It is seldom I get to do this on a Sunday, with most races occurring on the weekend, but this week I get to provide a very timely nod of encouragement and Purple Patch power to all the folks racing the legendary Boston Marathon tomorrow.  Forget the fuel, skip the hydration, and you have got to be in it to win it - so go out fast! Joking aside, I hope you all have a marvelous experience and have a great race. With this week’s Boston Marathon, as well as the numerous upcoming events next weekend, we will have had almost 250 racing participants across the world before the end of April, a fun stat, but also a testament to the community of athletes.

As we celebrate the initial efforts in racing, I do want to flag that myself and the whole team at Purple Patch are cognizant that many of our athletes are in the midst of managing a fair amount of logistical and life demands at the moment. For each of us, the recipe is different, but many folks are really feeling the strain of a potential return to the office and associated commute, the emergence of kids activities and sports, or other life-related pressures. When stacked on top of recent world events, including inflation, war and gas prices, I wouldn’t label it as an easy time. But with strain comes opportunity, and I think every Purple Patch athlete will benefit from this week’s broader educational content via the podcast and blog.  Both focus around the word stress, and how you should build the appropriate mindset and approach to the word in order to leverage the demands and adversity into your performance favor. We will post both midweek, but please keep an eye for them. As it pertains to Purple Patch athletes, I want to highlight a critical role for your training and everything we discuss as a group. If you do find yourself feeling overwhelmed right now, realize that your path out of the predicament is to develop more adaptation energy.  You need capacity. The only path toward building your toolkit and greater adaptation energy is to double-down on the elements that enable growth, namely, training, sleep, recovery and proper nutritional habits. It might sound stale, but it is true.

So, for this week, keep your eyes open for these two important pieces. Read and let the message marinate, then ping me follow up questions on the Purple Patch forum.

Let’s keep driving on the training this week, and remember that those video-based bike sessions are soaked in guidance on proper standing mechanics, pedaling and form cues this week. A highly valuable coaching session to make a priority in this week's training.

Cheers

M