[RC] Ride time v. Elapsed Time - k s swigartTruman said: The ride times are what is listed in the AERC results not competition times. Most 25's have a 20 to 40 minute hold time which gives 5:20 to 5:30 of ride time available to finish a ride. My mare could (and has ) walked that. This is, in fact, probably one of the problems with your analysis. You are doing the calculations based on "ride time" rather than total elapsed time. Only an idiot would think that time spent resting in the middle of an effort should not be included in any calculations of average speed. Unfortunately, the available data from the AERC does not include enough information to even figure out what average speed actually is, since they don't report elapsed time. What you are seeing as regional differences may actually be a function of differences in average hold times rather than differences in average speeds. I have NEVER been to an LD ride that had 40 minutes of hold (20-30 is the norm around here and I have been to some with only 15 minutes); wereas most 50 mile rides (except for multi-days) will have 90-100 minutes of hold with some having as much as 120 minutes. I have never been to a ride where the difference in the amount of hold time between the LD and the 50 was proportional to the distance (which is what it would take for the amount of hold time to have no effect on average speed). Until you have the data to calculate average speeds, your analysis of average speeds is meaningless. And to anybody who thinks that time spent resting at a hold doesn't count: I just got done doing a 75 mile Ride & Tie; which took us about 14 1/2 hours elapsed time to complete. Of that time, the horse probably spent about half of it standing around waiting for her riders to catch up with her. Our "ride time" (time actually spent moving forward on the horse) was probably about 7 1/2 hours...however, there is NO WAY the horse could have sustained that speed (10 mph) on that course, if she hadn't spent another 7 hours standing around eating, drinking, or resting in the shade (only once or twice did we tie her in the sun). I KNOW she spent 3 1/2 hours total standing at the vet checks and the trot by. It is long past time that the AERC put a stop to the assinine practice of removing time spent resting from completion times.... ....because then, some statistical analyses of completion times might actually be meaningful (although there would still be the difficulty of the possibility that rides are not really the length they are reported to be). kat Orange County, Calif. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= http://www.endurance.net/ads/seabiscuit.html Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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