Few artists have created a musical legacy quite like Dolly Parton. For more than six decades, her unmistakable voice, extraordinary songwriting, humor, and larger-than-life personality have made her one of the most beloved figures in music.
This endurance ride, created by Fern Stancer, celebrates Dolly and the incredible range of music she has given us over the years. The playlist reaches beyond her country classics, bringing together familiar favorites, collaborations, covers, and a few unexpected tracks that showcase the breadth of her musical influence.
The profile follows Jennifer’s Ebb and Flow concept, moving between Zone 2 endurance and Zone 3 tempo, using changes in cadence and resistance to create variety while keeping the overall effort aerobic and sustainable. The slow cadences are the ebbs, and the higher cadences are the flows. Endurance training helps develop aerobic capacity, improve cardiovascular efficiency, build muscular endurance, and teach riders to maintain a consistent effort for longer periods without excessive fatigue. It also provides an opportunity to focus on efficient pedaling, breathing, and control. It’s a great reminder that an endurance ride doesn’t have to feel repetitive or predictable to be an effective and engaging workout.
Some of Dolly’s songs fall into that challenging tempo of 105–114 bpm, making it hard to pedal either on the beat or even on the half-beat. Therefore, the training objective takes priority over matching the beat. On some tracks, riders are encouraged to choose a cadence that allows them to maintain the prescribed intensity rather than following the rhythm of the music.
Dolly’s music gives us plenty of energy, emotion, and personality to work with, making it a natural fit for a ride that is challenging in a different way.
Use this profile to celebrate an extraordinary catalog of music and the woman behind it. As Dolly once said, “You’ll never do a whole lot unless you’re brave enough to try.”
Note on the intensity
Some instructors may feel that they simply can’t teach an endurance ride at this lower intensity. I think you may be surprised by the outcome if you give it a try! However, if you still can’t bring yourself to ride this easy, you can increase the intensity to low Zone 3 for the ebbs and high Zone 3 for the flows—or even one step higher, with high Zone 3 for the ebbs and low Zone 4 for the flows. Just keep in mind that increasing the intensity does change the character of the ride somewhat. There is something to be said for leaving enough room to appreciate the music, the emotion, and the moment—and that can be a little harder to do when everyone is breathing hard!
We Love You, Dolly! Bucket Playlist
Jennifer has also compiled a bucket playlist of Dolly’s music, including a wide range of songs, remixes, and duets spanning her remarkable career. Feel free to use the playlist below to swap out songs in this profile or as inspiration for creating your own Dolly-inspired ride.
Endurance Ride: Celebrating the Music of Dolly Parton (PDF and Excel)
(If you use Google Docs, you can copy the spreadsheet here.)
 |
 |
| Endurance Ride: Celebrating the Music of Dolly Parton (Spotify profile playlist) |
DOLLY, WE LOVE YOU! Bucket Playlist (~50 songs)