Increase The Geek's Speed by 700%

Photo of Usain Bolt: antonhazelwinkel/Flickr

This article in Wired talks about the potential for a person to be able to run 40mph.  That's crazy fast.  Usain Bolt (fastest man alive) tops out at 27.3mph for about 100 meters.  Yeah, it's a big game of "what if" right now, but with Science on the case I'm sure this'll all be figured out. 

"The human frame is built to handle running speeds up to 40 miles per hour, scientists say. The only limiting factor is not how much brute force is required to push off the ground as previously thought, but how fast our muscle fibers can contract to ramp up that force.

If you just find a way to rev up those contractile fibers for the muscle, then everything else from human biology and gait would allow us to be that fast,” said physiologist Peter Weyand of Southern Methodist University, lead author of a study published Jan. 21 in the Journal of Applied Physiology."

I've been averaging around 5-6mph on my runs and hope to increase that to 7-8mph through training.  Now, if Science can tack on another 30mph by developing more "ultrafast 2X type muscle fiber" I figure I'll be all set. 

Of course, at my speed, I'm not sure that I have any "ultrafast" anything right now...so that could be a problem.