Well, in about 1 month or so the race season starts. With racing, comes the pre-race ritual. Most races are pretty much the same when it comes to pre-race ritual; for example Road Races & Crits usually include a drive highlighted by company in the car with something rather inspiring, or, anger inducing, playing in the background. Other races, namely, TT's, require the skill of developing a good playlist to help get you psyched up and focused, with a dash of pissed off. Now, the key is not to put stuff on there that gets you so amped that you blow up in the first 5 minutes, but rather, something that has enough substance that as your hauling around minute 20, you can sing that one line of that one song that just stuck with you in your brain, and created some image that allows you to just go that much harder for that much longer. THe first half of the calendar has it's share of individual TT's, which is one of my favorite disciplines. The first month has about 7 including the Cherry Creek TT's, and most will last about 20-30 or 40 minutes in length. I typically generate between 350-400 total KJ's for the effort at Cherry Creek, so, the rule is to try to warm up for as long as you're gonna be hammering it. Superstitiously, I warm up for 300KJ, and no more, which typically takes about 20-25 minutes. The final 10-30 KJ's will get me to the start line, and warmed up enough to remain focused. Now during that 20-25 minutes, I'll get off and stretch, maybe pee once or twice, but for the most part I'm in the trainer with the earbuds in, listening to my iPod for warm up. Now it's been my experience that with a new season, also comes exposure to new music, and it's important to give the brain something fresh to listen to so it doesn't feel so repetitive, or, make you relate to a previous day that was shitty on the bike. In the past calendar year I've been privvy to finding some pretty sicko music through my normal channels, and am culling the "best of" to build that elusive playlist. Now some songs just work in general, so there's no sense in eliminating them, when 80 - 90 % of the playlist is new, but, it's the stale ones that don't really evoke the necessity of the situation that need to go. There needs to be a good variety of music style, tempo, as well as type...all speed metal will tire your mind out, so you gotta break it up with some sort of hip hop or breakbeat/jungle to keep you on your toes.
So with that in mind, here's the initial list for a Pre-TT warm up playlist. This will be pared down, but it's best to start with more, and end up with fewer...
War Zone - Slayer
Let's Do This - Straight Faced
Cherry Red - Earthless
Weenie Beenie - Foo Fighters
Beat the Clock - Ghostface Killah
Stairway to the Freebird on the way to the Smokey Water - Rye Coalition
Here We Go - The Bouncing Souls
Brown Paper Bag - Roni Size
You've Got Me Burning - Peshay
Devilution - High On Fire
Sabotage - Beastie Boys
Guilty of Being White - Slayer
Can't Stand You - Slayer
I Love to Fight - Sebadoh
Loss of Control - Van Halen
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