\”Leapfrogging\” is what I call it when I\’ve got a blog in queue for a certain day; but before that blog gets published, I\’ll compose a blog that I really want to publish right away. Then the originally scheduled blog gets put at the end of the blog queue; that is, it leaps over the other blogs. Like a frog!

Do riders who do jumps think of frogs, too? It must take some time, and lots of practice, to develop the confidence to do those jumps. I, for one, can\’t even bunnyhop! I\’ll bet it requires a good deal of upper-body strength for pulling the bike upwards into the jumps. You see videos of BMX riders making soaring leaps over huge gaps, sometimes completing several mid-air turns before landing. That must take tremendous core strength!

Another kind of leapfrogging is plyometric exercises. These involve explosive jumping movements, designed to develop leg muscles for sudden, explosive efforts on the bike; for example, making a sudden sprint. The book Get Fast! includes a few such exercises.

Those with wanderlust might like to head to Indonesia for some leapfrogging from one island to the next. Several thousand islands means there\’s plenty of leaping to do!

While we\’re talking about leaping, today is Leap Day! The Italian composer Rossini was born on February 29. The Gilbert & Sullivan comic opera Pirates of Penzance uses that date as part of its plot. See here for some celebrities born on Leap Day.

One day maybe I\’ll learn how to do jumps, but you know what they say: Look before you leap.