With his robust background as a world-ranked competitive swimmer, his membership on two NCAA Division I Championship swimming teams during his tenure at Stanford University, his advancing profile as recognized plant-based ultra-endurance athlete and long-term wellness advocate, Richard is uniquely situated to offer an array of coaching and consulting services specifically designed to meet your needs and goals.
Whether you are an experienced ultra-endurance athlete, preparing for your first Ironman or simply in search of basic exercise and plant-based nutrition guidance, Richard’s experienced hand can help facilitate your goal.
Services are available in multiple formats, from in-person “one-on-one” coaching and/or consulting to online programs managed via telephone, online logs and e-mail personally devised and managed by RIchard to provide optimal preparation for your desired event or experience.
From marathon to Ultraman, proper preparation & execution with respect to endurance and ultra-endurance sports is a massive undertaking that significantly impacts all aspects of your life — not just the physical demand of training, but the mental and spiritual facets of your life as well. To be certain, the physical training component is a rigorous progression that requires a deft hand to properly guide the athlete towards maximizing his/her potential while simultaneously avoiding injury or (more commonly) overtraining. And while there are countless qualified coaches ready and willing to provide this service, this is where the coaching ends. Unfortunately, few coaches properly attend to the myriad other very significant mental and spiritual life components that come in to play, which all too often are determinative of success or failure.
In contrast, Richard takes a unique and balanced approach to coaching, with the physical preparation and program serving as only one corner of a complete multi-faceted and uniquely devised “Triangle Training” program that attends not only to the client’s physical needs, but also to the all too often entirely overlooked mental and spiritual corners of the success equation.
TRIANGLE TRAINING PROGRAM
1. CORNER ONE: THE PHYSICAL:
For each client, Richard provides a complete individualized physical training program utilizing the well-established concepts of periodization and exercise physiology in a manner specifically designed to help prepare you for your desired event or long-term lasting wellness goal. We begin by determining fitness thresholds based on lactate testing which establishes baselines for the type, volume and intensity of the physical regimen to follow. From this scientific data, an approach is individually devised to facilitate the client’s specific goal within the allotted time frame. In turn, the program will be evaluated on a week-by-week basis via online logs as well as e-mail and phone interaction to evaluate progress and inform adjustments. One-on-one interaction is available for those in the local Los Angeles vicinity. All programs are individually designed according to the client’s needs and clients are limited in number to guarantee Richard’s attention and availability.
As a subset of the physical corner of Triangle Training, Richard also offers consultation on diet, with a keen focus on plant-based nutrition. Coach and client will review the client’s dietary regimen and help design a nutrition program (not a diet!) with the goal of facilitating: (i) optimal preparation for event/race day; (ii) appropriate nutrition for training and recovery; and (ii) most importantly the promotion of long-term overall wellness. If losing weight is your primary goal, “going on a diet” is not the solution. Diets don’t work. Instead, Richard will help you break bad habits and form new ones with lasting appeal, which with time, patience and fortitude will result not only in weight loss but a new found outlook on food, your body and your entire perspective on nutrition in general.
2. CORNER TWO: THE MENTAL: Beyond achieving a certain level of fitness, success in endurance (and particularly ultra-endurance) sports is almost entirely mental. Why can one athlete excel in a 100 mile trail race when another of equal fitness crumbles? Its in the mind. And yet few coaches embrace this truth, leaving the athlete to his own devices or weaknesses when it comes to the psychology of such large undertakings. Through one-on-one interaction or via phone and e-mail, Richard provides each client with significant tools developed through experience which when implemented will help the client embrace their specific challenge with not just confidence, but a “knowingness” of success.
3. CORNER THREE: THE SPIRITUAL: Why are you driven towards your goal? What is your purpose for your undertaking? Ask any experienced endurance or ultra-endurance athlete why they do what they do and they will almost unanimously respond that in some form or another it is a “spiritual experience”. There is something deep within that becomes accessed through the rigors of endurance sports – a feeling, a personal connection to “Oneness” and joy that is often indefinable, yet undeniably real. It’s often the athletes who are most in touch with this truth who experience the greatest success, not only on the race course, but in life. Just ask Mark Allen and his connection with the Big Island of Hawaii and he will tell you that he was absolutely unable to win Ironman until he attended to his spiritual fitness. And yet almost zero attention is conventionally placed on what should be the foundation of your approach to not only sport but life in general. Ensuring proper balance between the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of sport and life is a key component to Richard’s unique approach to coaching. Through techniques including meditation, yoga and service, Richard will help fortify this touchstone to optimize your performance and overall wellness.
Triangle Training is devised to create successful athletes through the fortification and embodiment of a balanced strength across all three corners of this triangle.
RATES
Rates range from $300 – $600 per month, contingent upon each client’s specific needs. There is a six-month minimum commitment on all clients. We currently accept checks only but are endeavoring to secure credit card payments soon.
For more information, please contact Richard directly.
