[RC] Mind games - or baby, it's cold out there. - Laura Hayes
So now that the thermometer is in the single digits
here in Western New York, and my girls and their barn mates are tucked
away in our cozy 200 year old stone barn where the water buckets don't even
freeze, thick with winter hair and off season 'chub', eating the overly
expensive hay I drive hundreds of miles to pick up and sucking up all the warm
beet pulp we can lug from the house - it is MY turn to get in shape.
I have gained weight like 'fat was a crop' this
winter, and have vowed to take it off and more before we head east and then west
on our whirlwind tour of the four biggest 100s this country has to
offer.
While running and walking my morning hour on
the treadmill at the gym today, looking out the window at Dunkirk Harbor and
Lake Erie in the snowfall, I thought about what I needed to do to get in tip top
shape. At 44 I am not the girl I once was, and I want to do all I can to
help my mares through the tough miles I have planned for them (OD, BH, Tevis and
Swanton).
One strategy I have is to be able to walk, up hill,
for at least 4 or 5 miles, at the same rate that my older mare, Equal Terms
walks. Since I rode with a GPS for many miles last summer on XP04, I know
that while I am mounted, she will travel 4.7 mph up and down all day without
breaking into a trot. Adding three tenths of a mph, for being unencumbered
by my blob, and because I like round numbers, I am working at 5mph with an
incline of 3%, which is the highest the treadmill goes. As I do this, I
picture in my mind the canyons at Big Horn, and the rocky, narrow mountain
trails at OD- the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and my horse feels
great. I picture every step making me stronger and more able to help my
horse.
In the evening workout, which I share with my
husband, I RUN at 2% incline and am shooting for three miles in less than 30
minutes. Shoot- it HURTS!!! While I am running I picture one of my
good bay mares (either one is ok!) cantering across the finish line at OD,
galloping through a flower filled meadow at BH, or trotting across No Hands
Bridge at Tevis. I think of Cindy Collins wonderful description of BH and
the friends I am going to meet there to ride with this year. It keeps me
going!
'All I Wanna Do Is Ride' - that is what the
scrolling marquees on my screensaver has said for years, and ride I did, last
summer- in 8 states and two countries--the thoughts of that will get me through
this cold winter, and the mind games I compete in will get me through each
workout.
Stay warm and dry-
Laura Hayes Vine Cliff Farms Brocton,
NY AERC# 2741
