meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Rich Roll Podcast

Gordo Byrn on Making A 1000 Day Plan, Small Promises, The 5:2 Rule, & Designing Your Best Life

The Rich Roll Podcast

Rich Roll

Health & Fitness, Education, Self-improvement, Society & Culture

4.812.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2022

⏱️ 164 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In today’s panoply of role models, rare is the story of an everyman transforming his life wholesale—then sharing his process openly and honestly with humility and vulnerability. Today I convene with one of these aspirational, endurance veteran and personal hero Gordo Byrn. Gordo is someone who greatly inspired and influenced my endurance career and mentored me from afar in ways beyond my ability to calculate. This conversation, long in the making, is thus personally special. A former private equity investment banker, Gordo metamorphosed into an elite ultra-endurance athlete, a student of human performance, an endurance coach, and, mostly, a devoted family man. He’s also the co-author of the endurance bible 'Going Long'—an incredible resource for any and all athletes seeking to better understand and apply the principles of endurance. A Web 1.0 blogger and podcaste, Gordo's humble guidance and wisdom was a consistent presence during my heavy training years, a tradition he continues today on Twitter (@feelthebyrn1)—a platform he uses to share his experience on everything from endurance training to marriage, personal finance and parenting. Meeting Gordo was like meeting a lost twin for the first time, and this conversation was everything I hoped it would be. Watch: YouTube. Read: Show notes. Today's Sponsors: InsideTracker: insidetracker.com/RichRoll Athletic Greens: athleticgreens.com/richroll Indeed: Indeed.com/RICHROLL. BetterHelp: BetterHelp.com/richroll. The Swedish superstar and multiple Ultraman and Otillo champion Jonas Colting calls Gordo ‘Tony Robbins in a Speedo.’ I agree with this statement, and after listening to this one, you will too. Peace + Plants, Rich

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You know, we all have these talents in us that we have no idea about and we have these paths in our lives that we can take at any time.

0:11.0

That we never get to see because we never take them.

0:14.0

If you know yourself and you can give yourself something to do, you can replace dark thoughts with other thoughts.

0:24.0

Make a small promise to yourself. It might be a walk. It might just be waking up before noon.

0:34.0

It's a small promise and you're going to start really small and it's going to seem tiny and all you got to do is keep that small promise to yourself.

0:43.0

Every positive change in my life has built from the ability to keep a small promise to myself. Change starts small and it's a daily habit of doing the small thing to start the day.

1:01.0

And you turn yourself into a winner by having a small win every day and that's how it happens.

1:19.0

The Rich Roll Podcast.

1:39.0

Although we had never met in person until the date of this podcast, nonetheless has greatly inspired and influenced my endurance career.

1:49.0

He's somebody who has kind of mentored me from afar and weighs almost beyond my ability to calculate. His name is Gordo Bern.

1:58.0

If you're a veteran, endurance or ultra-endurance junkie like myself, then chances are you may already know what a legend this guy is. But for everybody else, Gordo is a guy who kind of took the road less traveled.

2:12.0

He's a former private equity investment banker who ended up transforming himself into an elite ultra-endurance athlete, as well as a student of elite performance, a veteran endurance coach, a co-author with Joe Friel of the endurance Bible entitled Going Long, and mostly a devoted family man.

2:33.0

One of the things that makes Gordo more aspirational versus inspirational is that his athletic journey, this guy who started out as an obese finance guy and turned himself into an elite athlete, really began with a simple walk.

2:50.0

That walk turned into a jog, that jog turned into a run, and thereafter, what set in was this obsession with elite endurance performance that culminated in seven sub-nine hour Ironmans, including an 829 for second place at Ironman Canada, and also being crowned Ultraman World Champion in 2002.

3:12.0

So a result at my very favorite race that captured my fascination and really motivated in so many ways my own Ultraman dreams and performances.

3:24.0

In addition to some shared DNA that we have in both our backstories, as well as our life philosophies, one of the reasons that Gordo was able to so profoundly impact me back in the mid to late 2000s during my most intense years of training and competing,

3:40.0

is that he was a willing and early adopter of sharing his experience on the internet as a web 1.0 blogger, as well as an early podcaster.

3:50.0

It's a tradition he continues today on Twitter at Field of Burn, a platform he uses to share his experience in wisdom on everything really, everything from endurance training to marriage and parenting.

4:02.0

It was truly an honor to spend an afternoon with a man who has influenced me so profoundly, it was kind of like meeting a lost twin for the first time, and this conversation was everything I hoped it would be.

4:14.0

So in addition to chronicling Gordo's life story among the specific topics we cover, which are bound with actionable advice, applicable to not just athletes, but truly to everybody, we discuss leveraging pain to catalyze a life change.

4:31.0

We discuss the dangers of chasing elite performance. We talk about what endurance teaches us about life.

4:39.0

We discuss the importance of creating what he calls a 1000 day plan and how success is really built upon small steps undertaken with ruthless consistency.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Rich Roll, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Rich Roll and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.