{"id":240376,"date":"2025-11-02T23:38:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T23:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/240376\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T23:38:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T23:38:16","slug":"what-we-listen-to-when-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/240376\/","title":{"rendered":"What we listen to when training"},"content":{"rendered":"

While live power outputs, avatars, training-plan-bar-graphs and virtual worlds keep our eyes focused on the screens in front of us when we’re on our indoor trainers, we still need something to listen to.<\/p>\n

So for Indoor Training Week<\/a> we asked the CW team what fills their ears (and sometimes eyes as well) while they’re spinning away in solitary confinement in their pain cave. AKA, spare bedroom or garage. From death metal to bakery programs, some of the answers below surprised us.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s an easy ride, I\u2019ll put on a podcast \u2013 ideally one long enough that it won\u2019t finish halfway through and leave me sweatily thumbing my phone in search of something else. The trouble is, most long podcasts are intolerable. The tolerable ones tend to be the sprawling political chats on Novara Media, about how capitalism is dooming us all to eternal misery and servitude \u2013 which, by comparison, makes serving my pace-setting Zwift master feel almost liberating.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s a hard session, I\u2019ll scan Spotify for an upbeat playlist of maximally mainstream bangers. Lyrical complexity is the enemy here: the catchier the hook, the better. \u2018Blinding Lights\u2019 by The Weeknd reliably delivers a few extra watts, but without question the adrenaline-spiker par excellence is \u2018Don\u2019t Call Me Up\u2019 by Mabel.
David Bradford, Senior editor<\/p>\n

\n

\"David\n<\/p>\n

David Bradford getting worked up by sprawling political chats<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

For a long time, trainer time was my only TV time. The garage was the only place in the house with a television, so I used my 45-minute to 1-hour sessions to catch up on The Great British Bake Off or Grey\u2019s Anatomy. I also enjoy watching documentaries on the trainer, breaking them up over a few workouts. These days, we have a TV in the living room, so most movies and shows happen there, but I still use trainer time to watch sports or shows my wife isn\u2019t into. For hard sessions, though, it\u2019s just me and the Zwift or Wahoo SYSTM screen.
Anne-Marie Rook, North American editor<\/p>\n

\n

\"Rook\n<\/p>\n

Rook clearly in agreement with Paul Hollywood’s latest feedback<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Anne-Marije Rook)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s heavy metal music for me, and the heavier the better. There\u2019s something about the double kick drum pedal and pig-squealing vocals that really gets me in the mood. I once timed a Zwift race with my playlist so it started on the exact moment Corey Taylor screams \u201cI push my fingers into my eyes\u201d on Slipknot\u2019s \u2018Duality\u2019, my cue to give it hell. I saw Slipknot live about a year ago, actually, and half expected the screen behind them to flash up and tell me my second interval effort was about to begin.
Tom Davidson, Senior writer and features coordinator<\/p>\n

\n

\"Cycling\n<\/p>\n

Tom Davidson tuning in to some pig-squealing vocals<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

I have to listen to music when on the trainer. If I’m watching a program, or listening to a podcast that demands my attention I know I’ll get distracted and drift from my target wattage. No doubt harking back to some formative nights out in the late 1990s, I usually go for dance music, easily found on the BBC Sounds app via their Dance Anthems or Pace Setter ‘Sounds’.<\/p>\n

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

Not only do they play some old classics (Orchid Anthems as I know them, so called thanks to many heady nights out in an old, long lost nightclub in Croydon.) but they introduce me to some new tunes that – now my clubbing days are in the distant past – I wouldn’t otherwise hear. Some of these I’ll then download and add to my own playlists. And I have to admit to once hitting a prescribed wattage empowered by K-pop Demon Hunters which my eight-year-old regularly forces me to listen to.
Simon Richardson, Editor<\/p>\n

What sounds I listen to on the trainer these days depends a lot on what riding I’m planning to do on it. Something involving hard effort \u2013 a time trial or something even worse, such as Emily’s Short Mix, for example \u2013 is going to require a set of tunes that are appropriately rousing. I usually go for something upbeat, melodic, punky and alternative: The Menzingers perhaps, or …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead.<\/p>\n

For more common or garden zone two pedalling, I find the sounds are there to keep me company rather than shove me unremittingly towards the edge of my physical capabilities.<\/p>\n

In which case it’s usually going to be soulful, bluesy rock, or maybe some sort of functional health podcast \u2013 Peter Attia or Rhonda Patrick, for example \u2013 allowing me to benefit from an explanation of the exact health-giving processes that are taking place in my body as I carry them out.
James Shrubsall, Senior News & Features Writer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While live power outputs, avatars, training-plan-bar-graphs and virtual worlds keep our eyes focused on the screens in front…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-240376","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}