Balancing Ironman Training & Med School: Matthew Marquardt

White Coat Warriors focuses on human performance optimization and training paradigms

Dr. Chris Myers: The views expressed by myself and the guests of this podcast do not reflect the official policy or position of the US Air Force, Department of Defense, or the US government. Welcome to White Coat Warriors. I’m your host, Doctor Chris Myers. And on this podcast, we talk about human performance optimization and training paradigms for you, the young medical professionals, and how you can use it in your own professional practices to help yourselves and your clients. Hey, everyone. Welcome to another exciting episode of White Coat Warriors, where human performance meets medicine. We have a great one today, but before we get into it, if you’re liking what we’re doing, what we’re doing here on the podcast, give us a, like, tickle that Bell gives a five star rating. No matter what platform you’re using. Every little bit helps us out. And, man, it’s been a great season so far, but it just keeps getting better today, man, we got a. We got a superstar here with us today. We, got professional Ironman, athlete and medical student, full time medical student at the. One of the best universities in the world. Even though I went to West Point, still. I know. hi, state Buckeye through and through. Matthew Marquardt. How you doing, man?

Matthew Marquardt: Good, good. Thanks so much for having me, Chris. Been looking forward to this.

Dr. Chris Myers: Same here.

Matthew Marquardt: Oh, I o, baby.

Dr. Chris Myers: Yeah. Buckeye’s through and through. And for you Michigan fans out there, it’s the Ohio state, so the Ohio State University. So I love it. so, Matt, man, you got a resume that is just impressive, you know what I mean? So, I mean, where your undergrad? Right? Let’s talk about your undergrad first. Where’d you go and what’d you do there? You have such a diverse background.

Matthew Marquardt: Yeah. so I went to Princeton University for undergrad, where I was a, ah, varsity swimmer for all four years. and I majored in chemistry and got a minor in entrepreneurship.

Dr. Chris Myers: Excellent. Yeah. I mean, you’re already hitting it out of the park, and now you’re a med student at Ohio State. and I also mentioned you’re a professor, professional athlete, where you set one of the top records for the fastest ironman in Ironman, Texas, a few years ago. And you’re an Ironman world champion as well. Talk to us about that a little bit.

Matthew Marquardt: Yeah. So, it’s been a, crazy last couple of years. I actually really stumbled into triathlon. I graduated from college in the spring of 2021, and at that point, COVID had really kind of derailed the last my senior season. at that point, I honestly was kind of at peace with being done as an athlete and was ready to move on to the next phase of my life, which was becoming a physician, because I started med school in the fall of 2021, but I kind of just had kind, ah, of a whim and decided to sign up for a half Ironman, mainly, just to have something to train for and something so that I could stay in shape for graduation, and delay the post athlete body from developing too quickly. and so I signed up for a Ironman and actually ended up doing really, really well. and I got fourth out of 1400 people in my first race. And so at that point, that qualified me for the half Ironman world championships. And my coach, I did have a coach because I decided that was more efficient to have an accurate train me than just kind of doing it myself. And he was, like, pleading for me to stick with it. And I was like, nah, like, I’m going to med school. Like, I’m fine, I’m fine. Being don as an athlete, like, there’s no way to solely anything and, but so he convinced me to do the half Ironman world championships as an age grouper, because that was six weeks into med school. And I was like, you know what? I can sacrifice six weeks. Like, it’s not that, like, I’ll just, it’s not that bad. Six weeks. Like, I can do both for six weeks and then I’ll be done. and then I went there and I got second, in my age group. And so then I was kind of like, okay, like, I guess there is kind of something here, but still, like, I was pretty far away from where the pros were at that point, right? and, you know, he’s my coach is kind of like, dude, you got to do this. And I’m like, yeah, but no one in medicine care athletes, most of them are out of shape anyways, and most of them could also listen to their own medical advice a lot. So I was like, I don’t really think there’s any value in me doing this. it’ll just take away from my studies.

I’m interested in the intersection between human performance and surgeon performance

But, as I started to think about it and as I talked to a lot of physicians, a kind of continual theme showed up, which is, that in medicine, we’re constantly looking for what’s the greatest predictor of long term success, test scores. Is it where you went to college? Is it like, your letters of recommendation? Is it how much research they’ve done all these studies to try and correlate predictors with longer term success. and basically the only thing that’s been demonstrated to be significant is prior experience as an elite of some sort. So that being elite athlete, one of the best musicians in the world, being like, a world around writer or poet, like, being really, really good at something other than medicine. Because what that tells is that in order to get to that spot, you had to develop a certain number of transferable skills, and attitudes and whatnot. You know, how to handle stellar, you know, what it takes to become the best. And so you then apply that to medicine. And so there was that part. And then also there’s kind of this r duration medicine that I’m sure we’ll probably touch on, for medical students to kind of set themselves apart, and they were like, hey, you know what? If you actually end up being really good at this, this is your ticket. Like, everyone else is trying to get one more publication than the person before you, but you actually have something that’s really unique. Yeah. And so, like, they’re like, hey, like, you might as well give it a shot. And so that’s what I did. I was like, okay, I’ll give it one season, is what I told myself, like, one season. and that was 2022, and it was a phenomenal season. I won. I raced five times. I won the overall age group title in four of those races, including the world championship in Kona. And I got third in the half Ironman world championships. And so, like, really, like, incredible year. and so at that point, it was like, okay, well, there’s clearly something here. Like, as an amateur beating pro, it’s like, in one of the races, I would have placed fourth as a pro, even though I was an age grouper. And, so then I decided to switch and become a pro. And last year was my first year as a pro. And as a rookie, as you kind of alluded to in my first race, I had the third fastest ever debut time, for an Ironman athlete at Ironman Texas, and went 7 hours and 44 minutes. And then kind of at the end of the season, I got 11th at the world championship as a pro. And, was ranked top 20 in the world, kind, of in this overall ranking system. So it was really quite a phenomenal year.

Dr. Chris Myers: Yeah.

Matthew Marquardt: And, you know, I’m continuing to do it, continuing to balance triathlon in medical school, and it’s definitely becoming harder and harder, some of that self inflicted. But, you know, I do, I do like the challenge, and I, think, like, where I’m at is an incredible gift, and I want to kind of pursue it to the highest ability that I can. so that’s kind of like, where things have gone and, you know, how we got connected is, I think one of the coolest things about this triathlon pursuit is that it’s really opened up this area of research that, I’m really interested in, and I think has a lot of legs. And so, basically, what I’m interested in is the interception between human performance and elite athletics and surgeon performance, health care performance and well being. And so really what I think there’s this incredible opportunity for is in healthcare, historically, when we, like, look at quality improvement, I say that in quotes. we look at how can we prevent bad things from happening? So how do we prevent someone from leaving, like, scissors in someone’s abdomen? Or how do we prevent someone from accidentally cutting off the wrong leg? Now, those are super important. Like, we definitely need to avoid those bad things. but in some ways, I think that it’s potentially the wrong way to look at things, because let’s take an action. Let’s, you know, let’s. Let’s say you’re a soccer player and your focus is. All I care about is not scoring on my own goal. Is that gonna lead to a good outcome? Probably not. I mean, like, maybe you’ll tie zero zero. but, like, all you’re caring about is that you don’t mess up, instead of actually performing. And so really what I’m interested in is the flip side of kind of how healthcare is focused on quality and whatnot, which is how can we improve performance. and that’s where, like, there’s been very little work done. And that’s where kind of human performance and sports kind of science can really play a huge role, or a huge role, because, no one’s done it. Like, these surgeons go in an operating room, they don’t eat or drink anything for 8 hours. Now you tell me. I think anyone, anyone can’t really function that well after 8 hours.

Dr. Chris Myers: And so in not even five minutes.

Matthew Marquardt: Right, exactly. And so, like, that’s kind of what I think has been really cool about my triathlon career, is that I’m having this great experience right now being this elite athlete. but I think there’s this really awesome potential for where things will lead me further down the road, kind of once this iron man stuff is over with.

Dr. Chris Myers: It’ll never be over with, I’ll tell you that. I’ve been doing it. I’ve been doing Iron man for 20 years. And it’s, I’ll tell you right now, there’s a lot to unpackage on what you have just mentioned there. And for, let’s kind of take it half step back. but you did it. You hit.

How can physicians use human performance principles to improve their professional performance

The main theme of just this podcast series itself is how can, you know, physicians use human performance principles to improve their professional performance, but also their clients, right, their patients, but more focused on the aforementioned. So for those who don’t know to be an ironman, just an age grouper, the training time is typically 15 hours or plus a week. 15 is like literally the bare minimum. If you’re a pro, it’s closer to 25 to 30 hours a week. just do, because when you’re covering the distances of an ironman, which is 2.4 miles swim, 112 miles, bike, and a full marathon run, so, you know, an average age grouper is 12 hours to finish. For a pro athlete to come in under 8 hours is like the golden, it, that’s like the highest level of achievement because it, it happens, it’s happening more and more. But to still be able to achieve it is you have to be very well trained. And then, so what we’re talking about, okay, when you’re trying to push yourself for 812, 15 hours, or if you’re that golden hour, getting close to the 20th hour, my first time, you have to have, you have to look at all the different domains, human performance, I’m talking about.

Matthew Marquardt: Right.

Dr. Chris Myers: And you know, if we just stick to the traditional five, which is again, strength, recovery, sleep, nutrition and cognitive, those are the five main ones that we typically talk about within ironman. And this is what, Matt has been really been alluding to into it. So to be able to have that, you have to have those dialed in in order to be able to do that well, especially when you’re looking at these minute, improvements, especially at the professional level, because youre already kind of at that asymptote for your genetic level, which for you is definitely a lot higher than most of us. but youre still looking for those incremental gains. You need to have everything right, because 98% of your training is preparing the body for those last 2% gains. And so thats what it comes down to. Its the same principles that can be applied to daily life. So that’s kind of, get off the soapbox on that. But that’s what we’re kind of talking about with, you know, you know, ultra distance, especially, ironman athletes, if you haven’t done one, got and doing. It’s fun. so just taking that into context, you know, so you’re training, you know, and of course it’s going to have a flow based on part where you’re at the season, but you’re having to balance, you know, 25 plus hours of training, plus med school. so you’re roughly in your fourth year at this point, third, fourth year. You’re kind of on that upper end. So you’re doing a little more rotations. talk about the kind of the time management piece of that, which honestly, that’s another domain, when we start talking about holistic, not just the performance principles, when we talk holistic, when we look at the human being as a kind of a program of itself. So talk to this. How do you work the time management piece of that? Because there’s only 24 hours in the day and you have to spend at least half of it training sometimes.

Matthew Marquardt: Yeah. Yeah. So it’s a great question, and that’s why I like to call the million dollar question, because I think it’s the one that I get asked the most. And it’s also definitely, the most important.

I think focusing on time management helps prevent burnout for me

And so really, when, you know, I think I want to say, like, two things about that, is that, first, like, I have a slight sidetrack. Is that one of the big problems of medicine is that we have this huge, huge kind of epidemic pandemic, you know, because it does happen all over the world. Burnout, where, you know, people are like, literally their bodies are just like shutting down after a certain point, and they’re like, I can’t do this anymore. We have mental health problems, there’s physical problems. There are a lot of surgeons that have early onset chronic conditions like diabetes, that’s probably driven by excessive stress and things like that. And so the irony, I think, of me pursuing these two really time intensive things is that I actually think it helps prevent burnout for me. and the reason why I say that is that when I’m training, kind of an average weekday is about 4 hours a day. Weekends are about 6 hours. and that’s just the exact training. And, like, once you’re kind of getting up into that levels, you also have to take into consideration that, hey, you need an extra hour of sleep. You need, like, probably to spend an extra 30, 45 minutes recovery. There’s the time it takes to just set up your workout. Like, a six hour workout probably takes me 45 minutes to, like, get all of my nutrition set up and figure everything out just to do the workout. And then there’s a post workout come down is what I call it. which probably takes another 45 to 60 minutes to recover from for some of these really hard workouts where just, like, cognitively, you’re completely, like, blasted and you, like, can’t really function very well for a while. And so, like, it is, as you said, it is a significant time, like, strain or time block on each day. But the benefit of that is it forces me to be incredibly efficient with the rest of the time in my day. So, like, for example, kind of during the first two years, which are more lecture based, I would have classmates that would legitimately go to the library for twelve to 14 hours a day. And, like, I’m not, like, trying to say, you know, demean them or anything, but, like, then they were getting average scored on their exams. And, like, if you were truly studying at the top of your level for twelve to 14 hours a day, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be number one in the class, because there’s a lot of content, but there’s not that much content. and so what that means is that they go to the library, they study for 30 minutes, go on Instagram for ten, studied for 45 minutes, go talk to friends in the lounge room for 15 to 20 minutes, which, like, is totally fine, you know, but, like, they’re not being very efficient with their time. they’re letting their studying balloon into the time that they have. and they’re confusing quantity over quality of studying in particular. And that’s kind of where I think I have had a competitive advantage, where, you know, I like working out, like, the whole morning, and then the afternoon comes around, I’m like, okay, I have to get these things done. Like, it is like, phone on, do not disturb. I am focused on getting these things done. I’m going to put 100% effort into studying for four or 5 hours, and that’s probably it. but also after that time, I start to cognitively decline. and it’s just, it’s marginal benefit at that point. And so one of the big things that I’m a big proponent of is we talk about time management a lot, but I also really focus on energy management. So, what I mean by that is I put the things, you know, there’s probably ten different things that I do in the course of a day when I’m kind of trying to lay out my day, which I now have, like, a pretty good framework for. So it doesn’t take a ton of time. I think, okay, what are the things that require the most cognitive capacity, the most, like mental motivation, the most physical capacity, like the metabolic side of things. Like, you know, those stuff. Like what are the things that require the highest amounts and the lowest amounts of those? And then I place those over the course of the day based on when I will be the most efficient doing this. So, for example, I’m a morning person and so like I function. I am by far the most efficient in the morning versus the afternoon or the evening. So what that means is that like if I have a really hard workout, I’ll probably put that in the morning because I need my motivation to be high and like I need to function well. But if I just have kind of more of a volume day, what I’ll then do is I’ll really focus on the morning, on studying and really knocking out as much of that like high cognitive load studying as possible. In contrast, emails I do in the afternoon or in the evening generally, because emails generally don’t require a ton of mental capacity to do. You’re just responding to someone. You don’t really need to consolidate it. And so like it would be, in my opinion, it would be a very, it would be a huge waste of time to do emails in the morning where motivation, cognitive capacity, learning capacity is the highest. if I did emails during that time, because when I try and study later in the afternoon, I won’t be as efficient. So I think that’s really been a really big key is that, you know, like there are some days where I do need to catch up, like I’m studying and so what I’ll do is I’ll go to bed early the night before. I’ll go to bed at like seven and I’ll wake up at like four or five and like knock out like 8 hours of really dedicated studying and I’ll be exhausted, probably take a nap and then do my workout. So that’s kind of when I need my energy management and that’s like been, I think, a really big key, to being able to do what I’ve done. so that’s like, that’s kind of one of the big parts. And just overall, like, I think when you’re looking at time management, we, humans have a natural tendency to kind of, I guess be as productive as time allows or kind of let their, let what they do fit into space. Like it’s like a gas, if you give gas like a bigger container, it’s going to fill that space. And so, like, if you have 2 hours to do an assignment, there’s a good chance you’ll probably take 2 hours to do it. But if you only have an hour and you can get that assignment done in an hour, you’ll do it in an hour. and so I think that’s actually where triathlon becomes beneficial. Is that, is it forces you to be efficient? well, I guess it either if you’re inefficient, then you’re not going to get sleep and then you’re going to get injured and there’s going to be this cycle, or you’re going to be efficient with what you do. So that’s really what I focus on is, being really efficient with my time, and really kind of trying to protect my time to the best that I can, so that I can get the stuff done that needs to be done. So. Excellent.

Dr. Chris Myers: Yeah, that’s a good, yeah, that’s a good rundown.

Matthew Marquardt: Yeah.

Dr. Chris Myers: Especially when you have the freedom to be able to do that. and you’ve been there, you’re very aware of yourself and to be able to do that, and it’s interesting that you have that awareness of the cognitive side. So, you know, when you’re better, you know better. Some people are better in the afternoon, summer, midday. At least you’re aware of that and you’re optimizing that to the best of your ability.

For the past three episodes, we’ve talked about sleep somehow, some way

So. And you, you’ve hit on one of the other big ones that we inadvertently, we’ve talked about on over half the season, inadvertently asleep. So we’re not going to go down that. People have been listening to this. I mean, for the past three episodes, we’ve talked about sleep somehow, some way. but the fact that you’re saying that you’re, you know, you target eight, but you’ll try to get nine if you need to get it. That’s amazing. yeah, especially for the recovery aspect that gets back to the point in our last episode. So if you don’t know what we’re talking about, go back and listen to, the previous episode, with, ah, where we talked about nutrition and sleep and let’s.

One of the things people miss the most is hydration in the operating room

And then let’s talk about that last one, nutrition. Right. So you’re already in a twelve hour day that is jam packed and yeah, you’ve got everything pretty much, it seems like down to almost the minute, which is fine. You need to, especially when you’re a long course athlete. don’t miss those days. how do you work your nutrition, especially not just, and let’s take it out, of, the academic context, especially. Let’s talk about more when you’re in the hospital context. So you’re in that environment. How do you work your nutrition?

Matthew Marquardt: Yeah. So it’s really challenging, to be perfectly honest. And that’s one of the things that I’m really interested in doing this research on, is trying to figure out some ways to do better, because I think one of the things that people miss the most is hydration, especially in the operating room. You can’t drink while you’re in it. And so I will, you know. Well, the operating room is like a double edged sword because you can’t drink, but you also don’t want to drink before you go in because you don’t want to have to use the restroom while you’re in there. So there’s this kind of culture, intentional or not, of dehydration. and that just makes you feel like crap. And then there’s also, like, there’s this one hospital near us, not Osu, that, like, even for non surgical settings, or, like, you’re not allowed to have, like, drinks on the floor. And I’m like, what’s the purpose of this? Like, if someone has a closed container, like, like, why? Like, why are we doing this? Why are, like, all the only consequences that people are gonna eat kidney stones? And they’re not gonna perform to their best, but anyways, so from a nutritional standpoint, I kind of focus on, Like, hydration is huge. Like, I think that’s one of the most, like, under appreciated, under focused on areas. Since I’m working out a lot, I shoot for actually four liters of water a day over, I think, you know, most women should probably be having two. Most men are pro, should probably be shooting for three liters a day. Yep. Not including, like, coffee and, Well, I think most. Most people are probably, like, half of that. Ah, yeah. So, like, hydration is, like, a really, really important part. And so, like, what I’ll do sometimes is I’ll even take, like, a little water bottle and put it in my scrubs or whatever, so that I have something with me. And, yeah, and also I focus on, having bars with me. So, like, a protein bar. and I don’t use those as my predominant source, but they’re as an emergency source more so than anything else. So my general day, like, I try and have a breakfast and then a lunch and then a dungeon, which is like a mid afternoon meal and then a dinner and then a supper. So the supper is just kind of like a protein shake. there’s been a lot of work that’s shown like a low calorie. So about 200 calorie, high protein, moderate fat, low carb, In kind of source before you go to bed can actually help improve lean muscle mass and recovery in general.

Dr. Chris Myers: Yeah.

Matthew Marquardt: Ah yeah.

Dr. Chris Myers: One thing research is that is doctor orange be out of Florida state. Yeah. He’s done a lot of that research in the nighttime feeding.

Matthew Marquardt: Yep, yep. And so you know, it’s a little counterintuitive because you’re actually adding more calories to the day. But it actually has benefits. yeah. Because I think it keeps your metabolism up and enables your body to recover hair and everything.

Matthew Marquardt: But so the point being is that like I shoot, I shoot. Ideally I’m eating about every three to 4 hours. this is kind of one of the goals, And really focus on like high nutrient, kind of diet for the most part. So I try and avoid processed stuff except for when I’m training. And so I focus on kind of a little bit higher content in the morning, And then as the day goes on, slightly lower carb, slightly higher fat, slightly higher protein as the day goes on. If you can kind of think of that as a continuum, it’s kind of generally how I do it. And then nutrition is super important. I found that when I’m stressed or whatever, and I have the tendency to go for the chips or, or tree or whatever, that’s kind of sitting there like I feel worked and I perform worse as a result. And so I definitely think it’s something that should be focused on, And everyone’s a little different. Like what’s going to work for everyone is slightly different. But I do think that no matter who you are, going 8 hours over the course of the day and not eating anything is not going to lead to optimal performance. She said. So one thing that I’ll say, and it’s also like I know that there’s intermittent fasting and everything, but At least. Yeah, my line of work that’s like, that’s just asking for injury.

Dr. Chris Myers: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let’s, you know, kind of one of the things let’s yeah. Relate to kind of what you just said. Right?

So within your context, we’re talking about really optimizing your, your nutrition

Yeah. So within your context, we’re talking about really optimizing your, your nutrition because again, you’re a professional athlete, but for us normal people, you know it a lot. You, you give it a lot of insights and you know, you talk about, because at least you have, you’re planning it so you have an idea what you need to take with you. So you, you’re planning your packing as necessary. You have at least my, in my field we call it a to go bag. You know that, that rescue bar, And that kind of really relates very well with what Laura said an episode or two ago. So if you guys have talked, listen to that one. that’s where Laura and I talk about nutrition. She’s saying it. Pick it. You don’t have to be perfect all the time. Right.

Matthew Marquardt: At all.

Dr. Chris Myers: Sometimes it’s just a lesser of two evils.

Matthew Marquardt: Yep.

Dr. Chris Myers: And totally that it’s that clif bar or that protein bar that you have.

Matthew Marquardt: Right.

Dr. Chris Myers: And so even professional, he’d have to make those same choices at the same time. So just keep back in the back of your mind. This is great. you know, so hydration, nutrition, I mean, so those are the crux.

As an endurance athlete you actually need a surprisingly high number of protein

yeah, I I’m going to ask this question. And what is your typical caloric intake?

Matthew Marquardt: Yeah, so the, the way I do it is actually pretty dynamic. yeah. And the way I do it is I, I shoot for a base level of calories, which is about 2100 calories a day. That’s kind of the breakfast, lunch, dunch, dinner, supper, and then I add calories. Based, predominantly based on what my workouts are. So, before every workout I had a banana and then after every workout I have a banana and a protein shake. And actually one. And one of the things that’s super interesting is that as an endurance athlete you actually need a surprisingly high number amount of protein. Because your body is so catabolic. That you need protein to prevent muscle loss. yes. Because you’re doing so much working out. So like my nutritionist is like, yeah, you basically need the amount of protein that a bodybuilder would have.

Dr. Chris Myers: So about 1.7 to 2.0 gram per kilo.

Matthew Marquardt: Yep. Yeah. And so like I have a lot. So like I have that before and after the workouts. And then during the workouts I kind of have found what works the best for me depending on the intensity and the focus of the workout. So if it’s just like a moderate volume workout, I kind of do. I’ll have my banana at the start. I’ll kind of just do like an electrolyte type drink for the first 45 to 60 minutes and then I’ll switch over to probably about 40 to 50 grams of calories or, sorry, 40 to 50 grams of carbs per hour after that. Now, if it’s a high intensity workout where we’re doing lactate or something like that, that’s when I really start to push the power or push the unfueling, and I’ll push up to 160 grams of carbs an hour.

Dr. Chris Myers: Really? Wow.

Matthew Marquardt: Okay.

Dr. Chris Myers: Yeah.

Matthew Marquardt: So I’m fortunate that I have a very strong stomach and I just asked that. Yeah, I can put. Now another question is if, is if I’m oxidizing all of that or not. So one day I hope to get into a lab and actually see if I’m actually utilizing all of those carbs or not. But my kind of thought right now is that, hey, I’m not having gi distress with this mighty carbs per hour, so I might as well do it. anyway, so if it’s, if it’s a kind of a quality workout, then I’ll push much higher, carb. Carb loads. Okay. And it’s, it’s almost all carbs. I mean, I think for some amateurs, That are pushing 15 plus hours or whatever, it’s okay to have a little bit of fat and a little bit of protein in there, because you’re out on the bike in the run for so long. But as a professional, I’m done like 8 hours. And it’s just pure, I’m just burning pure carbs, In terms of my intake. And then I’m burning fat as well, kind of internally. But, it’s better just to intake only carbs for someone like me.

There’s a big difference between power outputs and calories burned on a bike

Dr. Chris Myers: Well, that’s the other thing too, kind of understanding. so there’s a big difference between, when we talk about the power outputs, let’s just talk the bike itself. So power is the metric that primarily we use in the field to measure, efforts and such because it’s a non discriminatory physics metric. And so, but most people say your lactate threshold, it, excuse me, your, your functional threshold or, which equates to your lactate thresholds, you know, 200 watts, you know, for us normal human beings, you know, which could be at, you know, 2.0 or to 2.2 watts per kilogram. Someone like you is probably closer to five, if not higher. So you’re able to push more watts for a longer period of time. So that’s more calories per hour versus here. That, and that explains such the huge delta between those types of efforts. Just for those who don’t understand, kind of what, the fundamentals. of what Matt’s talking about.

Matthew Marquardt: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Dr. Chris Myers: Yeah, man, this is great.

So, I mean, we’re. You’re kind of getting towards the end here. so I kind of want, you know, you straddle two worlds. You straddle, you know, the everyday stresses of a medical student. You straddle the world being, a professional athlete. And I love those days or some best days of my life, being a pro cyclist. But, you know, we’re back down to being a normal human being. What is some of the advice that you could give to selfless, normal human beings in the medical profession?

Matthew Marquardt: Yeah, it’s a good question. I mean, I think, like, you know, you kind of had. I think, like, for medical students, in particular, what’s kind of, some of the stuff that I thought about, which is, I think, like, you know, at least in the US, I think that medicine has become somewhat conformist, and we have a lot of people, you know, you’re kind of groomed from undergrad as a pre med major. Onwards to. Here’s the information. Memorize it. Regurgitate. and, like, I see that in my classmates. And I think one of the big things that I would really encourage people is to be curious, and to constantly ask why and to try and understand. Not to know, but to understand. And I think that’s what has made me successful as a triathlete and as, medical student is that I’m constantly trying to understand how the world works, understand how my own body works and how my own body responds to different things. and I think that’s kind of led me down some really, really awesome paths. And, the other thing I think, as well, that we haven’t touched on at all is, I think, the value of having mentors and experts, that you consult with. So, really, honestly, the thing that has made me able to do both in many ways is that I have a coach, in triathlon, and I have outsourced anything related to triathlon. Dan m. He tells me, he sends me my workouts, and I do that. And I have a very high level. And we talk, you know, kind of say, like, this workout. Well, this is what I thought, what not. But he kind of then takes that and then figures it out because he’s my expert in the triathlon domain. and outsourcing that to other people, I think is really, really valuable, because it enables you to cognitively and time wise have more time on the stuff that’s most important to you. And I think that that’s highly applicable to other areas of life. I think, you know, when you can outsource, when you can find someone who is better than you, go learn from them, and kind of work with them instead of just trying to do it all yourself, I think that’s kind of one of the big things. And then as well, I think one of my overall attitudes with how I approach life is kind of, there’s kind of twofold to it. One is that I think, like, you should do stuff that you enjoy and you should focus on quality of your life and, quality of how you’re spending your time. And so without going into sleep, that was a big thing that I switched to college, that I was like, hey, you know what? I’d much rather have an extra hour of sleep and enjoy the day significantly more than stay up and just shoot the shit with my friend for an extra hour and then be miserable the next day. so that’s kind of what I’m talking about in terms of focusing on the quality of the time that you spend awake versus the quantity of the time that you spend awake. M and then the other thing is kind of something that I was told kind of my swing coach, harp diamond in college is like, to be elite. if you want to be elite in one thing, you really should be striving to be elite in everything. and what that means is, like, if you want to be elite as a doctor or as an Ironman professional or just like, as the best dad or mom, like, you really need to apply that to, like, all areas of your life. because if you don’t, you know, the, the weaknesses or kind of the things that you aren’t focusing on in those other areas will creep in. Like, for example, again, like, if I had said, hey, all I want to do is be the best, I am triathlete out there, then I probably wouldn’t study as much as I do. And like, maybe I’m not focusing as much on sleep or whatever, and so maybe I’m not recovering as well as a result. And so even though I want to be have the best workouts, the other areas of my life are preventing me from doing that. So I really think you need to focus on kind of your, your goals holistically. I mean, really trying to be the best that you can in all aspects, instead of just one aspect of your life. yeah, so those are kind of like my thing and said, that’s great.

Dr. Chris Myers: That’s, great piece of advice. I, mean, even some of we have several, listeners that are long in the tooth in their medical career that love some of the advice we’re given here and just listening and chat, and so that’s great to hear so well, Matt. Well, thank you so much for your time. This has been a blast. Like I said, I always learn something when I speak with you. It’s great. let’s hope we beat Michigan this year and, ah, get back at it.

Matthew Marquardt: All right.

Dr. Chris Myers: Hey, man, thanks for your time. Appreciate it. Yep, thanks so much and see everyone next on the next episode of WCW. Have a great one.