We transition into the second quarter of the year, and this means that most Purple Patch athletes have navigated through a preparatory phase of training, followed by the last weeks of priming the system for upcoming hard work. I don’t envision many of you thinking the last few weeks of training have been easy, by any means, but the focus has still been preparatory on many levels. Does this mean that the months ahead are going to radically turn up the hard work? No. What elevates it is the ‘polarization’ of the training. Let’s dig into Q2 - BUILD phase - and allow me to highlight a few key elements for your success.

Focus: For many athletes early season races come thick and fast over the coming months, and we want athletes to shine and have great success in these first races of the year. With this established, it doesn’t mean we should derail the more global athletic progression for the coming weeks of work. I like to consider this next block of work as ‘raising the performance bar’. It is quite central in focus, and our global mindset should be to leverage the preparatory work already done, and improve our operational capacity (ability to produce and sustain power). Sounds tough eh? Well it is. We can look forward to a series of very strong effort at maximal steady state, and above, in swimming. Our riding is focused on high intensity intervals and muscular overload via stronger ‘strength endurance’ (low rpm - high torque) sessions in the week. We then extend to embrace endurance riding on the weekend, with generally less intervals and more global conditioning. The more outdoor riding on the weekend, the better, so we can have a lot of fun without pressure on the weekend rides.  The running continues with a large percentage being lower stress and form-based resilience. I would like most athletes to continue to charge on the run project, anchored in high frequency and lower stress. The kicker to this will now be a couple of sessions that include one of two challenges, high intensity form-based speed or hill-based strength running. The vast majority of our tear-jerking high intensity challenge emerges from the bike and swim. Most running should be controlled and focused on finding flow.  When we combine these all together we have a higher chance of staying healthy, but still progress and weave consistency across the entire program.

The one other kick in the pants for Q2 will be the strength program, that drives us toward the highest muscular load of the year. These coming five to six weeks will be the weeks many athletes feel the impact of strength on the endurance sessions. It is OK, and expected, but be ready for it. I should add what this phase is not directly focusing on - which is direct race specific resilience. Don’t worry, your ability to race well isn’t impeded and your fitness and muscular resilience will sky rocket over these coming weeks, but we are not building the program around dress rehearsal sessions anchored to race readiness. In June or so we will integrate test fueling and hydration sessions, specific race readiness workouts across swim-bike and run, but the effectiveness of those sessions emerge from this higher intensity we complete now. Have confidence in that, and remember that fitness is building, even though the big miles are yet to emerge.  They will.  So how should you approach the training to enable success? Here are a few key points:

• Self-Management.  Fatigue creep can become a real thing in the coming months, as tougher sessions come frequently. They must be balanced with your reality of life and how the body responds. If you begin to feel deep soreness and systemic stress, it is brave and not weak to back off for two to four days. If the pattern of fatigue continues, we might need to look at habits, load and life a little - likely via a consultation.
• Embrace the easy.  Weekend rides, additional swims and many of the runs are designed to be simple and lower stress. There is no more important time to embrace the easy than this block of training. Conversational effort is highly valuable and allows you to shine in the sessions that drive the performance needle. The lower stress also weave consistency and become a tool of fatigue management
• Nutrition and Fueling. If your habits around eating have been less favorable up till now, you may well feel no consequence. Moving forward, it is imperative you become dialed into supporting your training with smart eating habits.  Most - and I mean most - athletes under fuel relative to training needs. We have asked the team at FuelIn to integrate athlete specific education into the training program, so please follow their advice.  If you are considering working with the team there, then this is the perfect time to start - for both training and health, but also prepping race fueling. 
• Hydration. Daily hydration becomes ‘everything’ in heavier training. I believe you will benefit from consistent daily hydration to help with recovery, adaptations, immune system support, but also clarity and focus throughout the day.  Personally, I consume copious 250mg tablets of PrecisionHydration.com - If you want to try, then use the code purplepatch_sq93 for 15% off.
• Optimization Mindset.  Remember, we want to maintain a mindset around optimum training within a time-starved life. Let’s maximize performance in the hours we realistically have, while enabling time for family and friends, work performance and sleep. So many athletes dump more training hours onto their load in the coming months, when they would thrive with maintaining the hours and gaining optimal return from the training in front of them.

I hope this helps.  Lean in, support each other, and let’s go weave some magic.

Cheers,

Matt