Hi, I'm Will.
I’m here to help you run farther and faster while maintaining your love of the sport.
I'm a trail running coach, personal trainer, and nutrition coach.
I love being out in the mountains, eating food, and hanging with my goofy dog.
Here's a few of the certifications I've taken over the past couple years:
UESCA Ultrarunning Coach
NASM-CPT
PSL1
CFSC
Precision Nutrition – Pn1
NCI – L1, L2
My Past & Related Struggles
My love of food started at a very young age. Some of my earliest memories are of cooking with my parents. Food has always meant love and family. Food is still one of the main ingredients in most of my greatest friendships.
Unfortunately, I was also a fat kid. I hated myself when I looked in the mirror and I hated the way I felt. Nothing I did seemed to lead to any changes. I tried everything from starvation to Atkins to low-fat. No matter what diet I tried or how much exercise I did, I couldn’t make the changes stick. I constantly felt like a failure.
Then in my early twenties, I found a few things that stuck. I changed my priorities around exercise and food and started to get in shape - but I still didn’t have a healthy relationship with food and exercise. I didn’t do the work because I wanted to be healthy. I did the work because I hated who I saw in the mirror. This led to a ton of weight loss and a pretty solid six-pack, but not a happy, sustainable lifestyle. I was biking 200+ miles per week, lifting an hour or more every day, and eating far too little - unsurprisingly, I collected a lot of injuries during this era of my life.
Fast-forward a few years, I was working at a ski resort, driving snowcats around in the middle of the night. I was working consistent 70-hour weeks, sleeping terribly, not exercising, and drinking far too much. I loved driving snowcats, but I hated everything that came with it.
Just before this, my dad had died after a long battle with Hepatitis C. The last couple of years were rough – filled with doctor visits and exorbitant medical fees. He also had a long struggle with hepatic encephalitis, essentially dementia caused by liver disease. The strongest man I knew fell apart. It was awful.
I knew it was time to make a change. I decided to become a personal trainer so I could help people get strong and change their lives for the better without going through all the hell I did.
Through pure luck, I got introduced to the ultrarunning community through some strength training clients. At the time, I wasn't a runner - I honestly thought the whole thing was nuts - but I loved their passion and their desire to do hard things outside. I went for a couple runs out on the trails and started to fall in love with it. This sport gave me something that I used to find in biking and snowboarding but had since lost - a little bit of peace and a reason to do hard things outside.
So I started coaching runners.
To anybody who's known me for long, it was a weird transition. The guy who hated running is going to be a running coach?
Apparently. Life's weird.
But I also believe coming to this sport as an outsider comes with a couple advantages. It allows me to work as a coach without any bias or baggage.
I just do what works and provide my athletes with their best chance of success. Far too often I see great athletes become coaches and it's often not a great fit. They try to leverage the training that worked for them and it unfortunately doesn't apply to a lot of others.
So yes, I'm a running coach who used to hate running.
But now I love the trails and just want to give other people their best shot at enjoying them as well.
Interested in working with me?
Click the link below.
It'll take you to a short intake form, then you'll schedule a short meeting where we can see if we're a good fit.