New Steamboat coaching business aims to provide personalized endurance training online

A love for endurance sports is built into the DNA of Routt County residents. 

This spring, a trio of Steamboat athletes teamed up to form a new coaching business called Endurance Training Strategies, which aims to train clients in the areas of endurance, strength, and nutrition.

Jessica Yeaton, David Norris, and Skylar Weir bring a wealth of experience with extensive backgrounds in athletics. Yeaton is a physical therapist working at UCHealth SportsMed Clinic in Steamboat Springs. She is a two-time Winter Olympian for cross-country skiing, is the 2020 American Birkebeiner champion, and currently competes in long-distance mountain bike racing. 

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Norris has competed in three world championships for cross-country skiing and is the 2016 and 2023 American Birkebeiner champion. He currently runs on the trail team for On Running. He is currently working as an officer trainee at Alpine Bank and has his MBA, in addition to his experience coaching Nordic skiing with the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club.

Weir grew up as a competitive snowboarder with the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club and is also an avid trail runner who competes in sub-ultra races around the country. She works as a clinical registered dietitian through UCHealth and her private practice.

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Yeaton and Norris began coaching athletes around five years ago and, in that time, have been writing training plans for athletes. That is where the inspiration for ETS began. 

“Our experience successfully coaching runners and skiers online, combined with Jessica’s increased knowledge of injury and strength training as a physical therapist, inspired us to make the business official,” Norris said. “Since announcing Endurance Training Strategies to the public, it has been really fun taking on several new athletes with a wide variety of backgrounds and goals.” 

ETS provides personalized endurance training, sport- and joint-specific strength programming, and nutrition counseling. 

As high-level athletes themselves, the trio understands the importance of balancing work or academics with training. They believe they can relate to the busy demands and schedules of other athletes, and hope to help clients navigate these schedules while getting proper training in throughout the week. 

“It is our passion to help others balance training and athletics goals while not sacrificing the other important aspects of life,” Yeaton said. 

Before launching the new business, Yeaton and Norris partnered with Weir, who they said is pivotal in optimizing daily nutrition needs for athletes. She is a local Steamboat registered dietitian and owner of Sky’s Rooted Nutrition, a virtual private practice offering telehealth nutrition counseling. 

She believes a proper understanding of sports nutrition is a key component of performance. ETS recommends all of its clients work with Weir to find strategies that work best for them to optimize their performance. 

ETS launched its business on May 21 and the company created a large database of over 300 strength training videos on its website, EnduranceTrainingStrategies.com, for its athletes to utilize. 

The company was built with three main goals in mind. 

The first is to offer personalized coaching that fits the schedule, lifestyle, and goals of each of its athletes. It hopes to cater to full-time, world-class athletes as well as busy, working adults who are looking to optimize the one hour they are able to dedicate to exercise per day. 

New clients are interviewed at the start of the process to understand their schedules and what they hope to get out of the process. ETS then works with the athletes to build a training plan that is sustainable to their schedule and life commitments. 

The second goal is to offer strength plans that not only aid performance, but also keep athletes healthy and free from injury. In addition to individualized strength programs, ETS offers pre-built 12-week programs available for purchase for the following sports — Nordic skiing, running, skimo, hunting, and cycling. It also offers 12-week joint-specific prehab plans for athletes who tend to have recurring injuries in a particular body region. 

All strength plans come with YouTube links for each exercise to help clients ensure they are doing the exercises correctly. 

The third goal is to provide a one-stop shop concept for endurance athletes. Yeaton describes ETS as a “three-headed monster” with a massive depth of knowledge related to nutritional needs, biomechanics, musculoskeletal injuries, and training plans to optimize performance. 

The ETS trio are all major participants in local endurance sports including the Town Challenge Series, Steamboat Springs Running Series, and the Ski Ascent Series. They created ETS as a means to give back to the community that has been so welcoming to their interests. 

“We each feel so fortunate that we discovered endurance sports, as it is an incredible community to be a part of,” Norris said. “Steamboat has an incredible community across many endurance disciplines, including cycling, running, and skiing … It has been a highlight for all of us to create friendships and connections in these communities.”