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Nathan V., Oakland, CA Running Coach

Nathan V.

Running

SILVER

Running coach, mainly interested in ultra-distance, mountainous, trail running. But I also coach road runners, as well as track / cross-country students. View all coaching experience

This coach is unavailable to take clients at this time.

Training Locations
Training Locations
  • University of California--Berkeley (CA)

  • 5 years

  • Qualified Private Coach
    Passed Coach Course

  • Adults, Kids, Teenagers

  • Middle Distance, Marathon, Long Distance, Cross Country

  • Stride, Pacing, Gait, Form, Drive Phase, Breathing

Credentials

  • University of California--Berkeley (CA)

  • 5 years

  • Qualified Private Coach
    Passed Coach Course

Services

  • Adults, Kids, Teenagers

  • Middle Distance, Marathon, Long Distance, Cross Country

  • Stride, Pacing, Gait, Form, Drive Phase, Breathing

More About Coach Nathan

Certifications:
-USA Track and Field - Level 1 Certified Coach
-Road Runners Club of America - Level 1 Certified Coach
-Gait Analysis Certification - Human Kinetics
-Certified Personal Trainer - NASM

3 years coaching middle school Cross Country / Track / Conditioning. We coach all year long, helping the kids have a fun and motivational time, while working on getting stronger, healthier, and faster.

4 seasons coaching with Running for a Better Oakland. We train kids (elementary-high school) to run in the Oakland Running Festival (5k up to Half marathon).

Founding member and leader in a local Circuit Training group. We meet weekly and focus on core and body-weight strengthening exercises.

2016 - 3rd Place at Vollmer Peak Vertical Challenge
2016 - 4th Place at Bay Area Trail Running Festival 1/2 Marathon
2014 - 25th at Miwok 100k
2013 - 47th male in the Western Sates 100 Mile Endurance run.
2013 - 1st place and course record at the Grizzly Peak 50k (has since been broken by Ian Sharman...)
2012 - 2nd place at Cinderella Marathon
2011 - Qualified for Boston Marathon

I am very focused around the individual needs of the athlete. If a specific goal race / time is in mind, we will target areas of improvement in order to reach those goals. If motivation is an issue, we will work on ways to inspire you to stay focused and engaged with your training. Trail runs, sprints, intervals, strength training, and more are all fair game for me, if that's what you need.

If the price is a difficulty for you, please send me a message, and hopefully we can find some arrangement where I can help you at a price you can afford.

Action Photos

Client Reviews

Coach Nathan was great! My daughter (cross-country and track) has been having some form and injury problems. Coach Nathan filmed her running, gave her a number of form pointers and then sent a video with graphics to illustrate what she was doing well and what she could do differently to improve efficiency and reduce joint stress. He also pointed out the specific muscle groups that she needed to strengthen and drills / exercises to help. He was very helpful and supportive and gave her tips on how to incorporate with her existing training schedule. Would definitely recommend.

Thoughtfully designed training plans, and the steady ramp-up in mileage each week is definitely helping. Adding in different kinds of workouts also helps keep it fun - definitely recommend Coach Nate!

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First session. Coach Nathan was very knowledgeable and down to earth. It’s going to be an interesting journey for sure.

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Nathan provided expert feedback on my running with some great tips on things to work on. I'd highly recommend him!

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Coach Nathan worked on a variety of techniques with me to help me get properly warmed up, and pinpointed a few areas of weaknesses to help me improve. Thank you coach!

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Nathan met my 12 year old daughter and wife at a nearby track. He went through some warm ups and then had her do some short runs or strides. He videoed her running and later sent us the video. The video he sent is narrated by him pointing out issues he feels need to be improved with her stride to prevent injuries and become more efficient. He also gave us a series of exercises for her to do that will help her build strength to help improve her stride and prevent injury. My wife thought he was friendly and my daughter seemed to like him. He has been great so far!

My session with Nathan was great. He was a good listener, tried to understand my personal needs and gave some good advice on how to improve my technique. He also helped me to work out on a plan that can help me achieve my running goals. We will continue working together to implement the plan, so I really recommend him as a running coach for the people that are interested in having a personalized training.

Nathan is a really knowledgeable and great coach. I met with him yesterday and feel like I'm on the right start to achieving what I want to do with trail running and training. I'm already looking forward to working with him. His tips were great and they've been a part of my thoughts on running already. Great coach, great guy.

Coach Nathan is an excellent coach. He is patient, extremely knowledgeable and knew exactly how to engage my middle school boys. He set clear goals and motivated them without overwhelming them. I also appreciated his use of video to provide real time feedback. Strongly recommend Coach Nathan for kids and adults.

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Great coach, he was on time, friendly and gave me a lot of good tips

Early in 2015 I started running again. I was feeling pretty terrible most of the time and figured some of that was due time being over weight. I was probably about 30 lbs over my ideal weight at this point.

Flash forward to Christmas time. From February on, I had started running in the mornings a few days before work. As a result, I had lost about 20 lbs of the 30 I needed. I had a problem, though. We have 2 young girls so I have a limited amount of time to run. I was hitting a wall in terms of speed. In addition my knees were starting to hurt.

My wife gave me a few running sessions with Nathan for Christmas. An unconventional gift to be sure, but I'm so glad she did.

The first thing that struck me about Nathan was that he's just a really nice guy. I enjoyed talking with him during our workouts and would have no hesitation recommending him to my wife (or one day) daughters. It makes a difference knowing you are going to meet someone you enjoy talking to rather than a gruff drill master.

The next thing that struck me was that Nathan is a great technician. He immediately gave me good feedback on my form and gave me some drills to help me change the striking position of my foot (I was landing with my heal). While it took some work to change this, I immediately noticed my knee pain going away.

Through his coaching and drills, I started to feel much stronger in my runs. Before I felt exhausted and a mess while running. Now, though I'm still tired, I feel like my form is relatively consistent throughout the runs. I feel in control.

Part of this is due to the variety Nathan has encouraged me to add to my routine. Before I ran the same route every time. Now I mix it up with shorter runs, faster runs, threshold runs, and after today, intervals. I am running further than I ever have.

Our young girls limit how much time I can give to running now, but I'd love to train for a half marathon in the future. When I do, my first contact will be Nathan. No question.

One other thing to mention: Nathan has been super accommodating with our schedule. I'm a bit of a far drive for him but he's been flexible to meet me on my schedule. Super helpful.

He's a fantastic running coach. If you need help training or just want to improve your form and get a bit faster, I can't recommend him enough.

Coach Nathan was very helpful and gave me great tips on how to improve my running ability. He took the time to review the video of my running during our session and point out things I was unaware of. I applied the techniques during our meeting and started to feel the difference immediately. I now look forward to my runs and improving my pace. I recommend Coach Nathan to anyone who is training for a race or just trying to improve their current skills.

Coach Nathan does a great job of working with my 10 year old and making the lessons fun and informative. Great coach for young kids.

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Fantastic run coach. Really listens to where you are with your physical abilities and your goals. As a result, he really tailors the workouts and the coaching to meet your individual needs/goals.

Nate is an incredible running coach! My boyfriend and I have been training for our 1st marathon with him. He's knowledgable, friendly, responsive and makes running fun. He's taken me from a 5K to a marathon over the last six months. The training schedules he has created have been dynamic and helpful. I'm looking forward to my marathon and training with Nate for future races.

I met with coach Nate to help me improve my running form so I won't be in continuous pain when running. Nate looks at how we run in a way that I had not thought of being someone who just goes out and runs without much thought put into it. After the initial assessment he gave me stretches,exercises and drills to do to help be improve mobility and strength to help me have balance with my running form. He never spoke down to me and only showed interest in helping me get the results that I want to have with running. For a first session, I walk away feeling like it was worth going to him. That he has good insight into why and how I have running related pains. I look forward to having more sessions so I can get back to the long distance miles that I used to run before having chronic running injuries and pain.

I am a 47 year old mother of 2 and working professional and have been a runner for almost 30 years, but I have never worked with a coach before. I recently have had a few injuries, and I thought it would be helpful to get someone's input, not knowing what to expect. Thus far, I have worked with Nathan for 3 sessions, and have found him to be excellent. He is professional, very knowledgeable, soft spoken, and very easy to work with. At our first session, he made a video of me running so that he could analyze it very closely and in slow motion to look for potential problems with my running gait, body positioning, etc. He edited the video and sent it back to me to watch, and that was valuable information that I would not have gotten any other way. Also, he has helped me with different drills to improve my running speed and watched me closely, analyzing my form and my speed and giving me lots of useful feedback. He has shown me great warm ups, and has given me many other suggestions to improve my running. During our meetings, he has pushed me in ways that I haven't pushed myself, and that has been helpful as well. He emails me before our sessions to check in and to ask how my running has been over the week. So, I would recommend Nathan very highly as a coach as he has exceeded my expectations and has re-invigorated my love of running!

Nathan was very thorough in his initial running evaluation. He understands what I needed to re-start running after a long layoff as well as making the adjustment to a minimalist style. I'm looking forward to more work in the coming months!

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Nathan is very knowledgeable about different running techniques and workouts. i hired him to get me back into military fitness after suffering some broken ribs. I went from a 17 minute 2 mile pace to around a 14:30 pace in 3 weeks. He found flaws in my training routine and I believe I will be able to break the 14 minute 2 mile barrier that I have been unable to overcome

Seriously you would be hard pressed to find someone more incourging more professional and more expirenced than Nathan. When I first started running with him I was coming off a knee injury and felt overwhelmed trying to get back into running shape so I turned to Nathan to help me out I wrote him a novel about what my goals are he responded imedatly outlining how he could help get me to those goals. I started running with him right away and at first I didn't know whether we would start running hard or take it easy. He did It perfectly nice and slow runs ( he always kept my injury in mind) but we did grown man distances, I felt great afterward! I started scheduling runs twice a week and I made improvements so quickly I couldn't believe it was me running these distance at these speed. Unfortunately I had to move out of the area or otherwise I would still be running with him everyweek, but when I visit I make sure to request a time for us to run. If you're looking for a coach look no further than him. Not only did I get a great coach, I feel like a gained a real friend. Thanks Nathan!

Nate has been a coach in our program the past two years and has been a real asset, willing to take charge of an activity and lead the kids through it. He is knowledgeable and able to relate to the kids. Also, Nate puts a lot of energy and enthusiasm into his coaching. He is very reliable and able to communicate effectively.
Nate and I have trained together for quite a few years for various triathlon and ultra distance events. He is the perfect training partner: fun to talk to, always up to try out new techniques and continually impressed with the beauty of the outdoors. His enthusiasm and excitement for running and racing is contagious--without Nate's encouragement and example, I wouldn't find myself racing ultramarathons, or have as much fun as I do running them. I would wholeheartedly recommend Nate as your personal trainer.
One year ago, I was small seal in a human body. I wasn't entirely overweight, but I wasn't in the best shape either. At the same time, I was unemployed and not very confident about my life. After being challenged and educated about the joy of running by Nate, I slowly but surely made running and dieting a natural regiment in my lifestyle. No longer did I loathe getting up in the morning to get my workout in, but I looked forward to the mornings. It has vastly improved my outlook on life, confidence, and overall health. Did I mention that I even obtain a job with a large company after having lost 20 pounds from running? Nate is very patient and encouraging. He is someone who enjoys helping others and seeing others push themselves at their own pace. Make no mistake, he's not someone who wants to see his clients lose weight, rather, he wants to see them capture how running, dieting, and experiencing the great outdoors can elevate the human spirit. That's what happened to me. It's been one year since I was that small seal, and I haven't looked back.
As a coach for the Piedmont Middle School Cross Country and Track and Field teams, Nate’s patience, enthusiasm, and knowledge along with racing and training experience has consistently improved the athletes’ interest in the sport and performance on race day.
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