Ryan Woolley
Innate Running Founder & Coach
Ryan’s running career has included success across a wide variety of distances and terrains over the past 20 years. Born and raised in New Zealand, Ryan found early success competing in provincial and national track, road, and cross-country events. After moving to the United States in his mid-twenties—where he has spent most of his adult life—he shifted his focus toward the marathon, setting a course record in Newport, Rhode Island, and finishing inside the top 80 at the 2019 Boston Marathon. Today, his competitive interests lie in ultra trail and mountain running, having raced a number of notable US events including Speedgoat 50K, Chuckanut 50K, and Gorge Waterfalls 100K.
Ryan developed a deep understanding of exercise physiology, exercise prescription, and movement mechanics while completing a Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science at Massey University. Through his coaching, he has helped athletes of many ages, experience levels, and disciplines learn to love the process and become their ideal runner. He specialises in program design, strength training, gait analysis, and race-day fueling strategies.
Ryan and his wife are now settled in Leavenworth, Washington, where they are beginning to raise their young family and look forward to becoming more involved in the local running and outdoor community while continuing to work with athletes from around the world.
At its core, Ryan’s running life is grounded in the simple joy of exploring beautiful and challenging terrain on foot. Outside of running, he is a husband, father, a guitar player, vinyl collector, and amateur shelf maker.
Gorge Waterfalls 100k, 2023
5,000m – 14:51 // 10km – 31:30 // Half Marathon – 1:08:27 // Marathon – 2:28:41
my Coaching Philosophy
A core belief I hold as a runner and coach is that development in running is an iterative cycle of continuous learning – each session, week, or training block provides an opportunity to sharpen our understanding of how the body responds to the different types of stressors that we expose ourselves to. In parallel with my understanding of program design and exercise physiology, a big part of my job is to help you to make sense of that.
Within this setting, your feedback really matters. Though it's important to utilise the tools that we have available to us - whether they be heart rate, pace, or power-based metrics - I’m also interested in your experience. Ultimately, as we move forward through the program and as you learn more about how your body responds to different types of loading, I’ll work to equip you with a sense of empowerment and choice; understanding how we can work together to make the program truly yours.