I looked at my watch and it read 7:59a.  That means we had about 5 minutes to get to the train if we wanted to catch the early train, be less crowded and have more time at the playground.  5 minutes is tight, especially when the elevator takes about a minute to come up from the platform to street level, and also because my usual baby jogger pace from home to the train is 8 minutes, but I figured, why not.  Let's see how quick we can get there.

Vivi was super chatty, she's about 90% better, and so she asked me, where are all the Christmas lights, and I said, "well...bunny...it's...sunny...so...it's...hard...to...see...the...lights, ...so...people...turn...them...off...because...they...aren't...appreciated...as...much...during...the...day..."

and that's when I realized my Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) was probably an 8 out of 10 intensity, which means I was booking it much faster than the norm.  

We turned onto the main street leading up to the T and I saw a man running to the train and we were still 2 blocks away, so he couldn't have heard it and he didn't have a stroller, so that led me to believe he had the MBTA train app, and the train must be arriving, so I switched it to the next gear and tried to catch him.  We got to the station.  The sign read, ARR for arriving, we quickly paid, ran to the elevator, pushed the button, looked at my watch, 8:05a, the train arrived, we waited for the elevator, the door opened, we got in, pushed the platform button, the doors closed, it slowly went down, the doors opened, the train was in front of us, doors open, went to the closest door, but the car was full, getting nervous, went to the next car and we got on.  Pfew.  We made it.  That's pretty cool.

We get to the playground and we have 30 minutes to school.  That's a perfect amount of time to play before school starts.  And we were first.  I asked Vivi if she thought we could beat Evan and Sally, Anna and Harry, and the other parents and kids, and she said, "No!".  We sure did.  

While I was pushing the jogger, Vivi said, there were 2 horses, 2 cats and 2 dogs in front (her reindeer), so I had to cheer them on so we could go faster and Vivi could shout, "on your left".  That's ironically perfect because today I chose to use more horsepower to see if we could catch the train.  Horsepower, much like horsepower in a car, makes life a lot more fun and its great to have when you need it.  If you have a 4 cylinder car, with no horsepower, then no matter how hard you step on the pedal, it's only gonna go as fast as it can go and no more.  If you have a 6cylinder or 8 cylinder car with 200-300 or more horsepower, and you step on the pedal it's going to go and go fast.  Need to merge into traffic?  Give a little push and it's there for you.  

The same thing can be said for your own personal horsepower.  It sure was nice to know I still had horsepower when I needed it and I'd guess you'd be able to appreciate having it too, if you needed it.  

How do we get it?

You can't be fast if you don't train fast, so if you want to be fast you need to sprint.  Not run, not jog, and not walk, but sprint.  And fast.  Then rest.  And do it again.

Practicing what's important is one way to better and another way is to practice the components that make up what you want to get better at.  Want to be fast?  Sprint.  Want to put more force into the ground quickly?  Train explosiveness.  Train Power.  How do you train power?  You train a full body movement pattern, against resistance as fast as you can (as explosive as you can).  That'll teach you to put force into the ground.  

Another way to do it is to train your elastic properties through plyometric training (jumps, hops, bounds, skips and medicine balls).  This lets you put force into the ground and either move your body or an object through space, as fast as possible.  

Strength.  If you sprint, you'll get better at sprinting.  If you train power, you'll train your nervous system, neuromuscular system and reflexive system to be more excitable, responsive and explosive.  And to get better at both of these you need to train strength.  Strength gives you the ability to put more force into the ground.  Strength helps you be durable to repeat the repetitions, the practice and the performance.  Strength training helps you to get leaner.  Ever seen non-lean sprinters at the Olympics?  No such thing.  Strength training helps you control your body better.  It makes life easier.  It's fun.

Mix speed training or sprinting with plyometrics like medicine ball throws, hurdle jumps & hops, bounding like lateral skaters and power training like DB Olympic Lifts, DB swings and DB squat jumps with total body strength training like squats, lunges, dead lifts, single leg deadlifts, 1-leg squats, core training (planks, body saw, side planks...), push ups, pull ups, rows and presses and you'll have a nice mix of horsepower qualities to draw from when you need it.

And then you'll have another reason to be grateful whether you made the train in time or not and that's because you had the ability to burst quickly in the first place.

Grateful to feel fast,

Coach Mike

p.s.  Our 2018 training schedule is almost ready to be live.  Measurements & Orientation are Sat, Jan 6 and our 1st day of training is Monday, January 8th.  We'll be coming into the new year strong with 6 weeks straight of training to build momentum and peak for February's Winter Break. 

p.p.s. In the meantime, what can you do today to make yourself feel good and work towards finishing your year "strong"?