PAC Elevation from Angie

[guest@endurance.net]

Angie McGhee Rides2far@juno.com

>Have you seen the elevation profile of Tevis?

Yeah, I just saw it in Endurance World.  It looked like the whole
thing is downhill. >g<  In general, I find elevation profiles
deceptive.  Seems like they seldom feel like they look on paper.
The profile of the Pan Am looked like the EKG sheet of a person
suffering a heart attack. I almost had one looking at it.

As to what we call a mountain...there wasn't much you'd call
"mountains" on the trail.  More like, "ski slopes".  There was
14,000 feet of elevation GAIN on the course.  Since we ended up
back at the same place and were touching the ground I assume there
was 28,000 feet of CHANGE.  The slopes were pretty constant.  You
either went up or down.  Doesn't mean you climbed a big mountain
though.  The plus side of this arrangement I would think is that
the horse was able to swap out muscle groups more often than if
it had been just a few big mountains.  However, I think it was
deceptive.  I saw as many muscle sore horses as I have ever seen
the morning after the ride.  They loosened up pretty quick when
walked, but believe me, they felt it.  I've heard that if you ask
Darolyn how she trains for mountains she says, "Humidity is my
mountain".  That weekend I saw what she meant. In my horse's case
"Lack of humidity flattened out the hills".  I couldn't believe
how easy it was for him to do all that climbing when there was
no heat build up at all.  Would be interesting to see if it would
have felt steeper to Westerners if the humidity hadn't totally
disappered that day.  Wonder how big your mountains would feel
to my horse when the air got thin?
Angie