Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Cycling Playlist

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)

La Villa Strangiato – Rush

I Want to Ride - Michael and Tennessee Ward

Red Barchetta – Rush

The Main Monkey Business – Rush

Malignant Narcissism – Rush

Treetop Flyer – Stephen Stills

YYZ – Rush

Tamacun – Rodrigo y Gabriela

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:

Judith said...

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.....)....

Anonymous said...

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).

Linda said...

Geddy Lee kicks major butt.

Jenny-Jenny said...

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.

Jenny-Jenny said...

Oh, and you're right Linda... Getty Lee rocks like no other bassist EVER!