The year is not over yet and, at Purple Patch, we are rewriting the script. We are setting up a cracking second half of 2020! While we cannot control the destiny of real racing, we can create a new path for our community, one that continues to maximize training, adds clarity, helps with on-going motivation, and most importantly, is fun! 

You are no doubt familiar with our campaign to emerge stronger, and given all of the recent changes with the coronavirus, we believe we need to be stronger NOW.  

To this effect, we have evolved our programming and scheduling to help you find renewed motivation, competition, and excitement.

Let’s finish this year strong! 

Below is a list of the changes and updates to our programming. 

Purple Patch Updates

New Virtual Races and Challenges: Beginning in mid-August, we will all march toward common goals - we will be featuring and creating virtual races and challenges that the entire Purple Patch community will rally around. 

Why are we doing this? 

• We believe that a sense of purpose is critical to athlete success, so let’s take the bull by the horns and create one!
• The typical training and racing progression during most years benefit from a cycle of preparation, challenge, and recovery, so let’s create that cycle with our own challenges.
• We want to continue to unite our community -- whether you are a 1:1 athlete, Squad, or Education Member. 
• The structure of progressive training is your backbone of performance in health, work, and life, and is a critical aspect of you thriving despite the adversity.
• If ‘real’ races do pop up and become available, we will all be primed to give it a crack if we choose.
• And, of course, if you do not want to race or complete a challenge, we will have options for you to do! 

New Coach Office Hours and Expert Office Hours Schedule, and a New Summer Schedule for Virtual Coach-led Classes

Thanks to your feedback, we revised our approach to office hours and our summer schedule. In this evolution of our programming, we created a more targeted approach to education and live coaching and a schedule that better aligns with summer weather and enables you to more easily immerse in the coaching and education we offer.

Here is the new path: 

• Live coach-led virtual sessions will better align with the revised Squad Baseline Plan (more below) and to ensure the sessions are better coordinated with the desired outcomes of the Baseline sessions. 
• Zwift meetups will be shifting to Tuesdays and Thursdays to match the days the bike sessions will now fall on for Squad members. These sessions will not be coach-led except for Coach Brad’s Saturday Zwift meetup. Due to great weather and an easing of restrictions for most of our athletes, Zwift meetup attendance has decreased and we want to redeploy our coach’s efforts in other supportive places. This schedule is subject to change closer to Quarter 4. 
• Revised Coach Office Hours and Expert Office Hours 
• These will now be 2-3 times a month with shorter segment times to make them easier to digest
• Once a quarter Meetings with Matt 

New Summer Schedule for Live Coaching and Zwift MeetUps

• Monday Core Club with Sarah Piampiano 
• Matt Dixon's Tuesday and Thursday Bike classes (on hold until mid-August) 
• Coach Mike's Tuesday strength class
• Coach John's Wednesday swim band session
• Pro Sarah Piampiano's Watt Bombs and Wonder Women will occur every 4th Friday with various guests
• Coach Brad’s Saturday Zwift meetup 

*All classes and meetups are subject to change 

Squad Updates 

We are giving Squad a facelift!  Beginning in mid-August, your Baseline Plan and Optional Workout Library will be improved to create greater clarity of purpose, enabling you to easily manage your schedule and ensure that you can easily identify the most important sessions of the week. It shouldn’t be an IQ test to manage your training.  

We are removing some of the guesswork and empowering you to more easily integrate training into your time-starved life. 

How will the Revised Baseline look? 

• The Baseline Plan will be simplified with only one session per day (excluding strength and brick runs), two key days highlighted to anchor your week around, and the Baseline Plan will work in three-week cycles leading to a Virtual Race or challenge. (Remember, there will be options for those not wishing to participate.)
• If you want to add sessions to your week, we will be showing you how to target different objectives for the week (such as a more run-specific focus) using the workouts in the Optional Workout Library. The Optional Workout Library will be completely refreshed with each phase of training to fit the needs of the season of training. This will give you a clear path towards certain goals. 
• We will make revisions to core, mobility, and strength sessions, and will be adding in self-care sessions to bolster your recovery and tissue health.

What else is changing? 

• Soon, Squad athletes will have unprecedented access to Matt Dixon through his Tuesday/Thursday bike class, for an extra fee. You will be able to join in on professional, live classes in which you will receive direct coaching and feedback from Matt Dixon. All sessions will align with your Baseline Plan. 
• Our Coach Forums will now be open for a week to give you more access to our coaches. These will be twice a month and feature topics that allow you to truly dive in deeper with our staff. 

Why are we doing this? 

• Our goal is to make things as simple as possible for you to thrive and improve, removing much of the guesswork.  We continually strive to simplify things and improve our coaching.
• We want to offer you broadened, yet specific support content to drive you towards your goals.
• We want you to be successful and are driving our programming towards eliminating choice paralysis.
• While the structure is changing, the intent is the same - to produce empowered, well-rounded athletes.

We hope all of these changes excite you as much as they do our team. We look forward to hearing your feedback as we all embark on this mission together and cannot wait to be stronger now. 

As always, if you are confused or unsure of the direction your training should take, take advantage of our coaching consults. These 30-minute sessions are devoted to delivering you answers and a strategic path forward. Book here. 

Let’s make it a great second half of the year! If we can individually and collectively drive toward specific goals, experience competition and accomplishment, and come together as a community, we will thrive.