May 24, 2012

Bit by little bit...

I'm piecing together that hole in our program and rationalizing the plan for a fix.  I've become so risk adverse that I haven't pushed Journey.  Phebes cured me of "a fast horse."   Having your arms pulled out of the sockets for 30 miles is no darned fun!  Nor is the belly deep fear of a horse heading for metabolic trouble.  I've wrapped Journey up in a big fluffy cotton ball, followed all the sage advice that has been given to me on starting a horse new to the sport, taken to heart the lessons of the past, and created a nice little trail horse.  Not an endurance horse.    We have accomplished the long slow distance thing and done a good job of it.  What we have not done is learned to pace above that. 

Reason:

Fear of repeating the mistakes of the past.

This horse isn't a piece of glass.  She isn't Phebes.  I won't know her potential until I ask for more from her.  I'm just not sure how long this will take, as it will be more a training issue than anything. 

Having jumped over to Tamara's blog for a chart on speed, distance, and time it looks like to have an kind of safe wiggle room at a ride I'm going to have to up our time average over a distance of about ten miles.  Not gonna happen in one week.   So repeat after me...TOR will be another training ride.  Maybe I should bold this for my good.  TOR WILL BE ANOTHER TRAINING RIDE.  So the trail at TOR will be used to work on the speed up over some of the miles attempting to bring our average up by at least 1 mph over what we've done.   That doesn't sound like much but it would shove 5.5 to 6.5 if I can do it.  In the meantime at home we will be focusing on short sprints, and attempting to get a 5 mile average mph of 6.5 mph.  I don't think we've ever broke 5.6 mph at home as an average yet.

Off to work, and contemplating the weekend and how to use it best.  Figure I've only got five more potential ride days to re-invent the wheel.  TOR WILL BE ANOTHER TRAINING RIDE.

2 comments:

  1. I've always said that when we ride one horse, we are riding all the other horses we have ridden in the past at the same time. Have a great Training Ride.


    Judi
    Author of "Trail Training for the Horse and Rider" and "Trail Horse Adventures and Advice"

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  2. I always treat every ride as a training ride. That helps me keep my nerves from taking over. Some rides I "train" a little harder than others. You certainly have the right mindset to be successful with Journey. Lots of luck to both of you!

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