When I only have an hour or so to ride and I want to get some good training in I have a route that provides some honest to goodness punishment in a short period of time. Over the years this route has become my own personal time trial course. Last weekend as I was sitting at the computer looking at some ride data I noticed that no matter how hard I pushed myself on this route I just couldn't seem to break the hour barrier for this ride. The last two attempts have netted out at 1:03:41 and 1:03:17 finish times. 3 minutes, that's it. I've got to be honest here, I'm really bugged that I can't finish this ride in under an hour.
But you know me, I've got a plan…
The other thing about this route is since I ride it alone I always listen to my iPod while I grind away. I know, I know, it's dangerous and believe me Jenny has done plenty of lecturing on this subject to no avail. So over the weekend I built myself a Cycling Playlist in iTunes for this route that is exactly 1 hour long which includes music that I deem as fast cycling tunes. So in theory if I can finish my route before the playlist is over I have destroyed the route in less than an hour. That's the goal.
Here's a copy of my cycling playlist.
Pedal Power – Michael and Tennessee Ward (This could be the best cycling song ever)
I Want to Ride - Michael and Tennessee Ward
The Main Monkey Business – Rush
Malignant Narcissism – Rush
Treetop Flyer – Stephen Stills
It's the End of the World As We Know It - REM
Blitzkrieg Bop - Ramones
Evenflow – Pearl Jam
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
Rock and Roll – Led Zeppelin
China Grove – The Doobie Bros.
As you can see from my choice of cycling tunes I've got a thing for Rush which probably gives away my age. This got me to thinking that my cycling playlist is probably a lot different than how others would have constructed it.
Here is how I envision the play lists of some others:
My Mother In Law – The 4 Lads with some Guy and Ralna (of Lawrence Welk fame) thrown in for good measure. If I were to listen to this it could take me 8 hours to finish the course because of repeated napping on the side of the road.
My Father – Glen Miller and Les Brown, certainly some toe tapping music but not my era.
My Mother – Engelbert Humperdink and Tom Jones, this music requires too much hip gyration to ride safely.
My Brother – Crosby, Still, Nash & Young, I don't have a comment here.
Lance Armstrong – Not really sure what he would be listening to but I'm thinking it wouldn't include Sheryl Crow
Bob Roll – The Hand Jive, I'm not sure how he ever rode a bike without any hand waving.
I'm looking forward to future attempts at riding a sub hour of my time trial route. I'll let you know how it goes.
5 comments:
Excellent and I am going to find some rush to play in my party central shed when I am on the trainer (if it is as good as you say it is)....and Jenny I dont disagree with the Ipod thing, but there is a little thing called a volume control which can help make it safer.......when I have an ipod on while riding I have the volume down so that I can still hear (maybe the Rush tunes cause you to dial the volume up though.....)....
Ok, dorky as I am, the other day I was considering putting together a list of songs where the beat matched my pedaling cadence. First step... ride my bike while listening to a metronome to figure out what matches.
As to the safety issue... I stick the earbud in my right ear, and leave my left ear out in the wind. Kind of the best of both worlds (sorta).
Geddy Lee kicks major butt.
I have to agree with the tunes. They definitely keep the pedals going and yes, I know... you really can still HEAR but can you hear with the tunes going? I know I'm wacky, I just want you to come home on a bike saddle not a stretcher.
Oh, and you're right Linda... Getty Lee rocks like no other bassist EVER!
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