COACH'S FORUM: Q&A on the New Squad Baseline and Purple Patch Updates
Team - we are here for you! We will be answering questions around the new squad baseline and all the Purple Patch updates we have announced. Please let us know your questions so we can ensure you are empowered to take on training with confidence and excitement.
Cheers,
Adam, Kai, & Liz
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Jess,
Yes, feel free to switch the days if that suits your needs best and you want to really push on that bigger ride. As a rule, we definitely do not want to overthink metrics, but I understand wanting to perform well. Shuffle sessions to fit when you will have the best setup (sleep, rest, nutrition, etc.) to give more on those key days.
Hope that helps,
Liz
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Hi Joaquin,
The only reason we are not using TRX right now (or have not made the suggestion) is that we wanted to make it more viable for everyone by using as little equipment as possible. But yes, you absolutely can use TRX. Simply just execute the similar movements patterns and the concept (slow and controlled) and they should be good.
Cheers,
Liz
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I'm not completely clear on the answer given in Office Hours regarding the Library. I understand that we should not overdo loading more work into the plan. However, two rides in a week (or whatever the number is for the 21 day cycle) will likely not be enough for those of us who enjoy cycling. And Saturday is already an outdoor ride for me during the summer.
So my question is, will there be more rides added to the Library other than FatMax. The Endurance rides are too long to put in the weekdays. We can choose from many on Zwift, but I'd rather use PPF-designed workouts, if possible.
Thanks,
JL
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Hi William,
Thanks for the question.
Suggestions of which optional session to supplement your baseline program will be posted in a couple of different spots. One is the Sunday Special email that you should receive each week. The other will be in Today’s Plan within the “Weekly Summary” that is placed on Monday of your calendar.
As you go through a few weeks of the new baseline rhythm I think it will become much easier to decide which sessions to add.
Hope this helps!
Adam (PPF Team)
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Hi Alex,
Thanks for the questions. Suggestions of which optional session to supplement your baseline program will be posted in a couple of different spots. One is the Sunday Special email that you should receive each week. The other will be in Today’s Plan within the “Weekly Summary” that is placed on Monday of your calendar.
There will be a couple of different templates for the week to show how someone could add sessions. Our suggestion to most athletes will be to follow the baseline plan for at least a couple weeks to see what the stress load is like. It may become more clear after that about how many optional sessions to add.
What we really like about these optional sessions is that you can mix and match. You’ll notice that many of the sessions have a similar end goal across disciplines. One athlete can apply a “Recovery Swim” vs another athlete could use a shorter “Resilience Run” depending on your focus for that block of training.
I hope this helps!
Adam (PPF Team)
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Hi Jeff,
I want to start by making sure you are seeing all of the optional sessions. You should see 8 sessions in total (Assessment, FatMax, Prep, Recovery, shorter and longer Endurance, shorter and longer Endurance SE). Please let us know if you are still not seeing all of these.
Periodically these sessions will be refreshed, likely as the phase of training changes.
Looking at the general rhythm of the new baseline we will be seeing around 3 rides per week. That may flex up or down a bit depending on the “Challenge or Race”.
With the baseline still providing the “hard” work, aka KEY sessions, the additional sessions that you add would mostly want to be “resilience” focused, or as Matt Dixon calls it SOUL-FILLING. If available it’s a great time to get outside and enjoy riding your bike.
I hope this helps! Please let us know of any other questions.
Adam (PPF Team)
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Hi Tonypickance,
Thanks for the question. It’s great to hear that some races are going to happen!
If this is going to be an “A-race” for you, I would likely add the race build. As always, we think the baseline program will get you quite fit and you would be perfectly okay to follow that going into the race. The race build though will just be more specific to the demands you are going to face.
I’m not sure that I would pick one over the other based on simplicity. We really believe the new baseline flow is going to be quite simple but may take some athletes a couple of weeks to get a pulse on it.
Hope this helps with your decision!
Adam (PPF Team)
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Good question Lps Tony. We will still be going through the Post-Season, and it will time up with with holidays and whatnot.
The fact is, this has been an unpredictable year, and we were forced into a bit later mid-season break, and also had the initial major disruption following lock-down. So without the standard flow, we are innovating some non-standard programming to get a great flow to the season. The priority is first to relax, unwind, de-stress, and get fresh. We will then get a nice, high-performing block of work for fitness and for race familiarity.
So in short, we will still have post-season as always.
Mike O. PPF Coach.
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Hi! Is it possible one can choose an option for "time rich" programming? This new programming actually makes it more difficult for me, since each week I will have to: (i) See suggested templates in the weekly summary; (ii) Take note on what type of workouts to add; and then (iii) manually include all of those workouts to my week.
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1. I still have an IM that hasn't been cancelled yet - it is mid October. I assume it will be cancelled, but I want to still build up to it until I get final word. Should I drop in the IM build like a "normal" training scenario?
2. It would be great to let us know where to drop in 1-2 more bikes for the week in your Monday overview visuals. My goal is to get more time in the saddle than 2x per week because I like riding and want to keep some volume up (but not expect to go hard each time).
3. Most of us do our Saturday rides outside. Would you be willing to put two rides on that day (one indoor and one outdoor), so we can delete the option we don't use and our Garmin will be programmed according to our choice? Right now it only programs for indoor.
4. If we need to move several days around for certain reasons (e.g. work-related, joining a masters swim class) can we just move them around in any fashion....or are there considerations about certain key sessions being a specific time/day after other sessions?
Thank you!
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Hi!
Great office hrs - thanks for answering my questions there. I have a followup:
Building on Kalletta's question, should we move around key days to suit when we can do them properly, or just do our best and hope they fall on a better time for us the next round?
E.g. For the first week of new baseline, the Sat bike has some Z5 right after 3 busy days of standing work for me. I am still getting used to the work and am pretty tired/sore after (injury reminiscent sore, not always good sore). I was thinking of switching that bike with the one on Wednesday (which has some lower intensities), so that I can do it when I am more sure that I will be able to hit the intensity. Kai has mentioned before to not overthink it too much and to consider Z5 as my best on the day, but I do want to make sure I am not consistently missing that high intensity work. If you could just give a bit more guidance here, I will apply that for future weeks as well.
Thanks again!
Jess
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Hi Jorge,
While that is not an option with this new Baseline, over time these optional sessions will be highly familiar and will become more second nature so bolstering your baseline for your specific needs will not take as much time. What we recommend is diving into the programming as written and executing as written for 2-3 weeks to really understand the current of training and the goals we are seeking to achieve. As Mike mentioned on the Monday office hours, if you are doing the sessions exactly as written, even with one session per day (plus strength and brick runs), you might be surprised that you do not need much more load. We ask that everyone give it a shot and let us know in a few weeks how it is working out for you. We promise this is meant to empower you and individualize your training more!
Cheers,Liz
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Hi Kalletta,
1. Yes, you can still drop in that IM build as normal!
2. This is something we will show over time more and more. As a rule of thumb, on the key days do not add much more volume, aside from a very easy ride. However, if there is a swim day, you might benefit from some easier resilience riding on that day.
3. As far as outdoor rides, as a rule Matt does not want us programming outdoor rides for Garmin as it can become unsafe. We are looking into this more, but so far we are not programming outdoor rides for devices. You can absolutely tailor the sessions to fit outside riding according to your needs.
4. The biggest piece here would be to not put key days back to back and try to schedule sessions so that there is an easier day or recovery between the hard pushes. Other than that, enjoy! And be sure to mindfully keep the brick runs with their assigned bike.
Cheers,
Liz
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Hi Coaches !!!
What would be your opinion if someone (...) would do TRX beginner exercises instead of the "pure PPF strength workouts"?
The kind of exercises that "that guy" would do are the same pattern of movements shown in our PPF videos and the base core exercises with the TRX.
Thanks
Joaquin
(ok I admit, I am the guy :-))
Cheers
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I don’t have a question (yet), but wanted to provide voice support for the new baseline presentation. I always struggled with which workouts to cut to fit my schedule and, as a result, took on so much that I was constantly overloaded even though I’ve learned the importance of recovery. Moreover, there were so many sessions presented in a given week, that I often didn’t focus on my weaknesses like I needed to. Overall, the new baseline program seems like a great approach to address these concerns, and I wanted to make pass along my thanks for the major change. So, thanks!
-Greg
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Is it safe to assume that the layout of the new baseline can be taken as an optimal template (ordering/spacing during the week and stacking on same days (at least the strength) assuming no conflicting personal commitments? I only bring this up since several times earlier this year it had been communicated that the baseline should always be adapted (remember the thread when there was a week with 3 days in a row of swimming and then no swimming for 5 days).
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Hi John,
Please tune into the Meetings with Matt this Thursday, Aug. 13th for the rundown on the challenges and the virtual races. Here is the "race schedule" as we have it now. You will be able to simply follow the baseline into the races or challenges as it will prep you for them. We are in the first week of the first three week cycle right now, which does NOT have a challenge or VR on the last week, but the next three week cycle will lead into a challenge or VR.
Don't worry - A LOT more info is coming.
Cheers,
Liz
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Greg,
Huge thanks for your positivity. You hit the nail on the head. We are absolutely excited to have this option that we believe will truly empower all of our athletes - it gives the time-starved athlete a very clear path and it gives those who want more the opportunity to tailor their training to truly fit their needs and align with their goals. We are excited as well and glad it has provided you with clarity!
Cheers,
Liz
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Hi David,
Apologies - we overlooked your question:
As far as optimal, yes, this is the optimal 21-day cadence. However, that is not to say that there are not more prime, optimal solutions for you. What that means is that if you are cramming in a 45-min swim into a 20-min available window on a Monday, but could extend out for 45-min on Tuesday, move it. That is optimal for you. As a side note, swimming is a sport you can execute consecutive days in a row as it is not highly damaging to the body, like running can be.
The baseline absolutely does NOT need to stay stagnant as it is written. Shift it around to suit your needs. One caveat, do not stack two KEY days. Give yourself some recovery in between to allow for optimal execution and injury prevention.
Thanks,
Liz
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I now have a Half Ironman event in late September in the UK that appears to be going to happen.
The new baseline starts on 10th August, which is the same date that I would add a race build if that was what I was going to do.
Given the changes to the baseline, do you think that it would be simpler for me follow a race build rather than try and get familiar with the new baseline in the run up to a race?
Thanks
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