Training & Nutrition - More Questions From A Noob...

Last nite I was reading my latest copy of Bicycling Magazine, and I came upon an article on 4 drills to make you a better racer. Needless to say, I couldn't understand half of what they were saying!
Someone please help me decipher this stuff!!

The Drill: Warm up. Then do three eight - to - 10 second jumps in the small ring with 90 seconds between each to open up your legs and get them ready to work. [PAUSE]

First off, jumps? Do they mean gears? And what's all this talk about the small ring?

[CONTINUE] Then do these sprint sets: Three eight-second small ring sprints at 130-150 RPM;
(There's those rings again!) Three sets 15 sec. big-ring sprints at 120+ RPM;three 30 sec sprints at 110+RPM; three 10 - to 15 sec. uphill sprints; three 15 - to 30 sec sprints. Allow at least three minutes between repetitions and five minutes between sets.

Seriosuly, are you people speaking ENGLISH? Maybe I'm just a comple moron but that's a lot of numbers and crazy words to me.

There is three other drills but I don't feel like typing them all :-)

Thanks in advanced,
Shorty :-P

The small front chainring gives you a lower gear range and higher pedalling cadence. I think by "jump" they mean a short sprint, the way a racer may seem to jump away from the pack when he suddenly sprints hard. They are recommending you shift into a low gear and do some brief high cadence sprints, then later shift to the larger front ring (higher gears) for some more workouts. They are suggesting you do a series of sprints for 10 seconds, or 30 seconds each, and rest or coast for 90 seconds or a few minutes between each sprint or series of sprints. This kind of sprint, rest, sprint training is called "interval training" and is thought to build up speed and endurance faster than just riding steadily. As well by doing some of yor sprinting in the smaller front chain ring, you are forced to pedal really fast and that helps train your legs to spin that fast.

And the RPM they are talking about is pedal or crankset RPM, which is what is usually called cadence. You need a cyclometer with a cadence function to be able to tell pedal RPM (cadence). The kit will include a magnet for your crankarm and a sensor that goes on the bike frame. The Cateye Astrale is a very common cyclocomputer with cadence. Cadence is usually a more important number to know than speed.

I have a computer on my bike that tells me the miles I have done, my top speed, and tells me what speed I am going while I am riding. It doesn't give me cadence though. Is cadence considered one revolution or each time a foot goes down? So R, L, R, L (4) or RL RL (2)...

The article refers to RPM (revolutions per minute), so that should indicate RL RL = 2.