Episode 231: Matt’s Journey to the Haute Route Alps – A Case Study of a Challenge for a Multi-Day Bike Race
Follow the Purple Patch Podcast at:
APPLE PODCASTS - SPOTIFY- AMAZON MUSIC - GOOGLE PODCASTS - YOUTUBE
In this episode of the Purple Patch Podcast, Ironman Master Coach Matt Dixon frames his preparation and training path as he sets his sights on the Haute Route Alps, a 7-day cycling challenge through the heart of the Alps.
The Haute Route Alps is thought of as one of the toughest endurance cycling events in the world and is the original version of the Haute Route Series of events now spanning the globe.
Matt and his team, consisting of his two brothers and a group of friends, will traverse some of the most challenging uphill climbs in cycling.
(47:16) "We have eight folks, all time-starved, all middle-aged men...that are going to do this thing on a very similar program."
The course spans from Nice, in the Côte d'Azur, to Megève, in the Mont Blanc massif and features 6 mountain stages of the Tour de France along with a hill-based time trial.
With the Haute Route only weeks away, Matt outlines his approach to the event, giving us a classic example of a time-starved athlete balancing training for a major challenge and the demands of life.
(21:51) “The truth is that when I looked at my priorities around family and Purple Patch, I didn't really have capacity to train for this event, at least in the way that I would if I didn't have those responsibilities. And so what I've had to do is think outside of the box, I've had to apply much of the Purple Patch methodology to myself. And I had to maintain throughout the journey, this within context, my priority number one, family. Number two, Purple Patch, and then the Haute Route."
Matt also provides an overview of what we can expect along the way as he documents the experience here on the Purple Patch Podcast from August 20th through the 27th.
In this episode Matt will cover:
(10:16) The Haute Route Alps: Course Profile and stage descriptions.
(17:20) A Preview of our coverage and daily field reports.
(23:41) The profile of a time-starved athlete: Matt’s training approach.
(40:16) An overview of Matt’s daily nutrition, hydration, and fueling.
This episode not only previews Matt’s pursuit of a personal goal as he embarks on the adventure of a lifetime, but it also highlights the distinct challenges of a multi-day event and offers individual lessons on the layers of preparation and performance in broader sport and life.
Episode Timestamps
0:00 - 03:03 Welcome and Episode Introduction
3:10 - 06:49 Matt's News-ings
6:55 - The Meat and Potatoes - Episode 231: Matt’s Journey to the Haute Route Alps – A Case Study of a Challenge for a Multi-Day Bike Race
Purple Patch Video Podcast and More
Training Camp - 2022 St.George Triathlon Camp
Training Camp - 2023 Kona Triathlon Camp
Learn More About The Haute Route
Learn More About Precision Fuel and Hydration
Purple Patch Coaching Consultation
The Purple Patch Center is Open - Learn More and Schedule a Visit
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 Transcript
Matt Dixon 00:00
I'm Matt Dixon, and welcome to the Purple Patch podcast. The mission of Purple Patch is to empower and educate every human being to reach their athletic potential. Through the lens of athletic potential, you reach your human potential. The purpose of this podcast is to help time-starved people everywhere integrate sport into life.
Matt Dixon 00:21
Hey folks, just before we get going, today's show focuses on my preparation and training for the upcoming seven-day Haute Route riding challenge all the way through the Alps in France. Now throughout my training journey as time-starved as I am, I utilize the insights and recommendations from the team at InsideTracker. It was three assessments over nine months. And over the course of that journey, I gained insights into areas that can improve both my health and performance. These included my iron ferritin levels, vitamin D, B12, even my LDL cholesterol. And most of these, I was blissfully unaware that they are actually holding me back. Over seven months of training, I improved my body composition, I stayed healthy, and on top of it all, I had trackable, measurable improvements across my biometrics. And no matter what your goals are, you can leverage to you don't need to be a purple patch athlete to do so all you need to do is head to insidetracker.com/purplepatch and use this code purplepatchpro20. That's Purple Patch pro two zero and you get 20% off everything at the store. Alright, hope you enjoy the show. It's a fun one today.
Matt Dixon 01:38
And welcome to the Purple Patch podcast as ever, your host, Matt Dixon, and in today's show, we're going to have a little bit of fun, we are going to do a preview of the upcoming Haute Route de Alpes, the seven day 800 Kilometer challenge that takes riders from Nice to Megève in France. It is labeled as one of the toughest cycling challenges in the world. But why are we doing this? Well, me along with my brothers despite not really having time to prepare, at least in the classical sense that you might think, I'm set to participate. And this is a catalyst for us at this show to be able to do something fun, something that we've never done before. Between August the 20th and 27th, we're going to do something brand new. We are going to put out a daily show from on the ground at the Haute Route. And allow me to report in on my progress, some of the challenges and adversity that I'm sure I'm going to have to navigate, and hopefully a bunch of really funny little stories and anecdotes. So today we thought you know what we should preview the event and the challenge. We should outline what we're going to do around the event, but also I think most importantly for today, we are going to frame how I, as a classic example of a time-starved athlete, decided to prepare for this thing. Now before we get going, let's do a little bit of news. Yes, it is time for Matt's News-ings.
Matt Dixon 03:10
Yes, it's Matt's News-ings and I've got a couple of quick hits for you this week gang. The first, the Purple Patch training camp in St. George, Utah, September the 13th through the 18th. Why do I flag this? Because we have a single spot left. Just one. One more and it is closed. No one else can join. And so if you have a late season event upcoming, maybe you've qualified to the Hawaii Ironman, perhaps you are doing the St George Ironman 70.3 World Championships. Or if you have any other event. This can be a great catalyst. It is a race-specific triathlon training camp for all levels. It's exclusive. It's highly intimate, and it's going to be high impact. We have a great ratio of coaches, relative to athletes. And of course, I will be there throughout the camp. You can head to the website, go to the camp page, and you can see it all there under the performance camps. You might also see that we've actually just released our Kona camp in January 2023. That's always the real special one as well. That's already half full so you might want to act on that. That one sells out in just a week typically also. Speaking of which, second thing I want to point out in Matt's News-ings this week, we are in full race mode, at Purple Patch. And so if you are chasing an event in the back half of this year, well, it might be time to hop on board the ship a little bit. Perhaps you've got a full marathon or half marathon coming up. It's a wonderful time to join our new program this year, the run squad, a multi-sport approach to keeping you really healthy but also preparing you for events and making sure that you amplify your run performance. Or perhaps you're a triathlete getting ready for triathlon. Well, we have our tri squad and that is a super program and community of athletes, all like-minded, looking to maximize performance, get massive gains in their overall performance as well of course, but also make sure that they can do it within the context of their time-starved lives. And perhaps you're neither of the two, maybe you're self-coached. Maybe you're part of another program. But we have a lot of athletes that actually, actually leverage our third program, which is bike squad, now that bike squad offers video-enabled, both live and on-demand bike trainer workouts, and a lot of athletes love to use these as the backbone of their broader program. Now in synchronization with that, in parallel, as a part of bike squad, you also have a season-long or year-long program around strength and conditioning. All video-enabled, all fantastic, you still become a part of the community. And that's why we get to welcome so many self-coached athletes that can leverage that as a wonderful supplementary program. Of course, on top of all if you would prefer a more intimate direct one-to-one relationship, and then you can always get on board with one of our coaches. But don't try and guess on what you need. If you're interested, if you want to become a part of the Purple Patch family, feel free to reach out, we're delighted to help you understand the suite of offerings, but also have a conversation to help you make the best choice for you. All you have to do is reach out to info@purplepatchfitness.com and we'll set up a complimentary consultation with you. There'll be no pressure. Hopefully, it will be helpful for you and let's get you onto the right program. But Barry this week with all of that done that is Matt's News-ings. We are going to skip Word of the Week this week because we want to talk about the Haute Route 2022. It is time for The Meat and Potatoes.
Matt Dixon 06:55
Yes, it is the Meat and Potatoes. And to kick us off, I want to give you a little bit of context of why this year's Haute Route 2022 is such an important event for me. Since the age of 12 or so, I actually haven't lived under the same roof as either of my brothers Martin and Peter. They were off to college at the time, I was at home, my parents got divorced, and I was living with my dad. And then at 18, I left for America, Yup, I came across to college here. Now, of course, going back and forth for vacations and such, but since that time, effectively, I have spent all of my adult life in the United States. My brothers, well Martin spent some time living in France, now married to a lovely French woman Laurette, but lives down in Cornwall in the southwest of England. Peter traveled extensively but lived all of his adult life in London. But throughout all of this time, we have remained very close. We are great friends. And I would say, great brothers. And right now we all dance either side of 50 years of age. And on August the 21st, we will begin to gather at The Haute Route des Alpes. And so it's a magical riding experience, it's really it's for the three brothers a bit of a once in a lifetime opportunity. And I think that there's a little undertone of making it even more special because we lost our mother late last year from COVID-19. Now, apart from the three of us, we will be joined by five other friends. And we're going to make up a team, although I wouldn't label us a performance team, but make up a team of middle-aged men who are desperately clinging on to their youth.
Matt Dixon 08:36
Good. Well, let's talk about the Haute Route des Alpes. Why are we doing this and what is it? So, it's labeled as one of the toughest endurance cycling events in the world. It is the original version of the Haute Route Series events that now span the world. Over the course of seven days, we have to navigate 800 kilometers of total riding. There are about 22,000 meters of total elevation gain. For you guys in the States, that's about 70,000 feet of climbing. And it's going to ask us to navigate six mounting stages. And midway through the week, we also have a very nasty time trial to raise up a mountain. Goodness, me imagine doing six stages of the Tour de France and then those nasty nasty organizers throwing in a hill-based Time Trial along the way. So today, we're going to preview and I thought the best way we can do this is a very brief breakdown of each of the stages. That's going to give you a real flavor of what all of the participants, about 600 participants are here, all of the participants are going to have to navigate through their journey. So we're going to go through and then at the end of the show, I'm going to talk about how I actually chose to prepare. And ultimately I say I chose to prepare, but it was really how I was forced to think out of the box to prepare for this thing when I didn't really have enough capacity to at least do a program that you might think is more classical when you're doing a multistage day event like this.
Matt Dixon 10:05
So let's break it down one stage at a time, it should be fun. And I'll make this pretty brief. But at least by the end of it, you're going to have a little bit of flavor of what we're going to go through. So stage one, we kick off in Nice, France. Of course, that was the host town for the 2019 Ironman 70.3 World Championships. So if you were a lucky participant in that event, you kind of know what the terrain is like coming out of Nice, France. It's a little bit uppish. And we kick off with a golden stage, 180 kilometers of riding, and just a very simple 4,000 meters, or about 13,000 feet of elevation gain. It is a nasty, nasty, cruel stage, especially for the folks like me that are going to certainly be battling jetlag having arrived no more than about 24 to 36 hour, hours before the start of the event. So that's stage one, that's going to be a welcome to Haute Route gang. Here we are.
Matt Dixon 11:05
We then quickly transition on to stage two. Now the name of this stage that they have given it is the two giants. And I think that gives you the story. Whereas day one was 180 kilometers with 4,000 meters, this stage is shorter, only 120 kilometers, but it still offers up almost 4,000 meters of climbing. So that means I think I'm going to get a little bit of a neck ache from having my chin in the air looking up at the elevation ahead. Now my prediction for myself, is that this day might be my toughest day, this might be the one that I potentially struggle the most, who knows, I don't know what's going to unfold. But personally, I often feel pretty ragged, on the second day of these sorts of camps, or experiences. So we're going to see, but especially amplified by the big travel that I have coming from San Francisco to Europe, I've got a sneaky feeling that day two might be a little bit of a kick in the ribs for me. So that's two days in. And I think after those two days, we're going to have to start to create or we'll start to see a little bit of odor coming out amongst the 600 competitors. Now, I should mention at this stage, that none of us on our team really have any expectations of being anywhere near the front. That's not the point of why we're doing this. But what I do expect to happen is each of us is going to start to have our own little camaraderie group starting to join even a little bit of competition of the folks all around us that happened to be around the same individual level as us. In other words, what you can expect is by about day to day three, you can expect me to be battling with a Klaus or an Agnes or a Juergen all in a desperate clinging on hope, the absolute mediocrity. Doesn't it sound inspiring?
Matt Dixon 13:02
Anyway, so two stages in let's go to stage three. The name of this stage, all for the views, you can appreciate this, this is where we're going to start to really enter the magic of the Alps. And it is another day third in a row where it's more than 3,000 meters of elevation gain. It includes the legendary Les 2 Alpes. And it's got a very high elevation. So this is the first day that we're going to have to start to bring in altitude as a factor relative to our fatigue, our power outputs, our hydration and fueling, et cetera. And I expect that those folks that have done poorly on days one and two around they're pacing, they're fueling their hydration, this is where it starts, might start to become a real factor.
Matt Dixon 13:51
Stage four, well, I will be hoping by a rest for a rest day by then, but I ain't gonna get it. Stage four, is a beast. In fact, it's the biggest climbing day of the whole week, 4,200 meters or more of climbing. It includes the very famous Col du Glandon, which I hear is very nasty. I've never actually done that climb. And I think that this is in honesty, where some of the stitching is going to start to come unraveled for many of the competitors. Maybe even me. It is true fatigue is going to be a factor. And I think that the big thing on this stage is for folks to really think about staying safe in any groups that might form especially through the dissents in the valleys. And of course, those big dissents having to stay really focused and using the opportunity to restock on calories to make sure that their brain function and focus is really, really sharp. Goodness, me, 4 stages in. I know that you're going to start to see a withered maybe drawn in cheeks as we go through this.
Matt Dixon 14:52
But stage five, well, it's a little bit of a kick in the butt, because stage five is the time trial. Now, they always labeled this as an opportunity for a bit of a rest, all it is, is 2,000 meters straight up the Col de la Loze climb. So 2,000 meter climbing Time Trial, up a mountain pass. And it is an opportunity where many will think about actually just riding up there really smooth and calm and maybe using it for a little bit of a restoration. My problem is my genetics and DNA because I can claim Oh, I'm gonna go easy. In honesty, I'm just way too much of a competitive bastard. And I bet that I will just try my best and turn myself inside out, no matter the consequences. I guess we'll see, but I will definitely be honest, I'm not claiming my performance will be great. But my effort will probably be great. So after that, we're going to be hunting or at least smelling home.
Matt Dixon 15:52
Stage six, it's called the classics. And it is a tough final big mountain stage of the Haute Route des Alpes. 3,600 meters of climbing, but it also includes the Cormet de Roselend that's been featured in 12 tours. It's going to be a fantastic climb, there's plenty of other little uppish hills around that as well. And I think this is the place where the fitness of those that have truly prepared, and the really smart people that have looked after themselves, can really climb up in their rankings relative to the people around them.
Matt Dixon 16:26
The final stage, stage seven, well, we can call that final assault. It's a very, very lumpy and bumpy loop. That brings us back around to Megève in France, that's very close to Geneva. And it will be the end of the ride. So ironically, at that last stage, a lot of people say oh, it's not too bad, it's only 2800 meters. But there's almost no flat roads on that stage. It's up, down, up down. It's a real strength-based stage, what could possibly possibly go wrong? Now for me, there's stage eight and that is a long trip back to San Francisco, although one would assume that that might include a few beers along the way. So I haven't even started this race. And I can tell you that I'm already highly recommending it. It is going to be a fantastic experience. But we'll have a little bit more on that later. As we get into our daily show.
Matt Dixon 17:20
Let's talk about how we plan to navigate this event. Now, I should caveat, what we're planning to do here is a little bit risky, because I'm going to be riding through the Alps. And we're going to be staying in some very small villages with some mediocre hotels that maybe have some relatively spotty Wi-Fi. And so while Barry is here in the luxurious surroundings of the Purple Patch center, getting ready for his post-production on a daily basis, I'm going to be desperately trying to cling on to the best signal I can to get across all of the photos and videos. And of course, the recording to help you guys follow along. And so we will do our best. But if we struggle, or at least you'll know why. What I will be doing, in addition, is I'm going to be posting a whole bunch of images and little mini reports and videos. And that's going to be via our social channels. Now probably the best place to follow along with that is our Instagram. If you don't follow us on Instagram yet it's @purplepatchfitness is our little Tagname as they call it, or our handle, I think that the real kids would call it. And that's where you'll be able to see all of the instant action at least as best as I can possibly do. Now, I should say that these little mini shows, they're going to be somewhere between around seven minutes to 15 minutes in duration. So we don't want to take up much of your day, we realize that you're time-starved, but each show is going to be full of little videos and images that will really try and bring it to life. And so we're going to do an audio version. So you can just carry on your regular place that you tend to digest your podcasts. But we're also going to be doing a video-based version. And you can follow that at the Purple Patch Fitness YouTube channel. In fact, with all of the images that I hope to get across, I think that's certainly the recommended platform that you should follow along.
Matt Dixon 19:17
What I plan to do well, I'll probably do a daily stage report how the day went, what was good, where I struggled. I also want to unpack some of my lessons that I'm having on the fly around my fueling and hydration. I've been very lucky I've had the support of Andy Blow at Precision Fuel and Hydration. But I know that with his framework, what we don't know is what's going to happen on day two, day three, day four, day five. And so I'm sure I'm going to have to adapt. So I plan to outline each day, what I consume, how I adjust it, and what the experience is like. And that's going to be really interesting relative to the variable weather that we might experience. Some of the altitude that we're going to navigate and of course the fatigue over seven days of riding. In addition to it all, I hope to share some fun insights, stories, anecdotes, I'm sure I'll make fun of myself, but even more, I'm going to make fun of some of my teammates, and especially, especially my two brothers. I've had people ask, is it a competition isn't going to be a big race? Well, I've already said, I don't anticipate any of us being up at the pointy end of the field, we're not going to be highly competitive. And this is about three brothers doing an experience. It's not about who wins between the three of us, as long as I win, and then everything will be great.
Matt Dixon 20:40
Anyway, so seven to 15 minutes in duration, as you go through the best source to answer any, ask any questions that you might have about the experiences either via Instagram, I'll keep an eye on that, or the comments in YouTube. I'm happy to keep track and I'll do the best I can, relative to the fatigue and the tears, and the dread to answer any questions that I have. And that's the story. Now, before I depart, before I go and do this thing, I want to point out that this isn't some ego fueled trip, where I'm like, 'look at me, look what I'm doing.' Because I realized this event actually pales in comparison to so many of the achievements that many, many Purple Patch listeners and the audience have completed, or are taking on. Some of the challenges and performances that our athletes do go well beyond what I'm doing here. And I realize that it's nothing special in the big context. But I want to break down my preparation, I want to share the journey for really two main reasons. The first is that I am in many ways, a classic example of a time-starved athlete. And the truth is that when I looked at my priorities around family and Purple Patch, I didn't really have capacity to train for this event, at least in the way that I would if I didn't have those responsibilities. And so what I've had to do is think outside of the box, I've had to apply much of the Purple Patch methodology to myself. And I had to maintain throughout the journey, this within context, my priority number one, family. Number two, Purple Patch, and then the Haute Route. And that was important. And so this has been really a little bit of an experiment for me. And the reason I want to do the daily report is to ensure that I can honestly reflect on the preparation relative to my performance. and we'll see. The second thing and the second reason I want to share with this is that much of our audience, really, really love to take on the challenge of triathlons, Ironman, and Ironman 70.3 distance. But I believe that it's wonderful to actually think outside of the box. And as you look forward to the coming years to consider events like the Haute Route, or maybe some trail running adventures, or gravel adventures, and in the spirit of being a multi-sport athlete, these types of events can be wonderful life experiences, can create great challenges as a compass to train for, but also can be supplementary to you becoming a better triathlete along the journey. And so I hope that that's going to come out of this experience and journey we'll see. But that's the mission as we do it. And so to finish the show, I just want to break down how I have prepared. And so it's out there, I can't change what I've done now. But at least we'll then have, this is what we did in preparation. This is the outcome and the performance.
Matt Dixon 23:41
So the first thing I'll do is give you some stats. So I'm 48 years of age, you know the Kelly's my wife, and you may know that we have a son Baxter, who is 10. My role, as it comes to work, well, I'm the founder and Co-CEO, along with Kelly, of Purple Patch fitness. Okay, when I began my training journey, so that was really January of this year, I weighed 89 kilograms. I'm about just a hair under six foot three in height. So the good news is, I managed to maintain my high I didn't shrink through this, and that's probably a positive. But as of this morning decided to do a little bit of a weigh-in. I don't tend to really check my weight too much. But I did a weigh-in. Remember, I started in January at nine kilograms. I'm now just a hair under 84 kilograms. So I'm a bigger bike rider. I think I'll be Gulliver relative to many of the riders that are going to be on this trip. That's it. And as of today, I guess I should add, I'm really healthy. I'm energetic. I'm injury free. So all of that is a real positive. So how did I train? Well, first, let me outline some of the challenges that I had. First with family and work. I simply didn't have the ability to ride my bike every weekend. I had very limited opportunity to actually do the long over-distance rides that almost every coach in the planet would recommend to get ready for a multi-stage event like this, I just couldn't go out for seven or eight-hour bike rides to get ready for this thing. I also had about seven to eight trips that I had to take throughout January until leaving for this event, some of which were Purple Patch, work trips, a few of which were family trips. Now the good news is some of these trips actually worked in my favor because they were things like training camps. And we can leverage and I'll get into that. Let's first before we talk about January till August, let's go back and talk about my couple of years of activity that you could call my foundation. What was my state of fitness, so my regular training journey, as I went through the pandemic years, 2019 into 20, into 21? So, typically, what I would be doing is, I would say, staying really healthy and relatively fit, I did three or four runs each week, they will be somewhere between 45 to 60 minutes, and I occasionally actually went through a block where I trained for a longer distance trail running race. And so that included some more mileage, but typical week three, four or five runs a week 45 to 60 minutes, I also was doing two sessions a week, where I was leading a live bike trainer base session, 60 minutes of high-intensity intervals, and almost no riding my bicycle outside, outside of perhaps going on a training camp. And I would suffer through some of the better athletes outside of that I really wasn't riding my bike outside at all. So that was it, January 2022. Now, my training, if you want to call it that, my training, at least my preparation could begin in earnest. And as I started to think about this, knowing that, all right, there's really no getting out of this, there are eight of us that are committed, there are my two brothers, I've really got to get fit for this. I'm going to do this thing. So the first thing I did was actually sit down and plan with Kelly, I think it's the best thing that you can do. And we discussed was this even first feasible for me to take on. And we decided that yes, we would do this, or I would do this with her support. And I'm really thankful for that. But what you wanted to do was align and plan the year ahead. So we looked at opportunities, where could I actually get clusters of the necessary back-to-back rides, as well as some of the longer rides that I would really need to go and be anywhere close to prepared for this event. So the good news is because I lead Purple Patch is I had a few training camps to get ready. So I could leverage that riding with some of the Purple Patch athletes. And while I would be coaching, at least I would be riding at the same time. We also looked at maybe some special occasions, some treats for myself, Father's Day, my birthday, where I get leverage and go and sneak out some longer duration bike rides. And there are also a couple of occasions where actually Kelli and Baxter traveled. And I was home alone. So that was another opportunity that I could sneak some longer riding in. Outside of those. There are only two or three other times where as a family we said, Okay, this is going to be an Haute Route riding weekend and over the course of a Saturday or a Sunday relative to Baxter's sporting events that I didn't want to miss or other family logistics, I would go out, get up very early leave at 6 am and get out for a long over-distance ride. From January till now two to three occasions. Now beyond this, I had to be really creative with my training program. So what did that look like for my longer-duration bike rides? Because I think that ultimately, to get ready for a multi-day ride like this. You have to think about what are the master sessions, the big performance sessions over the course of many months. So here's what I had in my favor. Here's what I managed to get done. In January, we had a multi-day purple patch training camp in Hawaii. Good. That was a nice kickoff to the year in May had a training camp in Napa that I led. Good, another bonus. In June, we lead a training camp in South Carolina. I managed to go two and a half days to that camp. Good another one. And in July we did a family trip to Europe, which was reduced overall in training, but while we were in Lausanne, Switzerland, I did get to do three days of riding back to back another big multi-day stage of riding three hours, five hours, three hours. So pretty good cluster of writing in that time. As I mentioned, I had a long ride on Father's Day a long ride on my birthday, and a couple of weekend days that were those designated Haute Route sessions that were in partnership with the family. So this all added up that over the course of the last seven months I've managed to accumulate a total of seven rides that have been more than 100 miles in duration. And those seven rides were all more than 3,000 meters of elevation gain, seven opportunities. The rest of my riding, they were sneaky rides, Two, three to four hours getting up very early in the morning, made up typically have some road riding some gravel bike rides, some mountain bike rides, that was it. Now, outside of that, because that isn't close to helping me get ready for this event. Many folks have asked me, well, what was a typical week. Well I went through the lens of the only way that I can get ready for this thing beyond those big events, those sort of seven to 10 rides that I managed to cluster up over seven months, is to hit consistency, I always talk about that has been the backbone of any great performance evolution. And so I thought, I've got to eat my own dog food, I'm going to go after consistency. And so a typical week, as best as I can build it up, a typical week would look something like this for me.
Matt Dixon 31:05
On a Monday, typically a little bit tired, and also very busy at Purple Patch, a big kickoff day for us in the week of Purple Patch, typically plenty of meetings - that would be an easier day. Now, normally, that would be a soul-filling run, as I like to call it somewhere between 45 and 60 minutes very easy in the trails near my house, I'm very lucky, I can run straight into trails. Lovely. On Tuesday, one of the big key sessions of the week, a 60-minute bike trainer workout. These are the live coach sessions that I lead out of the Purple Patch Center in San Francisco. And these are nearly always high-intensity intervals, a lot of short, sharp, high-intensity work, that was it. Now, in the afternoon, I might sometimes get another 30 to 40-minute run, if I'm lucky. If not, I might also get to record one of the video on-demand coach sessions that we use across the purple patch ecosystem. So that's another replication of a bike trainer workout. But I would always do that at a much, much lower intensity for you guys that like to use zone somewhere around zone two. So Tuesday would be morning key interval session, big breakfast, and then maybe something in the afternoon, if I'm lucky, little bit of a shorter run, or of course one of those recordings for a video on demand session. Good. So those are the first two days. Wednesday, I would try and get up and do somewhere around 75 to 80 minutes of a hilly trail run thinking in the lens of strength endurance, but because of time efficiency easier for me to go out and do a run than it would be to go out and ride two hours, I just didn't have capacity for that. On Thursday, it was back to a trainer base session. Again, very high intensity leading the live coach bike sessions. And so I had a coaching role there. But I would also try hard on them. And I was typically doing low cadence high torque what we call strength endurance sessions. Those are real sort of special sauce of Purple Patch in many ways. And those are, I think, really, really valuable for me, doing low low cadence, high torque work, all in a coached environment, feeling connected to the community, a lot of fun, and that would get me through Thursday typically wouldn't do anything else. Occasionally, I'd get to record another video-on-demand coach session. But again, that would be low intensity, Friday, another easy day, 45 minutes shakeout run, maybe even nothing on Friday. And then on Saturday, assuming that I didn't get the opportunity to ride long, it will be a two, three to four-hour gravel ride or road ride, typically. That'll be pretty fun. And if I didn't have capacity to do that, maybe Baxter had a swim meet, I will go out and do a 60 to 70-minute run. But I would put some intensity in there, you start to see the pattern of okay, reduced hours, you hit higher intensity on Sunday, nearly always the same. A longer duration, hilly trail run, when I say longer durations, somewhere between 80 and 100 minutes, always strength-based. So going uphill a lot running downhill. So I'm getting ready for a seven-day ride through the Alps. And you hear quite a lot of running. But that's what I had to do to fit in the magic word of consistency. Now I didn't swim at all. And the most glaring hole in this is the big opportunity to do back-to-back bike rides. I probably had a cluster of three or four opportunities where I got to do two to three rides in a row. So I thought, how can I actually break this mold? This is a need for multi-day resilience. But I don't have capacity or opportunity to do multi-day rides very often. And so what I look to do here is leverage every operator I knew that I had, if I did get to do a big long ride, so let's just say that I had the chance on one weekend to go out on a Saturday and ride big Napa, for me that was somewhere between 100 and 120 miles, and typically try and hit over 3500 meters of climbing and elevation gain, the way that I would pan around that is on Friday, I would really try and do a tough interval based trainer workout. In other words, I would record one of our video-on-demand coach sessions, and I would do it very, very strong. I'd then go and do the over distance the next day without any intervals in just go and choose really hilly riding. And then on Sunday, I would try and build an optimized resilience by hitting that very long trail run at least very long for me somewhere between 80 and 100, meal minutes, all on trails. So where that's left me is, as I said, I'm healthy, I'm a little bit lighter, I think I'm really fit. I've built out over consistency, I haven't had many blocks where I've lost motivation, or haven't executed consistent, really effective training. But it still leaves us with questions, and a little bit of a real mindset of, Wow, this is a crazy experiment. So the things I don't really know is how will my body respond. How will it respond with the overall total low weekly hours of training, averaging somewhere around eight to nine hours a week of training, typically, outside of those weekends that I did get to eat, to work to ride really long? I also have a question around running. How will that actually transfer into riding? Will it actually help me? Or will it not really help me at all? And also, on top of it, where the focus on a whole bunch of really high-intensity intervals, provide any assistance in a multi-day riding trip. And most of the big questions, I don't know how my body's gonna respond. I'm not sure if the running was useful, I think it was. And knowing that I didn't have the hours to do it. And leaning into intensity, can I break the mold a little bit on that big base building, that, of course, would be preferable if had all the time in the world. If I actually go back and review my total training hours, that was typical in a week - and let's say that I had an average of 10 hours that I managed to nail it's a little bit less than that. But let's say it was 10. Except on those big weeks where I did get to ride long. But on a typical January, February, March, I was knocking off somewhere around 10 hours a week of training, I could label about 40% of those hours as being high intensity. So of total training time about 40% to 50%, higher intensity. Now, if I got to do 20 hours in a week, and occasionally I did manage to do that on the training camp et cetera, that relative percentage would shrink, it will go down to about 15 to 20%. And that makes sense. But the key lesson there is that as I added hours, I didn't increase total intensity, I maintain the key intensity. And then I got the opportunity to build overall resilience. And that's where it becomes more polarized. But on a typical week, I wasn't polarized at all, because I had shrunk in number of total training hours. So to try and combat that a little bit. I amplified intensity. Look, I had a limited training budget, so therefore, I had to hit more intensity. One thing I will add, I kept nearly all of my running intensity pretty low. And that was because I want it to be strength-based leveraging hilly trails, but I also wanted to make sure that I could keep my tissue really healthy. So out of all of that, am I confident?
Matt Dixon 38:57
Well, if I have to be honest, I think it's important for me to highlight here that I've got a really rich history in endurance sports, pretty much lifelong. I've got a lot of experience. I grew up a swimmer, I swam at a high level, I trained for triathlons did a whole bunch of mileage, too much mileage when I was a triathlete. And so I do have a rich history. And I have that in my favor. And I think it's important for me to acknowledge. On the flip side in the last 10 years or so I really haven't done that much. It wasn't till about 2019 that I started to really revert back to hang on. I'm just about to get really old here. I need to get back into being really consistent, fit, and healthy. And I've done that over the last three years. But the 10 years prior, I would say I was really detrained. So on one hand I've got 20 years of endurance to draw from, on the other hand, the last decade has been a little bit spotty. Now with all of that, I can say that within the context of my life and the priorities Kelly and Baxter first, Purple Patch second, this being third. I have done everything I can do within the context to get ready. And while I know it's going to be tough and challenge me, I think I'm absolutely fit enough to go and navigate it, enjoy it and emerge successfully. So yeah, overall, I think I'm pretty happy and pretty confident.
Matt Dixon 40:16
The final piece of today's show, we're just going to dig into habits and nutrition. I always talk about the importance of considering sleep recovery, nutrition fueling, etc. So I just want to really quickly share how I went about it. So there are a few quick hits here. Approaches to daily nutrition, hydration, and fueling, here's some things that I absolutely adhere to. Number one, I can say that with 100% consistency, every single training session that I did, I followed it with fueling within 30 minutes, it always included protein and carbohydrates. And it nearly always included a big glass of precision hydration. And so that's really the backbone of what I did, I made sure that I consume calories, immediately following every single piece of exercise that I did over the last seven months. That's number one. Number two, I had breakfast every single day and it was a priority meal. Typical would be a very large bowl of oatmeal, a whole bunch of chia seeds, flax seeds, almonds, berries, yogurt, or yogurt for the Americans. It added up to about 1200 calories. And that was my kickoff breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I did that almost every day. Over the last seven months, I often had a snack mid-morning, that could be various things, but often some more yogurt, maybe even a little bit more yogurt or oatmeal or overnight oats. And then at lunch, I tended to be very protein and veggie-heavy. That would often be a tuna poke a bowl with a little bit of rice and a whole bunch of vegetables, maybe some chips because I like potato chips and some fruit. And then the afternoon I typically have a snack that might be something around hummus crackers and fruit. And then the meal at night was always anchored around a large large piece of protein, lots of veggies, and some carbohydrates. Now, probably five or six out of every seven days in a week, I would have a few bites of ice cream at night. And why did I do that? Because I like ice cream. The biggest change for me though, and perhaps the ice cream became the replacement of this a little bit. The biggest change is I was in a habit over the last 10 years or so of most meals having a beer with dinner. And I completely remove that over the last seven months or so what I actually did is shifted some very nice non-alcoholic beer that gave me the ritual, gave me the taste, because I wasn't chasing alcohol, but I just really liked the taste and the ritual. So probably four or five nights I have a non-alcoholic beer and then at the weekend, well I'd have a beer if I felt like it. Beyond that dinners, occasions birthdays, vacations. What I did there, I just ate how I want. Had desserts. I have beers and glasses of wine. I really didn't change a thing on that I just went on a live my life. I didn't want to make this a monkey on my back. And so I was pretty low key to be honest about all of that stuff. Around sleep well.
Matt Dixon 43:18
I'm a morning log So I'd go to bed about 9 pm I'd wake up before 5 am Quite often 4:00 or 4:30 in the morning. That would always kick off with two to three espressos. I love my coffee, a big large glass of precision hydration, and get into light as quickly as I can. And I always aim to exercise early, good kickoff to the day. Typically, almost all my training outside of bike rides that were longer than two hours. All on my training. I did fasted. I tend to prefer it like that. I like exercising on an empty stomach. But of course, following training, it was that post-workout fueling and typically that big bowl of oatmeal. So that's how I did it. How about the long rides, let's talk about fueling because this is something we're going to go through when we talk about this. And on the daily reports in the Haute Route. My fueling while I was very very lucky, I had the personal Counsel of Andy blow at Precision Hydration. And he helped me with an overall framework. And here it is. Now, I think the backdrop to this, firstly, I'm a pretty mid-level sweater. I'm not that salty. I'm pretty middle of the range, I lose about 700 milligrams per hour. And so, and the reason I know this, by the way, is I went through sweat testing that we deliver at the Purple Patch Performance Center in San Francisco that is open to everyone, by the way, you can just head to the website and sign up. It's a fantastically insightful tool to understand and help you build out your custom hydration needs. But anyway, I'm a mid-line sweater. So here's what I would do. Before the bike ride, I would pre-hydrate. I'd have about 1,000 milligrams of Precision Hydration in a big pint glass. Boom, gulp it down, and then throughout the bike ride I would aim for about a year liter an hour. And normally, that was almost exclusively at 1,000 milligrams solution, I would use the capsules or the sachets of Precision Fuel and Hydration. And I would pop it in my bottles. And that was the perfect one for me. If it was hot, or I was going really long, I might introduce some 1500 milligram, sodium sachets. And if it was really cold, miserable, and wet, and then I would shift down to maybe some 500 milligrams. That was it. Over the first two hours of every bike ride, I would build it around quick-release sugar. And so I would use precision fuel and hydration gels and Chews and pretty much nothing else. I really like them, they're neutral, they're functional, I wouldn't have them for dessert, but they are never offensive. And I think that is the very best thing that you can ask for in any sports nutrition product. And then in the middle of the bike rides, I tend to move to what you might label more macros. In other words, bars, sandwiches, trail mix components like that, that comprised of carbohydrate, protein, and fat, hence, all of the macros. And finally, in the last 60 to 90 minutes of those longer bike rides, I revert back to gels and chews. And the reason for that is twofold. Number one, it's important to keep fueling for your performance in the back end of it. But also, I want you to create the habit of me actually consuming calories in that last hour when I think about multi-stage riding. So I start to fuel in the backend, to prepare for the next day to make sure that I have to make up less of a deficit as I try and refuel at the end of the day. And folks, that's my preparation. That's how I did it.
Matt Dixon 46:42
I'm sure many of you guys are going to be listening to that and think goodness me, the geezer ain't ready, he's going to have a nightmare. And that might be true. In fact, if you look at things by the book, I am classically nowhere near ready. But ultimately, actually, I think I'm really pretty fit. And I think I'm going to be okay. And think what I've done is the best job that I can do within the context of my life. Now, I can also say the same about my brothers and the five other friends that I'm going with all of whom have followed the same program. So now we have eight folks, all time-starved, all middle-aged men, I wish we had some middle-aged females as well, but all middle-aged men that are going to do this thing on a very similar program. So we'll start to see how it impacts and what the outcome is, I guess the proof will be in the pudding, won't it?
Matt Dixon 47:34
Well, I promise that I will share with no filter, it will be raw. I hope you follow along. I'm going to be honest, I'm going to be raw. And I'll let you know what happens. Episode One is going to be around August the 20th or so we're gonna report in from the start in Nice the day prior. And I'm going to be biting my nails. But also with excitement. I'm sure it's going to be the adventure of a lifetime. And I hope that we all stay safe and all the competitors, and we all get home. Thanks for following along, it should be a lot of fun. Next week, we'll do a little bit of return to education, and then it's going to be a special daily series on the Haute Route. Until then, take care.
Matt Dixon 48:15
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, stage, week, big, event, riding, day, hydration, run, haute, training, ride, athletes, fueling, relative, performance, sessions, challenge, bike, time-starved