I'm Richard Skolasky: an ACE Certified Personal Trainer, plant-based athlete, and a 55-year-old who trains at the gym at 5am and does pilates on Fridays because the work matters and the consistency is the point.

Built for Distance exists because I couldn't find a coaching practice built for adults like me. Not for beginners. Not for competitive athletes. For the people in between. Those who are over 40, taking it seriously, playing the long game.

The name comes from the Baltimore 10-Miler. I signed up on a whim. I wasn't ready. I showed up anyway. That race became the origin story for everything Built for Distance is built on: show up, do the work, stay in it long enough for it to matter.

HOW I TRAIN

My own training is the laboratory for everything I coach. Four days of strength work each week — upper/lower split, progressive overload, logged my training regularly. Friday Pilates. Zone 2 runs on Saturday. A long run on Sunday, currently building toward a virtual half marathon in October 2026.

I'm plant-based. I track nutrition. I pay attention to my HRV. I do the things I ask my clients to do.

I have idiopathic scoliosis — right thoracic and left proximal thoracic curves. I train around it, not despite it. It informs how I program, how I cue, and how I think about asymmetry and unilateral work for every client I work with.

ACE Certified Personal Trainer. Passed June 2026

My coaching philosophy rests on three pillars: Movement, Strength, Recovery. Not as buzzwords but as an integrated system. You can't optimize one without the other two. Most programs pick one and ignore the rest. Built for Distance doesn't.

I coach from evidence. Every program recommendation I make has a citation behind it. I use peer-reviewed published research and ACE-IFT guidelines as my framework. When the science is uncertain, I say so.

I live and train in Baltimore, Maryland. I work with clients locally and online. If you're in the Baltimore area and want to train together in person, let's talk. If you're anywhere else and want evidence-based coaching built for the long game, let's also talk.

→ richard@builtfordistance.com