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Re: [RC] a year of 25's - Deanna Germanon 10/17/03 3:28 PM, Heidi Smith at heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: I'd have to assert that Heidi isn't a very good judge of what a newbiemight learn from an LD ride. So far as I can tell, Heidi's only done 2 LD rides, and those were after some 5000+ miles of endurance. Heidi knows a good bit about endurance, but her perspective is a lot different than someone new. Heidi learned what she knows in a different way, and that seems to have worked well for Heidi, but might not be what everyone can do. Sorry, Deanna, I attributed the above to you, when it actually came from David LeBlanc. My posts are coming out of order, and I replied to this through Bob's reply to it. Don't worry about it -- you and I have discussed this before and I have had a change of opinion, so I'm not suprized you thought I was on the other side. The other change of opinion I *might* be having is to possibly agree with you that a hard 50 is better for them than an easy 50. I just attended a ride (Scioto Run) that was held over some rugged terrain and the 50 milers headed out of camp at a working trot and most maintained that for quite a while, as I understand it. Meanwhile, at the same ride, the LDer's, who started 15 minutes later, overtook the 50 milers and came into the first vet check in front of the 50 miler frontrunners! David, your statistics on LD vs. endurance get blown out of the water if the first 4 or 5 LDer's across the finish line get pulled or if they get pulled at the first vet check! Something like that happened, I think. Look at the ride results for this one and there was close to a 50% pull rate for the LD. Those were the frontrunners. Then look at the 50 mile results. Yeah, I bet Amy and Becky rode faster in mph's than the ones who actually finished the LD, but their horses are also fit enough to do it. (Both looked fabulous at the end.) OK, so the 50 milers at Scioto Run (rugged terrain) paced themselves better than the front half of the LDer's that didn't finish. Compare this to the easy 50 I did in June (first time, first time at that ride). Most everyone took out of camp like a bat out of hell. I should have hung back, but riding by myself, I wanted to try and keep someone in sight or have a chance at leapfrogging. So I left at the back of the main pack, maybe 3 or 4 people left behind me. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I didn't ride my own ride. I finished second last because I slowed waaaaayyy down the second 25 for my horse (well, me too, because I was TIRED). I went too fast to begin with. The rider in front of me finished 1 1/2 hours ahead of me and he actually started out close to a half hour behind me, but with a young horse, he paced himself. (Wish I would have thought to ask him if I could ride with or near him. Live and learn.) So, I'm actually thinking I might eventually agree with Heidi on this point too, that a more difficult first 50 might have been better for us. The riders know to pace themselves. I guess I thought it was always done that way. I wasn't prepared for the bat outta hell start from even the middle to back of the packers. (Live and learn.) Then again, with this hock problem, I don't know what would have happened had I done the tough 50 first. But the next horse.....? I want the freedom to be able to do what's right by the horse whether it's LD, CTR or a tough first endurance ride. Nice discussion. Take care all. Deanna =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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