Performance and Lessons From The Gym

13 months into blogger YMCA w/os, and yes, we're feeling stronger, look better, have more energy, all the stuff, and your good blogger was hardly in poor physical condition going in.  The optimal personal workouts last 1.5 to two hours with an hour on the treadmill and an hour of weight work.  Regrettably the number of days of optimal workouts are too few in number, see below.

Doing this much physical work one learns quite a lot about how all this works.  There are lessons galore to take in or relearn in doing hard workouts.  The blog will refer to the details of this when (and as always) "if" my horses get a little deeper in.  Two major lessons:

1.  Avoid backing off the workouts.  What has been achieved personal condition wise after 13 months in terms of performance?.  "No where" would be pretty close to accurate.  Why?  I have a consistent pattern of sluffing off.  Distractions.  Things come up.  Too little sleep. Temporary priorities go in another direct. Etc. Etc.  I find that I am forever backing off and coming back to where I was instead of moving forward.  Whereas, if I had persevered with training in the down times--and they are all short periods of a few days of doing lighter work--who knows where I'd be.  One would think, after 13 months, the progress would be significant to amazing.  Ain't happening.  And for reasons that lack excuse.

And so it is with horse workouts.  Of late--it's too cold, run out of daylight, get there too late, failing to feel it today--or, at the track, rider fails to show, we're too late to get on track, we arrive late at the barn and on and on.  Our horses still work harder than any other horses.  Yet, it's a shame, when one considers, what might be done with consistent w/os.  We observe normal rest times to be sure, and all other days we're out on the track moving forward--what might be accomplished?

Lesson #2 next post.

Training:
We've had 15-20 degree F weather last two days.  With #148 again loses a front shoe 3 days after it was tacked on. I have zero clue what's he's doing to lose them.  Used the weather as excuse to take off--see above.  Horses had had two days ago one of those price of admission riderless workouts.  Commence today and we're still in Preston Burch training of every 3 days.  #148 surgery postponed to next week.  Weather + unable to get him on the trailer.  #7 of course hops right on within 60 seconds.  They always know something is up, or so it seems.