Conditioning Miles

[Wendy Milner <wendy@wendy.cnd.hp.com>]

Bob Morris wrote:
>Question comes to my mind?? Why do you need to know the distance you ride
>in conditioning?
>So, if you want a true measure of conditioning go to a time basis. Quality
>time will give much better results than measured miles.

Sure, Bob, if (And a big IF) you have a lot of miles under your
saddle, and you have been doing all your homework.  However,
from the way the question was asked, I assumed that the questioner
was a beginner.  For a beginner, there has to be a place to start.
Counting miles and time is a good place to start.  Sure, a nice
easy 5 miles of flat track is not the same as 5 miles of tough
hill climbing.  But if you have never measured out 5 miles, it may
seem like 10 miles, and then you are really kidding yourself, and
cheating your horse.  When that new rider goes out for their first
25 mile ride, they will learn what the true miles are like, and then
what?

So, to all those folks out there who count miles (And I include
myself in that), keep on counting.  Once you get the miles and
hours in, then start looking at all the other measure you can 
use to fine tune your training.

--
Wendy

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 Wendy Milner                     HPDesk:   wendy_milner@hp4000
 Hewlett-Packard Company          e-mail:   wendy@fc.hp.com
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