Tuesday, April 2, 2013

DanceDance Revolution


 
My wife is a PE teacher and recently attended the CAHPERD (California Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance) and received this bag.  I use it for my groceries!  This morning the bag inspired this blogpost.
 
One of the "dances" that cyclists perform is in their cadence, hence the connection between DanceDance and Revolution.  For juniors there are rules in place so that they concentrate on this dance as they are restricted in their racing gearing.  Typically a 52 front chain ring and 14 tooth rear cog is the largest gear that a junior can race in (on the road).  
 
New junior (or adults) cyclists typically get comfortable "dancing" in the 80 revolutions per minute range.  They may flirt with 100+ and sometimes slog it out in the 60 range, but an average of 80 RPMs just feels good to them.
 
Experienced and good junior (and adult) cyclists get comfortable "dancing" in the 100 RPM range.  That doesn't mean that they push their maximum gearing an extra 20RPMs ...but if they could do that in one hours time they would cover 9,516 meters further than the rider that averages 80RPM's! 
 
How much time do you spend working on increasing your cadence?  You just may go further in your next race!
 
Cheers, Larry Nolan
 
 

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