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Re: [RC] Building a base - Competition schedule - Maureen A. Fager

Hi Stagg,
Thanks for the great detail in your answer and also the great story. The artist who made your BC award is Michale Tistram, who is still sculpting the BC award for this ride. She also is an endurance rider. You said "Beautiful but stark mountainous desert scenery!" I take that as a compliment, as in my opinion, the starkness of Nevada is one of it's charms!
At any rate, have been using my HR monitor, but am still learning and am not yet to the stage of being able to accurately monitor the horse's HR. Your explaination however, was very clear and can be put into practice once the HR monitor is figured out. Very educational to hear how a HR monitor is used to help pace a race. Plenty of hills to practice on.
Thanks again for your time!
Best,
Maureen



From: Stagg_Newman@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To: "Maureen A. Fager" <trottin27@xxxxxxxxxxx>
CC: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Building a base - Competition schedule
Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2003 21:27:36 -0500


Maureen,

You wrote: "Do you have any suggestions for pacing on hills?" See below.

First, sounds like your plan with your mare is a good one!

Virginia City 100 would be a tough first 100 but probably doable if you
paced carefully.
However you may want to start with an easier first 100.

BTW the Virginia City 100 is one of my all time favorites because of the
memories.
Drubin and I did the 25 annivesary ride in 1992. And yes I remember the 3
SOBs!
(So w/ apologies for talking so much about my "Pony"), here are some of my
other memories.
Falling in a face down sprawl early in the ride when I stumbled running
down a steep hill beside the horse. Scraped myself off the ground and
scrambled back on horse to keep up with the others I was riding with.
Darla Westlake on her Hall of Fame horse Muffy (most wins and BCs in
AERC history), myself on Drubin and another rider were galloping along
in the early morning light with about a dozen WILD HORSES leading us
down the trail! Awesone!!!
Darla in the saddle holding out an tube of electrolytes for Muffy after
each time he drank on trail. Muffy would turn his head and she would
shoot the electrolytes in his mouth without ever dismounting. Darla is
one cool horsewoman.
Doing last 50 miles alone after Darla was pulled. Drubin felt great and
just kept cruising.
And the rocks. That's the only ride where the pads were torn to shreds
by the end. Old Dominion has more rocks, but the Nevada rocks are
sharper.
Around 90 miles in the beautiful early evening light Drubin and I were
trotting along when we saw a bright red wild horse on our right. The
wild horse charged across the trail in front of us and then whirled
around facing us. Behind him were 3 other horses. I am sure that he
was the stallion and thought Drubin was going to get between him and his
band of mares. Drubin just kep trotting down the trail. TRULY AWESOME!
(should not admit the following but this is ridecamp so what the hell)
As Drubin trotted strongly up the last hill into the finish line we
passed a group of riders going into the 75 mile check point. They broke
into applause. Among them was the head of the selection committe for
the Pacific team for the North American Championship the prior year.
Drubin had not been picked for that team (and admittedly he was just
starting to show he was a good horse that year) but I must admit I
thought to myself that this was one way to show her I did have a good
horse after all.
Drubin won in a bit over 11 hours, set the course record (which I
believe still stands), and won the BC the next morning. And the BC
award is really special. An artist took pictures of Drubin after the
ride and then did a porcelain of his head that really captures his
spirit.
Beautiful but stark mountainous desert scenery!
Connie Creech and the rest of the Nevada Trail Riders Association and
Dr. Susan McCartey and her vet team who together really put a great ride
together.

And now to answer your question on how to pace hills.  That was the key to
my win that day.  What I did and still do is
keep the horse at a steady trot until the horse reaches what I think is too
high a pulse rate.  For Drubin (who on the flat
will work between 110 and 120 typically at a moving trot after he is well
into a ride), this is 160.  Then I will walk until the pulse falls to a
certain
level.  For Drubin that day it was about 135.  Then I will go back to
trotting until I reach the higher limit, etc.  If the time
it takes to reach the higher limit gets too short, then I will do more
walking to give the horse more time to recover.  I
used this techique on the long climbs that day between 50 and 75 miles and
opened up a 30 minute lead on the field.
You will need to practice this in training to get to know your horse.

Basically you want to minimize the amount of anaerobic work your horse does
during a 100 so this is one
way to try to achieve that while still working close to your horse's
potential.  BTW if you know your horse's
expected working pulse at a particular gait over flat terrain and you see
that rate go up 5 beats or more
that can be an indication the horse is starting to reach his limit.  If you
then back-off the pace and give
the horse a chance to recover he can do well.  If not you may well pay at
the next Vet Check.  In the '92 VC
ride I was doing an easy hand gallop with Drubin at about 94 miles when I
noticed his pulse go from
about 118 to 127 or so.  I immediately slowed down to a steady trot and we
finished in good shape.
It did still take him a bit longer than I liked to recover at the finish.
My guess is that was the combination
of the altitude, the fact that he was reaching his aerobic limit at 94
miles, and the fact that I trotted the last hill strongly.

Hope this helps. Best of luck with your mare!

Stagg



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