Life in the Fast Lane

Everyone admires athletes with real speed. The NFL kick returner who leaves tacklers grasping at air; the world-class 100-meter runner easing at the tape and looking imperiously over one shoulder at also-rans; the road-sprinter in the Tour de France blasting off the front of a weaving pack of riders at 40 miles an hour to win with hands upraised—speed is the essence of the athletic experience.

Unfortunately, most recreational athletes don’t have it. Why? We don’t work to develop speed. Instead, we plod along on our runs or cruise on our bike rides, content to get in the miles and develop endurance. We’ll get hurt if we go fast. Speed is painful. We’re not genetically blessed.

All these excuses are bogus. Let’s look at four great reasons to develop speed—and then five guaranteed ways to put some zip in your legs.

• Emergency speed. On a recent bike ride I was heading out of town in sporadic traffic when I heard a car pull up on my left, slightly behind me. I glanced back and saw that the driver had his right turn signal on—and a cell phone at his ear. Instinctively I got out of the saddle and sprinted hard to get ahead of the car and clear the upcoming driveway. Sure enough, the driver made a right turn into the driveway and I could see from the shocked look on his face that he hadn’t seen me until the last minute. Without my modest burst of speed, he might have turned right into me. Speed, while running or cycling, can protect you from injury in traffic. It’s also great for outrunning snarling dogs or beating an oncoming thunderstorm.
  
  
• Fun. When’s the last time you saw a couple of 8-year olds head out for a steady 3-miler? Most children run in short bursts, chasing soccer balls or their friends on the playground. Play is a series of spontaneous sprints. As we get older, however, we lose that sense of speed and play that children have by birthright. Get it back by re-discovering the joy of speed. Sprint against your cycling friend for road signs. On runs, sprint to that mailbox 100 yards up the road. Have impromptu “races” against the person on the next treadmill. Take a Spinning class.
  
  
• Don’t be satisfied with half a leg. Most people’s muscles are composed of about 50 percent slow twitch fibers responsible for endurance. The other half are fast twitch fibers for power-based activities like sprinting and jumping. The faster you go, the more you recruit those fast twitch muscle fibers. Most endurance runners’ and cyclists’ fast twitch fibers are comatose. They fell into a deep sleep when their owners took up endurance sports. Wake them up! Sprint, jump, run fast up short hills, hammer on the treadmill—anything to stimulate the other half of your leg muscles.
  
  
• Faster race times. If you race, speed is the name of the game. And the ability to run, ride, skate or swim fast for short distances translates readily into faster speeds over the long haul. I can’t say it better than Owen Anderson, Ph.D., in Running Research News http://www.rrnews.com: “For distances from 1500 meters up to the marathon, fast race times result from high running speeds. The higher your maximal running speed, the faster you will be able to run in any particular race.” Or as the cliché says so eloquently: it’s harder for a slow runner to go fast than for a fast runner to go slow.

• Accelerations. Warm up. Then, on the bike, skates, or while running, accelerate to nearly full speed as quickly as possible. Begin from a moderate pace, rather than from a dead stop. Often called “pick ups,” accelerations should last no more than 10–15 seconds. Concentrate on good form. Relax—trying too hard is the enemy of speed.
  
  
• Power Starts. Begin power starts from a dead stop. Accelerate as hard as you can for about 10 seconds. On the bike, use a fairly large gear so you have to muscle the pedals around at the beginning of the effort. If you’re running, start from a crouch or even from a sprinter’s stance. It takes significant strength to get your mass moving, exactly the strength you want to develop.
  
  
• Short Intervals. Intervals don’t have to be excruciating timed exercises in masochism. Simply pick up the pace occasionally. On the bike, sprint for a road sign, jam up a little hill, pedal as fast as you can on a short descent. If you’re running, chase a squirrel on the trail, run fast to the next telephone pole, challenge your running partner to a sprint to the park water fountain. If you’re indoors on the stepper, bike or treadmill, go hard during TV commercials and easy in between.
  
  
• Hills. Long hills can kill your speed. It takes so much effort to get up that you begin to plod. But short, consecutive hills can be a blast. Treat them like a roller coaster: jam up the rise, sprint down and keep going. If you have a series of small bumps on a bike path, dirt trail or country road, you’re set for speed-building fun.
  
  
• Games. Instead of going out for a steady endurance run, play games that require short bursts of speed—basketball, Frisbee, or soccer. You’ll have so much fun you’ll forget what a great workout you’re getting.