There are many reasons to work with a coach: gaining accountability, a sounding board, and a personal cheerleader, utilizing the hard-earned wisdom and lessons learned from someone else’s years of study and experience, and—this is a very important one—having someone to recognize and tell you when you need to slow down or take and extra rest day (or two) for your physical and/or mental health.

WMFA’s training and coaching philosophy is deeply holistic; sometimes the most successful coaching clients are the ones who don’t actually complete the initial stated goal—somewhere along the way it became clear that the biggest win was NOT doing the thing, but rather changing the objective, or shifting their focus to another passion or area of their lives…

A good coach wants you to flourish and succeed, but knows that doesn’t always look like you’d expect from the outset.

Willie McBride studied training and coaching at the National Personal Training Institute (NPTI) Portland and has been a coach since graduating for over 13 years.  He has coached folks of all ages and paces to reach a wide variety of goals ranging from lifestyle changes & foundational fitness to backpacking, mountaineering, and other outdoor objectives; from road running and triathlons to ultra marathons 50k to 200+ miles.

One of his favorite roles as a coach is helping people find what objectives really move them.  There are lots of passionate people who want to dream big but they don’t always know what to actually do or how to get started.  Let’s spread out the maps, open the guidebooks and the laptop and get scheming!

Willie is an accomplished rock climber, mountaineer, ultra runner and adventurer with over 30 years of experience, from climbing the NW Face of Half Dome when he was 16 to completing the world-renowned Tor des Geants foot race in 2024 at the age of 42. He’s going stronger and more inspired than ever…

Assorted Highlights include:

-Highest Peak in Mexico, El Pico de Orizaba (18,491′)

-11 separate trips R2R2R, plus 1x Winter R2R from Jacob Lake (over 40 trips exploring the Grand Canyon and counting!)

-LA, Chicago, New York, & Boston marathon finisher (plus many others)

-Inaugural Tahoe 200 (2014), 8th place

-Moab 240 and Tor des Geants finisher (2019 & 2024 respectively)

-First ever completion of the Guardian Peaks Trifecta in a day (Mt Hood + Adams +St. Helens)

-First and only completion of the Portland Trifecta in a day (Mt. Hood, Defiance + Wildwood end-to-end)

Coaching packages are $300/month and include:

A highly-tailored, personalized training plan plus twice monthly 30-45 min check-ins via phone (+ unlimited email/text contact if questions or issues arise).

How to get started:

Your first option, if you’re unsure of committing to a full coaching package or you’d like to make sure it’s a good fit, is to purchase a Coaching/Training Consultation (1-hour, $100).

You can also start things off by filling out the inquiry form on the page below or JUST JUMP RIGHT IN AND MAKE IT OFFICIAL by purchasing a coaching package.