Conditioning for 100 Milers

[Roberta Jo Lieberman <woik@home.com>]

Sarah asked: <In some of the recent threads it was suggested 
that one ought to train a horse longer distances than 
you expect to compete, ie: do more than you expect to do 
in competition. To you people who have done a lot of
100 milers: did you ever do 100 miles in less than 
24 hours during training??? >>.

Teddy replied: Read Tom Ivers' book...you don't have to do the distance
to get the
conditioning...do intervals....with progressive loading.  It is safe if
done properly (and with observation) and will make your horse even fitter
than you want....

Never 100, but I've seen people go out and ride 50 to 60 miles of the
trail in the heat of the day to prepare, or do the whole thing over
three days.

There is also merit to being out on your horse for eight or more hours
at a stretch, to develop what Matthew M-S calls "torso strength."  He
also considered a 3-day-100 CTR an ideal prep for 100 miles in one day. 

Back in the '80s, the Graves Mountain and Canaan Valley 50s were "the"
spring preps for the OD due to their rocky terrain and big climbs. More
recently, Tom Sites' Double Dipper 50+ was a whopper of a prep. In fact,
a woman riding her Morgan mare took a wrong turn and elected to repeat
an entire loop in order to finish, and in the process covered something
like 75 miles. Having surprised herself once, she decided that heck, she
might as well go for it and ride the Old Dominion -- and she and her
mare completed it, too, one month later.

Bobbie & April