Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

OK - here is an idea.  Let me know if you think it would be at all  
practical to implement.

One thing that I have trouble with is pacing.  I know the pace I  
*want* to ride, but during a ride I don't always know how close to  
that pace I am.   Some people may not know the pace they *should* ride.

Basic Mechanism:
RMs have to have the trail marked, no matter what.  How about having  
some kind of special marking (RMs choice - announce at the ride),  
every 5 or 10 miles of the course?  At the ride meeting (or in the  
rider packet), have a table that shows the ride time you should have  
at each marker.   AERC should be able to put such a table online for  
RMs to download and copy.  Each rider could then circle the times  
that apply to them, and have a better way of keeping track of their  
pace.

New Riders, New Horses, Riders under probation, etc.:  These riders  
are **given** a pace that they cannot exceed (say 5-6 mph), or be  
disqualified (even at vet check 1).  To make it easier on ride  
managers, the ride entry could have a field where the rider indicates  
how many years / miles of experience they have, and how much their  
horse has.  RMs would then be able to assign special ride numbers, or  
some other mechanism, to keep track of these riders.  For everyone  
else, the system is optional.

Obviously, this would require AERC rule changes, but it would be a  
way to give some additional structure to newbies, without impacting  
experienced riders who are riding within their horses limits.



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