Re: Conditioning for 100 milers

[Sarah Ralston <ralston@AESOP.RUTGERS.EDU>]

Debi Gordon wrote:
  To give an example...CBS Redman lasted 10 years at the top, placing first
or second in nearly every race he ran.  His training always included
intense work at whatever distance my time would allow.  (I was raising 3
kids--never had an 
actual training schedule).  And as a horse starts to age and suffer the 
inevitable wear and tear, extreme distance would be even more risky, not to 
mention unnecessary.

Ti Answered: You certainly cannot make a square peg fit in a round hole.
You certainly can't put a semi-cripple through much in the way of
aggressive exercise. My TB guys als cite "wear and tear"--as reasons their
perfectly sound youngsters can't gallop more than two miles, as well as
their toughened aged horses. They have a 2 mile religion.
> 

Say what Tom? What relevance does that have to Debi's fabulous record with
Redman? 

Ti wrote: >What I found when I began looking at endurance was that most
were >afraid of intense exercise--of all things, they were concerned about
lactic >acid.

Then you were talking to a different group of riders than I have been
dealing with for the past 20 years. We knew in the 80's that lactic acid
wasn't an issue in the endurance horses as a rule, just as acidosis is not
an issue-one of the reasons Bicarb is detrimental in endurance, unlike your
race horses.

>What appears to be safe is interval 
>workouts that add up to about 1/2 of the horse's base single-day mileage 
>capability. 

50 miles? daily? Might win a President's cup but I bet the horse wouldn't last
10 competitive years like Redman did or Julie Suhr's horses...Again,
different strokes for different folks. I just wanted to hear from the
people like Debi, Angie, Julie, etc that I wasn't crazy. Implying that Debi
is not competitive shows how little you really understand this sport.

>In the years to come, if you are going to remain competitive, you're going
to 
>have to increase the overall volume, not only of the specific race 
>preparation, but of the base that is its foundation. The French are already 
>doing it. Some Americans are already doing it, and another dozen athletes 
>from around the world are already doing it. And they'll be doing more next 
>year. And more the year after.   

With different horses.
 
Sarah and Fling (who will hopefully be competing for another 10 years-at
her own speed, which might or might not win top ten (which we did in OD)
but will get us there, I hope)