About
Alison Hanks Naney, LMT
Growing up amid the wheat fields of eastern Oregon, Alison is most at home in open spaces. She spent college under the big skies of Montana where she mountain biked, rock climbed, and backpacked, eventually ditching the pack and finding her true love in trail running. She ran her first trail race in 2000, first 50k in 2003, and has been hooked on long mountain days in wild places ever since. In 2006 she began coaching while working at the Seattle Running Company and completing her massage training at Brian Utting School of Massage. She’s worked with athletes ever since, officially founding Cascade Endurance in 2010.
Alison’s coaching approach addresses each aspect of her athletes' training: strength and aerobic fitness, speed, injury prevention, running economy and form, event specific planning, and mental preparation, all while balancing the other aspects of her athletes’ lives. Her professional background as a massage therapist gives her a deep understanding of the way we move and function, informing her athletes' individualized workouts. Alison also coaches a youth running club, and junior Nordic skiers as a member of USSA; she is a certified personal trainer through NCSA and a RRCA certified running coach.
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Sam Naney
Sam grew up with nearly as much time with his feet in skis as he did shoes. He followed his love for Nordic ski racing and competed collegiately and later on the professional circuit. Not content to simply follow a plan, Sam sought to understand the “why” as well as the “how” with the endurance training concepts he employed. This curiosity and a desire to support others in their own performance goals prompted him to start coaching youth and adult athletes in the latter years of his racing career, and joining Alison to launch Cascade Endurance in 2011.
With over two decades of experience as both a high-level competitive athlete and a coach, Sam blends a grounded endurance training philosophy with his passionate drive to support individuals toward their personal milestones. Accustomed to coaching everyone from professional skiers, trail runners and international mountain guides to active working parents, aspiring first-time runners and aging athletes, Sam brings his enthusiasm to individualized approaches of training principles, and his personable manner with everyone he works with across all ages and disciplines. He is a NASM-certified personal trainer, a USSA-certified Nordic coach and a lifetime member of the heavy metal headbangers. When he’s not working, you’ll find him in the mountains with his two daughters and his Huskies, probably trying to keep up with Alison.
The results are in.
“I PR’ed my marathon 6 months after having surgery because I started training much smarter with CE’s help. ”
— Andrea L.
“My two goals were to finish the race and not beat up my body in the process. The training schedule and support from CE helped me attain both of those goals even after I was sick and training was set back. CE helped me above and beyond what I expected. ”
— Dawn M.
“For the last three years I have been plagued by one injury after the other, mostly as a result of self and over training. Since I have been following your guidance my training is well rounded and I have not sustained any injuries. I have been running less miles but performing much better than previous years: feeling great and setting PR’s. I could not be happier and feel well prepared for my next adventure.”
— Gary P.
“I found Cascade Endurance after my second overuse injury as an ultra runner; I had just been diagnosed with a tibial stress fracture and was unable to run when I began working with Alison, but she turned my bench time into an opportunity to correct the imbalances that led to injury. Daily workouts customized for me kept me sane for the three months I couldn’t run. Strategically designed strength and cross-training workouts set me up to come back strong and healthy with the tools to change my stride. I am now running again and feel like I am learning to do it from scratch in a positive way. There are so many subtle nuances vital to the complete training picture that I was unaware of on my own. With Alison’s guidance, I am confident that my goal to return to racing as a healthier, stronger, and faster runner is achievable.”
— Jenny L.
“My goal was to run my first 50 mile race and to build my training as well as my confidence for going into it. Working with Alison definitely helped me achieve my goal through steadily increasing my endurance and strength. I learned a lot about “focused” training and think this made a huge difference for me in that the hard days were specific and goal focused while the easy days gave me lots of time on the trails/roads building my mileage. I had previously been “putting in the miles” with very little focused training. In the month leading up to the race, I felt stronger than ever and not fatigued all the time like I had been leading up to other races. I learned a LOT about balance in training and that was probably the most beneficial.”