Purple Patch Podcast

Talent, ambition, and a strong work ethic are crucial for achieving high performance in any field. It is also essential to follow a program and adopt daily practices and habits that promote readiness and teach lessons to develop necessary skills. However, none of these elements alone can lead to optimal results. Organizational effectiveness, which includes planning and structure, brings all of these elements together and is the key to high performance in any field. In this week's episode of the Purple Patch Podcast, Ironman Master Coach Matt Dixon talks about organizational effectiveness and how it can help you optimize your talent, intelligence, and effort to achieve your goals. Matt emphasizes its significance and reflects on how he transformed organizational effectiveness into a vital tool that he now employs for all Purple Patch athletes and the entire Purple Patch team. He explains the importance of creating a framework to help organize, prioritize, eliminate distractions, and ultimately provide control

This week, we're revisiting one of the most insightful interviews we've done here on the Purple Patch Podcast. With a fresh year just beginning and more athletes than ever logging miles on their trainer, we felt this conversation with Robbie Ventura was worth sharing again!   If you want to experience the benefits we discuss around speed and performance, come check out our training programs:

Welcome to the first Purple Patch podcast of 2024. With a new year ahead, we aim to help you improve your focus and concentrate your energy on the things that will significantly enhance your performance in the most critical areas of your life. At Purple Patch, the theme for the upcoming year is transformation. Regardless of your goals, mission, or purpose, we are here to help you transform. Our experience in high performance has taught us that personal transformation is not a quick fix, and there is no fixed start and end date for it. Whether you are looking to achieve specific race goals, improve your performance at work or as a leader, or simply invest in your future self, this is an excellent year to transform how you approach your performance. True success is not achieved by merely thinking about the upcoming year as a temporary starting point. Instead, it requires a continuous evolution of one's approach towards performance. In this episode of the Purple Patch Podcast, Ironman Master Coach Matt Dixon sha

As we approach the holiday season, it's a great opportunity to reflect on the past and plan for the future. We can take time to review the year that has passed and think about what worked well and what didn't. At the same time, we can set goals for the future and create a roadmap for transformation and self-improvement.  In this episode of the Purple Patch Podcast, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon takes a look back and reviews the progress we have made during the “offseason” training phase while providing a practical plan for navigating the coming months, which we at Purple Patch call “Q1 - the build phase.” Matt highlights what success looks like on a performance journey, regardless of your skill level or goals, and provides important strategies to employ during the build phase. These strategies aim to help you have a successful first three months of the year and help establish a foundation for achieving your goals and becoming a higher-functioning human being throughout the year. Episode Timestamps 00:00 - 0

Welcome to the final episode of the Purple Patch Podcast's 5-part series on the Performance Base Layer. This series focuses on building a solid foundation for high performance. Your performance base layer consists of positive habits that promote good physical and mental health and enhance your physiological readiness. The essential elements of the performance base layer are the Purple Patch pillars of performance: endurance, strength, nutrition, and recovery. In this week’s episode, we tie it all together by discussing the high-performance mindset. Whatever your focus and goals are, having the right mindset is essential to achieving your best performance in any arena. In this episode, Ironman Master Coach Matt Dixon provides a toolkit to develop a high-performance mindset and methods for leveraging those strategies to increase readiness and resilience for a stronger performance. Matt focuses on five key concepts for building your high-performance mindset: Commitment, consistency, and toughness Focus and p

Welcome to the 5-part Performance Base Layer Series on the Purple Patch Podcast. This series emphasizes the importance of building a foundation for high performance. Your Performance baselayer consists of positive habits that promote good physical and mental health and foster physiological readiness. The Purple Patch pillars of performance, endurance, strength, nutrition, and recovery are the core elements of the performance base layer. In this series, every episode revolves around one of the four pillars of performance. Endurance and movement, strength and resistance training, and proper nutrition have already been covered. Now, let's shift our focus to the fourth pillar: recovery. We will discuss this pillar from two different perspectives. The first perspective is "life performance," which is aimed at anyone who wants to improve their longevity, performance, or overall functioning in daily life. The second perspective is focused on endurance athletes and highlights the specific needs of competitive sports.

Welcome back to the 5-part Performance Base Layer Series on the Purple Patch Podcast. This series aims to emphasize the importance of the foundational aspect of high performance, which is the performance base layer. It's built on the foundation of positive habits that foster a strong physiological readiness for good physical and mental health year-round and for years to come. The Purple Patch pillars of performance, which include endurance, strength, nutrition, and recovery, make up the core elements of the performance base layer. Each week of the series, we have focused on a different pillar of performance. We started with endurance and movement, followed by strength and resistance training. Now, we move on to the third pillar: nutrition. Similar to the previous episodes, we will discuss this pillar from two perspectives. The first perspective is called "life performance," which focuses on anyone who seeks to improve their longevity, workplace performance, parenting skills, or anything related to their daily

Welcome to Part 2 of our 5-part Performance Base Layer Series on the Purple Patch Podcast. A solid foundation of physical and mental health - a strong Physiological ready-state - is essential to succeed in any arena, whether at work, as a parent, or as an athlete. This is what we call your performance base layer. Over the next few weeks, we will showcase important episodes, each focusing on one key element of the Performance Base Layer. In our previous episode, we talked about the importance of endurance. In this episode, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon emphasizes the significance of strength training and explains how to incorporate it correctly into your routine. Matt sheds light on common misconceptions about strength training and the mistakes many athletes make when adding it to their training regimen. He also discusses the numerous benefits of strength training, such as avoiding major illnesses and improving your health span. This includes metabolic health, cardiovascular health, body weight management, b

This week on the Purple Patch Podcast, we kick off our new 5-part Performance Base Layer Series. The purpose of this series is to emphasize the significance and value of establishing a solid physical ready state as the foundation for delivering consistent and predictable high performance in any field. Over the next few weeks, we will be showcasing important episodes, each focusing on one key element of the Performance Base Layer. It is crucial to comprehend and incorporate each of these elements to improve performance and excel in any arena. In the first episode of the series, Ironman Master Coach Matt Dixon provides a comprehensive overview of the PurplePatch Pillars of Performance. He starts with Endurance, or Movement for those not necessarily pursuing podiums. In coming episodes, we will delve into the other three Performance Pillars, which include Strength, Nutrition, and Recovery. Lastly, we will examine the optimizer that ties all of these pillars together and establishes the traits and practices that

A few weeks ago, we aired a series of shows discussing the significance of the off-season period for athletes and fitness enthusiasts. We shared our innovative approach to off-season training and education, which is aimed at creating a strong foundation for future success. Now, three weeks into our program, after completing one training cycle, we reflect on the progress we've made and the lessons we’ve learned along the way. In this week's episode of the Purple Patch Podcast, we evaluate the areas that have shown positive growth and present opportunities for learning and improvement. We also examine areas that require further attention or potentially need adjustment. We draw on valuable insights from athletes currently participating in our off-season program, who share their feedback on the experience so far. Our aim is to emphasize the importance and value of this block of work in building a solid foundation for a breakthrough year in the future, rather than a pursuit of immediate results. We hope that this

Welcome to the Purple Patch podcast! In this week's episode, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon shares valuable insights on maximizing the benefits of indoor bike trainers to improve outdoor performance. While many of us use an indoor trainer to save time, escape weather conditions during the winter months, and develop fitness through interval training, Matt goes a step further by providing practical tips and tools to upgrade your speed, enhance your outdoor riding experience, and unleash your full potential as a rider. Matt shares effective ways to access a deeper and more focused training session on the indoor bike trainer. He delves into specific strategies, skills, and techniques like leveraging gear usage, cadence, pedal stroke, posture, specificity of intervals, terrain management, and other elements that can help you optimize your bike training well beyond boosting your fitness profile.  Most coaches tend to avoid the topic of skill set acquisition because it is challenging to coach remotely, or they are

Welcome to the Purple Patch podcast. This week's episode is all about performance. As you already know, we discuss the topic of performance every week on this podcast. However, in this particular episode, we will mainly focus on ways to enhance your ability to perform better, both in your work and in other areas of life. No matter what aspect of life you are looking to excel in, establishing a robust physical ready-state is crucial to achieving sustained high performance. Whether you're an elite athlete, a time-starved amateur, a parent striving to be the best version of yourself for your children, an executive aiming for stronger leadership skills, or a team looking to achieve business objectives, maintaining excellent health, optimal cognitive function, and stable energy levels are key factors for outstanding performance. When combined with effective strategies and practices, it can lead to exponential results for individuals and teams. This is supported by peer-reviewed research and our observations from a

On this week's Purple Patch Podcast, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon welcomes Scott Tindal back to the show. Scott Tindal, the co-founder of FuelIn, Purple Patch's nutrition partner, joins the show and shares his expertise as a Nutrition Coach to discuss building a foundation of health during the off-season with a focus on body composition. In their conversation, Matt and Scott cover essential nutritional practices and habits that all athletes and performance-driven individuals should adopt over the next few months. They provide helpful advice on achieving a healthy body composition and developing a positive relationship with food while avoiding fad diets and dogmatic approaches. Matt and Scott take a global approach to building a solid platform of health, emphasizing the interconnectedness of nutrition, sleep, recovery, endurance training, and strength and conditioning. Together they simplify nutrition and provide a platform for better performance, whether you're an athlete or simply seeking a healthier life

This week's episode of the Purple Patch Podcast is a flashback to last year's lead-up to the Hawaii Ironman World Championship in Kona. We decided to rewind to episode 234 and its wealth of information about the legendary event. Whether you've qualified for this year's IRONMAN World Championship, are a male athlete preparing for the 2024 Hawaii Ironman, or have aspirations to compete in Kona in the future, the insights shared by Matt in this episode are extremely valuable. Whether you're planning to compete, supporting friends, or you're just an enthusiast, ironman master coach Matt Dixon invites you to follow along as he shares everything you need to know about how to achieve success in Kona. In this episode of the Purple Patch Podcast, Matt draws from his 15 years of experience helping athletes thrive at the Hawaii Ironman World Championships and provides a breakdown of the preparation, training, and logistical elements you need to consider before ever setting foot on the island. Purple Patch has guided mor

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 individ

We continue 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. In part 2 of our series, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon discusses his reimagined approach to the off-season and lays out a blueprint for leveraging the months between Q4 and Q1 in a smart and balanced way. Matt shares key principles and approaches you can leverage this off-season to improve your swim stroke, terrain management on the bike, balance on the run, and more while emerging faster, stronger, and injury-free. He lays out the various methods and resources that form the basis of Purple Patch programming, coaching, community, and education, with the goal of helping athletes achieve their best year of racing while integrating sport into their busy lives. The challenge, of course, is that really focusing on technique and skill acquisition is almost impossible when you're equally training hard, you're in that environment. It's a hard sessi

After a long season of training, most athletes are ready for a well-deserved break, yet they also recognize that training during the off-season is imperative for success in the coming season. So how do you strike the right balance so you get the rest and recovery you need without losing progress and risk stalling your performance next season? As part of our three-part series on everything off-season, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon answers all your questions on how to approach the off-season to set yourself up for success. In part one of our in-depth series, Matt frames the importance of the off-season in developing consistency to achieve predictable and long-lasting results. He also illustrates the mindset and practices needed to help you recharge, train effectively, and upgrade your skills and techniques. "Offseason is a part of the year to focus on things that you simply cannot practically focus on during peak phases of training. And of course, peak phases of racing, if you do that. If I had to sum up the

Making sure you're primed and ready for your big race is essential, but planning correctly to avoid the negative impacts of travel on your performance is just as crucial. In this week's episode of the Purple Patch Podcast, Ironman Master Coach Matt Dixon provides a toolkit with a strategic approach to travel that offers guidance on pre-race preparation and best practices for a healthy and prosperous race day. If you're planning a trip that involves time zone changes, whether it's a short shift or a longer stay, Matt offers helpful tips to prevent jet lag and adjust quickly. He provides advice on what to pack, what to eat and when, what perks and practices you should skip when flying, how much sleep to get before and after you arrive, and how something as simple as wearing shades can help you set your internal clock. Matt’s actionable steps can help you check all the boxes prior to departure to ensure you arrive at your destination rested, stress-free, and healthy so you can be ready to perform at your best, n

This week on the Purple Patch Podcast, we conclude our Purple Patch Performance Case Studies series. In this series, we delve into the experiences of real athletes to provide practical insights about performance. In the past few weeks, we have examined some motivating and informative examples of athlete achievement. However, today we will focus on stories that serve as warnings. In this episode, Ironman Master Coach Matt Dixon shares three cautionary tales of athletes at various levels of performance who faced common and significant setbacks on their athletic journeys. Matt outlines the case studies to explain how these challenges developed and recommends solutions for avoiding common pitfalls of the performance landscape. This episode aims to highlight the obstacles that caused these athletes to stumble, and hopefully inspire you to reflect on your own journey and create a positive path to your goals. We highly recommend you check out Matt’s recently published white paper on Sustained High Performance. In it

This week on the Purple Patch Podcast, we continue our Purple Patch Performance Case Studies series. In this series, we delve into real-life examples and the experiences of real athletes to provide practical insights about performance. In this episode, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon looks beyond athletics and sports and outlines a path to sustained high performance in work and life. Through the case study of Purple Patch athlete Vijay, Matt highlights the results of adopting an athletic mindset and strategies for improving health and how one shows up in work and life. In our case studies, athletes have used the Purple Patch Pillars of performance to refocus their training, reframe their mindsets, and improve their race performances. However, what if you're like Vijay, having no interest in being a competitive athlete or struggling to balance work, health, and family? You don't need to become a health nut or fitness freak to perform better at work and improve your healthspan. Instead, Matt lays out small, sim