Tips for Runners to Deal with Coach Dean

Things You Should Know About Coach
1. Do not cheat on your reps; Coach always knows, and will make you suffer.
2. Do not cut corners on courses; Coach knows all, you’ll run it all over again.
3. Do not feign giving effort; Coach will know… he will make you puke.
4. Never exaggerate your pain; he will only make it worse.
5. If you [...]

Interval Recoveries

I am often asked: How much time should you take to recover from an interval on the track? The best answer is “it depends”. It depends on the intensity of the interval, the time of the year and the rate of your adaptation.
The Reader’s Digest answer is – you goal is to gradually decrease your [...]

Running – a Plantar’s Wart Story IV – The Saga Continues (Guest Writer)

Christina is a guest writer for The Running World According to Dean. This is the fourth in a series of articles on her experiences with surgery and recovery. (Here’s #3 & here’s #2, here’s #1) I hope her insights and candidness will ring true for many of you as well as keep your hopes high [...]

Running is not a Success only Venture – Sometimes it’s Character Building

You know, I got to thinking the other day. (Not always a good thing mind you.) Everyone loves success: athletes, coaches, parents, athletic directors, schools, fans. Everyone loves to win or be a winner. Which brings me to my point. If we define ourselves by our victories alone; conversely if we define ourselves by the [...]

Running – a Plantar’s Wart Story III (Guest Writer)

Christina is a guest writer for The Running World According to Dean. This is the third in a series of articles on her experiences with surgery and recovery. (Here’s #2 & here’s #1) I hope her insights and candidness will ring true for many of you as well as keep your hopes high for any [...]

Cross-Country Season – Hill Running

It’s Fall and it’s time for cross-country here in the USA!
Cross-country (also X-C or X-Country) is an interesting running discipline. Many good track runners and road racers do not make good cross-country runners. A college steeplechaser makes a good cross-country runner. It’s not for the fast, it is for the tough. Unfortunately, most age group [...]

Running – a Plantar’s Wart Story II (Guest Writer)

Christina is a guest writer for The Running World According to Dean. This is the second in a series of articles on her experiences with surgery and recovery. (Here’s #1) I hope her insights and candidness will ring true for many of you as well as keep your hopes high for any recoveries or comebacks [...]

The Marathon – Average Pace vs. Mileage

A few years back an interesting and somewhat surprising correlation arose from a research study. They analyzed the training of world class runners. They found that average pace of training had a much stronger correlation to marathon times than total miles run. In other words, the runners who ran the most miles did not run [...]

Running – a Plantar’s Wart Story I (Guest Writer)

Christina is a guest writer for The Running World According to Dean. This is the first in a series of articles on her experiences with surgery and recovery. I hope her insights and candidness will ring true for many of you as well as keep your hopes high for any recoveries or comebacks you may [...]

How can a coach workout and coach at the same time?

Not long ago I was posed with an interesting dilemma by a new young coach. Her situation is this. She is still a competitive age group runner and coaches for a local high school. While coaching for the high school team each cross-country and track season she finds it difficult to maintain her own workouts [...]