Sunday, January 18, 2009

Breaking Away

At this Saturday's session in Monsignor Tucker's gym, rather than watching training videos from the Spinervals or CTS series, we watched the 1979 movie "Breaking Away".  I hadn't seen that movie in a long time - it is a classic that stands the test of time.

While watching and spinning, I had time to make several observations:

1) There were seven men there and two women present.  I was the only one with hairy legs.

2) The guys were mostly racer types - some on rollers, some on trainers.  I can't believe how easy they made it look getting on and off the rollers.  If I were going to use rollers, I think that I would need two walls on either side and I would wear a helmet and body armor.

3) Just because a cyclist looks incredibly fluid and strong on a bicycle, that does not mean that they will look fluid and strong in the post-session basketball game.

4) I have yet to get dropped on these indoor rides.  Of course, I have also not taken a pull.

5) The music during the road race scene with team Cinzano from the movie is the Overture to Barber of Seville - recorded at 180 beats per minute, which makes for a nice 90 rpm cadence on the bike.

6) In the famous scene from the movie where the kid racer is drafting the truck at 60 mph - he is in his small chainring.  Talk about a need for a high cadence - you can see this below if you pause at the 3:01 mark.

3 comments:

kevin said...

Hey, I just watched that movie for the first time last weekend! Yeah, good flick. I giggled during several parts.

How many of those training sessions have you been to? You're turning racerboy on me, aren't you.

Bob K said...

No, just trying to keep from becoming fatboy. I've been to three of them now - when I go to those sessions I tend to stay with it longer than I would at home. It's also more fun and less boring when there is something to watch and people to talk to.

kevin said...

You ever tried to mix it up with some jogging outdoors? Sounds like a hassle to have to haul all your stuff to the gym.