Meet Your Coach
Josh Kudo,DPT, ISSA-CPT.
A decade of clinical experience, a certified running coach, and a genuine belief that movement is the best medicine — brought together to help you run farther, feel better, and stay in the game longer.
My Story
A Decade in the Making
I've been a Doctor of Physical Therapy since 2017, and from day one my focus has been on runners. Working in the clinic, I kept seeing the same story: a motivated athlete, a preventable injury, and a training plan that never accounted for the human being following it. That gap is what drove me to coaching.
Today I co-lead a running special interest group where we dig into the evidence behind training, injury prevention, and performance. I'm also a certified health and wellness coach and an ISSA certified running coach — which means I look at the full picture: your mileage, your recovery, your sleep, your stress, and your nutrition.
Running Bird Performance exists because I want to take everything I've learned over the past decade and build something bigger than a training plan. I want to build community through movement — a place where runners at every level can train with purpose, stay healthy, and keep showing up.
Credentials
The Background Behind the Coaching
Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT)
Licensed PT since 2017 with a clinical focus on musculoskeletal health, biomechanics, and running-related injury prevention.
ISSA Certified Running Coach
Formal running coach certification covering periodization, training load, race preparation, and athlete development.
Certified Health & Wellness Coach
Credentialed to address the full athlete — sleep, stress, nutrition, and lifestyle factors that directly impact training outcomes.
Running Special Interest Group Leader
Co-leading an evidence-based running SIG in the clinic, staying at the cutting edge of running science and rehabilitation research.
Coaching & Physical Therapy
Two Separate Roles, One Shared Goal
My background as a Doctor of Physical Therapy shapes everything I do as a coach — but the two roles are intentionally kept separate. As your running coach, I draw on years of clinical experience to build injury prevention into every training block from day one. That means smarter load management, movement quality cues, and recovery strategies grounded in real rehabilitation science.
If you do get injured while we're working together, I can refer you to my physical therapy clinic for evaluation and treatment. At that point, your coaching program will be paused — not cancelled — so you can focus fully on recovery. Once you're cleared to return to training, we pick right back up where we left off.
Coaching and physical therapy services are provided separately. Coaching does not constitute medical advice or a patient-provider relationship.
Coaching Philosophy
The best training plan is the one built for you — not a template, not a guess, but a real plan that fits your body and your life.
I've spent a decade watching what happens when runners train without the right support. Injuries that didn't need to happen. Goals that slipped away. I coach because I know it doesn't have to go that way. Every athlete I work with gets individualized programming, honest communication, and a coach who cares as much about your long-term health as your next finish line.
- Evidence-based training — not trends or guesswork
- Injury prevention built into every training block
- Sustainable progression over short-term gains
- Whole-athlete view — sleep, stress, nutrition, recovery
- Community and connection through movement
Get Started
Ready to Train Smarter?
Let's talk about where you are and where you want to go.