The Coach's Blog: Recent Episodes
Andrew Dillman
Welcome to the Coach's Blog, powered by Drew Dillman Coaching. I have been racing at the elite level for over a decade and have been coaching since 2018. Drew Dillman Coaching exists to push athletes to their limits, encourage them every pedal stroke of the way and be the guy in their corner through it all. The goal is to see each athletes hard work and suffering pay off. The Coach's Blog is the platform I use to share knowledge on specific racing and training topics to help them on that journey.
In this edition of the Coach's Blog I'll explain why I think running can be good for cycling, some of the rights and wrongs for running and how to balance both running and cycling at the same time. I also reveal my favorite movie of all-time at the end. Hint: It's a famous running movie from the 80's.
In this edition of the Coach's Blog I'll be talking about the Coach Athlete Relationship. What is it? Why's it so important? And how do I hope to set myself apart in this regard? This is a unique relationship when the athlete is actually grateful for someone else inflicting pain upon their body.
In this edition of the Coach's Blog I talk about my personal race day routine and some of the habits I've formed that might helpful to you as well. Simple things like planning your race day the night before and not having a random bystander pin your numbers. The biggest take away is that your race-day routine should be dialed come actual race day.
In this edition of the Coach's Blog I'll walk you through some of details and methods I prefer within TrainingPeaks. This includes my preferred method of calculation power zones. I'll talk about why I use Power ranges, rather than a set number. I'll even give you some tips on setting up your bike computer screens so you can have all the right data during your workouts.
In this edition of the Coach's Blog I talk about my training mentality of Pain Tolerance. It goes back to the old phrase, "No Pain, No Gain." We'll take a look at the theory, the science, the Scriptures and the Results. Hopefully this will motivate you to embrace the pain.
Welcome to the Coach's Blog powered by Drew Dillman Coaching. In this introductory blog I'll be explaining a few of the reasons for starting the blog in the first place. The 3 main reasons are for my athletes, for everyone and for clarity. It is my goal as a coach to help athletes accomplish their goals and one of the ways I intend to do that is by offering helpful advice pertaining to racing and training through this blog. I want this helpful information to be convenient and fun for my athletes.
In this episode of the Coach's Blog I'll talk about productivity and efficiency. Where effectiveness is all about having the right goals and priorities, efficiency is all about the best method of accomplishing those goals. I'll introduce you to a few of the systems you can implement to help stay focused and efficient as you strive after goals. These include a weekly schedule, daily workflow and lists. To see the images associated with this episode you can check out the full blog here or use the links below.
My Weekly Schedule
My Daily Workflow
My Lists
In this episode of the Coach's Blog we'll be jumping into a 2-part series on productivity. Productivity is all about efficiency. Getting things done in the best method possible. However, before you get to efficiency it is crucial that you talk about effectiveness first. You may be very efficient and accomplish your goals only to realize that those goals weren't even the ones you really cared about. That's what this blog is about. Defining your personal mission and vision.
In this episode of the Coach's Blog we are talking about Step 3 of Matt Fitzgerald's Racing Weight plan. We'll talk about the three macronutrients: carbohydrate, protein and fat. I'll explain why carbohydrate intake is so important for endurance athletes and how to properly monitor carbohydrate intake as an endurance athlete. There are some helpful charts in the full blog here or use the links below.
Carb Intake Chart
Fuel Use During Exercise
In this Coach's Blog we are taking a look at Step 2 of Matt Fitzgerald's Racing Weight plan. Appetite management is a simpler way to manage the amount of food we eat without the hassle of counting calories. That's right, no counting calories. It involves two key concepts: mindful eating and food environment. And then at the end I'll sum it all up with 8 simple habits you can use to manage your appetite.
In this Coach's Blog I explain Step 1 of Matt Fitzgeralds Racing Weight plan. Diet quality is all about minimizing low quality food and increasing high quality foods. I recommend checking out the Diet Quality Score (DQS) App which will help you keep track of your diet quality and give you a quality score for each day. If you only adopt one main idea from this Racing Weight series, let it be this: Replacing low quality foods with high quality foods. This is what Diet Quality is all about.
To see the images I describe, check out the full blog here.
In this Coach's Blog I am introducing you to Matt Fitzgerald's book called Racing Weight. I will be doing a full series on each step of his Racing Weight program. This blog focuses on the big picture. I'll explain why leanness is so important for endurance athletes and the proper approach to weight management. It's all about performance; it's the name of the game.
"Performance" by MC SpandX
This Coach's Blog explains my personal motivation and focus as a coach and bike racer. I'll explain to you the meaning behind my favorite Bible verse, Colossians 3:23 which says, "Whatever you do, do whole-heartedly, as something done for the Lord and not for men." God calls us to work, to work hard and to work hard for him.
This Coach's Blog is all about Plyometrics. Plyometrics is basically defined as: you, jumping up and down. I explain the strengths and weaknesses of plyometrics versus strength training and also how I fit plyometrics into my cyclocross specific training plan. Plyometrics is one of the most fun forms of cross training. Give this blog a listen and then get out and try it for yourself!
This is a 2 part edition of the Coach's Blog. In part 1 I tackled the what and why questions about strength training. In this blog I tackle the when, who and how questions about strength training. I'll answer questions like should you incorporate strength training into your program and how do you balance both strength training and cycling training.
Cycling Phases VS Strength Phases Chart
This is a 2 part edition of the Coach's Blog that will take a look at strength training and answer the what, why, when, who and how questions pertaining to this topic. In this Part 1 edition I answer 2 questions: What is strength training and why should cyclists incorporate strength training into their program.
In this Coach's Blog I explain what it means to peak for a race and go over the term periodization and why all this is so important for racing. We can't be in top fitness for every race weekend so we have to pick and choose our goal events. See how this all plays together in today's blog.