Over the past 20 years, Dean has been a pioneer in the application of exercise physiology, power training, altitude training, and hydration strategies to improve athletic performance in real-world competitions. He has been a personal coach to more than 70 National Champions and more than a dozen Olympic and World Championship medalists. His expertise has been sought by world-class athletes in mountain biking, road and track cycling, skiing, triathlon, and most recently by motorsports athletes in motocross, Moto GP, Superbike, and NASCAR. The U.S. military has also looked to Dean for help preparing soldiers for high-altitude performance.
Dean served as a physiologist for USA Cycling from 1994 to 1996; he introduced power meters with the National Team and established training protocols for the 1996 Olympic Cycling Team, across all cycling disciplines. During his time at CTS, Dean has completed research and development projects with several companies, including Powerbar, Motorola, and Red Bull. He has also been a performance consultant for several professional cycling teams, as well as the Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers NHL Hockey teams. Dean resides in Colorado Springs when he isn’t traveling the world in support of his athletes.
Career path
Started 1:1 coaching 28 years ago in 1994. Early clients were riders who fell short of making the national team, predominantly women in the early days. As Golich’s athletes achieved success, he was sought out by more riders looking to make the Olympic team. From there, his work expanded to aerodynamics, power analytics, and other technological advances in sport, as well as sports beyond cycling.
I’ve had the chance to work with a lot of high achievers, both in and out of cycling, and the people who support them. I have been so lucky to be in the room, whether as part of NASCAR or the Olympic Games, when people were making big decisions about going fast.
When we won, it was really great, but I also remember all of the terrible failures. There were times I thought for sure someone was going to get a medal. In the end, even when you are considered really successful, there’s a lot more failure than there is success.
Methodology
Overload and then recover. Many coaches love to quote Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz, who said, “The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a good plan.” I don’t want a perfect plan. I just want a good plan.
As a coach, you get so hyper-focused on how we are going to win this weekend. You have to have a little bit of an ego—a belief that you can control the outcome. And your athletes pick up on that: If he believes that, then I believe it . . . and they can go do it.
Most overrated metric
Wearable products that determine overall well-being generate overrated metrics.
Most underrated metric
Asking the athlete, “How do you feel?”
