Purple Patch Podcast

He's back and better than ever at Badwater 135. Two years ago, Purple Patch athlete, Timothy Deer, completed his first Badwater 135 Ultra in just over 36 hours. This year, at age 56 and in some of the hottest historical race conditions, Deer finished again...faster, stronger, and healthier than ever. In fact, he was 11th overall, the first athlete 50+, and four hours faster than in 2019. The Badwa...

If you've raced this year, we hope allowed yourself the joy of "dusting the rust off" and approaching your events with a mindset of celebration. If you're still building up to your first race, you'll love this "best of" that encapsulates some of the earlier stand-alone episodes from earlier this year. In fact, we highly recommend you go back and listen in full to episodes 160-165. It was our 'tria...

Matt is on holiday this week, so we're releasing a recent interview he did on "The Greg Bennett Show," hosted by former Olympian and professional triathlete, Greg Bennett. It was a perfect match as Matt and Greg share many of the same philosophies around high-performance sport and life. In this episode, Matt: Shares his journey from collegiate swimmer to pro triathlete. Discusses the key lessons h...

We are thick into the 2021 race season and the most common questions we receive are always centered around hydration and fueling during training and racing. We're proud to welcome back Precision Hydration founder, Andy Blow, to answer your questions. Precision Hydration is, first and foremost, a hydration company, but they have recently expanded into new fueling products that include gels and a ca...

If you are running a marathon, prepping for a hot triathlon, getting primed for IRONMAN or IRONMAN 70.3 summer racing, then this episode is for you. Matt digs into performance readiness for HOT environments; more specifically, how to get heat adapted BEFORE your event. After outlining some rules around heat adaptation, Matt defines two of the best protocols for heat adaptation before your event: I...

There is no easy way to deliver high performance in life, work, or sport. It requires a tremendous amount of hard work, but performance only arises when your hard work is supported by downtime, rejuvenation, and really positive habits to health and vibrancy. Matt outlines the mental and physiological benefits of stepping away to facilitate mental and physical rejuvenation—the ultimate accelerant t...

You began the year with the best intentions, big ambition, and commitment to your BHAGS - your Big Hairy Audacious Goals. Unfortunately, things haven't gone quite as planned. You may be struggling or dealing with more adversity than you had anticipated. You may have fallen off the training wagon, or had a bad race result or two. It happens to the best of us because that's what the performance jour...

Matt is on holiday this week, so we're releasing a recent interview he did on "The Changeable" podcast hosted by Social Psychologist, Dr. Amy Johnson.  Dr. Johnson was Matt's guest last week when they discussed our brain's tendency to "get in the way" and take things that happen to us personally - sabotaging success and happiness. In this interview, Matt and Amy discuss failure, resilience, and th...

The Purple Patch Podcast is all about performance in sport, but also in broader life. We work with people who are seeking to improve and evolve their relationships or behavior patterns, ideally for the better. Our guest today is Social Psychologist and Coach, Dr. Amy Johnson. She, too, helps people who are seeking to improve their lives, mostly around freedom from and anxiety and unwanted habits....

Matt welcomes longtime Purple Patch athlete, Lars Tandrup, back to the podcast. In 2018, Lars and his wife lost everything in the Santa Rosa fires. He was left, quite literally, with only his pajamas - and even those were on fire as he escaped through acres of flames to safety. A few months after this tragedy, Lars came on the podcast to discuss how he hoped to emerge from this adversity. He sough...

You need support and guidance in your endeavors. You go and find an expert or coach who can help. And just like that...like magic dust...The results flow. Is it really that simple? No. It isn't. Ironically, so many folks just don't know how to be coached. There is an important perspective, mindset, and action that can enable a coaching relationship to flounder or flourish. When you get that right,...

If you care about performance, if you want to understand the mechanics of training, if you're invested in optimizing your training returns to yield the best adaptations, then this episode is assuredly for you. Matt Dixon welcomes a conversation with Exercise Physiologist, Dr. Stephen Seiler, a living legend in the world of Sports Science and Training Methodology. After unpacking Dr. Seiler's backg...

This week in the United States, it's Memorial Day Weekend, where we take a moment to reflect and honor those who have served in the military. Today, we celebrate by welcoming long-time Purple Patch coach and veteran, Sean Garick. Sean didn't get into coaching simply by being an endurance athlete-turned-coach. His background is something entirely different. He's an aerospace engineer, a longtime Un...

In this special episode, Matt speaks with a living legend in the sport of triathlon - Greg Bennett. Not only is Greg one of the best triathletes in the world, but he has also successfully transitioned to a business owner as a corporate coach, speaker and podcaster. This conversation paints a wonderful illustration of a successful athlete transitioning to build a business, all with a wealth of pers...

It was inevitable. After a full calendar of racing was canceled in 2020, we knew that 2021 was going to be the year of deferrals and stacked event calendars. And now, here we are in the midst of the training season for this upcoming cluster of races that all feel important to you. You did invest the money and emotional energy into these races, after all, and you rightfully expect a positive return...

Now that restrictions are lifting and we're emerging from the fog of Covid-19, you may be deciding to take on a challenge - to TRAIN for something. It's your time to embrace the journey and go on a charge to challenge yourself, to stay consistent, and to achieve big hairy audacious goals. Today, Matt strips it all down to the fundamentals, to reground you, reset the mindset, and course correct in...

Today, Matt provides his insight on successful race day execution . It is a Dixon deep dive into all of the elements to ensure you are able to meet your trained potential with race day performance. It is normal and common for you to feel a little anxiety, even fear, when you return to racing. You are rusty, it has been a while, and the event feels bigger because of the gap from the last race. Ackn...

The Purple Patch Podcast Triathlon Takeover strides towards the finish line this week where Matt takes you through all you need to know to help facilitate hitting your potential on the run - including shoe choice, nutrition, terrain, and even walking your way to your fastest run performance. It is a triathlete's guide to run success. You come out of T2 and all you need to do is run to the finish. ...

The Purple Patch Podcast Triathlon Takeover rolls on this week with an hour of power on all things related to bike performance and race-day execution. Optimum bike fit, posture, equipment, and pacing strategies are all covered in this episode that features two of the best in the industry, Ivan O'Gorman and Chris Soden of IOG Bike Fit and Consulting . As you'll hear, IOG's approach to consulting is...

The Purple Patch Podcast 'Triathlon Takeover' continues with a step-by-step guide to race day fueling and hydration with Sports Scientist and Precision Hydration Co-Founder, Andy Blow. Matt and Andy identify and explain the three levers of race fueling –  Fluids (water) Electrolytes Calories/carbohydrates Then, they outline your race day fueling prescription depending on race intensity, distance,...

The swim leg of any triathlon is one that elicits stress and fear. You're entering into murky water with the blinding sun in your eyes. There are choppy waves that are seemingly predestined to make their way into your lungs. All the while, you're getting very physical with hundreds of your closest friends. Swim anxiety is real, especially in open water swimming. Today, Coach Matt Dixon and Coach J...

Celebrate Good Times, C'mon! Fasten your seat belts, folks. It is time to get back to racing and over the course of the next several weeks, the podcast is executing a "triathlon takeover" - focusing on everything you'll need to implement a successful return to racing after our extended hiatus. Today's episode lays the groundwork to arm you with the knowledge, mindset, and tactics for a confident e...

Obsession. It isn't an easy topic, but it's an important one and Matt explores this fine line between a healthy commitment to performance vs. an unhealthy obsession in today's episode that sets the backdrop of future episodes. Remember, the pursuit and excellence in your sporting goals aren't the only measures of success. We define success as nailing that part, but by pursuing these goals, you als...

Athletes often think of recovery as a weakness or liability to their training.  Unfortunately, our barometer of success is often a simple accumulation of training hours without regard to the quality of those hours or what we do in between. If we do give a thought to recovery, it's usually in the form of a rest day or a little foam rolling after a tough session. But, is this true recovery? Are we r...

Consistency - the magic ingredient of success for those seeking to penetrate the thin air of word-class performance, to succeed in their journey to a first finish line, or to thrive in life performance. While every coach will tell you this is the magic bullet for success, not all will explain the HOW of developing consistency in a time-starved life. Via personal story and an athlete case study, Ma...