ridecamp@endurance.net: Re: Tom Ivers -- "The Inside Track" -- Trail Blazer Article

Re: Tom Ivers -- "The Inside Track" -- Trail Blazer Article

lindavan.eqath@juno.com
Tue, 1 Apr 1997 01:35:45 PST

>From: Tivers@aol.com
>I agree with this philosophy--just wrote a 5-article series on
>"training
>cycles" for the Japanese Keiba Book. My complaint is with the "10
>miles=1 day
>off" formula. If this is the case, then you're burning your horses up
>for
>some reason--lack of adequate preparation of some kind.
>
>While rest is integral to any conditioning program, it must be
>scheduled as
>properly as work. You need to determine each horse's
>work/recovery/rebound/supercompensation cycle and schedule your
>exercise
>cycles to more your horse forward athletically. Too long a rest period
>ruins
>the effect of walking up the "supercompensation ladder".
>
>ti
>
>
>--------- End forwarded message ----------

I'm sure this "rule of thumb" for 1day for 10 miles of competition, was
established through anecdotal evidence. Hence it is not honed to it's
most exact use. But, somehow it feels right when you do it that way.
I've seen horses breakdown, or at least exhibit overtraining symptoms,
who didn't get the rest either from training rigors or competition.
I've seen veteran campaigners do fine or not. These facts tell me you
are correct in your statement that their is inadequate preparation
somewhere. I would say in foundation. Like you said, rest should be
scheduled in there. How much is a very thought provoking question.

Now, it is my belief that not all structure types would supercompensate
at the same time. This belief is not based on any studies I've read or
done. However, it seems to me that if tendon, joints and bone take the
longest to develop, it follows that supercompensation for those
structures might be more delayed than that of the muscular and
cardiovascular systems. So, if this is correct it would follow that
more rest would help and not hurt. If this is not true, then this
argument does not hold water.

I think the honing of the muscular, and cardiovascular systems, by
supercompensation is important once you have developed that horse that's
ready to win everything. There are several elite riders out there who
have their programs for peaking performance at competition. I also
think the type of schedule you refer to would work well for the short
distances that they race in the middle east. (Of course I abhor those
races, so I don't know why I brought that up). However, I think the
majority of what we do in developing the endurance horse is racking up
the miles. Progressive loading of bone, joint, tendon and ligament is
in order first. Keeping our competition goals in mind as progressive
loading tools also.

I think what would be useful for the majority would be to know how to
determine the best timing of our various types of works, just prior to
our competition given a certain level of fitness and specific
competition goal. For example, depending on how we want to ride our
ride, would it be best to progressively load your works for the last two
weeks then taper off just before? Or, just keep up the same sequence of rest, aerobic work, intervals and LSD?

Linda VanCeylon & crew
Buhni, Sunny, Rabbit, & Fiddler
lindavan.eqath@juno.com

Home Events Groups Rider Directory Market RideCamp Stuff