Purple Patch Podcast

In this week's episode of the Purple Patch Podcast, Ironman Master Coach Matt Dixon takes a closer look at youth sports and the development of young athletes. With his experience as a parent, as well as a coach to world-class professional endurance athletes, executives, and amateurs alike for over 15 years, and using his own background in competitive swimming and triathlons, Matt examines the impo...

Imagine you are in the midst of a tough race in the middle of hot and humid conditions and suddenly your body begins sending you signals of surrender. Anyone who has exerted any type of energy in the sweltering heat can attest to the difficulties posed by the conditions. Nothing sucks the speed out of the legs more than high heat and humidity. So, how do you go about setting yourself up for succes...

In this week's episode of the Purple Patch Podcast, we focus on athletes like you. Ironman Master coach Matt Dixon puts a spotlight on four case studies anchored in performance. Matt breaks down the lessons we can learn from those who have excelled in their performance journey as well as those who were less fortunate and serve as cautionary tales about the pitfalls on the way to improved performan...

Whether it's the boost of our morning espresso or the common drowsiness that sets in after lunch, we all experience bumps and slumps in our daily energy levels. Our vitality over the course of the day can sometimes be a rollercoaster. For some of us, that erratic ride has become a daily routine and an obstacle that limits our potential for performance. However, there are ways to rewire that routin...

The path to improvement is one that includes hard work and commitment, but too often we travel that path alone. We seek our personal goals in a very personal way. It can often be a solitary endeavor. Not only does it not have to be, but it also shouldn't be. "You cannot expect to optimize your performance or results if you always take the journey alone." In this episode of the Purple Patch Podcast...

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...

Today on the Purple Patch Podcast, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon welcomes former U.S. Pro Cyclist Robbie Ventura to the show. Robbie is the founder of Vision Quest Coaching and Velocity, an online indoor cycling training platform. Robbie shares experience and knowledge from his 12-year career as a pro cyclist, and more than 20 years providing expert training programs to endurance athletes of all...

As we begin to emerge into Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, many athletes are setting their sights on their B.H.A.G.s (Big Hairy Audacious Goals). The season is ahead of us and many of us are starting to move outside for more of our training. While it is a breath of fresh air for many athletes trapped indoors during the winter months, it is also the time when athletes start to make serious perfo...

Coaches and athletes love to discuss the importance of specificity in regard to training. While specificity is important to an extent, race-specific training is not always one-size-fits-all. Unfortunately, many athletes follow a specific plan that ends up not being the optimal plan for their needs and situation. For time-starved athletes, with competing demands in life and work, integrating a set...

As a companion to last week's Purple patch Podcast episode on training plans for time-starved endurance athletes, today's episode broadens the perspective by focusing on performance in health, work, and life.  ironman master coach Matt Dixon outlines a list of ten principles you need to put into action to build a platform of health and sustainable high performance. You don't need to be a pro athle...

Today on the Purple Patch Podcast, Ironman Master Coach Matt Dixon takes a fresh look at how to structure training for a time-starved athlete. Whether you're training for an endurance event, either competitively or simply for personal enjoyment, Matt provides a ground-up framework of how to maximize your training approach to be successful. Matt shares 5 principles to help build your time-starved t...

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...