Tim Twietmeyer has done the Western States
Endurance Run an unprecedented 25 times finishing every race in less than 24
hours. Pretty impressive.
Anybody know off hand what one horse has done the
most Tevis runs and completed?
A little blurb in Runnersworld explained what
happened to Dean Karnazes (an ultra runner) body while running a marathon
everyday for 50 days in 50 states. Blood and urine samples showed his CPK or
creatine phosphokinase enzymes to be only slightly elevated by marathon 25. This
is the enzyme that is dumped into the blood when there is muscle damage which in
turn, makes us sore. His was 447 after 25 runs with no rest days and the average
runner could be as high as 2,400 after one race. Wow!
So according to the article, Deans body adapted to
his running schedule causing no more muscle damage than "walking down the halls
at an office job". That, they say confirms the value of high-volume training for
endurance athletes. His ultra running over the past 13 years has "built up his
bone density, joints, running muscles and blood-transport system to the point
where his ability to motor along forever is limited only by his supply of food
and fluids, not muscle damage or joint pain.".
So is this why we have so many horses with high
mileage? Is that the secret, to just keep riding?
I thought this was very interesting because the
thinking use to be run as many miles per week as you can. (at least 70+) Then it
was thought the excess mileage caused all kinds of joint problems, therefore
keeping runners from racing. Now with ultra running really becoming so popular,
(the most popular age group participating is the 40-50 year olds!) maybe we are
finding out it wasn't the mileage after all. Research. Who can keep
up??
Dean Karnzes finished his 50th marathon in 50 days
at the New York City Marathon clocking a 3:00:30 at the finish line. Not too
shabby. So can horses put in that kind of mileage and still have that
"competitive edge"?
It would be really interesting to see some research
done on our horses who do the multi days compared to the horses that do one day
rides.
