How to Pursue Impossible Goals
Lessons from the Ironman World Championship
I’ve been working toward this moment for over 5 years.
On Sunday, I toe the starting line of the Ironman World Championships.
I was sitting in my beige cubicle at JP Morgan when I hit the checkout button on my first Half Ironman registration.
I didn’t own a bike.
I didn’t sign up because I loved triathlon.
I signed up because I needed something to chase.
That one small commitment changed everything.
Looking back, my biggest changes in life have never started as big changes.
Sharing content online → becoming an entrepreneur
A 4-week AirBnB in Boulder → moving my family to the mountains
Signing up for a half Ironman → Ironman World Championships in Nice, France
At the time of that 70.3 registration, I wasn’t thinking five years into the future.
I just felt like I was sleepwalking through life, and I wanted something that would wake me up.
But that one small commitment set me on a path that reshaped every corner of my life.
The Tribal Way of Chasing Goals
What I’ve learned along the way isn’t just about racing - it’s about goal setting itself.
Approached the right way - The Tribal Way - goals don’t just get accomplished…
They transform you.
They teach you to:
smile through adversity
feel successful through failure
grow into someone you didn’t know you could become
Because the truth is: WHAT you chase matters 100x less than HOW you chase it
Here are 7 lessons I’ve learned on the journey.
Use them to improve your chase.
#1: Always Have Something To Look Forward To
Momentum comes from having a clear next target.
When I signed up for my first 70.3, I didn’t have any vision beyond the race.
My mind couldn’t even comprehend a full distance Ironman.
Then one night during my prep, we met up for drinks with some new friends.
I found out one of the guys had done an Ironman.
Immediately I thought:
“If this guy can do an Ironman, I definitely can too.”
By my 70.3 race day, I already had my first full Ironman on the calendar.
And for the past five years, I’ve never gone without a “next race” ahead of me.
In my experience, anything 6+ months out feels too far away.
I catch myself going through the motions and being less intentional in my daily life.
3 to 4 months out is my sweet spot:
enough time to prepare
close enough to stay urgent
frequent enough that not every race needs a life overhaul
Lesson: Follow your curiosity and always keep something up ahead.
It will help you stay focused, enthusiastic, and consistent.
#2: Time on Task
For long stretches of the year, swimming feels like a chore.
Especially in the winter, when triathlon races are many months away.
But with Ironman goals, I’ve learned I can’t afford big gaps of no swimming.
Even a few weeks off takes away my “feel'“ for the water, and it kills the ability for my work to compound over time.
So earlier this year, I set a simple floor goal: 2x swims and 5,000 yards of swimming per week
It wasn’t about breakthroughs.
It was about not letting the gaps open up, and stacking weeks anyway.
That floor goal carried me through the winter.
It gave me an opportunity to:
sneak in swims on the way back from family airport drop-offs
keep momentum alive when motivation wasn’t there
experience the confidence that comes from a little work done consistently
By the time I got to this World Champs build, that habit was easy to scale up.
I swam 3x per week, every week, for 12 straight weeks.
And in the process, I fell in love with swimming.
Lesson: Time on task compounds.
Set a floor you can always hit, especially for the things that feel like a grind.
#3: Document The Journey
I started my triathlon journey with something to prove…
Mainly, that I wasn’t anchored to past mistakes:
taking 9 years to graduate from Penn State
gaining 50lbs during my original senior year
getting kicked out of my fraternity
I wanted to prove to the world that I wasn’t the same person. That I could do something exciting and different with my life.
And so I took and posted pics to prove it.
But after a while, something inside me shifted…
I stopped using those photos to prove the world wrong.
And I started using them to prove myself right.
Every picture became proof I could overcome:
negative self talk
physical discomfort
the chaos of life
It showed me I could stay committed to myself, and I could do it with a smile.
Lesson: Don’t just celebrate the small wins. DOCUMENT THEM.
This is a hack to improve your self talk and reshape the way you see yourself.
#4: Let Your Mission Positively Take Over Your Life
Endurance training can easily crowd out everything else.
I’ve seen athletes chase performance while neglecting:
family
business
personal growth
That’s not my style.
I want my goals to spill over into every part of life - in the best way possible.
Like back in 2020…
It was a gray November day in Philly and I set out on my longest training ride ever.
Cold wind, gray skies, two flats, and no more C02… I was stranded a few miles from home.
It would have been easy to…
lose my cool
blame things outside my control
get frustrated over things I couldn’t change
Instead, I was forced to be patient, be proactive, and solve the problem.
So I gave my wife a call and asked her to come get me.
It was another rep being unbothered on my way to a solution.
And a few weeks later, when my wife spilled her coffee (a moment where I usually snapped) I caught myself…
I tossed her a towel, smiled, and poured another cup.
That wasn’t random. It was training at work.
Endurance hadn’t just made me stronger on the bike.
It gave me the reps to stay calm under chaos, and I was intentional about carrying that into my marriage.
Lesson: The right process doesn’t compete with life. It elevates it.
#5: Don’t Make It All About You
In June 2023, I was on a biz building trip in Indy with my biz coach, Zach Homol.
I was also 6 weeks out from Oregon 70.3, dialed in on my training, and eyeing up a massive 70.3 PR.
While on the trip, an opportunity popped up…
A group of my athletes were running a 50k the day I was set to leave town.
If I moved my flight, I could be at the race and support them…
But then I thought:
“What if I just ran the race with them?”
My own triathlon coach warned me of the risks doing such a big effort in the midst of my 70.3 prep…
But I didn’t care.
The opportunity to support my guys and build my team was too good to pass up.
And I wasn’t willing to make “perfect” training my north star in life.
So I went to race check-in with the guys and asked the Race Director for a last minute bib.
The next day, every single one of us crossed the 50k finish line, and 5 of my athletes became first time ultramarathon runners.
6 weeks later, I threw down a 4:34 70.3 and got my huge PR.
Lesson: Don’t put all your faith in the training.
Be well rounded.
Fuel yourself emotionally, relationally, and spiritually, and you’ll toe the starting line powerful and capable.
#6: Get Help
In my first few Ironman races, all I cared about was average speed on the bike.
I wanted to finish faster.
And I thought the only way to get there was by holding higher average power.
So I…
obsessed over that number
chased watts for the sake of watts
wanted to show my strength in my Strava stats
Then I started working with coach Eric Kenney.
He gave me a strategy that completely changed the way I raced: coast the descents
Stack 5 to 15 second breaks 10x (or more) times during the ride, and you’ll roll into the run with a lot more energy.
It was so simple. But it shifted everything.
Instead of chasing a data point that didn’t matter, I was learning how to execute a complete Ironman.
And in the end, that’s what actually made me faster.
I’ve been fortunate to learn from incredible coaches and mentors along the way:
Shyanne McGregor
Raymond Botelho
Dave Scott
Erik Kenney
Dee Stasuli
Gordo Byrn
Justin Daerr
Each one shaped how I train, race, and built myself along the way.
Their guidance hasn’t just advanced my fitness - it’s made the process more…
connected
sustainable
enjoyable
The point of a coach isn’t always because you can’t figure it out alone…
I’ve found there’s extreme value in building partnerships that achieve goals together.
Lesson: Don’t go at it alone.
Mentors will keep you learning, keep you humble, and keep you focused on what really matters.
#7: Define Your Own Success Along The Way
If my only metric of success was qualifying for the Ironman World Championship, my first 4 Ironmans would have been considered failures.
Instead, I’ve taken control of how I view my progress.
For example, here are some wins in this 12 week build to Ironman World Champs.
Training: swam 3x per week for the entire build and did 3x local short course tris in prep
up from my usual 2x per week
did my first ever gravel triathlon
finished 2nd overall in a local Sprint - my best finish ever
Creative: made my first YouTube series documenting my prep
7 episodes, all recording and editing done myself
have 2 more coming out to close the loop on the project
Business: launched and completed a new Run Foundations cohort
hosted 5 calls teaching the team on run development
brought 3 new teammates into Tribal through it
Faith: led my family in faith through the passing of my grandfather
read 2 Corinthians 5 over him before he passed, with 10 family members by his bedside
prayed over 40 people at the welcome dinner of his funeral weekend
read at his funeral services
Leadership: surprised my team at Prairie on Fire backyard ultra in Indiana last weekend
live coached at my first backyard ultra
helped all 12 athletes set PRs
Health: I haven’t had a drink in 3+ months
my longest time away from alcohol in multiple years
a necessary course correction after finding myself drinking too much in the first half of this year
But none of those wins are even the coolest part of the whole build…
When I landed in Denver after coaching at the race Indy, my phone rang…
It was my pastor, Philip Woods.
My first thought was:
“Is he meaning to call me?”
I picked up.
“Hey Ryan! I want to stop by your house and pray over you before your race. When do you leave?”
I’ve done 5x Ironmans...
But nothing like that has ever happened before.
In faith, in creative work, in fitness, in business, and in leadership - my race is already a success.
The Real Finish Line
Qualifying for the Ironman World Championships has been a goal five-years in the making.
And lining up here marks this goal officially achieved.
But it’s the process of chasing that goal that’s made the biggest impact on me.
Always have something to look forward to
Spend a lot of time on task
Document the journey
Let your mission positively take over your life
Don’t make it all about you
Get help
Define your own success along the way
That’s goal setting The Tribal Way.
And that’s what I hope you take away - whatever your version of Ironman World Champs may be.
Only thing left to do is let it fly.
I’ll see you on the other side.
- RD