My 2024 Tribal Coaching Recap
What I learned this year as a coach
This is Part 1 of the 2024 Tribal Annual Recap Series.
Parts 2 and 3 will cover Biz Building and Personal Lessons.
In this write up, I cover 6 coaching and development insights that came out of this past year.
What happened
What I learned
How I grew
Plus I share my biggest failure as a coach (#5).
Let’s get to it.
1. Finish Line Results
2024 was the year of solidifying the First Timer 70.3 Blueprint.
Here are a few examples 6 month training averages and finish times:
4:11 weekly training time // ~7 hour finish time
4:20 weekly training time // ~7 hour finish time
6:41 weekly training time // ~6:30 finish time
8:21 weekly training time // ~5:30 finish time
9:00 weekly training time // ~5 hour finish time
The athletes who did more volume all came in with a recreational endurance background and a consistent training routine.
Their training plans were focused on fine tuning structure/direction/logistics to unlock their ability in triathlon.
The athletes who did less volume modeled the “lower the bar, raise the execution” approach.
Their training plans were focused on building consistency toward conquering a lifetime achievement. (Complete before Compete).
I’ll cover the return athletes who set PRs in #3…
2. Team Races Became A Foundation of Tribal
For a team built entirely online, these numbers are remarkable.
Athletes are connecting digitally in the team chat/on team calls, then solidifying and growing relationships spending a weekend together at Team Races.
And with a Team Race every quarter (and spread across the country), it was easy for athletes to make their Big Event of the year a Team Race.
Here’s something else I observed…
The idea of a local tri club with lots of group sessions sounds nice. But that’s not reality for our group…
Tribal athletes have active lives as parents, successful professionals, members of their church and community, and more.
Meeting up with a local group 2x/week to train doesn’t actually fit with life.
It’s more effective to be connected to a supportive group online, fit training in however you can, and race with Team once or twice a year.
(There were also 5 additional “non Team Race” 70.3s and Ironmans that had at least 3 Tribal athletes compete together)
2025 Team Race Schedule:
Elephant Mountain 50 Mile Ultra (Feb 1. in AZ)
Chattanooga 70.3 (May 18)
Tribal Trail Fest Family Weekend (July 28 to August 1 in Boulder)
Prairie on Fire Backyard Ultra (Sept. 7 in Indiana)
Ironman California (Oct. 28)
3. Athletes Evolving From Complete to Compete
The biggest Year over Year jump in performance was Tribal Athlete and Assistant Coach, Brandon Littrell.
Brandon made a huge leap from 5:45+ 70.3 finish times in 2023 to finishing 2x 70.3s in 2024 at ~5:15.
And he earned an Ironman All World Athlete Qualification in the process (first athlete to develop toward that achievement in Team History).
But here’s the best part…
He didn’t make such a huge leap in progress by grinding away at 10+ hour training weeks.
Brandon is a husband, father of 4, owns a custom home building biz, and has spent the last 2 years building his own family’s new home with his bare hands.
When we reviewed his training volume after his 70.3s, we saw something amazing…
He averaged just 6:24 weekly training time over the past 2 years (1 hour a day with a rest day).
What did that show?
Developing in endurance is more about building a process that fits with your family and lifestyle, and staying consistent year over year.
Bravo, Brando.
4. Compete More
We had a Tribal Athlete complete his first Ironman in July.
It was the best executed race of any first-timer in Team History. He crossed the finish line looking like this…
But that wasn’t the only highlight of his year…
6 weeks later, he did a Local Sprint Tri that he said he got just as much out of.
got to push hard and go fast
made podium in his age group (Top 3)
was home by 10 am to take on a full day of family activity (right into Dad mode)
(This athlete also did 2x 70.3s along the way to his first Ironman).
Fitness is one thing. Race execution is another.
You must get race reps if you want to do well in competition.
Here’s a different example…
This year, we had the first Tribal athlete run a sub-3 marathon.
And it came off the heels of a 30 minute performance bump from another marathon he ran 4 months prior.
His fitness was a bit better for the 2nd race, but not by 30 minutes…
So how’d he pull of such a huge PR?
better fueling
steadier pacing
improved race execution
Check out the pacing fade in the splits on the left vs. the steady pacing in the splits on the right.
Compete more to have fun, push yourself and get better at racing.
5. Biggest Coaching Fails
Competitions is also the area I dropped the ball most as a coach this year.
There were two instances this happened:
6 of 9 athletes DNF’d Zion 100
The 3 athletes who finished included one who ran a 50 miler in prep, one who ran a 100k in prep and one who ran prior 100 milers.
Of the 6 athletes who DNF’d, none had competed in an ultra in the 5 months leading up to the race.
I botched another sub-3 marathon attempt
I had another athlete fit enough to run sub-3. But we didn’t get any competition reps ahead of race day.
And how did race day go?
We weren’t prepared for the competition environment, logistics with Aid Stations, fueling and more.
Lots of good still came from both experiences - just not what we hoped for.
Lesson learned. Process adjusted moving forward. On to the next one.
6. Expanding Coaching Services
Some of the biggest wins in Tribal this year came outside the arena.
It was the first year I started offering highly customized Executive Coaching packages for athletes looking to grow in mindset, business and content creation.
3 Highlights:
Helped an athlete start a Financial Coaching side hustle, develop an offer and land his first paying client
Helped an athlete launch an e-commerce side hustle, used the Tribal Team to help him get it off the ground and land his first 20+ paying clients
Helped an athlete start creating content online, generating new leads for his start up and leading to a guest spot on a major podcast
What does this coaching process look like?
This is a good summary:
Want to grow with Tribal in 2025? Hit this link to apply.