Purple Patch Podcast

Who is the greatest athlete of all time? Take your pick. Once you have a name, ask yourself why? Beyond their physical abilities and talent, what sets them apart from the pack? What makes a great athlete? It's a question that IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon had the privilege of asking the committed group of young athletes with the BEAR DEVELOPMENT TEAM.  The team is made up of student-athletes, wi...

With record rain and snowfall across most of the United States, there seems to be no better time to fix our lens on the strategic application of indoor training in your performance journey. "Indoor training isn't about just replicating your outdoor sessions into a less favorable environment. It's specifically thinking about what is the appropriate training to do while you're in this environment, a...

In today's episode of the Purple Patch Podcast, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon takes us back to the core values of Purple Patch Fitness to help provide perspective on framing your performance mindset. The simple fact is, anything worthwhile is inherently difficult. The road to Kona is riddled with adversity. As is spearheading the drive for your team or company's success. Most of the time, that's...

Data, metrics, technology, and analytics - there are tools and tech that measure everything for an athlete. Wearables and apps track your sleep data, monitor your glucose, detail your sweat composition, and offer an endless list of information. For some people, tracking and assessing every training minute represents a drive toward high performance and specificity. For others, the data is a distrac...

Whether your goal as an athlete is to win a race or simply cross the finish line, it can often feel as though the only measure of success is race results. Every event is seemingly a pass-or-fail test reducing your performance journey to one athletic performance. But how do you move beyond race day and embrace the entire Journey? How do you effectively gauge your improvement and progress? In this e...

Strength and conditioning are an integral part of every Purple Patch Athlete's training program. It is just one of our four Pillars of Performance: Endurance, Strength, Nutrition & Fueling, and Recovery . In this episode of the Purple Patch Podcast Matt moves beyond how to build a strength program and the general benefits of strength training, and instead focuses on strength training as it pertain...

In this episode of the Purple Patch Podcast, instead of focusing on the training, planning, mindset, and tactics that go into the lead-up to a race or major event, Matt explores the equally critical yet often undervalued process of post-event decompression and assessment. Post-event is a huge part of the fabric of your athletic journey. Win, lose or draw, the experience can be a confusing and dest...

From the 2023 Purple Patch Training Camp in Kona, Matt delivers a special on-the-road episode exploring the vital role of training and supporting habits in broader life and work performance. Matt sits down with Purple Patch executive athletes attending the Hawaii training camp to discuss the parallels between their individual athletic journeys and their journeys in leadership within their own orga...

With the wave of the new year's short-term objectives behind us, it's time to get serious about the year and season ahead. Make no mistake, the focus or goal for most of you is to achieve! Whether that be results, PRs, finish lines, or championships, most people we chat with are eager to take their performance to the next level. To do that, we must first align with the goal and think bigger about...

Matt Welcomes former professional runner, running coach, and author Lauren Fleshman to the show to celebrate the release of her autobiographical memoir, Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man's World. Lauren details her new book which uses her personal experience and the challenges she faced as a collegiate and professional athlete in a male-centric environment, as a catalyst to bring about sig...

As we head into the new year with new goals and pursuits in life and in sport, we take stock of the lessons learned in 2022 to help pave the way for success in the coming year. In this episode of the Purple Patch podcast, we look back so we can move forward. Matt compiles key observations and lessons in performance over the past year to help you shed unproductive habits, prioritize best practices,...

What does success look like to you in the coming year? For many athletes, the answer to that question is often anchored in a single metric: Speed. We all want success, hope to get faster, and want to improve, but without a focused approach, it's easy to lose sight of what you're trying to achieve and how to achieve it. The dogged pursuit of a faster finish can lead to frustration and even injury,...

Tis the season to be jolly, but unfortunately tis also the season of sickness. Be it flu, cold, Covid, or RSV, everywhere you look you can see the signs of illness. For those in the Northern Hemisphere, the days are getting shorter, darker, and colder and all of the elements needed for a winter bug to spread are perfectly aligned. So what can you do this holiday or postseason to avoid getting side...

It's that time of the year. It's the end of the racing season and the holidays are approaching quickly. Now is the time you might be considering upgrading your equipment, whether by adding on to your favorite frame or buying a brand-new bike altogether. The blizzard of information, potential or promised benefits, and the wide range of products on the market can leave you confused or frustrated wit...

This week on the Purple Patch podcast, we are scaling back a little to give thanks to everyone who helped make the Purple Patch podcast what it is today. We are grateful for all of the support we have received over the past few years as we continue our journey and explore the evolution of the podcast experience. With nearly 250 episodes under our belt, we would like to say thank you to the more th...

In this episode of the Purple Patch Podcast, IRONMAN Master coach Matt Dixon presents the Winter Running Project, a tried and true method for improving next year's running performance regardless of your running level or overall goal.   The Winter Running Project is a chance for triathletes, fitness enthusiasts, injury-prone athletes, or those frustrated with the results of their running performanc...

While every performance journey requires commitment and hard work, the thing that sets enduringly good athletes apart from the rest is the dedication and time they put into establishing great fundamental habits around recovery. Postseason recovery doesn't just mean it is time to lay on the couch, jump in an ice bath, or strap on recovery boots. Getting recovery right is key to avoiding underperfor...

As a follow-up to our podcast on the evolution of the professional triathlon, this episode focuses on the tip of the performance spear with a spotlight on two athletes who have taken the sport to new heights. Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt, also known as The Norwegian Train. With stand-out Olympic and Ironman performances in recent years, the two athletes paved the way to a stellar showing a...

Like most time-starved athletes, it's the time of year when you reflect on the season and look forward to a well-deserved break. While the winter months offer a welcome shift of focus to other areas of life, your commitment to longer-term goals and your performance journey looms large. The threat of losing momentum in your athletic performance conflicts with the need to disconnect.  Today IRONMAN...

If you are like many fitness enthusiasts, athletes, and those looking to improve their health and fitness while balancing the demands of work, family, and life, you may be struggling or disatisfied with the results. Maybe you invested in your fitness journey and your body composition or fitness profile is not improving Maybe you're stuck in an injury cycle. You are not alone. Many people are strug...

For many athletes, the offseason is the bridge between the end-of-summer finish lines and next season's starting lines. While you might be considering turning the dial down on your athletic performance, you may actually be setting yourself up for failure in the coming year. In this episode of the Purple Patch Podcast, Ironman Master Coach Matt Dixon highlights the common mistake many athletes make...

You've done everything you can to avoid injury. You focused on fueling and hydration, followed a well-balanced strength and conditioning program, removed intensity when needed, and diversified your training to include a multisport approach. You leveraged all of the strategies Matt covered in the first two episodes of our three-part series on injury prevention and management. Despite your best effo...

With the Hawaii IRONMAN World Championships looming, one can't help but wonder about the level of performance to expect from an ever-growing field of high-performance athletes whose athleticism seems to trend upward every year. Beyond Kona, professional triathlon has witnessed performance and endurance levels rise and the makeup of endurance athletes shift based on the growing demands and expectat...

The day has finally come to celebrate a vision nearly a decade in the making, as the doors to the Purple Patch Performance Center in San Francisco's historic Mission District officially open. In this episode of the Purple Patch Podcast, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon takes us from seed to sprout with the story of how the performance center came to fruition through hard work, the endurance of spir...

It's that time of the year, and the first time since 2019, that athletes from all parts of the world gear up for the Hawaii Ironman World Championships in Kona. Whether you're planning to compete, supporting friends, or you're just an enthusiast, ironman master coach Matt Dixon invites you to follow along as he shares everything you need to know about how to achieve success in Kona. In this episod...