A family of four taking a selfie outdoors in a scenic landscape with hills and a blue sky. The father, wearing a black cap, sunglasses, and a backpack, is smiling. The mother, on the left, is also smiling with her tongue out. The young boy on the right has his tongue out and looks playful, wearing a brown hoodie.

Who is TheRed800 Coach?

Who am I? My name is Robin Butler, also known as TheRed800 Coach. I go by Coach Red or Coach Robin, but I am not picky about what I am called! I was born and raised in Fort Collins, Colorado where I TheRed800 Coach is now based.

As a young teen with a complicated brain, it took me a while to find track and field despite participating in Fort Collins Running Club Fun Runs all through my youth. On the track, I started as a pole vaulter but quickly took to a variety of events. The 400m and 800m were where I really felt home. In 2012 I graduated High School and moved to Gunnison, Colorado to run for Western Colorado University where I spent 5 years. I started as a decathlete before eventually transitioning to the 800m in addition to earning a bachelors in Graphic Design.

A graduate in academic regalia, holding a diploma, standing on a red running track at a stadium, looking at a phone, wearing sunglasses, and sandals.

While some will say I had an illustrious career at Western Colorado, I couldn’t help but find my experience lacking. Many of the years since I have spent reflecting on my time as an athlete and identifying what I needed in order to fulfill the potential I saw in myself. It was in the years after that I became increasingly aware of how vital an athletes support system is to their success. It is extremely rare for an athlete to find true success on the track (on or off, frankly) without a well developed network of support. This extends from family, to community mentors, to coaches and school support staff like athletic trainers, academic counselors, sports psychologists, sports dietitians, physical therapists, etc.. While I cannot offer all of those services comprehensively, I have spent a significant amount of time improving my own knowledge of the human body and how to effectively train it in addition to understanding how much of a strength and/or limitation psychology can be for an athlete. If you would like to know more about me personally, head over to my About page (under construction)!

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My Coaching Style:

I have a somewhat radical coaching style in that I am highly invested in my athletes lives inside and outside of athletics. I believe strongly that a quality relationship between coach and athlete is one of the biggest assets an athlete can have. A well developed coach/athlete relationship can respond to any variable effectively and efficiently while also ensuring long term plans are held accountable. In addition to being a highly personal coach, I am extremely science based. These two approaches rarely happen within the same coach as many science based coaches tend to be less interested in an athletes personal lives than they are in their data, while highly personal coaches tend to be wholly disinterested in an athletes data but very in tune with an athletes personality, emotional state, aspirations, personal limitations, etc.. I did not choose this approach, rather it chose me. Since I started coaching, building the best relationship I can with an athlete while doing everything I can to view their training objectively has been extremely effective in developing athletes. I have never gone after the “best” athletes in my coaching experience, rather the ones I felt could benefit from my approach and perspective. Due to this approach, some of my proudest coaching achievements had nothing to do with what the athlete did in competition, but rather the growth and development they experienced personally.

Distance Coaching:

While my dream is to be able to coach for free, the world does not work that way (although if I win the lottery, there will be signs). I offer three tiers of distance coaching to cover as many interest and ability levels as I can while streamlining the decision making process.

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My intro tier, Slate, is very simple, basic workout plan specific to your race or goal race distance, training availability, experience level, and training block duration. This tier starts with a one hour intro video call or in person meeting, and gets access to one meeting per month to go over training and adjusting goals. This is a great option if you are considering using an AI training platform like Runna, as not only is it better to support real people rather than AI, but also, you will get more customization and personalization with me than you would with an AI coach.

A piece of cloth with the words 'YOU ARE SPEED' handwritten in gray, lying on a red, textured surface.

The second tier I offer, Crimson, is for most runners interested in personalized coaching. That monthly meeting becomes weekly, I will provide additional meetings to go over any special topics you are interested in like resistance training, nutrition, recovery, etc., and you will get a much higher level of personalization in your training plan with adjustments occurring as often as you need.

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My most comprehensive tier, Deep Focus, gives athletes with serious goals the support that they need on a day to day basis. All features granted to the previous two tiers are here, in addition to these athletes being my highest priority day to day. Athletes interested in the top two tiers I offer, but especially my highest tier, should be ready to build a long term coach/athlete relationship with me so that I can best understand your needs, limitations, aspirations etc..

Get In Touch

If you’re ready to sign up for coaching, fill out the New Athlete Form! Otherwise, feel free to send me an email at thered800.coach@gmail.com

New Athlete Form

Coach Robin Butler

Based in Fort Collins, Colorado

Find me on Instagram @TheRed800Coach

Email: thered800.coach@gmail.com