Joe Dirr

I have been an ultrarunner and coach for almost 10 years. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Physiology and have held the following certifications: Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (NSCA), Certified Personal Trainer, USA Triathlon Level 1 Coach, Sports Nutritionist (ISSN), and yes even a Certified Insanity Instructor. I have worked as a personal trainer and running coach. I have also owned a performance lab dedicated to endurance athletes where I performed Gait Analysis, VO2max Testing, Lactate Threshold Testing, Metabolic Testing, Running Economy Tests, Aerobic Threshold Tests, Blood Glucose Utilization, Sweat Tests, and many others.

My journey into fitness started with my total and complete obsession with becoming a Navy SEAL starting around the age of 13. I worked out for hours a day pushing my body to the limits. I joined the Navy and made it into the SEAL training program called BUD/S but did not graduate (see the blog post titled “Why” for more details). After my stint in the military I needed some goal to keep me motivated to train so I decided that Triathlon sounded fun.

I started training for Triathlons and quickly became addicted. I competed in Olympic Distance, Half-Ironman, and Ironman events. I placed top 5 in my age group in multiple Half-Ironman races. I was strong on the bike and a competent swimmer but needed some work on the run, so I thought that signing up for a 50 mile trail race would help by Ironman performance.

I finished my first 50 miler and never looked back. I haven’t competed in Triathlons since that day and have stuck to the trails ever since. I’ve run everything from 50K to 100 miles and have hit a lot of bumps along the way. My ultrarunning obsession keeps me pushing the limits of what I think is possible but also keeps me testing and tweaking my thoughts and ideas of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to training for ultras. My goal is to continue to improve this app by adding features which will benefit other runners out there.

I have taken all of my knowledge and experience and poured it into this training app for ultrarunners. My biggest pet peeve with training plans is that they assume everyone is the same. I did a lot of work to make sure that the ULTRA App has the ability to adapt based on the user’s preferences as well as fitness level and risk of injury.