• Long distance (5k to marathon)
• Advanced
• Biomechanics: form analysis and loading insights, injury rehab

If interested, coaching package can also include:

• Running form analysis (video provided by athlete)
• Additional training/mechanical loading insights from a Stryd, Runscribe, or similar device you use

I see running as a way to express your abilities and explore what you are capable of. I believe that commitment to the process of training (and learning through training) will shape not only your physiology but also your philosophy, mindset, and mental capacities. The passion and skills you develop translate to all areas of life. Thus, the commitment to training can be considered a commitment to personal development.

My goal as a coach is to help you cultivate your abilities to a level of “high performance”. You define what “high performance” means to you. It may be performing at your absolute best, doing your best with the resources available to you, setting a new PB in your peak race, achieving a qualifying standard, improving your aerobic fitness, or something else. My job is to help you realize your vision of high performance through safe, systematic personalized programming and guidance.

The principles that guide my coaching:

1. Do everything with purpose. High performance is purpose-driven. To train and recover well in a sustainable way, we need a North Star to remind us why we are doing it and guide our steps. Doing the inner work to develop and clarify a larger purpose in life, and specifically how running fits in that purpose (even pro runners know running is not all there is to life), will set you up to live out high performance to you and experience the best of the sport. With an overarching purpose for running, we can break it down into smaller goals and ultimately daily actions that support that purpose. Each training session (and each meal, night of sleep, etc.) serves a purpose to support your running goals and your overarching purpose. My training is systematic in this way, though it does not follow a formulaic plan. My training is personalized, specific to each athlete’s goals.
2. Form a system of habits. You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your training. Let’s make that work in your favor! There are no shortcuts to high performance. It is a long-term commitment involving thousands of small actions. Habits are consistent actions that form a pattern, or system. Apart from physical training, habits of your mindset, sleep, and fueling are foundational to high performance. I also plan training around long-term goals, prioritizing athletes’ health and long-term development. I focus on raising the floor rather than reaching for the ceiling, because consistency is key. It takes months or years of consistent training to begin to explore the edges of your potential.
3. Evidence-based training. Effective training is supported by both experimental and practical evidence. I do not prescribe training based on fad, tradition, or untested theory. My training is based on sound scientific principles, experimental evidence, and methods that have proven to be effective in the real world by coaches and athletes.
4. Foundations first. I approach race-specific preparation from both ends of the intensity spectrum. The preparation first trains your ability to run at low-end and high-end intensities, building foundations of fitness to support training at intensities closer to that of the race. Depending on the event, each phase of training emphasizes higher-end and lower-end fitness, eventually getting to race-specific training. The progression ensures you have both the metabolic and mechanical foundations to support the next phase of training without making significant jumps that risk injury or breakdown.
5. Everyone is different. While there are principles that are universal to endurance training, each person is unique – in experience, ability level, resources, strengths/weaknesses, mechanics, muscle fiber type distribution, etc., as well as how they respond to training. Thus, training needs to be personalized and adaptive. I prescribe training differently for each individual. I also highly value athlete feedback regarding things like sleep, fueling, energy levels, exertion, and external stressors so that I can adapt the training plan to help keep you healthy and progressing in a sustainable way.

I have worked with a professional team (Mammoth Track Club) as a sports scientist, where I provided training recommendations based on biomechanical testing. I currently have a similar role with the local university’s cross country team. I have also served with high school and college running camps in which I taught applied biomechanical principles for runners and mentored students in areas beyond running. I have been a student of the sport for 16 years and have coached myself for much of that time.

My passion is to help athletes* fully express their abilities. *From the Greek word for “contending for the prize”, anyone with a goal. I’m stealing this from a certain shoe company, but I’ll just do it anyways: “If you have a body, you’re an athlete.”

I study biomechanics, and specifically the biomechanics of running. I love applying insights from biomechanics/physiology to enhance the health and performance of athletes. I developed a passion for biomechanics as an engineering student at the University of Virginia, where I also competed for the UVA Cross Country/Track and Field team. I was fascinated by the intersection of engineering and sports, and when I learned that you could have a career in this field, I committed to pursuing it. That led me to get my Master’s degree at UC Davis and then to Bozeman, Montana, to start my PhD at Montana State.

Like many runners, my running journey started in soccer. While I found I was much better at running, I still love soccer. I also did some wrestling and swimming. I believe the former helped shape the work ethic that allowed me to progress as far as I did in running. I also love exploring (often in nature, through running or hiking), traveling, and learning new things, like languages (I have been learning Spanish and am starting to learn Japanese).

The biggest influence in my life has been my journey in the Christian faith. At one point running was the ultimate thing in my life, only to leave me frustrated and empty. I have come to learn that true joy and fulfillment come from knowing I am worthy and significant in God’s sight regardless of how well I perform or how others see me. Grounded in this truth, my passion for the sport has been life-giving as opposed to life-draining. This also helps keep running in the proper perspective in my training and coaching.

As an applied scientist and coach, I take a scientific approach to training. I got a lot of my coaching philosophy from coaches Joe Vigil, Renato Canova, Steve Magness, and Andrew Kastor. The mental side of my philosophy comes from psychologist Michael Gervais and the Finding Your Best course, Angela Duckworth, and James Clear. I learned the molecular physiology perspective of training and injury rehab strategies from Dr. Keith Baar at UC Davis.

One memorable race for me was the Big West Conference XC Championships. I was competing for UC Davis as a first year grad student (my last season of NCAA eligibility). Our team started the season without a coach and I struggled early on to transition to the new team, school, and location. But I had committed to running with the team, so instead of quitting, I made the necessary changes to perform at my best. I put together a good month of training leading into the championship season, building on the work I had put in that summer. I knew it was a reasonable goal to win, but I also knew that it would be really difficult considering the competition and the training I had, which was decent but limited. I had a thorough mental preparation for the race, including considering a critical point on the course (a tight turn in the last half mile or so) and the likely possibilities for how the race might play out (slow, fast from the start, or changes in pace). I visualized how I would navigate the race and pictured myself securing the critical advantage on that tight turn. I saw myself where I needed to be and how I would respond to the pace.

During the race, my main competitor put in a hard surge about a third of the way into the 8k race. This may have surprised me otherwise, but I had already seen something like this play out in my mind, and responded how I wanted to, keeping a hard but steady, controlled pace to stay in range and eventually close the gap when the surge faded (as surges do). From there I knew I had an advantage running a more steady pace, so as we approached the critical point of the race, I was ready to execute what I had imagined myself doing: running hard to the turn, getting there first, and maintaining the momentum. I made it to the turn much like how I had pictured, with all my determination focused on the apex. Advantage me, but I knew I hadn’t won. I knew I still had to move through the gears all the way to the finish. Fortunately, I was able to maintain my advantage and secure the win.

This race was so memorable not only because of the outcome amidst a difficult season, but because it also shows the power of motivation and preparation. Over the past year I had redefined my purpose for running to no longer focus on proving myself but to focus more on developing relationships through the sport and discovering what I am capable of. Going into the race, I was able to respect the challenge without feeling the pressure to validate myself with my performance, and that freed me up to focus on the execution. I am a big believer in the saying, “You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your training (or preparation)” (Michael Gervais/James Clear). That phrase is grounding in how it reiterates the reality of physiology and psychology, and I think applies well to running. I didn’t run well because I had one good month of training leading up to the race – the training throughout the summer built up the foundation of fitness I needed. I was also able to respond to what happened (as opposed to reacting) and execute well because of the mental preparation: my mindset and visualization of how I wanted to run.

Although the winning outcome makes a nice story, the race was successful because I ran with a motivation beyond myself and expressed my best effort, and would have been equally successful no matter what place I finished. I share this example because it demonstrates the value of motivation and training both the body and the mind. Not to over-emphasize the value of the mental component – the fittest person usually wins – but to show that preparation (primarily physical, including mental) is what really allows you to perform at your best. These lessons carry over to training in general. Long-term systematic, thoughtful preparation is at the core of my coaching.

• USATF Level 1

• NCAA XC individual qualifier (West Region), 2017
• Big West Conference Athlete of the Year (XC), 2017
• Big West XC Conference Champion, 2017
• All-ACC (5000m outdoor), 2017
• All-region XC (Southeast), 2015
• ACC Freshman of the Year (XC), 2013

• 5000m: 13:53 (12/04/2020) The Track Meet
• 10k XC: 29:52 (11/10/2017) NCAA D1 West Region XC Championships
• 10mi: 48:49 (04/03/2022) Sactown 10mi
• Half Marathon: 1:05:41 (10/02/2023) RnR San Jose Half Marathon