About Simple Endurance Coaching
How Good Can You Still Become?
At Simple Endurance Coaching, we believe athletes can continue getting stronger, faster, and more capable throughout their lives.
We specialize in coaching masters gravel and cyclocross cyclists who want to pursue ambitious goals while balancing training with work, family, and life. Our team also coaches mountain bikers, trail runners, and junior cyclists.
Our Philosophy
Effective training should be grounded in science, individualized to the athlete, and flexible enough to work in the real world.
Keep Your Training Simple.
Meet Paul Warloski
Founder and Head Coach, Simple Endurance Coaching
I’ve been riding and racing bikes and running for more than 40 years. I’ve competed in hundreds of events, from cyclocross and gravel races to mountain biking and endurance running.
I know what it’s like to prepare for a big event, work hard for months, and discover that things don’t always go according to plan. I’ve also learned that getting older doesn’t mean giving up on improving. It means becoming smarter about how we train, recover, and approach our goals.
I founded Simple Endurance Coaching in 2019 because I wanted to help athletes get more out of their training while enjoying the process. Before becoming a full-time coach, I spent 23 years as a middle-school teacher. That experience shapes how I coach today.
I believe in listening, explaining why we’re doing particular workouts, providing regular feedback, and helping athletes understand their own training. My goal isn’t simply to give athletes workouts to complete. It’s to help them become more knowledgeable, confident, and capable athletes.
I’m a certified cycling and running coach, personal trainer, and yoga instructor. I also co-host The Athlete’s Compass podcast with exercise physiologist Dr. Paul Laursen, where we explore the science and practical application of endurance training. And I continue to train and race myself, learning many of the same lessons I share with my athletes.
Meet Our Coaching Team
Simple Endurance Coaching also includes coaches with experience in trail running, gravel racing, mountain biking, and junior athlete development.
Nicole Ford
Trail Running Coach
Nicole has been in the fitness industry for over 20 years She got her start at UW-Green Bay teaching group exercise classes. She is a Personal Trainer and the Kids’ Club House and Aquatics Team Lead at the Wisconsin Athletic Club in Greenfield, WI
Nicole has been racing since 2006. Her race career has been an adventure, from competitive sprint distance to Ironman in 2011 and marathons to ultras. Her most recent achievement is completing the Kettle 100km and taking third in her age group!
She also loves going off the grid! She backpacked Rim to Rim Grand Canyon and next is Half Dome!
When Nicole isn’t playing in the dirt, she is spending quality time with her dog Buddy!
Nicole is a NASM-certified personal trainer.
Contact Nicole at [email protected]
Anthony James
Gravel and Mountain Bike Coach
Anthony, a NICA-certified coach and experienced mountain biker, has decades of experience in mountain biking, endurance racing, and coaching.
Anthony specializes in helping riders of all levels improve bike handling, develop confidence on technical terrain, and build endurance for racing and adventure.
Now based in Bentonville, AR, Anthony has worked with NICA athletes in Wisconsin and is passionate about getting more riders on bikes, especially women and young athletes.
His coaching approach is centered on fun, skill progression, and building confidence so riders can tackle challenges without fear.
He raced the Wisconsin Off-Road Series (WORS) competitively back in the mid through late 90’s.
He has done many half and full Ironmans in the late ’90s through early 2000s.
After duathlons and triathlons, he transitioned to half-marathons, marathons, and ultra-marathons, including the Ice Age 50, 100, Glacial 50, Big Horn 50, and 100.
After Anthony and his wife had two girls, he took a break from all competition for a couple of years. He raced cyclocross, and then back to mountain biking racing in the National Ultra Endurance Series for a few years. Anthony also completed the Unbound gravel race three times, Gravel Worlds in Nebraska, and the Bear 100 as well as ultra-bike pack racing.
Anthony is a USA-Cycling Certified Level 3 coach.
Contact Anthony at [email protected]
Anja Lanser
NICA Mountain Bike Coach
Anja started racing through the Wisconsin NICA circuit at the age of 12, and began racing in the WORS series soon after that.
She built her way up from being a casual young rider to racing competitively across the country in junior UCI categories. Anja has been to multiple junior national championships for mountain biking, placing 4th in her category in 2021 and 18th in her category in 2024.
For the last two years, Anja has volunteered as an ambassador for the GRiT organization that advocates for women and young girls to get involved in cycling and the racing culture. From hosting community rides and building confidence in riders’ skills, to having craft days, she has put in hundreds of hours towards the community she grew up in.
Since then, Anja has done personal training in a CrossFit-style gym, exposing her to multiple avenues of improving strength and fitness, including growing a large following in her morning classes. She has worked at a bike shop for several years.
Her love and energy for cycling and wealth of competition experience at a young age give her a unique skill set to support NICA riders in the upper Midwest.
Anja is a USA-Cycling Certified Level 3 coach.
Contact Anja at [email protected]
Where We’ve Been Recognized
- What’s a Good FTP? It’s Not As Straightforward As You Might Think in Bicycling Magazine
- Cycling economy and efficiency in Bicycling Magazine
- Hamstring strength exercises in Bicycling Magazine
- Running pain-free when you’re a little older in Next Avenue.
- Improve your running in Nike.
- Signs of overtraining and overreaching in Bicycling Magazine.
- Mistakes you might make when planning a Couch to 5k program in Marathon Handbook.
- These Cycling Exercises for Strength Are Underrated, According to Coaches and Trainers in Bicycling Magazine.
- How cyclists can overcome a training plateau in Bicycling Magazine.
- Returning to activity after an injury in Medium
- What cycling can do to your general health in Everyday Health.
- How to create a cycling routine in AOL.com.
- Underrated strength training exercises for cyclists in Bicycling Magazine.
- How cyclists can build strong bones in Yahoo.com
- Marathon training in Vitacost’s The Upside
- How to Increase VO2 Max So Your Hard Efforts Feel Easier from Bicycling Magazine
Let’s Talk About Your Goals
Finding the right coach is about more than certifications or training plans. It’s about finding someone who understands your goals, communicates well, and helps you make progress.
If you’d like to learn more about working with Simple Endurance Coaching, let’s have a conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions About Endurance Coaching
Do I need a cycling coach to improve my gravel or cyclocross racing?
Not every cyclist needs a coach. But if you’re training consistently and not seeing the results you want, personalized coaching can help you identify what’s missing.
A cycling coach helps you balance endurance, intervals, strength, and recovery while preparing for the specific demands of your races. Just as importantly, a coach adjusts your training when life, fatigue, or unexpected challenges interfere with your plans.
Can masters cyclists over 50 or 60 still get faster?
Absolutely. While aging affects recovery, muscle mass, and aerobic capacity, masters cyclists can continue improving their strength, endurance, power, and racing performance.
The key is training consistently, maintaining appropriate high-intensity work, including strength training, and allowing enough recovery to adapt.
At Simple Endurance Coaching, we help masters athletes train according to their goals, experience, and individual recovery needs rather than assuming everyone over a certain age should train the same way.
How many hours per week do I need to train for gravel racing or cyclocross?
Many of our athletes train approximately six to twelve hours per week while balancing work, family, and other responsibilities.
The right amount depends on your experience, event distance, goals, and recovery capacity.
A well-structured program can combine endurance rides, purposeful intervals, strength training, and recovery without requiring you to spend every available hour training.
What’s the difference between a cycling coach and an AI training plan?
AI training platforms can create useful workouts and adapt plans using training data. We use Athletica ourselves because we believe it can be a valuable training tool.
A personal coach adds experience, judgment, communication, and an understanding of your life beyond the numbers.
At Simple Endurance Coaching, we offer individualized coaching using either TrainingPeaks or Athletica. With TrainingPeaks, your coach writes the training plan. With Athletica, the platform generates the plan while your coach supervises your training, makes adjustments, and provides the same personal coaching support.
Why do you include strength training and mobility work for cyclists and runners?
Endurance athletes need more than aerobic fitness.
Strength training helps develop muscular strength, supports cycling and running performance, and helps maintain physical capacity as we age.
Mobility exercises and yoga can complement strength training by improving movement options, body awareness, and comfort.
We integrate these elements into training rather than treating them as unrelated activities.
How do I balance endurance training, intervals, strength, and recovery?
The goal is to create enough training stress to improve without accumulating more fatigue than you can recover from.
For many athletes, that means emphasizing easier aerobic training, scheduling one or two demanding training days per week, and including regular strength work.
We often schedule strength training on interval days to preserve easier recovery days, although the best arrangement depends on the individual.
Your training should also change when you’re racing frequently, recovering from illness, or dealing with unusual stress.
How long does it take to see results from endurance coaching?
Some athletes notice improvements in workout consistency, confidence, and training quality within the first several weeks.
Measurable changes in endurance, power, speed, and race performance generally take longer and depend on your training history, consistency, recovery, and goals.
We track progress using more than race results, including training data, perceived effort, endurance durability, and how well you’re handling your workouts.
Can you help me prepare for my first gravel race, cyclocross season, or major endurance event?
Yes. We work with athletes preparing for their first major event as well as experienced competitors trying to improve their results.
Your preparation may include building endurance, improving race-specific fitness, developing technical skills, practicing nutrition, and planning your race strategy.
Whether you’re preparing for a 100-mile gravel race, a cyclocross series, or a challenging trail-running event, we’ll help you develop a realistic plan for your goals and available training time.
Your Training
Practical, science-based training advice for everyday cyclists and trail runners who want to get faster, stay healthy, and make the most of the time they have to train.
