Music Alters Conscious Distance Monitoring without Changing Pacing and Performance during a Cycling Time Trial.

Athletes use their own perception to monitor distance and regulate their pace during exercise, avoiding premature fatigue before the endpoint. On the other hand, they may also listen to music while training and exercising. Given the potential role of music as a distractor, we verified if music influenced the athletes' ability to monitor the distance covered during a 20-km cycling time trial (TT20km). We hypothesized that music would elongate cyclists' perceived distance due to reduced attentional focus on exercise-derived signals, which would also change their ratings of perceived exertion (RPE). We also expected that the motivational role of music would also be beneficial in pacing and performance. After familiarization sessions, ten recreational cyclists performed an in-laboratory TT20km while either listening to music or not (control). They reported their RPE, associative thoughts to exercise (ATE), and motivation when they each perceived they had completed 2-km. Power output and heart rate (HR) were continuously recorded. Cyclists elongated their distance perception with music, increasing the distance covered for each perceived 2 km (