Jeff
Cady

My coaching career didn't start with ultrarunning. Nearly thirty years ago, I coached children and Special Olympics athletes — and that's where I learned the lesson everything else is built on: no two people move through the world the same way. The same drill landed differently in every athlete I worked with. Some needed a different cue for the same movement, some needed more time, some needed the whole plan rebuilt around a body that didn't move the way a textbook assumed it would. A flat, one-size-fits-all plan never held up across a group like that, and it doesn't hold up across ultrarunners either. Every plan I build starts from who's actually in front of me.

I spent over a decade in cybersecurity leadership before earning my UESCA Ultrarunning Coach certification. That background shapes how I coach: I build training plans the way I'd build a security program — assess the real risk, prioritize what matters, and adjust as conditions change.

I'm based in Goodyear, Arizona, which means heat isn't a training variable I read about — it's the default. Summer runs here start before dawn to beat triple-digit heat, and racing in the desert Southwest means heat management is never theoretical. That's shaped how seriously I take heat acclimation, hydration strategy, and teaching athletes to recognize their own warning signs before a hot day turns into a real problem. I'm active in the Phoenix trail running community with ties to the Aravaipa race circuit, and I train on the same desert trails I coach on.