354 - Kona-Bound on 6-10 Hrs/Wk: A Busy Doctor & Mom Just Rewrote the IRONMAN Training Playbook
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Welcome to the Purple Patch Podcast!
IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon interviews Stephanie Go, a busy Doctor and Mother, shares her journey as a Purple Patch Athlete, emphasizing the importance of consistency and efficiency in training. Despite a demanding schedule, she achieved significant success in 2024, including qualifying for the Hawaii IRONMAN and the World Championship in New Zealand. Stephanie's training averaged just over six hours per week, with only two weeks exceeding 10 hours. She highlights the importance of proper nutrition, sleep, and recovery, and the support from the Purple Patch Community. Her advice to others is to commit to oneself and leverage expert guidance for practical training.
If you have any questions about the Purple Patch program, feel free to reach out at info@purplepatchfitness.com.
Episode Timecodes:
1:30-11:49 Stephanie’s Background
1236-16:58 Time Starved Lifestyle
17:33-21:34 IRONMAN Race Stats
22:00-23:54 Case Study on Training
26:51-31:30 Integration of Non-Negotiables
35:00-40:01 Interactions with PP Community
49:55-End Advise to Triathletes
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Transcription
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. You I get the privilege of Welcome one and only Stephanie Go to the show. Thank you very much for joining us. Stephanie,
Stephanie Go 00:36
thank you so much for having me. I'm flattered.
Matt Dixon 00:39
are a long time, Purple Patch athlete, you haven't been able to escape. You're trying to be trying to find the hatch, but we've had a claws into you for a long time. Right now, I've happily stayed. I don't want to, I don't want to set you up with more pressure. But the reason I wanted to have you on the show is, is that over the last years, if I think of the epitome of what it means to be a Purple Patch athlete, of an optimized athlete, time starved, but getting great personal performance in the broadest spectrum of performance, we're not just talking about race results, which we'll get into a little bit as well, but, but winning across all aspects, I would be hard pressed to find anyone's name that would come above your name as a Purple Patch athlete and and so I'm going to set you up with that and put a little pressure on your shoulder. Pressure, it is. But I think that over the course of the next half an hour or so, so that we we have a nice chat here. I think that your your journey, your approach, your mindset, and everything listeners can really draw from and apply to, hopefully, their own journey to help them improve and win across all aspects of life, not just sports performance. And so if you're ready and your seat belt is fastened, shall we rock and roll? Let's do it all right. Well, as you know, as a podcast listener, we always start with our guests learning a little bit about you. So why don't you just give the listeners a little bit of a grounding of who is Stephanie, your upbringing, where you grew up, your family now, education and everything that sort of shaped you as a person,
Stephanie Go 02:23
sure. So I I'm Stephanie. I grew up here in Portland, Oregon. I was the oldest of three kids. My parents had extremely high academic expectations of us. I kind of always knew I wanted to be a doctor. I don't think I knew of any other things that you could do in life. So my specialties changed. I was going to be a neurosurgeon and ER doc, and I just knew that I would, I would excel academically. I was always very active. You know, our family was pretty well rounded, socially, athletically, academically, but I would have classified myself as very much kind of a nerd, not really an athlete. I was very, you know, perfectionist, very critical of myself and other people. I was very like a type. I really hated anything that I wasn't good at. I didn't have a lot of tolerance for not being like the best at something. I just kind of would veer away from it. So that was me as a kid, and you know now, as an adult, I did become a doctor. I ended up going from undergrad straight to med school. I moved down to California. I was at Stanford for residency and fellowship. I'm a radiologist, and I'm now the president of a physician owned private practice here in Portland. I met my husband actually when I was down in California. He happened to be from Portland, and which was an easy choice to move back to Portland and be close to family. So now we've got two kids, two and a half year old and a four year old. For four and three quarters, I would be in trouble to not mention the three quarters, absolutely. Yeah, and we just adopted a dog, so we've got a pretty busy life now, but with family around, we have a great support system. And Evan and I haven't grown up here. We've got a lot of friends from different phases of our life. And we're, we're just so I've got something going on. Yeah,
Matt Dixon 04:17
you're, you're living the American dream. Well, we have to get into sports because you, you self declared your nerdery growing up, and you weren't overly athletic. You're darn athletic now. So let's talk about sports a little bit and and I guess, I'm assuming you did sports in school, things like PE but did you do any active you know, sports so far as teams at all growing up, or, yeah,
Stephanie Go 04:43
we did. I did actually a lot of team sports. Like I tried all sorts of things, from ballet, ice skating. I'm still pretty avid downhill skier. I tried snowboarding for a while, when that was the cool thing to do in middle school. But really what stuck for me most was soccer. And some basketball, the team sports were a big social aspect of our life also. And so, you know, my Grammy used to say, like, you're the jack of all trades, master of none. And my parents, like, leave her alone. Like, let her try what she wants. You know, you got to finish the season. We signed up for the whole session. You're going to, you know, see it through, even if you hate it. But ultimately, soccer was what followed me all the way through, and I ended up playing through high school. I played varsity. I started so, you know, I wasn't a terrible athlete, but I knew there was just no way that I was going to play in college. I knew I wanted to focus on, you know, my studies, and so that was kind of like Stephanie. Had fun. I was active, I was out there, but I was not the star of the team. I was not sending, you know, video of myself to college recruits, you know, even to play at like a d3 school, yeah. But then I got to college, and all of a sudden I didn't have any organized sports, and that was like a loss of structure that I hadn't realized I needed, or that my life was really revolved around. You didn't think about going to work out. You just went to practice, and your friends were doing that. And my friends from soccer were, you know, my social life. So I was at University of Oregon. And if anyone's ever been to Eugene, you know, it's a pretty great place to pick up running.
Matt Dixon 06:17
There is a little bit of running
Stephanie Go 06:18
history. There is some history there. And so, you know, Hayward field was literally across from my dorm. And back in the day, it wasn't this, you know, incredible, you know, stadium, you could just, like, step over the fence and just go jog around the track. So I kind of needed this outlet. I was pretty stressed, you know, I was pre med. I was, like, very high strung. I was worried about, you know, getting good grades, and I just, I needed something else to do. I had also gained like 25 pounds. So we'll just add that in there. I wasn't, like, at my healthiest or my happiest. So, you know, I started seeing some tangible progress. At first. I was running like 10 minute miles, maybe like 930 if I was really pushing it for three miles, and I kind of got addicted to this runner's high. And you can really see, like, a very measurable progress, you know, if you're running the same, the same route every day. And so that's, that's kind of where I got hooked. And then I got to medical school. And, like, if you're not stressed already, well now you are, yeah. So I said, let's just run a marathon. Like, let me just do one to say, I've done it. It took me four hours and 23 minutes. I didn't drink any water until mile 20, because it was cloudy here in Portland. I didn't think I needed it, which tells you kind of like, where I was on the prepared, you know, side, yeah. Thought I would die. And once the cramp sets decided, I said, okay, like, I think I can break four hours if I, if I train with a plan and some water. So, you know, my engineer, I finally broke four hours, and it was like, wow, you can see this measurable gain when you make changes. And so I kind of just kept putting forth this new arbitrary time goal, trying to bring it down. The point, though, was that I was, I was getting hurt a lot. I would finish the cycle, I would have, like, a stress fracture, or I would just have, you know, these pains that would put me out at the end of the race for like, another few months, and then I would come back and try to hit it hard again. So I wasn't totally thriving when it when it comes to that it was either like, you know, studying, working or training for this thing outside of work in order to feel like I had some control, you know, over, over my life. So after medical school, I moved down to Palo Alto. I went to Stanford and that campus. Now, if you want to talk about perfect running weather, I mean, I know you talk about, like, you know, Studio One in sunny San Francisco, but like, the South Bay is really where it's at, Matt, yeah,
Matt Dixon 08:48
there's a reason I live in Marin, by the way, I get to enjoy the weather up there. So I feel your heartbeat,
Stephanie Go 08:55
yeah. So, you know, I just kept shaving a little time off, though, and I kept getting hurt, but that was sort of my focus, and I I just kept going forward with it, because I didn't really know any other way. So,
Matt Dixon 09:09
and how about because you're a trifle now as well. So when did that? When did that bubble up? Was it? Was it an antidote to the injuries? Did you expand what was the catalyst for you getting into triathlon?
Stephanie Go 09:20
A little bit, a little bit of thinking, That's the hardest thing I can think of to do. I in 2016 I qualified for my first Boston, and that was something that was completely, I mean, untouchable to me when I when I started, that was like 45 minutes, you know, of cutting off time. And so, you know, with the qualification cycles, that meant I wouldn't be eligible to run until April of 2018 which is like over a year of not really having a goal or a plan. And I just don't do well without something to look forward to. So I was like, What's the craziest thing I could do as like a one time? Check it off the bucket. This, you're never going to do it again. And I was like an Iron Man, obviously, right. Like That to me is, is never something I would dream of. And so I kind of asked around. I had a friend who was an ultra marathoner, who was friends with Mario, who was friends with Mikey and and they were like, we have this, you know, club that we think in this program that might be a good fit for you. So, like, right after that, BQ, I had an onboarding call with, um, with Mikey. And after talking to him, he's like, Oh yeah, I totally get the running and I totally get the injuries. I was like, Okay, I think this is my plan. Like, I had never cross trained in my life, and suddenly, like, cross training was going to be like the focus, because the biking and the Swimming was, you know, so important. And I will say I did have an accidental triathlon. I did sign up for Lake Donner with a bunch of CrossFit friends, and they were all gonna do the sprint or the Olympic and I was like, how hard can it be? Like I can run a marathon, I can definitely run a half marathon. So I signed up for like, the 70.3 distance, and I absolutely died, like second to last overall. My friend Brooks came behind me, but I was literally like the last woman, like hobbling across the line as they were picking up the course. And that was not a fun place to be. I was I'd never done a brick. It was horrible. I showed up. I didn't know I needed a wet suit. Like it was every mistake you could make was, was me, and I laugh about it, but I was not having fun. So
Matt Dixon 11:29
and for listeners that don't know that race is a long time race, but it's in the sort of foothills, very close to Lake Tahoe, so you're up at altitude as well. Yeah, altitude and the bike is hilly. It's a straight up mountain pass, basically. This
Stephanie Go 11:43
is like before I had a Garmin. This is before Strava existed. This is I went back to look at the results. They don't even post them anymore. That race is so old. I mean, this was so long ago, but I was very far at the end. And my my husband, who was then my new boyfriend at the time, definitely remembers that
Matt Dixon 12:02
HML wife. Kelli did that race that was her sort of one triathlon and and had a similar experience. So we'll have to go back and compare that together again with this. Me. So, so a big thread that's that's really running through our conversation today is time starved, and You are the epitome of a time starved athlete. You got a highly dynamic life, and so I thought it'd be nice just if you could give give listeners a glimpse of all of the competing demands that you're juggling week to week. I mean, it perhaps it's pretty obvious, but work, family, life, responsibilities. Hey, give a little glimpse. So
Stephanie Go 12:41
I mean, I think most people know hospitals don't close, you know, after the hours of 5pm they don't wait until 8am to open. Emergencies pop up. You need holidays, weekends, nights. So I have a pretty variable schedule, and it changes from day to day. It changes from week to week. I can't say like I'm off every Thursday, or I know, like I have a standing meeting at this time, my schedule comes, and I look at the days, I look at the months, and they're just going to be all over the map, and you're going to get what you're going to get, and a lot of that depends on what my partners are doing or what other demands people have. As the president, you know of a 16 people in our group, we're not big enough to have like a CEO or anything, so that's sort of my role, you know, I'm HR, I'm scheduling, I'm the President, I'm strategy, and, you know, we've got a couple other partners helping. But when things pop into your lap and there's an issue, and there's a contract renewal or a negotiation, or, you know, a new book of business pops up, like that's for you, if the lawyer needs feedback on a, you know, on an issue like that's for you. So I will get pulled in many different directions throughout the day, and sometimes I'll have a board meeting that goes till 10, and then I got to be at the hospital for a meeting at seven. That's just, that's the reality of it. I try really hard to not let that bleed into my personal life to any extent that I can draw a boundary on time or, you know, prioritizing like this can wait, versus like, sorry, I have to take care of this call immediately. So my husband's great. He also has a full time job, but he does carry a lot of the burden with school, drop off, pickup, making the kids lunches, you know, getting them to where they need to be. He does our grocery shopping. He does the cooking like we really try to delegate some of the household tasks. My kids have their own soccer, gymnastics, dance, swim lessons. You know, I don't want to ever say that my life gets in the way of them participating. My parents never, you know, did that to us, and I, I want to provide them with those opportunities. It's also really important to Evan and I that we like eat dinner as a family, and that we're both present at bedtime, like stories, you know, songs. That's all something that takes an hour and a half, two hours by the time you get, you know, the bedtime routine and the hostage negotiation with, you know, like the kids. So. To cooperate. So those times are really blocked out for me as non negotiable. Those, those are important to us. They kind of like run the, you know, the basis of our lives and everything else needs to fit in around that. You know, with the extended family in town, we have family dinners with my parents and my siblings every Sunday. And so we really try not to skip out on any of those things. We try to have a social life too. So if you add, if you add that in, you know, some nights are taken up by that. So it's everybody knows, like your schedule fills up a lot faster than you think it will. And you really have to, kind of know, you know, what's important to you? What can I cut? What can I trim? What can I move? And every Sunday, Evan and I are sitting there looking at the week, saying, you know, what do you have? What do I have? What can give? Can I, like, phone it in on this meeting and do this on a bike? Or probably not, you know, like, I need to participate, or I need to, you know, to present and you know, he's, he's got his own race calendar. He's, he's a cyclist, and mine doesn't take priority, right? Like we both, we both want to come in as equals and show up for each other. So add, add that, and then add, like, kids getting sick, right? And like not being at school and
Matt Dixon 16:21
all the other things that, yeah, but beyond all of the family side of stuff, when you think about you professionally, we have, you know, a host of C suite type folks that are listening here. But this is small business owner, CEO, you know, it is highly active as well. You're not just sitting there and telling people what to do. It's, it's sleeves rolled up, real work. I mean, this is a universal blizzard of high demands. And you are climbing with being very, very present and engaged with family this. This is the epitome. So I, what I want to do is, and I, we did some research for this. We wanted to wait,
Stephanie Go 17:05
or is it stalking? It's stalking.
Matt Dixon 17:06
It is a little bit of stalking. I just want to read a couple of things, things out, because I think that the stats that like paint the real picture here, and then we can dig into a little bit of a how, and the mindset and the perspective. So we did a little look back and and I'm going to first, I'm going to read some of your results from last year, and, and so this is important for for listeners to to really hone in on. This is what you accomplished in in 2024 the second you were the viewer at beastman 70.3 so Pacific Crest. You were the second female overall. You're the first amateur female. You were fourth at Ironman, 70.3 Oregon, in your age group and and you actually shaved 30 minutes off of your 2021, bike split, and you qualified to Talbot the worlds. You were fifth in your age group at Ironman, Canada, and qualified to the Hawaii Ironman and and I want to, I'm going to come to the hours right now on that only two of your training weeks leading up to that race were north of 10 hours. So pause that, because this is we always talk about a Purple Patch athlete and very busy time starved. When we look at on averages between 10 and 11 hours for Iron Man athletes, sometimes 11 to 12 hours playing people do that. But only two of your training weeks were north of 10 hours. You got fifth in your age group. You qualified to the Hawaii Iron Man Chicago marathon. You went. You started our story with four hour and 23 minute. I think marathon did three three hours and 22 minutes at the Chicago Marathon, and you had a really great World Championship down in New Zealand. Absolutely fantastic. So that's, that's the that's the results, that's the outcomes, which, of course, is great and celebratory, and it's fantastic. Your average hours that you trained, I'm not sure if you, if you know this, your average hours that you trained, any across the weeks of training in 26.25 you average just over six hours a week of training. That's you had many hours many weeks. This is what my eyes were. Were googling here a little bit. They were looking at many, many weeks, four to five hours a week and and as I mentioned, just a couple of just a few weeks over 10 hours, so that this an optimized mindset here. And so given all of that in that training load, how does it feel to be such an immense disappointment to myself and the Purple Patch community?
Stephanie Go 19:38
Oh, my goodness. Um, I'm pretty self critical, so don't worry if you've been disappointed by me. I've been more disappointed. I actually was on the podcast before, like years ago, because I I was the subject of failure. I was like the case study on on what happens when you fail. I had an absolute. The horrific blow up at the Boston Marathon. I ended up in the medical tent. I talked my way out, and I remember coming to you and Mikey at the time and just being like, this was an absolute disaster. But then I did make it back as the Word of the Week, because I did rebound, and I came back with a marathon PR, two months after that, and I be cute again, so I redeemed myself. But, yeah, I've seen a lot of ups and downs being with Purple Patch and like, results wise. So yeah, those are all, like, wonderful. They they have not been the story of my journey. You know, consistently, that's kind of a new found success for me. And I actually did not know that I was only training that many hours a week, because I feel like the planning that I put into it to, like, make those things happen.
Matt Dixon 20:49
Yeah, and look, let it be a let it be a platform of confidence, you know, like, keep doing what you're doing, but you know, it's look, and that the message is not 6789, hours a week is the dream training for like otherwise a professional athlete would be doing that, but, but it really does show that when you can weave consistency and you keep the body really healthy and you layer it over years, it becomes a part of your life, you really can be successful. But, um, I guess if so many people listening will assume that you just have to. In fact, just this morning, one of my athletes texted me and said, I'm I'm training seven hours a week. What's the minimum that I can do to get ready for an Ironman? And I said, well, that that's about that sometimes you're going to want to go higher. But for you, if you can really be consistent at seven or eight, we can get you there on that. And so how do you make it all work like give from your perspective as an athlete, with this perception that understandably athletes have, I've got to train more, more, more. I've got to find a way to cram 1416, 1820, hours a week, whatever it might be. How does it work for you? Well,
Stephanie Go 21:59
for me, it's, I obviously have a hard cap, right? Like, my my priorities are, like, my family, my job, those are, like, way up there. That's what pays my mortgage, that's what keeps our life running. Like, I can't cut those things. So for me, it doesn't really help to say, like, well, you must put in 20 hours a week, or else, like, I can't get you there. Then I would just say this is not the right program for me. The right program for me. Like, that's not sustainable, yeah, or if that is what you need me to do, it would come at great cost to the rest of my life. And then, like, where are we? That's just never gonna work. So, you know, you might say, like, it's only four to five hours a week, but for me, those are, like, really concentrated, four to five hours. I mean, that's like, you know, that's a an hour on velocity, on the bike platform. And if anyone has done like, the, you know, big vo two interval workout, and you've done that for an hour, like, you don't finish that being like, that was like me getting onto my trainer and watching Netflix for two hours and spinning at z2 and maybe adding in some z3 you know, like, climbs over a volcano and chasing an avatar, like they are really concentrated workouts. Or, like, that's an hour on the treadmill that I did hill repeats, and I hit very specific inclines and very specific speeds. And, you know, like, I really got my meat and potatoes in in that time frame. Um, but so I think unless you've, like, experienced some of the Purple Patch workouts, you know, you you might not look at that as very much, but that's, you know, an hour a day for four or five days out of the week, which to me, is, like, pretty darn consistent. Yeah, think of everything else happening. It's not like I went one week at 10 hours, the next week at zero, the next week at 20, the next week at two. I mean, I think one of the big things that I took away early in my time at Purple Patch, and it came up during one of the like Thanksgiving podcasts, and it was like, What do I do around the holidays, when you've got a lot of time demands and family and you're traveling and you had said, Look, you're better off going out and getting just like these small, consistent bites of work done than you are not doing anything for a week, and then saying, like, I gotta go over like, a 10 mile run because I've eaten all this and I feel terrible, and so like, I gotta try to cram it all in and make it all up. And I tried to really use that as, like, okay, we're just, we're laying down the habit, right? Like, some of the hardest things are just like, putting on your shoes, getting out the door, carving out that time in your schedule to, like, go do it. And that can be like, the biggest barrier to getting the workout done, not that you don't have the time, but that you don't have the ability to mentally get over that hurdle that, like, this is part of my daily routine. So, you know, you try to remember, like you're not gonna make or break a race in, like, a single week. So if you can only get four to five hours in, or you can only get seven hours in, then fine, do those seven hours and do them really, really well, like, make sure you're. Really getting, like, bang for your buck, and keep putting those in over time. Like I've been with purple batch since 2016 now, and we are seeing those results here in, you know, 2024 2025 and I'm like, I'm older, I'm 39 almost 40. I have two kids, and a busier career than I did when I was, you know, in residency and medical school. So I think it really shows like, if you layer these things on slowly, instead of trying to, like, drink from a fire hose and get somewhere, you know, like out over your skis, then there is, like, a very good staying power to it. And I think, you know, my goal is to stay at that four or five hours every week as a baseline so that if I do decide I want to jump into something I'm not doing, like a couch to 5k or couch to marathon plane, I've, like, maintained this habit, and I've maintained this baseline fitness. And it doesn't mean I'm doing, like, brick workouts every week. You know? It just means, like, I'm trying to, like, keep my body in motion. And I think doing that over the long run has has really helped, like, absorb some of the more specific training when I do a race, build
Matt Dixon 26:11
a couple of things I want, I want to reinforce that, that I think are really important with what you had. The first would be integration. Like, it's the the it this for you to have this, this habit. I love the fact that you're using this word habit. It's integration, like you have a lot of very, very important non negotiables in your life, family and everything across work, but the the exercise side of it, the training side of it is not some afterthought or luxury or bolt on. It's actually integrated into your life as a necessity to help you thrive on that. And by the way, when you layer that over time and time and time, then you start to get the results from it. And I think that's very important. The second thing I was going to say sorry, and then I'll let you answer sorry, is, is just, just for listeners, when, when capacity shrinks, as far as time availability, you can't just shrink the program. You layer on intensity. And so if you, if you do have a week of four hours, make it count, and that tends to be higher, more, a much higher ratio of high intensity training than if someone had 30 hours. And that's that is. So it's not the that's where, sort of the mythical 8020 or not mythical. There's nothing wrong with 8020 but just it doesn't scale in the same way you want to. If you only do have four or six or eight hours, you're going to have more high intensity to get the performance yield. And that's something that you've really integrated and taken on very, very well. So those are my two big reinforcement points.
Stephanie Go 27:42
Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, of course, like, it's hard for me, right? I look at my friend, stravas, you know, you look at your friend's Instagram, oh my God. They did like, a two and a half hour ride this weekend, and then they ran and like, Oh my God. Look, they have a kid too. And like, I know she's busy, and you just get into this, like, but I haven't done that in my training program, and it just doesn't really help you, like, you can spiral pretty fast on that game of, like, what, how much is enough? And I think just in general, and I'm guilty of this, we have this very productive culture, right, of like, you know, like, more, if some is good, more is better. And me, that was obviously not the case with marathons, because more running led to more injuries. And you, I think you just like, on the x axis of how much time and why, in terms of like, you know how well you perform? Like, yes, there's a slope, and then it plateaus, and then it like, bottoms out when it just, like, is no longer effective and it's actually harmful. And you know, when you had talked about, I think Sammy is the name of the bull, yeah. And he had this like comment that was, you know, like, I want you to get me to like 80% of my potential on like 70% of the training timers. I don't know what the percentages were. I was like, Oh, my God, that's genius. Like that is what everybody should be trying to do. Like that is really winning the game of life, right? Is? It is, how do I get better results with more efficiency and and I loved that, and I've always really tried to, like, embrace that, knowing that maybe my four to five hours isn't going to get me first place in my age group, but you know, it's, it's gonna allow me to, like, have some success and still have the rest of my life stay intact and, like, really thrive. In terms of, like, is this a necessary part of life? The answer is yes. And if you just ask Evan, my husband, what happens when Stephanie doesn't exercise, he'd probably just give you this look like, I'm not gonna say it, because she's gonna, like, you know, bite my head off. But I'm not a very nice person. I get pretty grumpy. The kids know that I'm grumpy. I'm, you know, shorter with people at work. I just, I'm just, I feel agitated like I need that outlet. I want that time for myself and and like that intensity feels, feels good to me, like it. Really like is a is a positive, you know,
Matt Dixon 30:02
gasoline for life. It's coming back to, to your, your your point around the emotional side of it, of there always needs to be more. It's, um, it's funny. When you, you record these shows, and quite often, I draw on conversations that I've had today or yesterday. And yesterday, I was having a conversation with a an athlete of mine, his wonderful guy, and he was a CEO and, and he's getting ready to do his first Iron Man and, and so his first obvious question is, how much training do I need to do? And he's in his looking at his calendar, and he's thinking up. And so I just asked him a question. I said, Okay, you're a CEO of a company, and it's a major company. I said, How many times in your life, in work, have you finished your work week and you thought I got everything done like I couldn't, couldn't do anything else. He said, Never. I said, that is the journey of an endurance athlete. You will never feel like enough is enough? Like, if you do a huge week, you'll still feel like more. So you need to shift the mindset. And for him, that was a really critical moment, because he suddenly realized, hang on, I'm in danger of just layering, layering, layering, and then logically, you know the net result, as you talked about it, it becomes actually inhibiting. So sometimes you can look, we can draw from other aspects of a life and realize, hang on, we are hardwired like this as highly ambitious human beings, and that's a road trap. So it's not healthy. It's not beneficial. So shift it. We do ultimately have control over that, which I think is, is very important.
Stephanie Go 31:37
Yeah. I mean, I think another thing that helps me, I mean, I have the advantage of having been with the program for a long time, so I really trust it. And like, what helps me make cuts? Like, I'm not just like, looking at the plan and being like, Okay, I'm just gonna pick four to five random workouts and just fit them in, because they happen to be placed here, you know, like in my baseline plan, when I look at training peaks, I am looking at them, and they're labeled as key or supporting, and that is like, well, right there, if it says supporting, it's going to get deleted off my off my calendar, and I'm not going to feel bad about it, because somebody else has already made the decision for me on a coaching level, that that's supporting, that's if you have the time do it, and if you don't have the time, then take it off. And the days where I know, like, Okay, I'm, I'm going to be able to get this done, I'll put a key session there. If I think, like, oh, there's like, a 90% chance this day is going to go sideways, you know, or it's, I'm going to be exhausted and I can't get it done in the morning, then I'll put something that's not quite as you know, high priority there. So I think you can set yourself up for success by making sure that you have planned it correctly at the beginning of the week. You know, there is still, like, a purpose and a progression in those four to five hours or seven hours, or whatever it is. And like you said, it's a lot of quality over quantity. So if it's just like, go out for this, like relaxing, mindless, you know, z1 z2 run and add some walk breaks. I might not do that one, but I will do the one with the Hill intervals, and I will do the one with, like, the race pace in there. And, you know, those things are pretty important to me. And sometimes it means, like, also just trimming it. So if the bike workout is an hour and 20, you know, time rich, but it's an hour time starved, and the brick is 30 minutes time rich and 20 minutes time starved, then it's a no brainer. I'm gonna do the time starved version of the bike workout, and maybe I'm only gonna do 10 minutes of the brick. Yeah, jump on the treadmill and just like, get those first couple miles out of your legs, right? Like, that's where you're really kind of like feeling that turnover and getting that, that benefit, and just not being super attached, like it's all or nothing,
Matt Dixon 33:47
yeah, and it's not, it's not just I need to chase this time, or it's a failure, right?
Stephanie Go 33:51
Or I need to check the box, because if I check the box, something magical happens, right? That's that's not the case. So, and this is not to like, you know, like, rag on anybody who is putting in 10 to 15 hours. Like, I mean, good for you. You should, you should be getting the most out of your 10 to 15 hours. But if you don't have it, which I I'm sure many people don't, you also shouldn't feel guilty, and you shouldn't think that you're like, not doing enough to participate, you know, like, there's, there's no, like, barrier to entry here,
Matt Dixon 34:20
no that. I think I said, I think it's a really sage point, an important point, and you lead me down a path, actually. And for listeners, you sort of, you referenced this, but you're not coached individually at Purple Patch, and you're, you're a tri scored member, so you draw on the benefit of the whole Purple Patch team and also the community. So I want to sort of expand that because, and I shouldn't say i We are very hot and heavy at Purple Patch, the success isn't just about that training plan. We've spent the first part of our conversation talking about the workouts, because that really is very, very tangible, but it's really i. I believe in, in setting athletes up for success with the sort of more global whole performance system. And I know that in your journey, you've you've sort of leveraged a lot of those aspects when we think about fueling sleep, recovery, etc. So I just love your your perspective on those, how you've prioritized them different aspects of what's the role of some of that education and focus on those elements to help you both stabilize energy, enable you to be present, but also give you performance gains in your sport. Sure.
Stephanie Go 35:30
So I think you know some of like growing up as a female athlete in the 90s. You know you think a lot about body image and kind of like relationship with food and race weight would always come up. And I was not, you know, like a high school or collegiate runner who really had those pressures. Nobody talked about it, really in soccer, but you hear about it, right? Like runners world would regularly have things about what's your ideal race weight. I mean, like, it's hard to kind of separate yourself from that. And, you know, I was trying to lose like, 25 pounds coming off off of college, and everybody talked about all the things you shouldn't do, like, all the things you shouldn't eat. And now there's this talk about, like, what you should feel with, you know, like you can't go out and do what I did in the marathon and not drink water, and, like, eating something while running was like, the most bizarre thought to me. And so, you know, I did sign up for fuel in and at first it's just been like, just, just see where you are. Like, get to get the information, because what you think you're eating and what you are eating is different. And you know, somebody told me, like, you might not be tracking, but your body is tracking. So you take the information, or you can just like, you know, pretend that you're on the right track. And I found I was so protein deficient, like, what I thought of as, like, a lot of protein was maybe like half of what I was supposed to be eating. And, yeah, it was like half so and in my mind, I was like, Well, you know, I'm, like, an endurance athlete. I need all these carbs and like, I was just not getting enough protein. That's that's been a big thing. The other thing, you know, talking about disappointment to you, appointment to myself, I really felt like I had, like, 10 minutes on my run in New Zealand that I that I should have gotten back, even with warm weather. And I kind of tried to do this post mortem on it, and I think I was under fuel on the bike, has been pointed out. He was like, when I picked up your bike, you know, you had like, an entire bottle that you hadn't gotten to that's like, a lot of calories left there. And so Brad and I had a chat this, you know, Brad and I had a coach, coaching consult to kind of, you know, look at my race. And he was like, I want you to really think about over the winter in this sort of off season, like, what can you do this next season that is going to be a good supporting habit? Like, can you think about your sleep that doesn't add any more time to your schedule? Can you think about like, what you're eating that's not adding more time in terms of training hours? And then my project for the winter was like, can I get more weight lifting back? You know, can I find a little time for that? Yeah? So, you know, two of the three goals I had didn't take up, you know, any more of my schedule. It was just like putting your conscious attention to it
Matt Dixon 38:16
and putting some intention behind it, almost, yeah. I mean,
Stephanie Go 38:19
I used to really do well on little sleep when I was younger, and then I survived on little sleep when my kids were babies, and, you know, they're still waking up in the middle of the night. So there's some element I don't control, but going to bed earlier is something that I can do, right? Like, turning off your phone and, like, don't do scroll in bed, like, pick up a real book and read it, you know, and go to sleep at a reasonable hour. Those are things that are important, and I didn't really plan for those types of things when I was younger. I think I got away with it, maybe, but at almost 40, I feel it so those are, those are things that I think, like I wouldn't have thought of. I thought Brad was going to come at me with, like, maybe you should focus on your bike, or maybe you need to add, you know, more of this to your run. And that was like, none of what his his feedback was for me. So it's helpful to have to have some of that perspective, and it's helpful to have those resources. But yeah, I think the squad in general is good because, you know, tracking my food intake is not something that is like second nature for me. And so talking to other people who have been with fuel and for longer, or, you know, how do you use it? Or, like, what are you like using for your meals? Or what are your favorite snacks, those things are helpful. So you're not just trying to, like, navigate this from scratch, because, quite honestly, like, that's brain work that I I just don't want to do.
Matt Dixon 39:45
don't have. And, yeah, broaden that because you, I mean, you've had interactions with probably almost every Purple Patch coach and and this, I can't help as a lot of folks will look at squad, and I want to make sure that when that we don't dance into the territory. Of making it like an advertorial for the squad program, because we're trying to be really helpful for people here, but, but people do look at that squad program and think, Oh, it's just generic. And yet you, you're someone that's interactive with almost every Purple Patch coach, if, if not all of them, but also the broader Purple Patch community I know in there and now in our private hub. And it really sounds like, as you're saying there, that that's been a big part of the pardon, the pun fuel behind, like, a lot of your decision making and some of the confidence in that. Do you feel like that's had a really positive impact? Yeah, I
Stephanie Go 40:32
think it's, it's really nice, like I have gotten, I mean, from the hub of, like, discussions. I've done everything from ask people really stupid questions. Like, I mean, you can ask a question like, Hi, I'm new to triathlon. Like, am I supposed to wear this padded pair of shorts under my wetsuit? Like, no one's gonna laugh at you anything. Like, you know, I'm planning on using the sauna protocol for Kona, and I'm trying to figure out, can you use an infrared the same way that you can use a traditional sauna? Like, what's the research out there? Like, is it just as effective and people will give input, or it's like, I'm looking at these different races, like, how easy is it to bring my family? Like, is there anything for kids to do, and then connecting with people? Like, les Fisher is up in Penticton. He was there at the at Ironman Canada, and he actually recognized me coming in through, like, one of the eight stations where he was volunteering. And I was like, really losing faith on some of these out and backs where you're like, oh my god, I just want to be done. Like, I can see it, and they're making me go out and back again. And he was like, Go, Stephanie, go. And I just, like, got this new life. And I was, who's saying that? Like, where are you like, does it say my name on my bib? I was so confused. And he was like, where Purple Patch goes, Purple Patch knows. And I was like, that just made me so happy. It carried me through, like, the last out and back. And then I was like, thanking him, you know, as I was coming through at like mile, like 23 I got to swim with another Purple Patch athlete. Before that race, I've met up with some of the guys who live in the Portland area, like, just to meet up, and they were gonna go for a bike ride. And they were great. They were like, you've got kids, let's come to you. We'll go ride in forest pike park, you know, near where you live, and then you can jet off and take your kids. There's some lesson like, you know. And so now we have this text thread of people getting to, like, meet up in real life. So it's really nice to know that you're not just like on the internet, just like googling in random chat rooms, like, it's like a curated group. It's kind of moderated by coaches who could step in and be like, hey, that's like, terrible advice. Or like, hey,
Matt Dixon 42:32
what just happened? Sometimes you're
Stephanie Go 42:35
not, like, you're not just getting like, Joe Schmo out there who's like, oh, I put in, you know, like, 20 hours of training. You know, like, you have to be able to put out, you know, a minimum of 250 watts for three hours in order to, like, be successful at this distance. And you see advice like that. You know, like, you see advice like that. And if I were just starting, I'd be like, What in the world? Like this is like too much to sort through. So I enjoy that. It's, it's like a useful source. There's like educational material that I referenced, like I said, the the sauna protocol I'm totally going to use. And then, you know, yes, it's, it's a squad, but it's not generic. Like, I don't want people to conflate generic with squad. That's like, almost offensive to my like Soul, because I've never been on a generic plan with Purple Patch, like I have a baseline plan when I don't have a race and I'm trying to maintain fitness. That doesn't mean that it's like sitting there easy, like spinning on Netflix. It's still very purposeful. There are race builds that I drop in Sometimes, though, like, you don't need a race build, and that's why people like a coach and I probably asked to speak with Brad. He's kind of been my go to now he kind of knows me, and you know he was the one actually, like you mentioned, I shaved 30 minutes off my bike split at Oregon. So the reason that happened was a direct result of my conversation with him. And I said, Look, this is my goal. I want to go out. I want to race this. It's in my backyard. I feel obligated to do it, but my real a race is Iron Man Canada. And he said, Okay, let's do this. You're not very confident in your bike. You know, you always feel like you leave something out there. I want you to go out, there. I want you to go out and I want you to see, like, what you have in you just go out, just like, give it what you have, and then see what's left in the tank for the run. And if you totally crash and burn on the run, it is what it is. You know, this is not your a race. It's fine. Like, see what that and you know, range is for you. And then he jokingly added, and if you don't crash and burn, then maybe you've unlocked like, some new beast mode. And I remember laughing and being like, great. Like, he's, you know, sentencing me out there, like, to die here. But I was like, okay, like, I trust him. I'm gonna go out. I'm gonna go for broke. You know, I pulled back a little in the last like, 10 miles where I was like, Okay, I don't actually really want to die, but I've pushed myself on. Bike, and I surprised myself, I still had my run legs, and that's what put me into fourth place. And I think fourth through, like, seventh or eighth were all separated by, like, just the slimmest of Slim, slim margins. So when my husband was like, you finished fourth, I was like, what? Like of, you know, yep, of what? And I was like, you must have it wrong. There's people finishing behind me, like, it's gonna go down. And I didn't, I wasn't even gonna stay for the award ceremony, because I was like, This can't be true. I wasn't gonna stay for the roll down. And my friend was like, you have to, like, you're gonna qualify for a world spot. And I was like, This is so not in my
Matt Dixon 45:41
like, yeah, meal hack, I'm so
Stephanie Go 45:45
unfamiliar with this. So I was like, Oh my God. Like, I emailed Brad, like, right after, and I was like, What the f like, I think I literally just, you know, used all the words and I met with him again before Canada. And I said, Okay, I'm on the baseline plan. Obviously, I'm dropping in a race build. I'm looking at this and, dude, I can't do this many hours a week. That's not gonna happen. Like, seven to eight is the best I can give you. I had been working on like five to six. And he said, Okay, here's how it's broken down. It's basically three three week works of, you know, three blocks of three weeks, and each one is like, stepping up. This is, like, the gist of it. This is like, what your focus is. I need you to get these key workouts in in these three week increments. You figure out how it works. But this is, like, your goal. And he kind of, he didn't give me, like, this day you do this and this, he just like, made me understand the concept of what I was trying to build. And then he left it to me to figure out how I did that. And so I was like, That makes so much sense. I had all this freedom to move things around, but I still felt confident that I was following a logical progression. Yeah,
Matt Dixon 46:56
it wasn't becoming random exactly like, I'm
Stephanie Go 46:59
not saying hack the weeks, throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. Like you're gonna get terrible results, like you're gonna show up, you're gonna be ill prepared, your body's not gonna be ready. But we're not throwing spaghetti at the wall like we're taking the plan and we're trying to make, you know, like some prioritization of workouts. And that was so helpful to me, it made it so much more doable. Where I was like, I can train for this Iron Man. I can enjoy my summer. I can not feel bad about, like, abandoning my family, and I can still run this business and and to be fair, I was not going out trying to qualify for Kona like it had been five years since my last Iron Man, and I was, like, very worried I didn't have it in me. I like, told my husband, I said, what if the magic is gone? Like, what if I can't finish this distance anymore? And he's like, I think, you know, that's not true. But I was just, I was like, COVID has happened. I've had two kids. I've been out of the game doing, like, you know, shorter races. Like, what if I just don't have it and, you know, I was thrilled with my with my race, so I don't know, like, you stick with it and, and you like, stack the bricks and, and it works. And so I put a lot of trust, I think, in in the program and in the squad. You know, I've thought, like, one to one coaching would be fun, but quite honestly, like, I don't have time to talk to somebody every day. Like, yeah, I don't really want the feedback every day because I don't have time to process,
Matt Dixon 48:34
yeah, exactly. So I want to, I mean, firstly, and you got very busy weeks, and I'm highly cognizant of it, and so I'd love to invite you back, and I'm going to invite you back publicly, so you can't turn me down, but it doesn't have to be in the coming weeks, but I want to explore a whole other side of this as we have this conversation of of the impact of this on your broader Life, and how this journey has has fueled other parts of your life, and in a second conversation, if and when you're available, I say that knowing that I just threw you under the bus, but, but I'm cognizant of your time as well. So I do want to just, I just want to finish the conversation with with one question to finish, which is, I think a lot of folks that have listened to your great case study, your your perspective and and are probably inspired. If you had to distill it all down, what would what would you offer up from Stephanie's perspective, of the one to two actions that someone that's inspired right now to maybe start their journey or shift their approach to their journey, to help them be successful, to move towards their goals. What would be your one or two pieces of advice?
Stephanie Go 49:55
I think number one is to like, think of it as like, a commitment to yourself. Like, you're not committing to a race, right? Like, maybe the race gets canceled, maybe you, you know, for some reason, like, you're sick and you don't do it. Like, don't think of it as, like, this one event, and it's like a one and done thing, which was kind of how, when I started, it was like, I just want to do this one thing, check it off the list and then be done. I think that the value of it comes from saying, like, I'm committing to this for myself, and in the process, I'm going to benefit from it, right? Like the race is a byproduct. It's like a celebration of the work you did to get there. But in preparing for it, like you're carving out time for, like, your own mental health. You're carving out time to get, you know, your own exercise in you're carving out time to kind of have your own like, Zen or clarity. I think that that's a really important like, mindset to take on. This is not like a, oh, my god, I just added more to my plate. This is really like a, okay. This is where I get to, like, balance all those other external things that, like, are laid upon me during the day or during the week or during the month that I can't control, like this is the part of my life that I can control, and I can, I can layer it in there so that it really like adds to what else I have. And for me, that's it. Can add to my patience, right? It adds to my patients bank. And it just, I don't like meditate, but that is the closest I get to meditating is, is having that time to just exercise? I think the other thing is, it's really daunting to start like, you just kind of look at it and you're like, I have no idea, like, what i Does that mean I go out and, like, run today and bike tomorrow, and like, then how far do I switch? You know, reach out to somebody who knows what they're doing. Like, ask a coach like, you know, leverage somebody else's expertise. Like, make them do the research, make them understand how these things fit together. Like, you don't need to reinvent the wheel for yourself. You know, ask for help. So whether that's the coach you have now, or if you're looking for a program, like, find somebody who can give you the resource and not the generic, I downloaded this from the internet plan, right? Like, yeah, it's not going to help. It just it's not applicable to you. Like, you could take Lucy Charles Barkley's plan and say, Okay, this is the ideal plan. And you're like, Well, I think we all know at that extreme that's not true. So if you scaled everything down, it still wouldn't be true for you. I think finding that fit and knowing who can give that to you, it's like, this is for you on a platter, right? And then, and then you figure out where you want to layer it in. So I think, yeah, making that commitment, you know, like really knowing that you're doing this for yourself and that you're benefiting from it, like every step of the way, as a long term investment. And then it can be really fun, it can be really rewarding, and seeing those incremental changes, right? I didn't go overnight from dropping an hour off my marathon time, and nor did I start thinking my goal is to drop an hour off the marathon time for me really, just like, this is something where I see improvement, and I can just keep setting goals for myself, right? Like, and so I think those are, those are important things to value for your own life, right? Like those are, those are important to take away and and to make you better at work, and to make you better for your family, your partner, or, you know, just like your own mental balance, I wake up and I'm like, I don't want to read the news. I just, I just need to go, like, exercise before I'm in. I mean, a mindset to absorb whatever is going on. So, but, yeah, but ask for help. You know, as you
Matt Dixon 53:43
mentioned something there, that's really important fun. It make it makes it more fun when you're turns out winning. And I don't mean winning as the first across the finish line, but winning at this is really fun and fulfilling. I've been trying to think how to encapsulate and to wrap up this show and give listeners a little coaching perspective for me, and here's how I'm going to do it for for several years, I coached an athlete that you mentioned earlier, Sami inkonen, who was so instrumental to me As a coach, early on, we had a big optimization challenge. He's an amazing human being. He's a wonderful athlete, and we went on a five year journey where we weren't really learnt a lot from each other. He had, similar to you, just almost seemingly insurmountable challenges from a time constraint and demand and everything else. And he also had lofty ambitions and and we tested and we prodded and we we proved, and we ended up creating a solution for him that was fantastic. And through that forevermore in my coaching career, he's sort of one of my athletes that I look back on. And. And, and I'll remove all of the pro athletes, but here's one of the amateur athletes that was such a huge cog in in my development as a coach. And I've often wondered whether I would ever meet anyone that would stand up side by side, shoulder to shoulder with with Sami and and I have, I've just spent an hour with her and, and you're exceptional and, and I just want to thank you for being a part of Purple Patch and, and I'd wish you the best of luck. I look forward to to part two, but, but you are a Purple Patch athlete and, and I'm really, really proud of what you've accomplished and, and I really thank you for being such an active part of the program, and thank you for your time today, because, as the listeners know, you are very time starved, and you just spent now with me. So thank you very, very much. Stephanie,
Stephanie Go 55:55
thank you so much, Matt. That's that means a lot to me. Fantastic.
Matt Dixon 55:59
Thank you guys. Thanks so much for joining and thank you for listening. I hope that you enjoyed the new format. You can never miss an episode by simply subscribing. Head to the Purple Patch channel of YouTube, and you will find it there, and you could subscribe. Of course, I'd like to ask you if you will subscribe. Also Share It With Your Friends, and it's really helpful if you leave a nice, positive review in the comments. Now, any questions that you have, let me know, feel free to add a comment, and I will try my best to respond and support you on your performance journey. And in fact, as we commence this video podcast experience, if you have any feedback at all, as mentioned earlier in the show, we would love your help in helping us to improve. Simply email us at info@purplepatchfitness.com or leave it in the comments of the show at the Purple Patch page, and we will get you dialed in. We'd love constructive feedback. We are in a growth mindset, as we like to call it, and so feel free to share with your friends. But as I said, Let's build this together. Let's make it something special. It's really fun. We're really trying hard to make it a special experience, and we want to welcome you into the Purple Patch community with that. I hope you have a great week. Stay healthy, have fun, keep smiling, doing whatever you do, take care.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Purple Patch, athletic potential, time starved, Ironman training, Stephanie Go, doctor, family balance, triathlon, running, marathon, fuel and fitness, sleep, recovery, community support, coaching