Doing more than you think!

["Sweaney" <sweaney@lightspeed.net>]

I rode two 25's before I felt that my horse and I could do 50.  As I headed
out on loop 1 of our first 50, a sudden panic swept over me.  "What the heck
was I thinking?"  "This is totally insane!"  And on and on!  I was sure that
I could never finish and that it would be a horrible experience.  I gave
myself a hard, mental smack and said, "Get a grip!"  I decided that it was
too overwhelming to think about riding a horse 50 miles so I just thought
about getting to vet check 1.  After I got there, I thought about vet check
2, and so on.  By breaking the day into pieces, I was able to finish without
any problems.  It took me a couple of 50's to realize that I could ride 50
miles and that it was fun!

I just finished my first 75 miles (Manzanita) and had to look at it the same
way.  At mile 50, as we headed out in the early evening, I started freaking
out about how long I was going to be out there.  Again, I decided to think
about only getting to the vet check.  After we made it there, it was just 12
miles or so to the finish.  And as someone said the other day, ANYONE can
ride 12 miles!  Before I knew it, we finished!

Before I first started E.R. Jim Mitchell told me all about his adventures
riding different miles.  I gasped when I heard him say 50 & 100 mile rides.
I could never do that (the classic call of every soon-to-be endurance
rider!)!  Of course we all end up going farther than we ever thought
possible!

Karen & Montoya DSA
sweaney@lightspeed.net

----- Original Message -----
From: <Rarephorm@aol.com>
To: <Dbeverly4@aol.com>
Cc: <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 1999 8:43 AM
Subject: RC: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Uh-Oh! The LD thing again


In a message dated 11/01/1999 9:18:02 PM Pacific Standard Time, Dbeverly4
writes:

<<  A 25 is more than twice as hard as a 50 (sounds odd, but is true for me
anyway).   >>
Well first off I must totally agree about refers....I put clean food in
them,
how can they get dirty...LOL.
As a total newbie to ER I have some questions about the difficulty of 50's.
While I realize that the distance is double and you must train longer, etc
and ride longer, how much of the difficulty being more than double do you
think is mental?  The human not the horse? <g>  I would love to know how
some
of you prepare for these rides from the mental aspect.
Since I am physically challenged I am not even going to touch on the subject
of 100's.  Of course two years ago I could barely walk to the barn, last
year
I thought if I could complete just one 25 I had conquered the world and now
I
am thinking about 50's...hmmm, what IS it about this sport?

Ellen, Abra & Easy
NADM Farm
Canby, Oregon


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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
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