About

coaching philosophy

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At McKirdy Trained, our coaching philosophy is less about the training itself and more about how we feel athletes should be treated.

There is no single “McKirdy Trained Method” – our coaches all have their own experience, their own education, and their own ideas on training and athletic development.

So what do we believe?

Any athlete who wants professional guidance deserves that level of care and service.

The health of an athlete comes first, no matter what.

Effective communication is key to athletic development and a good coach/athlete relationship.

We are often asked how our athletes achieve the results that we post about, and the answer is pretty simple. There is no secret sauce. There is no magic training concept that we’ve stumbled upon. Our athletes see success because we believe every athlete matters. 

Every athlete deserves a coach who cares.

Our coaches care – and that has made all the difference.

no cookie-cutter training

No two runners have the same work and personal commitments, the same running history, the same injury history. So why should you have the same training?

weekly or bi-weekly updates

Life comes at your fast and your training often needs to be adjusted to meet your needs. We won't give you months of training and tell you good luck - we provide one to two weeks of training at a time based on current fitness and schedule demands.

ongoing communication

As a McKirdy Trained athlete, you'll always have your coach's cell phone number and you'll be able to reach out via phone call, text, email, or app whenever you have questions. Coaching is a relationship and being able to openly communicate as needed is essential for success.

McKirdy Trained was born from humble beginnings and an underdog mentality. Founder and head coach James McKirdy started the business officially in January 2016 with 10 athletes under his care.

Despite several professionals in the field of fitness and personal training claiming the idea of 1:1 run coaching would never work, athletes started reaching out after hearing stories of success spread by word of mouth. James hired Coach Michelle (Kurnik) Kulak a few months later to keep up with demand.

By the end of 2016, McKirdy Trained had 11 coaches and 150 athletes.

By mid-2018, there were 18 coaches and 385 athletes.

By 2021, we have grown to 29 coaches and over 1,000 current athletes.

Our growth has been organic; we don’t advertise and we don’t partner with companies we don’t believe in simply for exposure or monetary kickbacks. Our focus is on our athletes.

We don’t know where we might be in another 5 years, but we do hope you might consider joining us. 

established in 2016

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