Episode 217: Knowing When to Show Up - Nailing the Training Mindset for a Time-Starved Athlete
Follow the Purple Patch Podcast at:
A majority of your training should be “soul-filling”
Athletes often hear coaches talk about the importance of remaining focused and fully present in all of their workouts, but should this apply to every single training session? Should every training session really demand your full attention?
The mission of this episode is to provide a framework around your training mindset that will both optimize the results from your training and also prevent the performance journey from becoming a second job.
The KEY for any athlete, but especially the time-starved athlete, is knowing WHEN to show up; that is to say, reconciling your commitments with the need to ensure that the training process is joyous and facilitates a de-stressing effect.
While distractions in key sessions can lead to poor execution and limited results, and random will always generate random results, there is a sensible path in which you can glean all you need by being present in training, while at the same time ensuring that the bigger part of the long performance journey includes plenty of fun and enjoyment.
You'll learn:
(18:40) The Fundamentals of High-Quality Training - You, the athlete, must understand the goal of the session and where it fits within the broader program as a whole.
"Most coaches and athletes fail to even consider such a basic question - stumbling toward a goal by simply embracing the daily ‘grind’ of work. It is no wonder mental and physical fatigue impacts so many.
(26:00) The Challenges of a Time-Starved Athlete’s Life
Your goals are important. To achieve them will require commitment and consistency of training. The journey will include setbacks and some adversity, but, undoubtedly, success will emerge from successfully integrating training into your life.
The Role of Training for a Time-Starved Athlete
Training is a demand and stressor that enable adaptations for performance, but that doesn’t mean each session should be debilitating. Much of training can and should be soul-filling - beneficial for developing tissue resilience and general cardiovascular conditioning, but equally facilitating a dishwasher effect to the brain and a globally restorative impact on the body as a whole.
How to Put Together an Effective Training Plan
By implementing these key points, not only will you enjoy it more, but you will get better training results, fewer injuries and you will go faster.
Episode Timestamps
0:00-012:10 Introduction and Matt's Personal Picks
Purple Patch Blog -How to Turn Stress into an Advantage
Purple Patch Podcast - Stress is not a Dirty Word
The Purple Patch Center is Open - Learn More and Schedule a Visit
Purple Patch Website and Newsletter
12:20-14:30 Word of the Week - Stress - "Each of us is an adaption machine."
14:45- The Meat and Potatoes - Knowing When to Show Up - Nailing the Training Mindset for a Time-Starved Athlete.
Purple Patch and Episode Resources
This episode is sponsored by our collaboration with INSIDE TRACKER. Inside Tracker and Purple Patch- Receive 20% off their services with code: PURPLEPATCHPRO20
Ask Matt Anything - Leave a voicemail question for Matt
Learn more about Purple Patch Squad High-Performance Training Program
Join Bike Squad - Don’t just exercise and work out; learn to train with our structured online cycling program
Join Run Squad - Increase your running performance through our progressive, multi-sport approach to running
Learn more about Purple Patch Fully Customized 1:1 Coaching
Learn more about Purple Patch Strength Programming
Stay Up-to-Date with Purple Patch News and Events
Full Episode Transcript
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
athlete, training, sessions, life, demand, training sessions, ironman, week, execute, focus, intervals, coach, performance, patch, minutes, purple, important, build, staff, fasting
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.
Hey, folks, just before we get going - last week, I asked for your help. So let me ask again, please ensure that you follow our show on your favorite platform that delivers this goodness to your ears. Your follow helps us climb the rankings. But most importantly, it ensures that our education is easier for folks to find. Of course, please also share the episodes with your friends that you think will benefit because we aim to keep this education free. And you can help us with this. Now, we're able to keep this show free because of our support from our key partner InsideTracker. This isn't a relationship that's built on finances, but instead, a shared passion to help folks like you do what you love as long as you possibly can. It's all about performance with longevity. And with the peer reviewed insights and recommendations from our experts InsideTracker, you can get on a path to a place of real focus on how you each train recover. It is real, and it is powerful. All you have to do head to insidetracker.com/purple patch, and you get to use a special code “purplepatchpro20”, that's purplepatchpro two-zero, and you get 20% off everything at the store. Alright, shall we do this, fasten your seat belts, folks, it is time for the podcast.
Matt Dixon 01:49
And welcome to the Purple Patch Podcast as ever, your host, Matt Dixon, and welcome to a new little series, the series, it's all for the time-starved athlete, a series of shows where we are focusing much in the same way as we do for much of the show, to be honest, but really honing in on the needs, demands and desires of the time-starved athletes. And today, it's all about helping you understand in your training when you need to show up.
Yes, today’s title is “Knowing When to Show Up - Nailing the Training Mindset for the Time-Starved Athlete.” Now, my mission today is to help you develop a framework around a mental approach to your training sessions that not only optimize the training results, but also prevent the performance journey from becoming a second job. You will often hear coaches, myself included, discussing the importance of being present and focused during your training sessions. But the question I ask you is should this apply to every single training session that we're going to execute in a block or a week? Should I, as a coach, always demand presence? Focus? Commitment, especially for the time-starved athlete? Should I ask you to block out the rest of your life? And for this 45, or 60, or 120 minutes that you train, should I ask you to concentrate on great execution for driving your personal performance higher and higher? The answer might surprise you.
Over the course of today's show, you are going to learn a few things. Firstly, the fundamentals of effective training. And that applies to all levels of athlete, we're also going to identify some of the key challenges in training related to specifically you the time-starved athlete. And then finally, from that - the last part of the equation is going to be putting a plan in action so that you can evolve your mental approach to training to facilitate everything we want: highly effective results, but also a little bit of rejuvenation. It's a real goody, I think you might just finish the show and maybe have a little spring of excitement in your step. I'm also going to include a couple of case studies today and stories so that the highly educational elements really get brought to life. But before we get cracking, I want to go through a few little things.
Now. Let's have a natter about what's going on. Yes, some of the things I noticed in the last week. And of course, we're going to ram this into the section that still yet ladies and gentlemen, I still haven't titled and so without further ado, let's get going. First of all, a cracker from the Purple Patch world/ I want to highlight a blog that we just released. We enter spring and I would say spring for real now, especially in the northern hemisphere. The weather I know of getting better. And a lot of you folks might start to feel a little bit behind the eight ball a bit of that all I've entered a half Ironman or an Ironman, and I've been kind of slow to begin my real prep. Well, I know that I always promote the value of long-term progression. But ultimately short term is sometimes the reality. And so I decided to map a helpful piece on a 12 to 16-week accelerator program, how to nail your best Ironman 70.3 or Ironman, while perhaps being a little bit behind the training eight-ball. All you have to do to read more, is head to the website, purplepatchfitness.com. Go to the “blog” section, which is under the Education tab. And you, of course, can feel free to share with anyone that you feel it might benefit. A second thing to tell you about this is one that really tickles my fancy. I've got a little bit of passion and pride about this one. Because when we go back, we built a fantastic, lovely, beautiful, exquisite performance center based in the heart of San Francisco. And the doors were ready to be open in March 2020.
Matt Dixon 06:07
We all know what happened in March 2020. And so the Purple Patch Center in San Francisco, it is yet to be really open. But this week, that changes, we are finally open to the public. We have services in there - Physiological sweat testing, Precision Hydration, we have a partnership with the Sports Medicine Institute for orthopedic massage. We have bike fitting with IOG bike fitters, and we have our training sessions, most importantly, led by our indoor bike classes, yes, Purple Patch athletes have been enjoying these remotely for the last year and a half. They are very special. We talk about them a lot on this show. But guess what? You can come, you can participate, you can join. And you know, the better thing? You don't have to be a Purple Patch athlete. In fact, it's a drop-in, much like you would go to a fitness class, it's a one time drop-in, you can buy five packs, you can buy 10 packs. If you know anyone in the San Francisco Bay area that is interested or if you would like to come and visit us, just head to purplepatchfitness.com, go to the “center” tab and you can find out more. Of course, one of the things we are doing as well, which many people have already taken advantage of come and see us fly in and get the package sweat testing, bike fitting, take a class hangout with me, everything that you need to get cracking on your performance journey, you can get more details on that by info at purplepatchfitness.com. It is a very special unique one-of-a-kind place and we would love to see you there. All right, next thing up. I've got to mention this, I think it's very interesting. In a New York Times article recently, scientists found no benefit to time-restricted eating.
Matt Dixon 07:59
There's some really interesting research that came out of the New England Journal of Medicine, highly respected, with lead researchers out of the Southern Medical University in China. Now, this study catered off on 139 people. And they studied, over the course of a whole year, caloric restriction. Now, participants were required to photograph every bit of food that they ate, they even kept food diaries, and in between the two groups, some of them that were just on general caloric restriction over the course of a day. And then the other group, were doing time-restricted. So you sometimes think about that as intermittent fasting. And over the course of the year, both groups lost weight, an average of about 14 to 18 pounds over the course of the year. But there was no significant difference in the amount of weight lost by either diet strategy. There was also no differences in risk factors such as blood glucose levels and sensitivity to insulin, et cetera, et cetera. I find that really, really interesting. But I encourage you don't think of this as a line in the sand. It's not a declaration from me that I'm anti-fasting or anything like that. I think it's interesting. I think there's a lot of work to be done. And I should also add that this study doesn't go into and doesn't answer a question over whether intermittent fasting can have an impact on focus or energy, or anything like that. But it is a big study from a respected journal. That highlights a broader point. And that point is this. I think that there is a real challenge and a host of confusion for many folks like you listeners that are performance-related individuals, but at the same time, a really athletic, let's just call it, training more than four to five times a week. And there's a lot of interesting stuff going on right now a lot of research and lot of theory I should say around all aspects of health and longevity. Let's just name a few -fasting, keto-based diet, plant-based eating, and on and on and on. And there are a bunch of really, really good high-quality experts and a few quacks at the same time, that are promoting a lot of recommendations and insights over these areas. And many of these folks are really smart, they have a lot of insights. But the challenge comes when you as an athlete must reconcile these theories and insights with the long history and expertise of those that are more in the endurance, athletic space, a lot of coaches, and it can become really tough.
Now, many of you will be really excited by the potential merits of things like fasting or caloric restriction, but at the same time, get confused, because your coach is telling you make sure you fuel for workouts, whatever it is, the list goes on. And so I decided that I'm going to build a whole show on this. How do you reconcile the contradiction and the confusion between, “Am I an athlete, or am I just really interested in health and longevity?” My question is, “Why can't you have both?” And the answer is, “You can and you should.” But you need to be armed with pragmatism, you need to be able to filter information. And so this study around fasting was really a catalyst for me to go to work. And what I'm doing right now is busying myself building a standalone show, to try and help you reconcile between the seemingly controversially different health and performance recommendations from so many experts, and all of the knowledge and education that you might get from endurance coaches. And so I'd also answer another question, “uh, dates good for you?” That's going to be a big question for me to answer too. There's more to it than you think in there. And so I look forward to that. That's a biggie. All right, guys. Barry, what should we do now? Should we do a very quick to do dirty one this week, Barry? Yep. All right. Hit it, my friend. It is the word of the week. (MUSIC)
Matt Dixon 12:22
Yes, Word of the Week this week, and it is a simple and clean one. Stress. A couple of weeks ago, I released an episode and a blog, building the appropriate relationship on that word, “stress.” And it seems to have struck a nerve for many of you guys, the listeners. Never before if we released an episode that caused so much follow-up. And to be honest, I kind of expected it. I'm really glad that so many of you found it helpful. And if you missed these, I highly encourage you that you both go and listen to the show, but also read the blog. They're kind of a brother and sister. Now I'll leave both of them in the show notes. They are paired together in subject but quite different in format. And I won't ruin it all today. But I will remind you of one key element. And that's a simple fact that no matter what your quest, it's sport, work, family life, all of the above. Your simple job is always continually on an ongoing basis, adapt to the needs of the time. Life challenges happen, they always do. All of us must manage demand strain adversity. But each of us is an adaptation machine. We are biologically equipped to not only survive stressful situations but even leverage them so that we can grow, adapt and develop. This message never gets less relevant. It bubbles up again and again. And so I want to remind you, and that's why this week, the Word of the Week is stress Follow the show notes, hit the links, learn more and of course, as ever, share with your friends. Okay. The reason we put that in there? Well a lot of today's meat potatoes emerge from pieces of these contests that discuss stress, and so it's highly related and I wanted to tie the thread back. So with that, I want you to go and wash your hands and come to the table because this is an important family meal. Guys, it is time for the meat and potatoes
Matt Dixon 14:47
Yes, guys, it's the meat and potatoes. And I want to start this lovely family meal time off with a little story. I want to take you back to January of 2018 Scottsdale, Arizona, I was hosting the Purple Patch pro camp. Eleven Professional triathletes in attendance, two coaches, 14 days of season launching training, amidst the wonderful wintry setting of Arizona. Every single Purple Patch Pro in the squad was in attendance - Apart from Jesse Thomas, he was left behind because that dry desert air, it just played havoc with his curls. And I have to say that some battles are probably better left not fought. But that's a story for another day. Over the course of a couple of weeks there, three or four of those days were really challenging. We hit some really tough intervals, hill repetitions on the bike. And I have to say that there were even a few tears on that camp, especially when I informed the group that they would ride the long way home after the perilous Hill repetitions, which meant an additional 30 miles of bicycle riding, and a few more thousand feet of climbing…cruel to be kind, cruel to be kind. But if you'd tagged along on that camp and followed the program, you might have been inspired, but you also would have captured on your trusty video camera, a whole bunch of chatting amongst the pros. A lot of laughs, discussion, jokes, general chitchat, and that infused almost every bike and run session. Goodness me, if I didn't make the rest intervals really short in the swimming pool, there would have been even more stories from Sam Appleton about his XBOX conquests. That is what the fabric of it was, yes, there was some demand. But there was a whole bunch of silliness. So why do I tell you this vignette? Why do I peel back the curtain on the old Purple Patch Pro camps was simply to highlight that even the most dedicated and high performing athletes in the world do not, should not, and cannot maintain complete focus on task at all times. Now, while distractions in key sessions can lead to poor execution and limited results, and random will always generate random results, there is for all of us a sensible path in which you can glean all you need by being present in training, while at the same time, ensuring that the bigger part of the long performance journey includes a whole bunch of fun and enjoyment and mental cleansing. The key for any athlete, but perhaps even more for the time-starved athlete is knowing when to show up -reconciling your commitment and focus with the needs to ensure the whole process is joyous, and facilitates a certain destressing effect. So that all of the other pieces of life and work that equally demand focus, commitment, and attention can really amplify in their realm. Now, this is a balance. And the vast majority of the time, time-starved athletes really struggle with this balance. And so I thought, You know what, why don't we help out?
Matt Dixon 18:35
To answer this question, we need to go through and take a step back to begin. So part one, let's go through the fundamentals of what high-quality training is. Because I think this is important, we cannot build a framework of a mental strategy to approach to your training as a time-starved athlete, without first understanding the important basics of what it entails if we label a really high-quality session. So what makes highly effective training? Most coaches and athletes fail to even consider such a basic question. They just stumble towards a goal by simply embracing the daily grind of work. There's no wonder that fatigue creep, mentally and physically, impact so many athletes. And so let's pause, let's come up a level. Let's dig in a little bit. First, we begin with the basics. And let me preface what I'm about to say. And in fact, all of today's show is really about training only. We're not going to talk too much about habits and recovery and sleep and nutrition even though that's a part of the program. And we're going to just talk about your mental approach to training sessions and that's important. Secondly, what we talked about today, any training methodology and approach fits under this big umbrella. And so equally I'm not going to dig into the actual specific training methodologies, types of intervals, is it big volume? Is it low volume, is it high, low intensity, etc. It all kind of fits under this.
But generally, let's think about the basics, a solid percentage of your total training hours would typically be on the lighter side and effort, there'll be conversational, there'll be on the lower end of the intensity spectrum, unless you're doing very, very few training hours, 2,3,4 hours a week. And then that might be a little bit different. But generally, most athletes, a solid percentage of your total training hours will be lower intensity. And equal to that if you want to yield positive long-term results, your biggest gains will come with every athlete, yourself included integrating some very, very high intensity intervals. So that's pretty non-controversial for me to say that, and when we put these together, we can safely say that that recipe is a training demand, it is a demand or a stressor that I place, and you as the athlete then execute that training. So therefore, you're going to be navigating discomfort. And that's going to come through either duration, or intensity of intervals, or potentially both. And from that execution, that discomfort that you put yourself in with specificity your body then response, and it adapts. And that is how you yield improved fitness and power and strength. Okay, pretty good. And so of course, high quality training at the most basic level includes some structure and some planning, that's really important. And in fact, that's part of the reason that there's a really large benefit from drawing on the expertise and the experience of a coaching program, who have been there before helped many people of different profiles, execute and yield the best results possible. That is what coaching is. Great. But that doesn't makeup what we would label high-quality training. In order to really get the best results. the second part of it is you the athlete must actually understand the goal of any training session, and equal to that understand where that training session fits within the broader program as a whole. Because from that you have a firm grasp on how to execute the training to get the best result for the prescription, and also have a little bit of a footing on what constitutes success. And so there is a knowledge transfer to say, “Okay, I understand what I'm doing as an athlete and why I'm doing it. And that's how I get the biggest yield from it.” And with those insights, then, of course, you can execute with intent. Now, this is where coaches preach the importance of great presence and great focus, in order for you to yield, you must be present in training.
Matt Dixon 22:50
Or should you? Well, I want you to remember that point, because that's kind of the point of the show, isn't it? Great. All right. So your session is planned, you understand the goal, you execute. The final layer of high-quality training, the little piece in the jigsaw that's always missing onto the carpet that you can't find, but it is the final piece of high-quality training could be labeled then as smart management. And that is you the athlete, sometimes together with a coach making smart decisions about when to push through with the plan training, that little bit of fatigue or tiredness, or when to actually pull back because of the accumulation of too much fatigue. And this is an art. It's an art that's sometimes supported with data. But it is absolutely critical so that you can achieve long-term success. Now, ironically, most athletes don't realize this. But this is the piece of effective training that is probably the biggest benefit that you get from being part of a coaching program. Because this decision-making and perspective is really, really hard when you are under strain from both life and training. And so that smart management, that's the final cog in the wheel of Highly Effective training. And so here we are, we have smart planning, comprehension of that plan with the session goals, you execute with intent, and then you manage the program on a day by day basis dependent on everything that's going around. And that creates your bedrock of a quality approach to training.
Now, of course, as I mentioned, that ignores all of the other stuff like habits around sleep, recovery, and nutrition. But let's put that aside today. Good. And so everything that I've just talked about with that most basic part, this would lead me to validation. If I said to you, all right, it is essential that you show up in training. Every single one of the sessions that I prescribe as a coach, it requires a committed focus in order for you to achieve best adaptations. You need to understand what you're doing and then you need to execute with intent. And so you have to be present. You've got to be invested. You've got to be committed, whether it's hard intervals, or an absolute obsession with improving your technique, you need to invest if you are going to extract results. But the truth is, and this is a surprise that for the time-starved athlete, especially - the truth is a little more nuanced. It isn't quite as simple as that. Your best approach might emerge from a little Oh, what are we talking about today? That's right, a little mind wandering. And so it's going to part two, and let me paint the picture. Let's talk about and consider your life as a time-starved athlete, what are some of the challenges that you face? Well, your goals, your sporting goals are important. We want you to achieve those goals. Whether it's crossing the finish line of an event, for the first time qualifying to the World Championships, becoming a world champion, whatever it is, doesn't matter. Your goals are important. And there is a fundamental truth that in order for you to achieve your goals, it is going to require high commitment, high follow-through great consistency of training, and a whole bunch of hard graft. Now, I'm going to add to that, that beyond showing up and working hard, your journey will undoubtedly include setbacks, and adversity, you are going to get derailed. And I will add to it all, in the big scope, there's a reason that I'm labeling you a time-starved athlete. The success of your goals will only emerge if you successfully integrate training into your life so that it can be harmonious with all of the other demands. And when I say that, integrating training into life, the first thing that we all get drawn into myself is, of course, the physical practicalities, the timing of the training. Now maybe we think about, yes, and also getting enough sleep nailing basic habits around nutrition, et cetera. But most of the time, you the athlete and me the coach, when I say integrate it into life, I think about it as a calendaring exercise. Can we carve out enough consistent calendar time for me to program-specific training sessions for you?
Matt Dixon 27:44
But what about your mental energy? I just outlined the benefits of being focused and present in training. So let's just imagine right now and I've got to pick a number here. And so I'm going to go middle of the bell curve, imagine that you're executing seven weekly training sessions. So in any week, you're going to hit seven sessions. I realize some athletes do less, some do more. But let's use seven as our little random case study today. And perhaps the seven sessions, take over the course of the week, about eight to 10 hours of training. So you are an athlete training eight to 10 hours a week. Great. Now, if you follow my lead, and I say I want you to be focused and present so that you can execute as intended and yield the biggest extraction, what I'm actually asking you for in that case study is an additional eight to 10 hours of focus and attention that you are going to apply to training. Let me tell you, adding eight to 10 hours of mental focus on top of your life is going to come with a heavy psychological and physiological cost.
Why do I say that? Well, let's just really briefly considered the other parts of your life. Of course, the big one, the thing that takes up the majority of most of our lives - work. Let me ask you, does your work require focus and presence and attention? Just think about the emotional toll that a simple 60-minute zoom session can take- that focused environment. In fact, we know from all of the studies that most people have a priority focus time of about 20 to 40 minutes, and if we're looking for prime effectiveness, employees and leaders should work in bouts and sprints of high focus for about 20 to 40 minutes and then have a little bit of rejuvenation. That's why I like people going to the bathroom a lot from hydration because it tends to naturally integrate bouts of decompression. But anyway, a 60-minute zoom session, all of us have experienced that we come off of it and go, Oh, I'm just going to walk around a little bit. And if you start to rack those up, back to back to back, pull, it can be accumulative. And so work, by definition, requires a lot of focus, a lot of attention, a lot of mental energy. Now, let's think about your life. And let's just go through some of the life logistics or family commitment or thinking about financial planning, this recipe and accumulation, it can be very, very different for each of us. But outside of work, most of us have a whole bunch of responsibilities that require genuine focus, presence, and attention. It could be financial planning, it could be discussing a renovation project with your proposed contractor. It could be leading your kids soccer team practice, how am I going to plan and execute this, but life demands a whole bout of your reservoir of focus and presence and willpower. And so, one of the most common comments that I get from athletes that I work with on an individual basis is some variation of the fact that their most precious commodity is time. Most of us don't have much time, the majority of our day is full of focus. That ladies and gentlemen, is a whole lot of focus. And so what we say our case study, seven sessions a week, eight to 10 hours of training. And yet I as a coach should be asking in those training hours for you to add complete focus and presence on each one.
Matt Dixon 32:08
Well, to hammer the point home, let me tell you a different story. And this is actually a case study that's in flight. As I record this show, this is happening. We haven't come to the conclusion of the story. But it's an extreme example that I think is relevant to the story and something that we can draw some lessons on and apply to ourselves. I want to tell you about one of my athletes now. We're going to call him Mark, and Mark leads an arm of a really prominent business, and at this time is under huge pressure. His role has been directly impacted by the war in Ukraine. And he needs to be in a role to lead his team and beyond for many, many hours each day. It is one of those moments in his life, one of those work moments where it is a hurricane. He's in the midst, at the same time of his early preparations to get ready for an Ironman race, and that Ironman race is happening in October. So right now, boom, the work hurricane at the same time invading his head. He's got, “Oh my goodness me, I'm trying to get ready for an Ironman, work has proverbially exploded.” And the demands are huge and his focus and decision making is hour by hour, and his actual practical time capacity for training has been greatly reduced. And so I asked you, what do I do for Mark? How do I keep him on track? Should I just reduce his training hours? Should I put out all the intervals? Shall I try and just keep them on track with the original plan but just say, “Hey Mark, just go here as much as you can?” Let me tell you, even if he had the physical capacity to throw himself into real training sessions right now, there is very little reservoir of willpower or focus left. He is emptying himself for a short period of time, probably three to four weeks. But he is emptying himself of all mental energy. And his normal 60, 70, 80 minutes of daily training ability has been greatly reduced 10,15, 20, maybe 30 minutes at most, if he's lucky. So to come to the answer. For Mark, we need to take a step back and frame the role that training has in his life and the role that training has for the majority of time-starved athlete at least what the role of training should have. Okay, the challenge of time-starved athlete aim is to implement or integrate high quality training. And we talked about that at the top of the show - what that constitutes. Good. But in addition to that, we want to enable training to have a really important therapeutic effect from the rigors and the focus from the demands of work in life. And so training should have, yes, the pathway to achieve your goals. But as a part of that, we want to ensure that the training sessions allow a serious bout of “me” time, a little bit of a mental detox that can ultimately deliver an energizing joy. Think about it as a pressure release from the demands of life. If your life is a pressure cooker, training has to be the release. Hmm. Now this sounds paradoxical because training is a demand and a stressor that enables adaptations for performance. But here's the thing. That doesn't mean that every training session should be debilitating. A lot of your training can and should be, how do I say, I'll tell you what, I'll say how we've talked about it through the COVID years, a lot of your training should be “soul-filling.” It should be beneficial for developing your tissue resilience and general cardiovascular conditioning, but equally, it should facilitate - And here's an actual scientific or at least practical term - a dishwasher affect for your brain. Globally, it should have a restorative impact on your body as a whole. A whole bunch of your training can include that. And so if we return to Mark, you remember him that extreme short-term case of work crushing almost every aspect of his broader life, and certainly his ability to train.
Matt Dixon 37:06
He's in this hurricane. And yet he has a longer-term goal to get ready for an Ironman. So what do I do over the course of this month? Well, it's extreme. But what I asked Mark to do is say, “Take off your hat. I want you to remove triathlon, all of your hopes, all of your aspirations, and I want you to park them. We're not going to get rid of them, you are going to get ready for Ironman, but right now we're going to put them to the side for short term.” And what we need to do is completely reposition the role. And the place of training. “Because training for you, in the midst of this hurricane, is just as critical." It's hugely important for you, as a leader and a human, it is non-negotiable.” But the structure of it is really different. Because in these weeks while we navigate this hurricane, we no longer think about big key sessions or cycles of progressive work, we're not looking to yield fitness gains. Instead, what we're going to build is a flexible program. And this can support your system, it can actually by you staying consistent, can help build capacity for focus in all of those non-negotiable work demands, we're going to anchor on restorative training. And so we'll have maybe a session a week, there's going to float around, you can do it whenever your energy is maybe a little bit more. And in that session, we're going to add some intervals. But everything else, everything else is going to be soul-folling, I'll give you a couple of sessions that are going to be purely for tissue health, a little bit of core instability, and you can do that in your hotel room. But anything else is going to be free and structured, conversational, easy. But from doing that, you're going to move blood, maintain cardiovascular fitness, improve your tissue resilience, but also depressurize the situation, it is going to build your capacity. And so if you are working in some extreme case 18 or 19 hours a day, instead, we are going to carve out 30 minutes and ensure that rather than working 19 hours, you're going to work at it in half and they're going to be more effective and you'll get a bigger yield. In other words, the sole purpose of training right now is to build capacity and enable him in this short time to create a pressure release valve. And the action that habit integration enables Mark to not reach for the bottle wine, but instead go for an evening walk to clear the mind to force blood circulation.
Now, we're not going to go into some of the other really important interventions that we've put in around his fueling, hydration, sleep tactics, et cetera. But this is about building mental capacity and clarity. And, of course, this story is a really extreme example. And all it is is a short-term solution. We can't maintain this and say that you are ‘Ironman ready,’ but it is a solution to a high-pressure demand. That is one that also has a whole bunch of lessons. Because as a part of that solution, it's going to help Mark not only be healthier, and perform in the workplace, but when he is ready to get back on the journey to Ironman, he is going to be more equipped to do so. And I tell you this story of Mark, because we can draw from it. And we can apply it to our own journey, even though we're probably not going through the true hurricane of work right now. And so, what we want to do now finally, to wrap up the show, is implement a plan.
Part three, let's put a plan in action to evolve your mental approach to training. Because this is gonna help you make your journey fun, but highly effective. And it's all anchored in the title of the episode, know when to show up. Okay, so we're going to draw from the extreme example of Mark's work hurricane, but we're going to balance that with the most universal requirement for time-starved athlete to exert a tremendous amount of daily focus across work and life on a daily basis. But then, at the same time, try and build a moldable and fluid program that can leverage the key sessions that enable us to push forward our performance gains. At the same time, we want to equally leverage training as that pressure release valve, so that we can diffuse some of the cognitive load that accumulates with life. Good.
So let's go all the way back to the top of the show. Do you remember the question I asked? I said, Should I as a coach, always demand, presence, focus and commitment for you the time-starved athlete blocking out the rest of your life? And for your 45,60, 120 minutes that you concentrate on only great execution, super form, driving your personal performance bar higher, higher and higher? And the answer is no, I shouldn't always ask for that. And a simple way to explain the answer is I cannot push my time-starved athlete, in other words, you into making your training a second job, I have my doubts that any of you really want an additional job dumped on top of your already time-starved life. And that's what will happen. If you think that every single training session requires focus, very quickly, it's going to become a grind. And so to put a plan into action, I would encourage some version of this framework that I'm just about to outline. Now remember, as I do this framework, I'm talking about mental engagement, it's very simple. Two or three of the sessions, in each week of training, you should carry the expectation of complete, high focus, the sessions deliver high demands. Now a great example of this what we call a session that drives the performance needle. A great example would be one of my video-based bike classes, or if you come and join us at the center in San Francisco, about 60 minutes of an interval heavy session with great expectations from myself on absolutely proper execution. And while you are going through the rigors of the intervals, I want you to retain great form, great posture, fluid pedal stroke. And even when you're recovering, I want to see brochure-ready riding. These sessions are completely immersive. And if and only if you, the athlete, truly engages in that session, then the benefit goes well beyond someone that just sits on their bike executing intervals, checking off intervals, while being locked into a power with no real emphasis on “the how.” There is a huge difference between immersive and engagement and simply checking off the box of intervals. Now, these sessions are best executed if possible, when you're not mentally drowned because you've got to commit to yourself. You've got to immerse, you've got to block out the world. You've got to go Get in it. And then yes, absolutely. In those two, three sessions a week, full blooded commitment. So hopefully you remove all distractions. I don't want phones, texting, playing Tetris, I want engagement, these are the ones that drive the performance needle.
Now, another example of this might be an outside, perhaps you're prepping for an event. And you need to do a longer duration simulated type session, where maybe you're thinking about testing your hydration and fueling strategy. We do a lot of this with our work with fuel in. So in a session like that, of course, you need to feel you need to make decisions, you need to follow a plan, you need to understand the sensations. And so of course, engagement is required. That's a key session. So those two or three times a week, you've got to be full-blooded. Now a second type of session that exists in your program might be something that's actually on the other end of the spectrum, so far as physical demands. And this might be a technical workout, and you might have one or two days a week, where it's an opportunity that when physical demand is low, you have the opportunity to maybe improve a technical element of your sport. And in a really fun way, that, of course, requires a little bit of engagement, you want to think about how, and I should remind you that the best time to work on form changes is when your lower stress training is in action. If you're not under high physical demand, you actually have mental capacity to think about “the how” and implement a change, I should say that the best method to make those changes stick is to remind yourself to hold on to those changes when the going gets tough. But anyway, so far, we've got two to three workouts a week that are high focus, high demand, then you've maybe got a session or two, that's kind of technical, where you're thinking about it. But then you've got everything that's leftover all of the other sessions. And that might be for a time-starved athlete 2,3,4 sessions each week. And those sessions are supportive in nature, they still provide great value. They might be your easy endurance riding is your run session, smooth swims, whatever the sport, it doesn't matter. They're kind of your little Amazon, packaging, padding, they protect your key workouts, but they still play an important role in your overall development. And I will say that many coaches tend to complicate training so that they can kind of impress the athletes. But I'd like to feel these types of sessions should straight towards being more selfless. In fact, you might benefit from making these types of workouts really simple.
Matt Dixon 48:01
Another word might be “free.” What does this mean? Well, I'll give you an example. Here's a prescription that I gave to an athlete just the other day, I want you to go and run 40 minutes. It's a soul filler. What was the zone? Where's the pace? The heart rate the warmup, the activation drills that pre main workout? What is this 40 minute run soul filler? Nothing else? No, go and enjoy being outside. Now, we've had a conversation before this, the athlete understood what I was looking for. But go and take walk breaks if you wish. Look at the birds. Maybe walk past your neighbor's house and you can be very judgmental about the paint choice of their newly renovated home - whatever it is, hey, listen to a podcast or an audiobook. Perhaps go with a friend and chat the whole way. I don't care. All I'm looking for is that you keep it conversational. You absolutely don't focus on the metrics. You ensure that you could have a chat the whole time and you decompress. I urge you in this time not to troubleshoot work or your life challenges. Instead, just be another example. I want to go on a two-hour bike ride endurance. Here are the words “go play.” The same thing applies. It's okay guys to go out and ride your bicycle. If you're obsessive, capture the metrics, upload them to Strava whatever you want to do, but just don't ride to the metrics. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you going to ride your bicycle outside with friends. You don't need to see or feel the physiological benefits because they are there. And these rare really supportive sessions are important. And they play a role in your broader recipe. Because what they do is that they improve your general conditioning. They heighten your tissue integrity, they make you more resilient, they reduce your impact or risk of getting injured. But most importantly, they act as your pressure relief valve, they build your mental capacity. Every Wednesday and Friday morning, I leave my house, and I head out to the trails, I go for a run. And while I'm going for a run, I listen to an audiobook, or perhaps a podcast. And I think about nothing to do with Purple Patch or the world. All I do is enjoy being outside. And that subject that invades my ears, wherever saw my audiobook or podcast, and you know what, it's kind of my thing. It's my time, I'm alone, I'm really happy. Because the truth is, if I was at home, I just wouldn't have time to sit by the fire and read for 45 minutes, I've got too many demands, I've got a family, I've got a 10 year old or almost 10 year old, I've got Purple Patch, I'm running a business and let me tell you running a small business, it's a hassle, or it's a hassle. But this time, I get to listen to a book. And at the same time I achieve, ah, all of that while I run. And so I encourage you to shift mentally at training and 30 or 40 or 50% of your training, it should be soulfulling. Because by you deploying that strategy, you're not only going to amplify your performance and your focus in the key sessions. But it is going to enable you to be equipped to show up better in life. Now, those sessions the selfless, you still fuel follow them. You want to rehydrate, you know all the other basics, but instead just remove the shackles of expectation. Not only will you start to enjoy your training more as a whole, but guess what, you're going to become more consistent. You're going to get better training results, you're going to reduce your risk and prevalence of injuries. And ultimately, you're going to go faster. But even better than all of that you'll become a better human being. So be brave. Take your eyes off the watch and go and implement. Best of luck. Hope that's helpful. We'll see you next week.
Matt Dixon 53:06
Thanks so much for listening. This has been the Purple Patch podcast. If you like what you hear, we'd really appreciate it if you share with your friends and even go the extra mile and head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe, rate, and review the show. The Apple podcast link is in the show notes. Your support and positive reviews go a huge way in increasing our visibility and also the exposure to time-starved people everywhere who want to integrate sport into life and ultimately thrive. Don't forget - you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Cheers