STRONG BODY, CLEAR MIND
Don't just train to finish your first marathon.
Train like an athlete.
You already know how to follow a running plan and put in the miles. Strong Body, Clear Mind is a 16-week Classical Pilates and movement education experience designed to teach you how to build, understand, and use the body you're asking to carry you 13.1 or 26.2 miles.
Through progressive Classical Pilates training, movement education, and direct application to the demands of distance running, you'll develop the strength, durability, coordination, and body awareness to arrive at the starting line prepared—and cross the finish line feeling capable.
Because the goal isn't just to say you crossed the finish line of the San Francisco Half or Marathon. It's to come out the other side knowing you prepared like an athlete.
March 27 – July 25, 2027 · 16-Week Small-Group Immersion · For First-Time Half & Marathon Runners
FOR THE SAN FRANCISCAN WHO'S READY FOR A NEW KIND OF CHALLENGEYou have the work ethic. You've just never asked your body to do this before.
You signed up for the race. You know how to commit to something. You found the training plan. You're putting in the miles—even on the mornings when getting out the door would be a lot easier to negotiate away.
But as the mileage starts to climb, so do the questions.
“Should I be strength training? How much? Why does my hip suddenly feel like that? Should I stretch more? Am I recovering enough? Eating enough? Why do my legs always feel heavy? Why am I running more but not necessarily getting faster?”
And somewhere between your long runs, your job, your relationships, your sleep, and the rest of your actual life, you realize there is an enormous amount you could learn about how to do this well.
You could spend hours researching strength training, recovery, mobility, body mechanics, cross-training, and how all of it should change throughout a training season.
But you don't need another research project. You need someone to teach you.
You're not struggling because you aren't strong enough, disciplined enough, or athletic enough. You're taking on a demanding new physical pursuit—and the needs of your body change when the demands on your body change.
Your work ethic will get you to show up.
Now let's teach your body how to handle the work.
A running plan tells you how much to run. It doesn't teach you how to be a runner.
Your training plan can tell you how many miles to run this week, when to pick up the pace, and when to take a recovery day.
But it can't necessarily teach you what's happening inside your body as you do it.
Why do your hips drop when you fatigue? Why do your legs feel heavy even though your cardiovascular fitness is improving? Where does the force from every foot strike actually go? What needs to get stronger as your mileage climbs—and what happens when another part of your body starts doing the work instead?
And a plan certainly can't watch you move, teach you, correct you, or surround you with other people learning to do this alongside you.
Strength is learned.
Classical Pilates gives us a system for learning it. You'll develop the control, coordination, mobility, body awareness, breathing technique, and usable strength to understand how your body moves—not just how far it can go.
Your training plan is only the beginning.
Strong Body, Clear Mind is a 16-week small-group Classical Pilates and athletic education immersion built around one shared goal: preparing for the San Francisco Half or Full Marathon. We take the planning, strength training, education, and accountability that usually live in separate places—and bring them together into one experience.
You don't have to piece together a running plan, strength program, Pilates practice, training group, and hours of conflicting advice on your own.
We built the training environment. You bring the goal.
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The Plan
Start with a pre-established training plan that maps the road from your first week of training to race day. Instead of constantly wondering whether you're doing enough, too much, or what comes next, you can focus your energy where it belongs: showing up and doing the work.
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The Team
You'll be placed in a training group with people working toward the same goal. Run together. Train together. Learn together. And on the days when motivation isn't enough, you'll have people expecting you to show up.
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The Education
Learn the body mechanics behind the work you're doing—not just which exercises to perform. You'll develop a better understanding of how your body creates strength, manages force, coordinates movement, and responds as training demands increase.
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The Practice
Your Pilates education doesn't end when class does. You'll have access to a library of mat workouts designed to complement your running, reinforce what you're learning in person, and give you a practical way to continue developing your practice.
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The Experts
Each month, we'll step outside the workout and into the classroom. You'll learn from experts across the disciplines that support endurance training, giving you credible, practical information for what every first-time distance runner suddenly realizes they need to understand.
Why Classical Pilates?
Because running asks your body to repeat the same movement thousands of times. Classical Pilates teaches you how your whole body participates in every one of them.
And that relationship between Pilates and athletic conditioning isn't new.
Joseph Pilates began developing the ideas behind his method more than a century ago. During World War I, he refined his approach to physical conditioning while interned in England, working with fellow internees and injured soldiers. After opening his studio in New York, his method became especially valued by dancers and other performers who used the work both to condition their bodies and return from injury.
Classical Pilates carries that same idea forward: build a body that works as a system.
Rather than treating strength, mobility, control, coordination, and body awareness as separate pieces of your training, Pilates develops them together. You'll learn how to organize your trunk, stabilize your pelvis, move your hips independently, transfer force through your body, and recognize when you're compensating instead of simply working harder.
And because Classical Pilates is a progressive system, the work builds on itself. As your running progresses, your Pilates practice progresses with you—giving you increasingly sophisticated ways to understand, strengthen, and challenge your body.
The goal isn't to make you a Pilates expert.
It's to make you a stronger, more intelligent athlete.
One finish line. Different bodies. Different paths to get there.
Everyone inside Strong Body, Clear Mind is working toward the same goal: arriving at San Francisco race weekend prepared to take on 13.1 or 26.2 miles.
But that doesn't mean everyone should train exactly the same way.
You'll enter the program with your own training history, strengths, limitations, coordination, mobility, and experience. That's why your Classical Pilates training won't follow a generic week-by-week progression.
You'll be thoughtfully placed in a trio with athletes training at a similar level. From there, your Pilates work will progress based on what your group is ready for—building strength, control, coordination, mobility, and increasingly sophisticated movement as your bodies become capable of more.
At the same time, your running progresses toward race day. Your mat practice gives you another opportunity to reinforce and apply what you're learning. And throughout the 16 weeks, educational workshops will bring in expert perspectives on the other pieces that support endurance training and recovery.
The destination is shared. The training respects the athlete.
You came here to train for a race. You’ll leave with a practice that goes far beyond it.
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Understanding the purpose behind the work you’re doing
Following a training plan
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Having the awareness to listen, adjust, and respond in real time
Wondering what your body needs
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Understanding how to create, control, and use strength
Collecting strength exercises
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Seeing yourself as an athlete who knows how to train well for something hard
Attempting your first half marathon
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Arriving at the starting line knowing you prepared for the moment thoughtfully
Hoping your body can handle the challenge
ABOUT GINAI walked so you could run. Literally.
I grew up in a household that valued high quality nutrition, natural health, and regular movement. I ran cross country in high school—but mostly because my friends were there every day.
Then, during COVID, I found my way back to running. And I made just about every beginner mistake possible.
I didn't know what shoes I needed. I didn't know how far I should be running. I thought running every day was a perfectly reasonable training strategy. My feet kept hurting. I added yoga because I thought I needed to stretch more. And for years, I continued running through recurring back pain and sciatica without really understanding what my body was trying to tell me.
Eventually, that pain is what brought me into a Classical Pilates studio.
For the first time, I wasn't just being told to move more, stretch more, or get stronger. I was being taught how to move.
It completely changed the way I understood my body—and eventually, the way I ran.
So I did what any newly confident runner does: I started signing up for half marathons. And discovered an entirely new list of things I didn't know.
It took years of trial, error, education, and four half marathons to find a rhythm that allowed running, strength and conditioning, Pilates, recovery, and a full-time career to work together.
Along the way, I became a comprehensively certified Classical Pilates instructor and built my teaching practice around the same thing Pilates gave me: the ability to understand your body instead of simply asking more from it.
That's why I created Strong Body, Clear Mind. Because I know what it's like to have the work ethic for a big physical goal without having all of the knowledge yet. And I don't think you should have to spend six years piecing it together on your own.
I walked so you could run. Pun very much intended.
READY TO TRAIN FOR THE SAN FRANCISCO MARATHON?
Strong Body, Clear Mind
DATESMarch 27 - July 25, 2027LOCATIONSan Francisco
COHORTLimited to 21 Athletes
Your Weekly Training
1 Small-Group Classical Pilates Session
Train in a trio thoughtfully matched by experience and ability, with programming that progresses as your group gets stronger.
1 Sunday Pilates + Long Run
Every Sunday, meet your cohort for a Classical Pilates mat class that prepares you to move with intention, followed by the week's scheduled long run—then optional coffee to connect with the people training beside you.
Your Weekly Training
1 Expert-Led Educational Workshop
Workshops may explore Classical Pilates and body mechanics, at-home strength training, nutrition for runners, sleep and recovery, overtraining, women's health considerations during endurance training, and practical recovery strategies.
Throughout the 16 weeks, you'll also have access to your structured running plan, on-demand mat workouts, and every training resource in the program.
What’s included
✓ 16 Small-Group Classical Pilates Sessions — progressive equipment training in a matched trio
✓ 16-Week Running Plan mapping the path to race day
✓ 4 Expert-Led Educational Workshops across endurance disciplines
✓ Race-Day Celebration for the cohort, with friends and family invited
✓ 16 Sunday Pilates + Long Run Training Days with your cohort
✓ On-Demand Mat Workout Library to complement your running
✓ Strong Body, Clear Mind Training Kit — Pilates mat, Magic Circle, resistance band,
✓ Copies of Gina’s inspiration: Born to Run and Return to Life Through Contrology
Race weekend ends with a Strong Body, Clear Mind celebration—because the people who watched you wake up early, rearrange your weekends, and become an athlete over these 16 weeks deserve to celebrate what you accomplished with you.
PAY IN FULL$5,500
One-Time investmentPAYMENT PLAN$1,000/mo
6 monthly payments • $6,000 totalEnrollment is limited to 21 athletes to preserve the small-group training experience.
A few things you might be wondering.
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No. And you don't need to be a first-time runner, either. Strong Body, Clear Mind is for the person ready to take their training more seriously—whether San Francisco will be your first half marathon or you've crossed a few finish lines already. You don't need to arrive as an accomplished athlete. You need to arrive curious about what could happen with more intelligent training, better support, and a deeper understanding of your body.
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No. You'll be thoughtfully placed in a trio based on your current strength, movement experience, and ability—not how many Pilates classes you've taken before. Your Classical Pilates practice will progress from there based on what your group is ready for.
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Yes. If you're already working with a running coach or following a training plan you trust, we can discuss how Strong Body, Clear Mind fits alongside your existing training during the application process. The goal is not to add more work for the sake of doing more—it's to create a training environment in which the pieces of your preparation make sense together.
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Each week, you'll attend one small-group Classical Pilates session and meet your cohort on Sunday for Pilates + your scheduled long run. The Sunday run isn't additional mileage—it's the long run already built into your race training, completed alongside your cohort. You'll also have access to on-demand mat workouts and monthly educational workshops throughout the program.
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You're absolutely welcome. The cohort is working toward the same San Francisco race weekend, but your running plan and mileage will reflect whether you're preparing for 13.1 or 26.2 miles. You'll still participate in the same Pilates training, education, and community experience.
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Yes. You can enroll with a $5,500 paid-in-full investment or choose six monthly payments of $1,000, for a total investment of $6,000.
You have more in you.
Maybe this will be your first time standing at a starting line wondering what 13.1 or 26.2 miles will ask of you.
Or maybe you've crossed that finish line before—and you already know the feeling of finishing something hard while quietly thinking: I could have given more.
Strong Body, Clear Mind is an invitation to find out what happens when your ambition is matched by the quality of your training. When you stop mistaking more effort for better preparation. When you learn your body well enough to strengthen it, challenge it, recover it, and trust it. When training stops being something you squeeze into your life and becomes part of who you are.
You don't need someone to teach you how to work hard.
You need the right environment to find out how good you can become.
The race has a finish line.
but who you become on the way there is the point.
Gina SF Pilates · Strong Body, Clear Mind · San Francisco