotta go and walk the floor, et cetera. And I think it was around 10 am that then you were having your first calories. And always forget this, it was a Subway sandwich with no protein, veggie sandwich with cranberry juice. It's so fatigue inducing for guys that are listening, right into work meetings. And then at lunchtime, and this is one where my eyebrow raised at lunchtime, you snuck in a swim session that was prescribed for the day before. Because you been a good boy didn't want to miss that. And then a late lunch. Very carb-heavy, not too much protein, and then high high octane day. I can't remember if there was a session at the end of the day, but a medium or short run or walk I'm not sure, but then you had a dinner that was (inaudible), pretty good protein, vegetables, etc. Then late night dinner, BUM BUM BUM off and to bed and eating right before bed. And so that was the typical pattern. And, and we had, what it looked like for me is, there were several key points. Number one, not hydrated enough. That was one for me, number two, not consuming enough calories to support your training load. Number three, what you mentioned introduction, stacking workout. So at all costs, not not finishing, not missing a workout. So even if you had to stack two workouts in a day, despite the busy schedule. Not enough protein consumed. So one of the things we wish we did a lot of stuff around so that there were there were several elements. But the first one that I want to ask you about is something not related to calories or training. It was getting organized. It was it was the Sunday special. Integrating that habit. And so so we went through several several components on this. Talk to me about the Sunday special and integrating that habit and what that has done for you as a very busy time-starved athlete.

Mike Kane 23:21

It is so important (inaudible), I will say when I first started, when we first started working together, I read through Purple Patch the Sunday special on the importance of it. And my initial thoughts were Yeah, I do this every day. You know, I plan for myself every day. Why? Why is this important? I got it. I don't have to worry about this thing. And I didn't have it. And in November I started religiously every Sunday I go through the Sunday special and it has an immeasurable impact on my ability to integrate sport, work, and life. And a couple of examples I'd use last year before the Sunday special and in that that moment of you're responding to the document. I probably changed workouts four or five times a week, six times a week, you know, just juggling things. I think this year from January to today, I probably have changed three total workouts. I've changed twice that in a week previously. And now it's changed three and previously I get workouts done by stacking them. I get it done now just in the way you've prescribed them and it's just a much better feeling. I'm more fresh, I'm more organized. There's not the crunch of time that I felt previously. So it's a great process and very necessary.

Matt Dixon  24:44

It's the thing I like about it is the simplicity. And for listeners that don't know what the Sunday special is it's a very simple process where it's a commitment and this applies to everyone, not just executives. It actually originated from our pros that had a lot of competing demands, you know, sponsors, planning, recovery, it sounds silly planning, eating, massage strength, and of course, all of the training that they would do. And just on a Sunday, spending a little bit of time 20 to 30 minutes that about, you know, much more than that you might and looking ahead, but for you, not just planning work, not just planning family commitments, but planning all three and integrating it and making its decisions up front so that you're moving into Monday in control and execution mode. And it's such a simple process, that I never realized, by the way, when we created this, that it would ever have application, beyond our pro athletes that we were coaching, we just use it for them because I wanted them to have eyes wide open. And this is where I need to show up and train hard. And here we are, you know, it's been a great tool of control for you. And I think that that's a great litmus.

Mike Kane  25:58

It has been just tremendous. For me, it's, it allows me not just to look at what I'm doing in the coming week, but several weeks into the future. But it's a good reflection tool as well of what worked and what didn't work in the previous week. What were the great workouts and in you know, what were some of the opportunities?

Matt Dixon  26:15

It's funny you say that because I was just delivering a keynote and one of the elements of the discussion I was having with an organizational leadership team was around traits of high performers. And one of the ones that caught them by surprise, a little bit was reflection. And I said elite athletes and high performers really embrace reflection. So it's, it's great that you just brought that up, you are a high performer. And I think that's a key element to look back. And what was done well, that you can continue to integrate, and then what can you build on that was great. Before we go into the energy and the calories and those components, I want to come back to your mindset a little bit, because you mentioned in the introductory section of our chat around chasing fitness, and then shifting perspective. So we agreed around November time, let's not sign up for any races, let's just develop a really big platform of health. So can you just unpack that mindset shift that occurred with you? Because you said before, I was always chasing fitness more, more and more to get my sporting results? So what was the shift? Broken down a little bit more? For listeners? What was the shift that you took on when you said, I'm going to change how I'm going to evolve how I had tackled this challenge, I guess? 

Matt Dixon  27:43

Yeah, for me, it was always about more is better. You know, I had to do more, whatever the workouts was, who were I had to do more and I never really concentrated on nutrition. I never concentrated on hydration at all. I didn't under, I, quite frankly, I didn't understand it. And, through your challenge to me, I can't tell you how many books I've read even this year in terms of how to have better nutrition, not just for racing, but for health, for longevity for those types of things. So it's been a great process for me, I've, I feel much better about my knowledge, as well as the health piece that I feel like I'm in a much better control right now that I understand health better than I ever have. And I'm in search of more knowledge. Every book I read, I think, or almost every book I read is around something for for better health, better longevity, those types of things. 

Matt Dixon  28:42

Fantastic. So what what in your mind have you changed? To you, we know the challenges that you had,  I read you, your day in the life of Mike. So through you as the athlete, what have been the biggest changes? We've got the first one Sunday special I wanted to dig into that but general habits so that people because this is simple stuff Yeah? it's not something revolutionary that you've really done. It's a pretty simple habit change. So for you as the athlete, what have you done?

Mike Kane 29:16

Well, the first to get to get away from chasing fitness, we're, we're not racing the way we used to. And when a bad event occurred, it was jumping to the next race. You know, I've been training what, you know, whatever, when something bad happened, it was okay, well, we'll just get another race and there's another one and a few weeks old, just hop into that one. And that wasn't, you know, that wasn't successful, you know, even when there were completions that wasn't successful, but I've shifted everything that I do around nutrition. So some of it's very direct feedback from you, which was the catalyst for all of this, but I don't I don't get up and have four or five, six cups of coffee. The first thing I do is drink water. It's very simple things like that, but I I count how many ounces of water I drink during the day because I know I don't know how important that is. I've shifted my diet to protein, or to more protein away from from carbohydrates. And I, even before I eat tons of salads and vegetables, I love that. But I've never had any protein, I never had any protein. And even on on from a training standpoint, I would get through with the training session, I wouldn't eat for three, four or five hours. And the first thing I do now is I search for someplace where I can get an energy drink, not an energy drink I'm sorry, a protein drink, so that I can start to feel my body and much more in tune with how I feel not just in a workout. But during the middle of the day, I feel very different than I used to. So it's very positive in my mind.

Matt Dixon  30:54

Yeah, what's the what's the I mean, you've got some quantifiable shifts. So November 21, is our is our sort of day day of this. So what gives me gives me the quantifiable shifts that have occurred, we're recording this right at the end of March. So you know, give or take like four months later, where you're at with the bodyweight right now. You've lost a little bit of weight. Yeah? 

Matt Dixon  31:18

I've lost since November i've lost, as of Monday, I was down 34 pounds. And I don't even think about losing weight. And it just happened naturally. So never, I'm never hungry, had a physical, every every metric is better. Everything from cholesterol to blood pressure, to glucose readings, everything was better than it's been in years. At that physical, the doctor was they were honestly shocked in terms of how much better everything was. And I spend time talking about our work together. And I said that's that's what did it because they said, Well, how did you do this? Or how much - How much are you focused on this? And I said right now I'm not focused. It's a habit now, and I just don't want to change what's going on. 

Matt Dixon  32:14

It's building habits. And I want to, I want to double underline this. You said that, and obviously, there is the middle of the bell curve, the question is not dropping, weight, dropping weight, dropping weight, but you're you have improved this and had weight to drop it like let's just put it out there. But you did it by consuming more calories and reducing stress. And that that's very challenging for many people to understand. Hang on, isn't dropping weight about really restrictive diets, and elimination? We did it by addition, adding a ton more protein, managing sugars and carbohydrates a little bit and consuming more calories. So the quest for me is the coach - to really sort of make it crystal clear for for people - my goal was to try and establish control consistency, and limit stress. And what I saw is you accidentally, you know, high commitment, high work ethic tough, incredibly tough, but really overstressed. And, so, the reason that the blood values are really valuable, and the body composition and body weight are really valuable is because it's an outcome of lower stress, a healthy platform of eating, not some quest like we've never talked about bodyweight. That's - we've never talked about, oh, Mike, we need to lose weight. It's about establishing. And what I'm interested in then is clearly as the coach, what's happened, you you talked about the training sessions, you don't move training, your training, performance is just incredibly consistent. It's so boring to monitor now because everyone is here. So But you felt it Yeah, like your performance in training is is improved.

Mike Kane 34:12

It is. There were times before that November date when every single week there'll be some good workouts and there'll be some bad ones. And there were bad ones every week. And you know, I felt it in terms of fatigue or I felt it in terms of soreness and it's just not there. It's almost every workout is positive. I feel consistent. I'm not searching for nutrition, at any point in my day, and that used to be the case it used to be middle of the afternoon if I had a training session at lunch, even if I had lunch sometime around three or four o'clock I was searching for coffee or something you know to get through the next few hours more productively and I don't know It's just not there anymore. I don't search for it. I don't think about it.

Matt Dixon  35:02

It's it's a question that I don't have. We haven't spoken about too much. So just be honest and transparent here. But what about in work life, cognitive function energy in the day? I'm assuming that you've felt benefit across that arena as well. Yeah.

Matt Dixon  35:20

Yeah. It's, it's the same at work in terms of its benefits as it is in the training of it's a consistent work day, you know, I know when nutrition is coming, I do it properly. And during the day, I'm not hungry. I don't search. I'm not searching for nutrition during the afternoon. To get through the next few hours. It's It's just I've eaten my lunch. And I know that when dinner is coming, and I know that I've done it the right way. And it's just very consistent. I can say, honestly, I'm never hungry. Because that's, that's an odd thing for me to say, I wouldn't have said that six months ago. But I am never hungry. I feel at times that I've eaten too much, but the weight keeps coming off. It's

Matt Dixon  36:10

it's absolutely incredible. That for me, and it gets to the crux of our conversation here. What does it mean? Like, what is the code that we're trying to crack here? What's the puzzle we're trying to solve? And I asked you in the fall, last year, in November time, to not have an event on the schedule. And you committed to it. And I never forget, I said to you, you and you are not allowed to go and enter Ironman, Texas, even though I know that you're looking at Ironman, Texas, it was April and I know Mike, he knows it's just going to Texas, and you bravely and sort of listened and did it. So we haven't had any race on the calendar. You have got Boston in a couple of weeks. But I'm assuming that the competitive juices, the aspirations, they're not diminished now, are they is the engine starting to fire up for the season?

Mike Kane 37:16

I can't wait to get to a triathlon. Yes, but Boston is going to be it's a charity run, and I'm gonna enjoy the day, this will be my fifth time there. It's a wonderful race. So I'm going to enjoy it. But I can't wait to get back to triathlon season and in do it the new way, the right way.

Matt Dixon  37:34

It's, that's it's when we had our sort of weekly call last week, and I'm gonna I'm gonna start to round it out with something that you said directly to me. But I'm going to first say something that I sent you which said, the irony of all of this is that we spent a year training for something and not doing great. We made this radical shift and did not train for anything. And if you had have entered Ironman Texas, you're more ready to go and excel at Ironman Texas now than you ever have been when you've been working with me. So and that's together, that's a partnership with unlock that where genuinely you are just weeks from performance readiness because you have a platform of health. And that's what success is. That's what for me, that's the epitome of what the code is we're trying to crack. Yeah, we're trying to get faster at racing. But if we can first create really robust consistency and a great platform of physical readiness, you can go do anything. And that's it. So it's gonna be a lot of fun to watch you in, in Boston, just going to have a great day a great experience, celebrate the 100,000 or people that are going to be cheering everyone including you across across the course. And then we can turn out our sort of eyes on triathlon and, and keep up the code and keep it crack, keep it cracking. But, but I want to come back to that, that quote that you said to me, you sort of referenced it here. But I think it's compelling that if listeners can take nothing else, and if this is direct from Mike, I'm just gonna steal your thunder a little bit, which is I shifted my focus from chasing fitness to chasing health. And that was the thing that unlocked my fitness. And when you said that to me, I was like, That's it. That's what I'm trying to help people do that. That's it. Thank you. So, just say, can I record you because that is exactly it? And so it's been a journey. I'm so proud of you and I'm so happy to work with you. It's one of the most rewarding coaching experiences that I've had and, you know, help these teenage kids go and win World Championships. That's great, but unlocking your performance readiness in life, you're, you're a great example of what it means to be a Purple Patch athlete. So thank you for being a part of the journey.

Mike Kane 40:07

I appreciate the opportunity, Matt and I, there's no words that can express how thankful I am to be where I am today. And it's just it's a great feeling to be on the path of health, knowing that fitness is following where I was. Thank you for all you do.

Matt Dixon  40:27

Now. Good man. And, hey, remember the best athlete in the family? It's still Bob. So - Great job, well thank you very much for joining in. And, folks, I hope that you draw some of the lessons today if you're - if you do reflect on your journey remember, reflection is a great characteristic and trait of any high performer. But if you do reflect on your journey, you're chasing health, do you drive in and build that platform of health or are you almost fear-driven, trying to make sure that you're ready for the demands of the race? I think if you chase that platform of physical health first, it unlocks your readiness for whatever you're trying to do in life. And that's the key thing. So Mike Kane, best of luck for the season, we're going to track your results, and you're going to shine your website worthy. But thank you for being a part of Purple Patch. And thanks so much for coming on the show.

Mike Kane  41:25

Thank you, Matt. Thanks for the opportunity.

Matt Dixon  41:27

Take care. 

Matt Dixon  41:29

Guys, thanks so much for joining. 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 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. 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 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

triathlon, great, chasing, health, performance, life, sport, purple, patch, bit, race, fitness, ironman, athlete, competing demands, shift, protein, journey, feel, coach

Carrie Barrett