Michelle has been an athlete for over 25 years and competed as a Professional Mountain Bike Racer all over the world. Michelle raced both on the road and on dirt to fulfill many cycling dreams and goals.   Michelle holds records and competed in many well known races such as 24 Hours of Finale (Italy), the Leadville Trail 100, 24 Hour Solo World Championships, Vail 100, Brian Head Epic 100 Championships, Montezuma's Revenge 24 Hour Mountain Bike Race, RAAM, and also won gold, silver, and bronze medals at the Colorado State TT Championships. Michelle continues to maintain her fitness by being a life long athlete and continuously seeks new and challenging goals each year.

As an athlete that has been competitive for many years, Michelle finds ways to keep fitness interesting and rewarding, even with the issues that can come with age or injury.

She understands the things that may slow us down as we age and knows how to deal with them. Michelle makes adjustments to her own training to accommodate soreness, longer recovery times, and lower energy levels. This is how she has kept so active for so many years and continues to look for events that she hasn't done before or for a personal best in an event she does every year.

Michelle believes that people have individual needs and goals and for this reason she became a coach. Her belief has been that her successes come from determination and motivation and the balance of aerobic fitness with strength and conditioning. Michelle has achieved her goals through traditional workouts using dumbbells and barbells, fitness machines, fit balls and/or balance discs and boards. Success does not come overnight.

Michelle thinks of herself as a mentor as well as a coach.

All of her years of racing and training have helped her in the areas of coaching, nutrition, race preparation, strength and resistance training, mental preparation and injury prevention. We all have busy lives and it is hard to find the right balance. As a mentor and coach, Michelle helps to put training and racing in perspective. Michelle believes it is her passion towards sport and attention to detail, combined with her continued education that had allowed her to race so well and achieve her goals.  A cycling magazine once stated that her racing crews were no less than that of an "Indy car pit crew". That's detail and dedication!

Michelle feels that each person with an athletic goal can achieve athletic excellence, which is why she named her company "Athletic Excellence." Michelle also believes in giving people her undivided, individual attention, which is why she does not take on more clients than she can handle.

Success Stories

Michelle has clients that have improved their personal best times on ultra distance races such as the Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race by as much as an hour.

Another client has improved his mountain bike climbing so much so that he consistently placed in the top 5 at many of the Colorado mountain bike races, overcoming severe Scoliosis. He was then able to go on to race successfully in Cycle Cross.

Several of Michelle's clients are currently achieving their goals in Brevets, PBP, RAAM, while also balancing full time careers and families.