Tebello Ramakongoana earned an astounding 7th place at the Olympic Marathon in Paris running 2:07:58 (79.8 VDOT) on the hardest marathon course in Olympic history. This is the highest Olympic placing ever for an athlete on V.O2. Tebello surpassed VDOT Coach Malindi Elmore's 9th place finish at the Tokyo Olympics. This is also the fastest [...]
This past summer we wrote about Tebello's backstory and becoming the highest VDOT performer on our app leading up to the World Championships. His incredible journey continued with a fourth place finish in Budapest, which qualified him for the Paris Olympics. Despite very challenging conditions Tebello set a new PR of 2:09:57, also the fastest [...]
Tebello Ramakongoana's recent performance at the Nelson Mandela Bay Half Marathon earned him a new national record, personal best and the top scoring performance to date on V.O2. We connected with Tebello's coach James McKirdy to learn more about his story and how their chance encounter has led to such a successful partnership. Tebello's Backstory [...]
James McKirdy is the founder of McKirdy Trained, an online coaching service working with runners of all ages, all abilities, all over the world. In 2016, McKirdy Trained started managing athletes on VDOT O2. They had eight athletes in the Boston Marathon and zero at the Olympic Trials. Just five years later they’ve had hundreds [...]
Courtney Barnes moved to Flagstaff, AZ last year and shortly afterwards began working with private coach James McKirdy of McKirdy Trained. In just 8 months she's already accomplished one of her goals of representing Team USA. After her 8th place finish in the 3,000m Steeplechase at U.S. Champs she'll be wearing the USA singlet in [...]
Hannah Coffin (@han.on.the.run) is a aspiring elite runner and certified personal trainer in Flagstaff, AZ. She's currently training on the app under the tutelage of James McKirdy, head coach of McKirdy Trained. Favorite Workout “One of my favorite workouts is 10 x 800m with a 2.5min walk rest, then 2-miles at Threshold pace. The catch [...]
Favorite Workout “A workout I love because it teaches pace control is three miles at Threshold, one mile at Interval pace, two miles at Threshold, one mile Interval, and finishing with six by 400 meters at Repetition pace. All with a two to three minute walk between. While time at effort isn’t incredibly long, it [...]
Featured Coach - James McKirdy Coaching Bio Head Coach of McKirdy Trained Founded Jan, 2016 Serving private clients from beginners to professionals Personal trainer/private coach for 15 years Why He Loves VDOT "I founded McKirdy Trained just over one year ago and we currently serve over 175+ private clients in a 1-on-1 setting to go along [...]