I’m the Owner of Mindset for Performance – a peak performance consulting service for athletes and business people alike. But here’s what I actually do! As a certified mental games coaching professional I apply techniques and teach strategies from sports psychology – the psychology of peak performance – to everyone I can. Though this blog is focused on mental, physical and practical aspects of running; I have worked with athletes from: tennis, golf, running, triathlons, duathlons, cycling, baseball, basketball, soccer, MMA fighting, and professional tiddlywinkers (OK I’m kidding about the last one.)
I have a passion for sharing knowledge and see myself more as an educator. I love working with youth and really love seeing the difference the skills I teach make a difference in sports, school and home.
My work and my world totally rock!
Oh some other boring stuff about me:
M.Ed. in HIgher Education Administration (THE U of A) with post graduate work in sports psychology
BS in Rehabilitation for the Deaf (Yes I know sign language.)
AA in nursing (early career)
MGCP – certified Mental Games Coaching Professional
Certified running coach USATF Level I
Certified track and field official USATF National Level
I take some pride in my limited successes as a runner. (You can check out some of my stats here.) I’ll never forget the day one of his runner’s told him “Coach, I hate to tell you this but, you’re a way better coach than you ever were a runner.” He’s still trying to figure if that is a compliment or a “dis”.
I offer personal coaching over the Internet. Contact me by posting a comment on any page of the blog.
Coach Dean?
Is this the same Dean that was running in Tucson AZ in the late 70′s early 80′s? If so, please reply to Herb.sherman@verizonwireless.com…{:{D
Herb,
I’m still running and kicking. Glad you found me. I’ll be in touch.
D
Hi,
I’m not a coach but certainly have a passion for the technical side in sprints and your site and comments are very good
Hi Coach Dean,
I am honoured that you left a comment at my blog. Your blog did help me a lot =)
Thank you very much and please continue to post =D
Saya
Hi Coach, In october I plan to finish a marathon in under three hours. I will be cheking out your blog for running advice
Just wanted to say thank you for commenting on my blog – I have found yours to be very helpful, thank you very much. By the way, yes, I am from around Boston – Wilmington, to be exact, so your brother is close by! Who knows, we may have even run in some of the same races, although I think if he’s anything like you, he’s probably way in front of the pack and kicking my butt!
Hi Coach,
I need help please!!! I am running my 4th Arnold Schwarzeneggar Pump & Run on March 8. It’s bench press 90% body weight (90% is the discount for people over 40; I weigh ~ 215lbs, which sets my bar at 195lbs, and I can do this for 30 reps. 30 reps is the maximum allowed). — Then we run a 5k (1.5 hrs between bench press and 5k, so the bench exertion is really insignificant). — The best 5k time I had at this event was 28:30, and I had NO CLUE what I was doing to train for it. Last year I learned to do speed intervals, and that was helping tremendously but I got greedy and ran them too frequently and hurt my hamstring. — I’m in crunchtime now w/ 8 weeks to go. I can run 5 miles at 11:30 pace, I can run 4×400 intevals at 2:08 on the fast ones. I would LOVE to break 28:00 at this event. Workout suggestions please? What can I do? Thanks! – Jeff
Coach Dean, those mountains look familiar….. are you in ABQ?
Actually I’m based on of Tempe, Az but the picture is from Wasson Peak looking north to the Santa Catalinas north of Tucson Az. I do some business up in ABQ though and have been up there often.
Questions:
My daughter has exercise induced asthma which first appeared following a bout of pneumonia for which she was nearly hospitalized. Her track coaches expect her to run nearly all events at any given time, nothing is consistent from meet to meet or year to year. She is now a junior in high school. If she does a 100m sprint, as told to do by her coach about 2 events prior to running a 400m dash, she finds it extremely difficult to finish the race. Thus, her times are poor. She does much better if she simply stretches and does a light jog, or a brisk walk. What do you suggest?
She used to only run 100m and 200m opens and the 4×100 and 4×200 relays. High school coaches expect her to be the “utility” runner: in the past 3 years she has competed in the 1500m, open 800m, 4×800, open 400m, 4x400m, 200m, 100m, 4x100m, 100 hurdles, 400 hurdles, and the shuttle hurdle relay. Sometimes she has been expected to run events back to back (4×800 anchor IMMEDIATELY followed by open 200m, for example). Her times are not consistent due to the inconsistency of which events she will be running. Any suggestions?
Coach,
I’m Mark Dent, a reporter with the Dallas Morning News. I’m working on a story about mileage and different training plans for high school runners. Was seeing if I could call or e-mail you to talk to you for this story. Thanks!
Your blog is really good, i actually understand the things you are talking about
Coach Dean:
I found your story on Lyme. I too am a runner and I was just diagnosed with Lyme. I can’t even run 1/2 mile. Walking tires me out. I’m having a hard time going from being fit to basically disabled. How did you fare coming out of Lyme Disease? If you can give me any hope I would greatly appreciate it.
Hi Coach,
I just read your account of Lyme disease from 2008…haven’t had the chance to read more yet…just stumbled onto your website. I have had a 3+ year struggle with Lyme, and had a myriad of very weird and changing symptoms. As a formerly avid mountain biker, I can attest to the decrease in stamina. After 15-20 doctors (I lost count), I finally found a doctor that isolated the weird and changing symptoms over this time period, and tracked it down as Lyme. I have the same issue of getting winded early on in my routine, and it is very frustrating. Both the lung and heart doctors said I was fine, but I am not realizing that Lyme can eventually try to move from joints (seems this is the initial feeding ground) to your heart, and even CNS areas. I am encouraged with your attempt to build stamina and to fight through it. I am on my second round of oral antibiotics, and am resisting (for now) the recommendation to go on a PICC line for intravenous antibiotics. But, after three years of fighting, I will not give up until I win against this thing. I still run to cross train, play soccer, and bike casually. Just started weight lifting to build back muscle.
Thanks for posting your story…I will continue to read more.
MIJoe
Greetings Coach Dean!
I wanted to drop you a note and say that I really enjoyed reading your blog. It is honest and interesting and has a really fresh take on how to stay active and healthy, but still have fun. Thank you for taking the time to put these posts up! I personally have had a lot of fun going through your site.
Men’s Health Base is an awesome on-line resource for healthy living, fitness & nutrition and men’s health issues. I was wondering if you did any guest blogging on your site? I think you and your readers would love our site and find a lot of good info on it and I would love the opportunity to write something or just be a featured resource link on your site! You can check us out at
Men’s Health Base
Thank you for your time!