A Few Thoughts About Performance

Since Rodney's retirement I have been reacquainted with the gymnasium. In our case here in KC its the Quality Hill YMCA where it costs me 50 bucks a month. I'm up to 5 mph for a whole hour on the treadmill. The goal will be 8.6 mph for 6 miles. 8.6 mph is 7:00 min miles (it takes 7 min to run one mile) for six miles distance. That was my running speed age late 20s/early 30s. One time in those days I did 6:30 minute miles for 6 miles, and will relate that that is moving. Just short of competitive distance running.

Doubt I will try for the 6:30 miles this time around. If I get one to go 6 miles at 7:00 min/mile that will be fast enough geezer time. What I did this morning was 12:00 min miles for an hour. A ways to go.

Thereafter it's an hour with the weights. Living in the gym, believe that's what it's called. I started on 1/1/12 and am now at the beginning of month #3, and, must say, the experience has been worth every minute spent there.

In terms of horses in the gym I am relearning some things that can be applied quite well to performance. Training horses there are always question marks and there are also some things that are just immutable. If the trainer fails to observe, the horse will fail, perhaps other than this race but the failure will come sooner instead of later.

It starts with observation of the RR rules, and heaven help your horse if u fail any of these at any time.

1. Never do anything with a horse unless you're 100% sure you can do it without injuring the animal.

2. Always better too slow than too fast.

3. When horse takes the wrong lead at speed, always abort.

4. Always abort if horse exceeds planned speed.

5. Avoid stupid stuff on track, rough riding of any sort, trotting sideways, clumsy stops, etc.

6. Always work for stride length and stride efficiency.

7. Never proceed when there's the slightest suspicion of injury.

8. Always conduct an appropriate warm up.

9. Always avoid surprises, including

the same work, heavier weight.

surprise increases in speed or distance

changes in track conditions

frequency of workouts, etc.


10. Plan training in advance. Never plan on the fly or spur of the moment.

11. (Total) Rider control.

Poo Poo any of the above--bye bye horse.

These are of course the injury prevention rules from way early in my horse days and early in the blog. If I thought about them, there might be additional one's to add. For now, however, there are two things from the gym that I want to relate.

First, I am convinced, absolutely that the best interval between hard training events is 36 hours instead of 24 hours and that this would be particularly true for horses. I have seen the success of this sort of regimen over and over at the farm, and am now getting the exact same sensation at the gym. The 36 hours between hard workouts gives sufficient recovery time whereas the 24 hrs. fails at sufficient recovery time. You sort of must be strung out on a hard work out yourself and try it to fully appreciate or otherwise just take the word. How many times do horses do back to back hard workouts. In my stable we did them. Better and safer to do them at 36 hr. intervals. 48 hr. intervals is too long for an optimal training effect imo.

The second thing is more of a personal training epiphany after all these years. Next post.