Benchmarking

 COVID19 - School Closure - Day 157 School Reopens - Day 218

Been putting the kids through a semi-structured regime lately, trying to build up their physical strength and stamina. There's something called the Presidential Test... that JFK or LBJ came up with once upon a time... that states how many pushups, sit-ups, pull ups and how fast a mile should be ran for boys and girls growing up. Both of the kids are pretty far off from the 85 percentile.  So they're not naturally gifted... nothing some nurturing won't fix.  It will take a lot of commitment though.... especially the strength building part.  Pre-puberty kids simply don't have the body to perform some of these exercises... I guess.

And then... at the end of every workout session... I have them sprint a neighborhood block.  It's a nice long strip of flat land without driveways or incoming cars.  When I measured it on google maps... it turns out the length is about 290 feet...or roughly 90 meters... just shy of the standard 100 meter dash.

SW's been averaging about 11 seconds... a couple seconds shy of his age group. NN on the other hand... is hovering around 9.5 seconds.  Putting her at the upper echelon of her group.  After a few days of them doing it.. I finally timed myself.  Geez!!! 100 meters is long.  And when you're put on the spot to run... it gets all awkward and clumsy.  You're hypersensitive about everything.  From the arm motion... to the breathing rhythm.  To the step... do you run on the balls of your feet? Take long strides? When do you burst? When do you pace?  I guess that's why they have a track coach to teach you these things.

My first run was about 10.4 seconds.  After my initial run... I turned on the jet engine and came in around 9.0 seconds.  9.0 for 90 meters.... extrapolate that out... I'm probably at 9.5 for 100 meters.  Still pretty darn good!!  What's more exciting is... NN is just half a second behind me.  

Super proud of both of them.  Let's see how long it takes for her to out-run me.  And more importantly... give her the confidence, give both of them the confidence, that if they set their mind to it and work on something... they can accomplish almost anything.  

Haiku

Tortoise and the hare

Slow and steady wins the race

Race against  yourself