Crazy Weekend

My plan for Journey yesterday was to attempt a 20 mile straight through ride.  LSEGH feeds the horses early in the a.m. as he is one of those early to bed early to rise types.  We'd put the horse's on the front lot the night before after having sprayed it twice over the summer to kill the white clover.  Visually it looked pretty good, however, come morning all three were making those irritated mouth noises that let you know they've had clover.  White clover is not good on the liver, so I couldn't see having Journey ridden when things may not be quite right.  I was pretty down about it, as I have very limited times and opportunity to get those long rides in.  So I decided that I'd clean out my two iris beds.  The first bed was uneventful.  Then I decided to start on the second one.  Didn't really "want" too but it is full of weeds and looks horribly low-rent...so I started shoveling, separating, and trimming the foliage back on the plants to reset with kitchen shears.  I did quite well trimming the first hundred rhizomes of their foliage. Then I looked down through my bifocals to make a cut, and my depth perception was off and I gut a nasty little full thickness flap into my hand.   It didn't really hurt too bad except for washing it out.  If it had been just a regular cut I'd have put a butter fly on it and went on.  Instead it was a nasty little flap holding on by a little scrap of skin.  I could see myself ending up with an ugly deep scar on the top of my hand, so suggested we go to the hospital's urgent care and see about getting stitched.   The whole time I'm pretty well fuming mad.  Didn't get to ride, didn't get the irises reset (still haven't) and they are the ones I bred and are laying out in the sun on the ground unplanted.  My Saturday so far was in the mildly going to suck category.  So I leave LSEGH in the waiting area, suggesting he go to Kroger (he didn't), get myself  checked in, and back in the exam room.  The Nurse Practitioner sponges the flap with an antiseptic wash and says we can glue it, or we can stitch it.  Just for future reference, always select GLUE.  GLUE IS GOOD.  But since my plan was to ride Journey on Sunday to get my weekly long ride in, and I'd be using my hand, I figured stitches to be the better plan.  I'm not squeamish, I've had stitches at least three other times, have had minor surgery with a local block several times, just whatever...just do it.  She asks am I allergic to Xylocaine, and I say no I've had it many times.  So I get four injections into my hand, and five stitches to close the wound.   She's tying off the last stitch and I'm thinking about going to Kroger, but all of a sudden I feel peculiar, have to lie down, and I'm wheezing and can't get in air.  HORRIBLE.  Then IV's, oxygen, and EKG, my blood pressure tanked, and they have no idea what actually happened.  My breathing was so bad it sounded like a bad asthmatic, but then things righted themselves with oxygen and two liters of fluids (which required five collapsed veins to accomplish), and they packed me up and sent me home.  Yay!  But I have no idea in heck why exactly I tanked.

Anyway, today I rode Journey and we did the A loop out and back.  That's a little over 13 miles.  Our out was pretty good, roughly one hour for over six miles.  For the spotted wonder that is "smokin" fast.  *LOL*  Today I decided to put the heart rate monitor on her which I haven't done since last summer when the numbers were ummmm...rather discouraging.  At the time I felt dumb and blind was the better way to approach the thing so I would stay motivated.  So today she is hooked up.  I'm checking time and distance on my left wrist,  pulse rate on my right, and intermittently doing some steering since Journey occasionally decides she has her own agenda that may not match my own.  Her pre-ride pulse was 37 bpm!  Trotting was a solid and steady 105-110 on the flats, a 120-130 on uphill trots, and wonder of wonders....cantering uphill never exceeded a 150, usually in the 140 range.  I was stunned.  So when she is cantering and suddenly acts like I am trying to kill her, she REALLY ISN'T DYING.    I have determined that Journey likes to "dog" when she decides she isn't having fun anymore.  Today was our fastest time on that loop so far, with eight minutes of our time with me sponging, or getting off to see if she needed to pee.  At one time she kept quitting which is unusual for Journey and I thought O-M-G something isn't right.  So I dismount, check her pulse and she's cocked a leg and has a 50 pulse!  She just wanted to hang loose for awhile...no spotted wonder, we have to go!  When we got back she dropped within five minutes which is really fast for Journey, stuffed her head into her feed and didn't come up for air.  The one negative today was no drinking AT ALL.  When we got home I found out what was ailing her.  I'd grabbed her from her stall this morning.  She doesn't pee in her stall, she doesn't pee in the trailer, and she won't pee under saddle.  She really had to go....then she was her happy self, snapping at Phebes and picking her hay pile.

Distance:	13.28 mi
Time:	2:29:17
Avg Pace:	11:14 min/mi

Time:	2:29:17
Moving Time:	2:18:34
Elapsed Time:	2:29:24

Avg Pace:	11:14 min/mi
Avg Moving Pace:	10:26 min/mi

We still haven't perfected the 10 minute mile.
I did not have 20 miles in me today.  But we went faster than we'd ever gone, so I'm calling it good.  ~E.G.