I believe it would be difficult to give an ideal
time for a 25 or a 50 as individual ride terrain, footing, and weather
conditions all come into play for rides measuring the same
distance.
Even rides that are run on the same course year
after year can vary in average ride times because of variables like weather or
footing.
Please forgive me for
being confused by reading all these LD/50's mails....please tell me what an
ideal time (approximate) you would give for an LD (25) withOUT hold time, and
the same for the 50's (w/o holdtimes) Thank you, and yes, reading the
ride results with some having hold times and other not--- that being
inconsistant is hard to decipher times.
David
said: >That's not what anyone has said. They said the 50 mile riders
went about 15% >faster. So if the 50 was won in 5 hours even, a
typical LD the same day >would be won in about 2:50.
The
problem with this observation--which is probably true--is that it acts
as if the two populations of horses and riders were identical except for
the distance being ridden. That, I think, is not at all true.
I
think the majority of the entrants in an LD are less "race ready" than
the entrants in a 50--old horses, young horses, horses recovering from
injuries, new riders, old riders, families with children, people who
don't have time to condition, people with health issues, people who just
plain aren't competitive and don't want to beat themselves up. Even the
50 mile horses/riders doing an LD are usually do so for a reason--like
just having done a tough 50 or 100 recently, or whatever--otherwise they
would probably do the 50.
Of course these people ride slower! And the
people who ARE racing the LD are not being pushed by a field of "racing"
competitors, so they don't have to ride as fast as they are capable
of in order to beat them--they only have to ride faster than the few
other "racers". That may be why some of them decline to move up to
the longer
distance.
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