Episode 261: Why Race Distance Training Plans Don’t Work for Time-starved Athletes
Purple Patch Podcast
Matt Dixon
4.8 • 647 Ratings
🗓️ 5 April 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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 amount of training hours designed around specific race distance means cramming training into a life already bursting at the seams.
In today’s episode of the Purple Patch Podcast, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon explains how to build a training program that can achieve sustained high performance across a range of distances while fitting into a life with high competing demands.
Matt leverages Purple Patch’s popular tri-squad program to highlight a training structure that fits all levels of athletes under one umbrella.
How can athletes have different race distance goals - from sprint distance and short course to IRONMAN - and all successfully exist under the same program?
Matt answers the question by breaking down the common mistakes athletes make by fitting their lives into a training program rather than creating a program that fits into their lives.
Tri squad is designed specifically for time-starved athletes and it successfully caters to all levels of athletes, and all distances. It is easily personalized to fit different schedules, by integrating video coaching, on-demand sessions, educational support, and guidance from the Purple Patch coaching team and its trusted experts across the performance spectrum.
Through the lens of the tri-squad program, Matt covers a method for landing on specificity while embracing the individual needs and goals of each athlete. It is a training methodology that has enabled countless first-time finishers to enjoy the journey without injury or feeling like the sport is an additional part-time job.
“It's the catalyst for more than 1,000 qualifiers to world championship events. And it's why I believe we are one of the highest performing teams at the USA Olympic Distance Nationals, at the same time, having an average number of hours for a Purple Patch Ironman athlete, only somewhere between 8 and 14. And that is where I believe we stand alone.” - Matt Dixon
This episode is required listening for any time-starved athlete chasing high performance.
We encourage you to reach out to us for more information on how we can support you on your performance journey.
Learn more about our Tri Squad Program
Contact us if you have questions
Episode Timestamps
00:00 - 5:14 - Welcome and Episode Introduction
05:21 - 7:22 - Matt's News-ings
07:37 - 10:03 - Word of the Week
10:10 - 29:11 - The Meat and Potatoes - Episode 261: Why Race Distance Training Plans Don't Work for Time-starved Athletes
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Matt Dixon and welcome to the Purple Patch podcast. |
| 0:06.7 | The mission of Purple Patch is to empower and educate every human being to reach their athletic |
| 0:11.7 | potential. |
| 0:12.7 | Through the lens of athletic potential, you reach your human potential. |
| 0:16.5 | The purpose of this podcast is to help time-starved people everywhere in a great sport into life. |
| 0:24.3 | You might be time-starved, you don't have unlimited training time, but you do have within the |
| 0:30.3 | context of your life unlimited potential. This requires focus. It includes filtering distractions. |
| 0:39.7 | But for this, Insight Tracker can help. |
| 0:44.6 | We leverage it a purple patch to refine the approaches in nutrition, gain insights into an athlete's heart health, and improve their performance across sport and life. Insights from biometrics |
| 0:51.1 | combined with the expertise of the scientists and other experts at Inside |
| 0:55.2 | Tracker are a winning combination. And you can leverage it too. You do not need to be a Purple Patch |
| 1:00.6 | athlete. All you need to do is head to insidetracker.com slash Purple Patch. Head to the store |
| 1:06.3 | and download the assessment that's right for you. Oh, and you can use this sneaky code as well. |
| 1:11.5 | Purple Patch Pro 20. That's Purple Patch Pro 20. |
| 1:15.1 | You get 20% off everything at the store. |
| 1:18.0 | All right, today's a cracker, so enjoy it. |
| 1:20.4 | Get on with the show. |
| 1:34.2 | And welcome to the Purple Patch podcast, as ever, your host Matt Dixon. |
| 1:38.9 | A couple of weeks on this show, I discussed training plans, but not just any old training plans. |
| 1:42.0 | It was training plans designed for time-starved athletes. |
| 1:47.5 | And over the course of the episode, I focused on the components that fuel smart design of those programs and create sustainable success specifically for time-starved athletes. |
| 1:53.9 | And I hoped it would be helpful and, well, it seemed to be we had a really positive response. |
... |
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