The Cranial Jukebox

Colloquially, "Earworms" are those songs that get stuck in your head.  Many of which you would willingly tear your skull apart in order to disable the brain cells that have your cranial jukebox stuck on something abominable.  The brain is a fascinating thing in how it can grab portions of songs and replay segments of them (skipping around the song haphazardly) for your private (dis)pleasure.

While earworms are an inevitable outcome of our immersion in music, cycling invites specific earworms to surface through the metronomes of the exertion (pedal revolutions and breathing) and the ebbs and flows of the morale-o-meter (cresting a beautiful ascent vs. the agony of a sustained climb or a redline chase).  As a pre-race activity, I try to immerse myself in music that I would want to come out during my ride (and my musical taste explains why I drive solo to races).  While the ride intensity remains below a certain threshold, I can often remain control of my cranial jukebox.  But, once the fire is lit, the playlist (and even the position of the record needle) is up to happenstance.  And, no matter how much that irritating chorus grates, I find that I don't have the wherewithal to spend vital energy flushing it out as I try to stay in the hunt.  Perhaps this is an area of sports psychology that needs further exploration.