ACCELERATION, SPEED, MOMENTUM

WEEK OF 9/7/2026

 

Acceleration: a change in speed (increase or decrease)

Speed: rate in which an object covers distance.

Momentum: the force of a moving object.

Training, like physical objects, has acceleration, speed, and momentum.  Of those three, acceleration is the least important, but the easiest to feel.  Both momentum and speed can feel invisible.

Think of flying in an airplane.  We feel the takeoff.  As the plane rapidly accelerates, we’re pushed back into our seat and our stomach drops as the nose tips up and we continue gaining speed at an upward angle.

But at some point rather quickly, we stop feeling the speed at all.  We’re just standing there, in a metal tube, barreling through the stratosphere at 500mph but we may as well be at a cafe somewhere.  A cramped, crowded, and uncomfortable cafe, for sure.

The energy it takes to get a plane off the ground and then to cruising speed and altitude is immense.  In fact, a plane takes roughly three times as much fuel to get off the ground and get to the stratosphere than it does to stay there!

So, how does this have anything to do with training?

Building your routine and habits takes a TON of energy.  We have to get comfortable in new situations, win the daily internal battles that pull us in opposite directions, and physically adapt to the training itself.  This is a massive undertaking.  Think back to when you started training — it was incredibly challenging and something to really be proud of.

But now, training probably feels pretty easy.  Maybe even boring at times.  Progress is hard to see, and you feel like maybe you’ve gotten everything you wanted to get out of it.  You’re not accelerating anymore, you’re cruising (with speed!) but that initial rush is gone.

The judgmental error here is conflating the idea of feeling acceleration with having momentum.  Because you, right now, have a ton of momentum.  It’s easy to train 3x/week?  That’s an incredibly difficult routine to keep!  But you’re doing it!

Beware that if you land this plane, and take some time off, you won’t be able to just get back to cruising altitude and speed with a snap of your fingers.  You’ll have to rebuild all that momentum from a standstill.  And that’s incredibly difficult.

Momentum is one of the most powerful forces you can conserve.  When you have momentum, you’re able to accomplish very difficult things without using a ton of energy. Protect it!