• certified in Ultrarunning by UESCA
• Training Peaks Coach level 1

• Running (marathon or shorter)
• Ultrarunning

• Beginner
• Intermediate
• Expert/Advanced

• Strength and Conditioning

3-5 years

I came to coaching through racing. I run technical mountain ultras myself, including La Misión, UTMB and others, and most of what I know about pacing a climb, saving the quadriceps for a long descent, and eating when the stomach shuts down came from getting it wrong first.

Alongside coaching I build training software for trail runners, which keeps me close to the data: grade adjusted pace, vertical speed, training load on terrain where flat road metrics stop making sense. I read the physiology carefully and stay skeptical of claims that do not hold up.

Most trail plans are road plans with hills added. I build them the other way around, starting from the terrain of the goal race.

Three principles guide the work. First, polarized distribution: most volume runs genuinely easy so the hard sessions can be hard, which matters more in trail because climbing quietly pushes intensity up. Second, vertical is a training variable in its own right. I plan elevation gain with the same care as weekly mileage, and I treat descent as trainable rather than as something that just happens on the way down, since eccentric load is what ends most ultras. Third, specificity to the race profile: a runnable 50k and a 5,500m technical mountain ultra ask different things of an athlete.

Around that, the plan has to survive contact with real life. Adjusting it is part of the method, not a failure of it.