The Perfect Warm Up

As every cyclist knows, the key to a good time trial is the warm up. Some folks prefer to warm up on the road, some prefer a trainer, some like to warm up on rollers (which I have never understood). Or you can do like Alberto Contador and shove eucalyptus up your nose. You can debate all you want about the best warm up technique or which heart rate zones to hit for how long but none of that is half, no, one-quarter as important as THE most important aspect of any warm up. I'm talking, of course, about the playlist.

There are many ways to approach the warm up playlist - you can go old school US Postal and listen to all ZZ Top, you can join former track-specialist turned roady Bradley Wiggins in some Brit-pop jingle jangle, or you can take the Jens Voight route and "just try to get as angry as possible" (although we saw how that worked out for him at this year's tour). I know several folks who enjoy German grind-core junk such as Rammstein and the more obscure Boltthrower. Whatever you do, don't go the neo-Armstrong route and just listen to whatever college kid BS got released this week. If you don't believe me, read his twitter.

As a recovered musician and former shop TT champion I realized that I could do a great service by providing my fellow cyclists with a sample playlist as well as a general guidline of how to create your own. Call it a sonic road map to greatness if you will. The following 40 (+/-) minute playlist is scientifically designed to increase your average wattage by at least 3 watts, decrease your coefficient of drag, and shave 18 seconds off your 40k TT. Unless, of course, you're still pimping black bar tape, in which case there is no hope for you.

First, you need a couple of tracks to spin lightly to and, in effect, warm up to the warm up:

• Echo and the The Bunnymen - "Lips Like Sugar"


• Foo Fighters - "Best of You"

Next up you want to work a little bit and hit that second heart rate zone, so we up the tempo and the intensity, but not too much:

• Fuel - "New Thing"


• Nine Inch Nails - "The Collector"

The next phase of my warm up is usually a kind of steady-state, moderate intensity with a bit lower cadence, hence we need some tunes that keep the energy level up but generally have a little bit lower BPM (that's beat's per minute for you non-music types):

• Does it Offend You Yeah? - "Doomed Now"


• The Cardigans - "Erase-Rewind"


• Audioslave - "Exploder"

The next three help you roll into and hit that upper heart rate zone briefly:

• Better Than Ezra - "Recognize"


• Metallica - "Fuel"


• Beastie Boys - "Sabotage"

The final track I include for a little cool-down - you don't want to "leave it in the gym" so to speak. Ideally you can hop off the trainer and go pretty much straight to your start time, although I've never seen an event actually start on time, except for the fabled Mike Simpson Time Trial Series.

• The Rolling Stones - "Gimme Shelter"

For some reason that tune always gets me fired up. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my magical warm up playlist, now go try it out or create one of your own.