DISCOVER
Whether you are preparing for your first trail race or chasing a big ultra goal, your training should fit your body, your life, your terrain, and your long-term progression.
Trail and ultra running are not just about doing more.
MORE THAN A TRAINING PLAN
A training plan can tell you what to do.
Coaching helps you understand why, how, when to adjust, and what to do when real life gets in the way.
Generic plans can be useful, but they do not always respond to your terrain, fatigue, missed sessions, work schedule, stress, recovery, race goals, or the way you are evolving as an athlete.
Trail and ultra running ask a lot from the body and the mind. The goal is not to copy someone else’s plan. The goal is to build an approach that fits you — and can keep adapting as you progress.
You want to train with more direction and less guessing.
This is for you if…
Maybe you are preparing for your first trail race, building toward your first ultra, returning after time away, or chasing a more ambitious performance goal.
Maybe you know you are capable of more, but you are not sure how to structure your training.
Maybe you are doing a lot, but not necessarily getting the results you want.
Maybe the hard work is not adding more training, but recovering better, fueling better, building strength, or learning how to execute on race day.
This coaching is for trail runners and ultra athletes who are curious, committed, and willing to learn — not only to work harder, but to train smarter.
All ages, levels, and genders are welcome.
From a first 10k trail race to a 250-mile ultra, the work starts with where you are and where you want to go.
What we can work on
Depending on your goals, experience, and event demands, coaching may include:
Personalized trail and ultra running training plans
Race preparation and season planning
Weekly structure, volume, intensity, and progression
Uphill, downhill, technical terrain, poles, and agility
Strength training for trail runners
Pacing, effort management, and race execution
Recovery, consistency, and load management
Motivation, confidence, and decision-making
Nutrition and hydration basics for training and race day
Returning to structure after injury, burnout, or time away
Balancing training with work, family, travel, and life
The goal is not to make training more complicated.
The goal is to make it clearer, smarter, and more aligned with the athlete you are becoming.
How coaching supports your training
Structure
We build a training structure that matches your goals, timeline, current fitness, available time, and life context.
Adaptation
Your plan evolves with your progress, fatigue, recovery, schedule, and feedback. Training is not static, and neither is coaching.
Strength & Durability
We use strength training, mobility, movement quality, and smart progression to help you become a stronger, more resilient trail runner.
Skill & Execution
Trail running is not only endurance. We look at terrain, pacing, technical skills, race strategy, decision-making, and the demands of your specific event.
Autonomy
The goal is not to make you dependent on a coach forever. The goal is to help you understand your training, trust your judgment, and become a more capable athlete.
HOW TO BEGIN
Ways to Work Together
Exploration Call
The first step is an exploration call.
This is a conversation to understand your goals, experience, race timeline, current training, and what kind of support makes sense.
You do not need to know exactly what you need before reaching out.
We can clarify whether the best fit is a one-off coaching call, an ongoing coaching plan, the Endurance Coaching Lab, a training plan, or another option.
One-Off Trail & Ultra Coaching Session
A single coaching call can be useful when you want support around a specific question, race decision, training issue, plateau, or “what should I do next?” moment.
It can help you clarify your training direction, adjust your race preparation, troubleshoot a challenge, or leave with a clearer plan for your next steps.
Personalized Coaching & Training Plan
For ongoing support, personalized coaching includes an adaptive training plan, feedback, guidance, and coaching that evolves with you.
This can support athletes preparing for a specific event over several months, as well as athletes who want a longer-term coaching relationship over multiple seasons.
Some athletes work with me for a 6–8 month race build. Others stay for years as their goals, life, and athletic development continue to evolve.
Training plans are delivered through Nolio, an interactive coaching platform that allows us to organize training, track progress, communicate, and adjust the plan as needed.
Ongoing coaching is available as a monthly coaching plan. We can clarify fit, commitment, and pricing during the exploration call.
Endurance Coaching Lab
The Endurance Coaching Lab is a group learning and coaching format for trail runners and ultra athletes who want to train smarter, build judgment, and develop autonomy.
It is designed for athletes who want more support than doing it alone, but do not necessarily need full 1:1 coaching.
The Lab includes education, coaching conversations, replays, and rotating themes around the main
pillars of trail and ultra running:
training structure and adaptation
strength, technique, mobility, and durability
mindset and race strategy
nutrition, sleep, recovery, and life balance
The Lab has its own page with full details.
My Approach
I do not believe in cookie-cutter trail running plans.
Your training should reflect your body, your background, your terrain, your goals, your life, and your capacity to recover and adapt.
My coaching combines sport science, real-world experience, strength training, endurance training, technical trail skills, and the human side of performance.
We look at the whole picture: training load, recovery, strength, nutrition, stress, confidence, decision-making, race execution, and the life you are training inside of.
The goal is not just to finish a race or follow a plan.
The goal is to become a stronger, smarter, more durable athlete.
I’m a trail and ultra running coach, professional coach, and accomplished endurance athlete.
Meet Your Coach
I have over 15 years of experience coaching athletes through trail running, ultra-distance events, obstacle course racing, strength training, and endurance challenges.
I am a certified running coach, CrossFit Level 2 Trainer, ACC Certified Professional Coach, and longtime ultra-endurance athlete.
I know what it means to train for big goals, manage fear and doubt, adapt when things do not go as planned, and keep moving when the terrain gets hard.
My role is not only to write a plan.
It is to support your development as an athlete — with structure, perspective, honesty, and care.
Testimonials
Corinne Lemay Gaudet, 36
Occupational Therapist, Ultra Trail Runner
By choosing to be coached by a trainer, I wanted to learn but also to have a human experience. What a privilege it was to be coached by Hélène!
Hélène truly instills confidence in our abilities and takes us to new places. She is incredibly generous with her advice and knowledge sharing. Her strong skills as an athlete and coach allow her to adapt effortlessly to our needs and specifics. She is a radiant person who my friends and family often hear about because she is so inspiring!
Aaron Plue, 41
Senior Trader, Trail Runner
My accomplishments from having a coach, beside better performances, are to have a better understanding of myself. From what Hélène has accomplished, you want to charge into battle with her.
She has that personal touch – talks about anything and everything – life in general or training because it is all interrelated.
She is completely invested in our happiness, goals and achievements. What I love about Hélène is that you can tell her your craziest project and she just says ‘Let’s do it!’
Laura Skoblenick, 36
Senior Environmental Officer, Obstacle Course Racer
As a running coach, Hélène gave me a plan to help achieve my goal of being a stronger and faster athlete.
As a human performance coach, she helped me build a repertoire of mental tools to improve my everyday life. I got two for the price of one.
What Athletes Often Gain
Athletes often gain:
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clearer training structure
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better consistency
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stronger race preparation
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improved confidence
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better understanding of pacing and effort
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stronger bodies and better durability
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improved race execution
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more trust in their own judgment
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better balance between training, recovery, and life
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a clearer sense of what to adjust and why
The work is not always about doing more.
Often, it is about doing the right things, at the right time, with enough patience to let adaptation happen.
Not sure what kind of support you need?
That is okay.
Some athletes need a full coaching plan.
Some need a one-off call.
Some need education and community through the Endurance Coaching Lab.
Some need a plan they can follow independently.
Some need to adjust what they are already doing.
The exploration call is there to clarify that.
We can look at your goals, current training, race timeline, experience, and life context, then decide what kind of support makes the most sense.
Looking for a workshop, clinic, or presentation?
FOR GROUPS & EVENTS
For trail running workshops, clinics, team presentations, or group education sessions, visit Speaking & Workshops.