Episode 264: Ask Matt Anything - Troubleshooting Training to Race Day
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Welcome to another "Ask Matt Anything" edition of the Purple Patch Podcast. Today IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon tackles your voicemails and emails. You asked and today Matt answers your questions on training and racing through a coach’s lens.
In this installment of "Ask Matt Anything", Matt answers your questions related to:
Management of training
Expectations around improvement
Race preparation strategy
And much more
Episode Timestamps
00:00 - 03:28 - Welcome and Episode Introduction
03:43 - 07:24 - Word of the Week
07:32 - 37:53 - The Meat and Potatoes: Episode 264: Ask Matt Anything - Troubleshooting Training to Race Day
08:30 - Question 1 from Joan: “I struggle with keeping up the hard training as well as my performance when I head to work. I often find myself falling into really deep drowsiness in the middle of the afternoon desperate for sleep. I try and battle through and I can certainly feel like it's impacting my focus and my productivity in the afternoon. I feel like I sleep okay. But I just wonder what I should try and do to improve my afternoon energy. Is it the hard training that's negatively impacting me?”
"The good news is that all of the things I'm going to suggest are pretty simple, they're actionable. And I think that by addressing these simple aspects, you're probably going to see a pretty radical shift in improvements..." - Matt Dixon
16:24 - Question 2 from Neil: “I just put my heart and soul into training for three full months. And I raced my first Half IRONMAN just a couple of weeks ago. And while I feel like I've improved my consistency, and throughout my training, I just didn't have a good day, I improved a little bit, but nowhere near as much as I would have assumed. And to be honest, right now, I'm feeling a little discouraged. I feel like quitting. Is it wrong of me to expect bigger gains in performance after such effort over so many months?"
"We want to think about this in longer-term athlete development. Because it's not only going to be a smart approach if you think about gains over the long term, and you don't think about any singular race as pass-fail. It's going to be a really empowering mindset for you." - Matt Dixon
28:25 - Question 3 from Carla: “I recently returned from my first half Ironman distance, but I found myself showing up at the start line, mentally and physically exhausted from the race week logistics, planning my equipment, mapping out my fueling and hydration, trying to get everything perfect around my meals. I just felt like a pinball throughout the days leading into the race. How do athletes remove some of the stresses and the logistics that have impacted me so much? I didn't feel like I raced to my trained potential because I was just exhausted."
"I can't overstate how much cognitive load is removed from athletes when they truly prepare for race week before they step into the venue itself before they arrive to the venue." - Matt Dixon
Ask Matt Anything! Head to the Podcast Page at PurplePatchFitness.com/podcast and leave a concise question for Matt. Tell us your name, and where you're from, and ask your question. We'll get to as many as we can in future episodes.
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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 00:24
Hey, folks, this week's show is the Ask Me Anything show. So I'm going to begin by asking you a question, what is the best tool an athlete can leverage to refine their approach around nutrition, health, and performance? Well, myself, I think it's InsideTracker. We leverage it with our athletes, and let me explain why. By assessing your biometrics, you provide a scientifically valid set of insights into your health, your stress levels, your nutrition profile, and much more. And from these results, and combining it with the recommendations from the team of scientists at InsideTracker, you can then narrow your focus on how you're eating, resting, your training, and any supplements that might be beneficial to you. The best part, the approach delivers only peer-reviewed information and recommendations. And so your hard work and results are also measurable by taking on some repeat assessments when it is appropriate. Purple Patch athletes leverage this and so can you too, all you need to do is head to insidetracker.com/purplepatch and use the code Purple Patch Pro 20. That's Purple Patch Pro two zero, and you get 20% off everything at the store. All right, Barry, let's get on with the show. There's a lot of questions to get through. See you there.
Matt Dixon 01:47
And welcome to the Purple Patch podcast, as ever, your host Matt Dixon. And guys, you can ask me anything. Really, you can, you can ask me anything. All you need to do, if you're interested in getting my counsel advice, insights, is head to the podcast page at PurplePatchFitness.com. That's our website, PurplePatchFitness.com. Over in the tab in the Education tab, there is a page dedicated to this show the podcast and you can simply type in a message or even nicer, you can leave me a nice voicemail. It's right there on the page, the only thing I'd like you to do is please add your first name, so I at least understand who it's coming from. And today, because of the folks have been leaving some very nice questions for me, I'm going to go through and I'm going to answer some of the questions that we've received. I always try to answer all of the questions that are left for me individually as much as I possibly can in my very busy time-starved life. But sometimes I like to dedicate a show to a few of the questions that have been put forth, especially to those questions I feel there's something to learn for all of us. And so we're going to do it today. We're gonna have some crackers. We've got question focusing on management of training, expectations around improvement - should I be getting better than I am? Race preparation strategy, and much more. You folks asked me And so today, I'm going to answer and I'm going to provide my answers as I always do through a coach's lens. All of that is in the meat and potatoes. But first up, let's do the Word of the Week.
Matt Dixon 03:43
Yes, Barry, thank you for the tune in it is word of the week. And our Word of the Week this week is horsepower. Horsepower. I want to bring us back to last week's episode because in last week's show, I discussed bike training with an emphasis around indoor training. In other words, sitting on a bike trainer or nowadays all the fancy schmancy smart bikes and all of that stuff. And I welcomed a very special guest, former professional cyclist and coach Robbie Ventura. And he said something in that show that I thought was succinct, memorable, and really important if you want to achieve the best results possible from your cycling training. And I found it to be just one of those pure coaching moments. In the show, Robbie said and I'm paraphrasing a little bit, but he said effectively, too many athletes and coaches focus all of their attention on developing horsepower. But the true value is gained by focusing on gaining speed. And that becomes really, really important but after the show, I had a couple of questions and comments including an athlete who passionately argued that the input to speed was horsepower. In other words, you can't go faster unless you've got more watts. Hence, he declared, that quote doesn't make sense. Well, Robbie's point in saying this was that developing fitness and power is indeed one of the inputs that leads to improved sustainable speed. But there are many, many more other inputs that fail to receive the attention by coaches and athletes. And yet they are these other inputs critical in maximizing speed outcomes. So how you actually pedal the bike, sit on the bike, manage terrain, and wind, be strategic with your pacing strategies, and much more? If we bucket these other components that fail to get real attention into the art of becoming a better bike rider, that whole art is a huge opportunity for development. And it is going to yield the biggest speed returns imaginable, and yet still remains an afterthought to athletes. If you just spend any time looking at social media shots, some very accomplished athletes and pro cyclists on their riding very hard on the trainer, all the while clearly sitting on their bike with terrible posture and mechanics. It is my point proven. Robbie is dead, right. If you want to maximize your racing results, don't just chase power, Chase speed. Become a better bike rider. And yes, that is why I absolutely love our new platform. Because it drives coaches and athletes to start to think in those terms, to practice these habits to develop an actually improve on the artistic side. And so no matter how much power you produce, you can actually get that power to work for you to deliver what really counts, which is speed returns. And that is why the word of the week this week is horsepower. Don't forget it. And don't just chase that. Instead, chase speed. And folks with that now it's time for your questions. It is the meat and potatoes
Matt Dixon 07:32
Folks, the meat and potatoes, your questions for me, I'm gonna give it my best crack today. I'm going to provide the answers that I can, but also try and tailor the specific answers to your questions to the broader perspectives. Now throughout the day, I'm only going to give the person that gives the questions. I'm only gonna label on their first name so that we can protect their identity. We like a little bit of privacy here as ever. But I will say that most of the questions that we go through today fall under the umbrella of training and racing. And it's timely. It's spring, we're bursting into early-season racing, at least in the northern hemisphere. And so it seems time to have a little crack under training, preparation, and racing. And so there's no need for me to hold back. Let's do this together. Let's jump off a cliff and go for it. And so here it is. Question number one. And the question is from Joan and the subject matter is the management of training. Let me read out the question from Joan. She says,
Matt Dixon 08:30
"Dear Matt, I love the show,” Thank you very much. “As you get labeled the recovery coach, I thought I would ask a question around fatigue. I love my training. But I struggle with keeping up the hard training as well as my performance when I head to work. I often find myself falling into really deep drowsiness in the middle of the afternoon desperate for sleep. I try and battle through and I can certainly feel like it's impacting my focus and my productivity in the afternoon. I feel like I sleep okay. But I just wonder what I should try and do to improve my afternoon energy. Is it the hard training that's negatively impacting me? Just for a bit of reference, I'm 44 years of age. I'm a busy professional. I tend to train in the morning, sometimes around 60 to 80 minutes. And I'm a little bit new to this whole training game, but I am giving my serious training a crack this year."
Matt Dixon 09:22
Well, Joan, super question. Thank you. And you are not alone. A lot of people get the slumps in the afternoon, your case is certainly not unique. And in truth, there could be several factors to review in search of some answers here. The good news is that all of the things I'm going to suggest are pretty simple, they're actionable. And I think that by addressing these simple aspects, you're probably going to see a pretty radical shift in improvements across some of the struggles those afternoon slumps. I need to say that as we dive into this, let me assume that your training is not too much for you relative to your life. Okay, and if, if that is true, and I honestly don't think that you are training too much, we can put aside the sort of training planning side of things and just say it's not a problem with the program per se. And I'll also add that I would hypothesize that the harder training sessions in there are not the culprit either. So I think we can actually dismiss, at least for the coming weeks, and see if we get a bump of some of the recommendations that I talk about, but I think we can dismiss looking at the training, looking at the harder training sessions and say, maybe I should back off on that. Let's keep the program the same. It's my recommendation. Let's look at some of the other components. Here are some common villains, or at least areas to review, when you go about those afternoon slumps, and all of these can combine to actually have a pretty significant boost in stabilizing energy throughout the day, and removing some of the afternoon slumps that are so common for folks in the workplace.
Matt Dixon 11:09
Number one, this is probably the most important one post-workout fueling the single biggest catalysts that I tend to see for time-starved athletes, sustainably dialing in really good energy throughout the day, is to ensure that they consume protein and carbohydrate immediately after a workout, within 20 to 30 minutes. It's a really good practice for time-starved athletes that are juggling many factors in life. So if you can work out in the morning, and you mentioned in question that you tend to, post-workout consumption of calories, so a nice big breakfast after your workout is a really good thing. All right, so what does that look like? Well, that could be some eggs and avocado and a tortilla. That might be oatmeal with a little bit of protein powder, some yogurt, some chia seeds, some berries, something along those lines, but always ensuring that you have a good breakfast post-workout. That's a good component, it setups really good eating habits and choices as well as portion size in the rest of the day. It kickstarts your recovery and adaptations. It also fuels your brain that you need for clarity focus decision-making throughout the day. So number one recommendation is always ensure that you're consuming calories after the workout.
Matt Dixon 12:29
The second factor to consider is hydration. Many athletes tend to focus on hydration during exercise, they're riding on the bike trainer with a water bottle or something along those lines. And that's super, but then finish their training and skip to the rest of their day mostly having things like coffee or tea. And this results to your walk around like a dried sponge, and it impacts your energy levels, your actual functioning, cognitive function. Dehydration creates hunger and fatigue. Dehydration creates hunger and fatigue. And so I would recommend consuming at least two liters of fluid throughout the day. In fact, a nice simple habit to do is when you first wake up, have somewhere close to half a liter or a liter of fluid with your morning coffee. I would avoid sugary beverages. Certainly don't consume any diet sodas or at least highly restrict them. And I will ensure that you're not consuming caffeine anywhere in the afternoon. And so lots of hydration, similar to a big bottle that you have in there is really really beneficial throughout the day. If you boost your hydration that can often help with your energy levels.
Matt Dixon 13:43
Number three hot liquid in the afternoon. Non-caffeinated remember? But, some of the fatigue that you might be experiencing might just be related to a natural drop in your core temperature, and that's just related to your natural circadian rhythm. The body slows down. The Spanish had it right, the siesta is a really good thing, but most of us don't have that luxury. And so as your core temperature drops, one of the byproducts is a little bit of sleepiness and drowsiness. And you're certainly experiencing that. So if you actually have a non-caffeinated hot beverage, that can often elicit a really nice boost of energy, a little bit of vibrancy for several hours, not just several minutes, and it won't disrupt your evening sleep. So that's the third tip that you can go and look at.
Matt Dixon 14:30
And finally, I would really encourage you to embrace a little bit of me-time every day. What do I mean by me time? Well, I deliberately don't label it a nap because people think that they have to get into their pajamas and fall asleep for this to be effective. Instead what this is, is 10 to 15 minutes, most days where you just rest your eyes. It's quiet time. And this can prove highly restorative. It's actually a performance investment, because 10 to 15 minutes not longer than that, that you're just resting is shown, in peer-reviewed research, to boost your productivity, your clarity, and focus for several hours following. And guess what, it doesn't negatively impact your sleep that night. In fact, many people report that it tends to improve your sleep at night. Personally, I try to rest my eyes or lie down at least somewhere between, and this might sound a little quirky, seven to 15 minutes every single day, no matter how I feel, and self-reported, it absolutely boosts my productivity across the afternoon hours. It isn't laziness, it is a performance enhancer. So those four combinations, I think you should try all of the and I think those factors might help you. Of course, we add to this getting to bed at a regular time every night as early as possible, avoiding or limiting alcohol. And choosing a backbone of good high-quality eating habits are, of course, additive essentials. But I hope the points that I mentioned, provide a runway for you to get energized in the afternoon. That's a cracking one to lead us off today.
Matt Dixon 16:13
All right. Question number two, this one is from Neil. And I like this because this is about focused on expectations of improvement for training. Here's the question from Neil,
Matt Dixon 16:24
"Matt, at the start of this year..." So we're about three and a half months in. "...at the start of this year, I doubled down on my commitment to sport, really aiming to take my performance to the next level, I just put my heart and soul into training for three full months. And I raced my first half Ironman just a couple of weeks ago. And while I feel like I've improved my consistency, and throughout my training, I just didn't have a good day, I improved a little bit, but nowhere near as much as I would have assumed. And to be honest, right now, I'm feeling a little discouraged. I feel like quitting. Is it wrong of me to expect bigger gains in performance after such effort over so many months?"
Matt Dixon 17:09
Well, it's a great question. And I'll tell you a feel for you captain. And I've got several things to say on this one. And I obviously as I say this, I don't have context or insight into your prior training or results, Neil, and I obviously don't have specific race data to look at. So instead, what I can do is hopefully provide a little bit of perspective in general counsel that might be valuable, and hopefully, other people that have lived the same situation, as many, many people have, hopefully, can draw on my response. I actually want to start my answer to this question at a very high level, more of a global level around sport. And the challenge that we take on. I want to talk about the jeopardy of sport. And I want to think about this a little bit, Neil and all of us that are listening to the show today, if the outcome, the results of sport, we're always just directly correlated to the inputs, the effort in training,
Matt Dixon 18:18
sport would actually be quite boring. If what you just put in, you always got out, and then there would be no Jeopardy. And the truth is that a big part of the frustration of sport, but also the beauty of it is the ever-present jeopardy of it. The truth is that you can work your tail off, and there is still no promise of results. What you get by massively working your tail off is a hugely amplified chance of opportunity and success, and almost a guarantee of long-term gain and improvements. If you get your recipe right. But any individual race that you take on still carries no promise, there is Jeopardy. And that is very frustrating when things don't go right. But it's also a big part of the challenge, the beauty, the thing that makes sports so wonderful, so parallel to life in many ways. And so with that context, I think it's important, but if you come back a level and you're past the emotions and the natural frustrations, you can realize that it's really folly. It's fool's gold, to measure for any athlete and for you to measure your expectations from any singular race. You just can't do it. And while coaches and athletes judge themselves and are judged on single races, I think it's a fool's errand. Instead, we need to come up a level. And so as that context layers in, I'm gonna recommend as the second part of the answer here, a shift in mindset. There is no doubt, absolutely no doubt that three months of focus and commitment can and in many ways should yield big gains. In the right scenario, if you commit for three months, you're gonna get big gains. But equal to that fact is that judging those gains, on a single day of racing, is actually not the best approach in the long term. So let me be clear, when I'm saying this, you should expect to get faster with hard work. That's the outcome that we're all chasing. But we want to think about this in longer term athlete development. Because it's not only going to be a smart approach if you think about gains over the long term. And you don't think about any singular race as pass-fail, it's going to be a really empowering mindset for you. In fact, it can defuse some of the natural internal pressure that often bubbles up that can actually unravel your performance readiness with that Do or Die approach. And just by you asking the question the way that you did, I am sure, Neil, that you got to the race and you said, "All right, this is it. This is the proving ground. This is judgment day," whether it was conscious or subconsciously. And that can be really dismantling of your performance readiness. Individual races are not judgment days on your self-worth or even the program.
Matt Dixon 21:36
Because anyone, ultimately, anyone can have a rough day for many, many reasons and it can be unrelated to your effort put in or how good the program is. So shift the mindset in the race a little bit. Instead of thinking pass/fail, good/bad. Think about growth, lessons, stepping stones. Let me explain. When you want to assess as you should your training or your racing, follow this pattern a little bit. You go into a race, win, lose, or draw, allow yourself after the race to feel the emotions, because racing will deliver emotions to you. They're going to elicit some emotional response, it can be an elation, when things have gone great. It could be frustration, despair, and anger, things don't go well. Feel those and give yourself a little bit of space, 24, 48, 72 hours, whatever you need, between race date, and starting to really dive into the assessment. Feel the emotions. There aren't good or bad emotions, they are just emotions. And you can interact with them, feel them, let them swim around. But once you have enough space from the race, and you have a little bit of management of those emotions, where they just fall down, you then are in a place that you can do a deep dive review. And you can actually objectively, without those emotions getting in the way of clarity and judgment, you can actually look back in your preparation and race day and ask yourself, how did it actually go? The first step of this is what did you actually experience? And from this race, even if the end result wasn't what you hoped or expected, go through a process where you identify elements that you did well. Perhaps you managed a piece of adversity in the race well. Did you nail your fueling and hydration? Did you not give up when your legs felt really heavy? Was it perhaps a rough swim and the bike was a little tough, but then you had a great run? Really identify elements that were the bright spots. And there were always bright spots. And those are the things that you can build on for next time. That you can log in and say, Good, I know how to do that. I did that well, and I can build on it. But equally, it's important to assess the aspects that you can develop or improve. Did you get panicked or frustrated when you got a flat tire? Did you struggle with GI distress? Did you lose your focus when you knew it wasn't going to be a PR day? Did you pull the parachute and just give up? No matter what it was write it down, not to judge yourself, not to identify or think that you suck, but to give clarity to the experience. And now you start to build a different perspective. Not just frustration, good, bad pass fail. But instead, like with every performance, there are good or bad, but you get lessons. And you should have even out of a tougher single-day positives to build in and cement into your approach. And then areas that you need to do better or focus on across your training and perhaps your race execution. And suddenly what feels like just a tough day is often the catalyst for the very best rich treasure trove of lessons that can ultimately unlock the huge performance potential. Let's just around the corner. And we think about great athletes, those athletes that thrive and succeed - the champions. This is what they do great. They look at tough days adversity, failure in many ways, and they grow from it. They apply the lessons, and they go big picture. Finally, part C of this question. I also encourage you Neal to come up a level. And I want you to think about those three months of effort that you put in. As you said, I committed. That's great. Let's think about those three months. How's your life been? Did you enjoy the training - the routine of it? Is your energy improved your vibrancy, your focus across various factors of life? Have you enjoyed taking on the challenge - the commitment? Did it create a certain amount of accountability for yourself? Did it provide a framework? Have you improved in your effectiveness and efficiency? Ultimately, did you have fun? If the answers to these questions tend to sway positive, and then that's going to tell you something. If the answers to those questions sway negative, well, it might be time for you to review the approach relative to your life. Because your recipe might need a little bit of development or refinement, you see commitments like this that you've taken on over the last months, they should amplify you getting faster, but they should also ignite your vibrancy across life and work. And if you get that right, then it can help you with a perspective in reviewing the journey. So again, I'm not diluting the importance of your racing results, we want you to get faster. But there is a truth in this that equal to that in many ways for the time-starved athlete, the best racing emerges from you having the best recipe in the context of your life. And so when you think about that third element, if your answers are swaying, negative, it's been a chore, I haven't enjoyed it. I've disrupted sleep, I'm not showing up in the rest of life. It's likely the fact that you're over-committing at the expense of life, and ultimately, race performance won't likely flow from it. But if it's been overly swaying, positive, it's actually really feel vibrant. I feel great. I've enjoyed it. It's been additive to my life, and then you're much more likely to look at a singular race and realize just bad day. But how do I learn and grow from it. And that's how you can get to be a smarter and ultimately, a faster athlete. I hope that helps. If you Neil, would like an individual consultation around this I would be more than delighted to help or of course, one of the Purple Patch coaches can as well. All you need to do is head to info@purplepatchfitness.com. Reach out, we'll set up a consultation and help you guide your framework a little bit.
Matt Dixon 28:15
All right, question number three folks, race preparation, and strategy and this is a doozy to finish us off. This is from Carla. Here's the question,
Matt Dixon 28:25
"Matt. I would love some recommendations or a show on race preparation. I recently returned from my first half Ironman distance,” Ironman 70.3 for you newfangled nouveau riche, triathletes, Ironman 70.3, but we're gonna go with the old school Half Ironman here. "But I found myself showing up at the start line, mentally and physically exhausted from the race week logistics, planning my equipment, mapping out my fueling and hydration, trying to get everything perfect around my meals. I just felt like a pinball throughout the days leading into the race. How do athletes remove some of the stresses and the logistics that have impacted me so much? I didn't feel like I raced to my train potential because I was just exhausted."
Matt Dixon 29:12
It's a great question. And I tell you, I think the answer comes in two parts Carla. Number one, the value of preparation in advance, and number two, speaking out the other side of my mouth, being able to go with the flow and not chase perfection. Let me explain a little bit. I can't overstate how much cognitive load is removed from athletes when they truly prepare for race week before they step into the venue itself before they arrive to the venue. Here are some aspects that help.
Matt Dixon 29:46
Number one will bucket it under rice preparation. Ensuring that you are practicing and dialing in your fueling and hydration weeks in advance. Integrating some simulators into your training understanding what works for you and what doesn't work, aiming to reduce your overall fueling and hydration plan into something that is simple and memorable. And even going through all of the logistics of how you're going to transport prepare, replenish all of your fueling hydration and electrolytes throughout the day. Having this dialed in before you arrive is really beneficial. Our partnership with the team at FuelIn, they love this. They integrate and work with athletes to make sure that by the time that they show up to the race course, it is happening automagically. It's almost a habit, and that is really empowering and important. So in advance having all of that done and dusted so you're not thinking about it on race week -- problem solved before it's a problem.
Matt Dixon 30:51
In conjunction with that, and in parallel with that equipment. Arrive with your equipment ready, clean, functional, organized before you travel, having all of your scenarios met. What's the weather going to be - hot, cold, wet, dry? Ensuring that your equipment is laid out and you're not panic-packing the night before. While we can't control mechanics, or mechanicals, through transit, especially when you have to pack your bike in a bike box, we can reduce risk and ensure and improve the chances are that things go really smoothly. Clean, working equipment packed up in advance and organized, it is a hugely valuable component. Another area of this is around logistics. Know your plan and rough schedule in advance. Remember these words for later, a rough schedule. But really mapping out the week and the days leading up can help create a framework and help you get organized. What do you need to do for registration and setup? Where do you need to be? Plan when you're going to do this over the course of the whole week, lead up into the race. How much of the course and the transitions do you want to preview and see and plan when you're going to go and do it? Schedule your timing of your training that you need to do. Schedule the location. Where is the best place to do it? Remove all of the guesswork from this. Even go so far as reserving your dinner reservations and your eating slots. What are you going to wait when you're going to consume it? Map your race-morning schedule. When you're going to wake up, how you're going to get to the race site? Do I need to be dropped off by friends and family? What are my morning logistics? And finally, read the course manual and race details in advance. It really, really helps. This is one of those components, where all of you guys that are Type A, you should lean into those traits. You get the idea but actually planning ahead and leaning into your more Type A side can actually be a factor of liberation. So it is actually scenario that I really recommend you do this. But then with that organization, you've gotta then be flexible. Part B of the answer is go with the flow. And so with all of that organization, you need to arrive. And once you get there, you realize I've done all of I can, but now I just need to respond with what's gonna happen. Don't chase perfection in your schedule or that plan. It's great to have a plan. But now work the plan. Just like your approach to fueling and hydration on the day, you should approach your schedule as a framework, and then you flex as needed. Athletes so often gets so wound up when they met with the smallest piece of adversity in race week, and their whole performance can become derailed and it doesn't need to be you. Let me tell you that a great race seldom emerges from perfection. Your preparation is rarely exactly as you anticipate. So while all that planning that I recommend is helpful, and sometimes it goes really smoothly, don't get derailed if things don't go to plan. If you have a bike mechanical or if you need to shift dinner plans, if you bump into friends, don't sweat it, go hang out and do dinner with them. It's okay. Instead, just focus on getting the basic stuff right. Commit to resting and downtime, getting your early nights, trying to do all you can to improve the quality of your sleep, maintaining as much as possible your very normal eating habits and patterns, including the types of foods that you enjoy before those big training days that you've done. Because the chances are if you have your favorite dinner, and you go and train well, go and have your favorite dinner before you go and race well. maintain your good hydration, just bump it up a little bit, but you don't need to turn to a camel and avoid the constant ongoing assessment and reassessment of race plans. You're just trying to find a solution that ain't there that you don't need to solve. Instead, give yourself every day a 10 to 15-minute block of time as you lead into every day that you think about your race, your strategy, your plan. Re-go over it. But then beyond that, try and avoid thinking about it. Just enjoy being at the event, enjoy the occasion, seeing other athletes, seeing old friends, getting a chance to actually put your training into action. And that is how, by planning, and then going with the flow, you actually show up. Both fit with all of the hard work that you've done, but fresh, and having capacity to raise your performance and have a super day. And with that, Carla, that is my answer. And guys, those are our three chosen questions for the Ask Matt Anything episode. I hope that helps. Back to regular programming next week, we're going to talk all about team. It's a goodie. And I say until then train hard, stay healthy, and have fun. Cheers.
Matt Dixon 36:22
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
athletes, race, question, training, little bit, performance, bike, racing, afternoon, improve, day, hydration, week, slumps, coaches, fueling, feel, bit, life, starved