I’m a USATF Certified Running Coach, lifelong endurance runner, 2:24 marathoner, and Six Star World Marathon Majors finisher. My coaching is built around intelligent training, durable progress, and helping adult runners chase ambitious goals without pretending life is simple.
I’ve run more than 80,000 lifetime miles, including multiple 5,000-mile years and a peak year over 6,200 miles. That kind of volume is not something I prescribe casually — and for most runners, it would be the wrong goal.
But it does shape how I think about long-term development. I understand what consistent training can build, what too much load can cost, and why durability matters just as much as ambition.
My own racing background gives me credibility, but the coaching value comes from translating experience into training that fits the person in front of me.
Most runners I work well with are normal adults in their mid-30s to mid-50s who started running seriously within the last few years and are trying to chase something meaningful — often a Boston Qualifier, a marathon breakthrough, or a major personal PR.
Those runners do not need a watered-down elite plan or a generic internet schedule. They need structure, patience, honest feedback, and training that respects recovery, injury history, work stress, family life, and long-term consistency.
Over the years, I’ve helped pace dozens of runners to PRs. Sometimes that means holding someone back early. Sometimes it means keeping them calm when the race gets hard. Sometimes it means adjusting the plan when the weather, course, or body does not cooperate.
Good pacing is not just speed. It is judgment, restraint, emotional steadiness, and knowing how a race should feel before the numbers fall apart.
Years ago, Liesl pushed me hard to coach because she saw something in the way I talked about training and helped runners think through their goals. I coached a handful of athletes over the years, but never really tried to build it into something larger.
Kowalski Coaching is a return to that original idea: thoughtful, practical endurance coaching for runners who want to work hard, train intelligently, and keep improving over the long term.
