So yesterday I rode with J on her pretty little bay roan Lily. She lives just down the hill and trailered up to join me. We did part of the Palomino Valley loop, but we turned around before we headed up the mountain - the mountain is rocky and windy at the best of times, and the trail looked very cold and snowy from where we were. Stats: 7.08 miles in 1:57, which is 3.6 mph - a little slow, but it was a nice long ride and we weren't pushing.
Here's the clever Garmin page. Have you seen on the clever player? I heart playing with data.
One of our trot sets was apparently a pace set! Dixie and I were in the lead, trotting up a sandy gentle slope, and she slowed down a bit cause she's lazy. I clucked and flapped my legs around and she sighed deeply and resumed the same rate of speed. J, behind me, asked "Is she pacing?" I yelled back "I have no idea what she does!" and J said "it sure looks like a pace!" Well, whatever it was, it felt... not bad. I was gently posting, more to the beat than to the motion, and it was not very bumpy at all. You know the difference between an extended dressage trot and a western jog? Apparently there's that much variation in paces, too.
I rode a nasty hateful Walkaloosa mare a couple of times - she would pace as hard as she possibly could, because her former owner would just get off when she broke gait and paced. And Silky was pacey - it wasn't so bad at slow speeds, but the faster she went the harder the pace was. I admit, I have been prejudiced against the pace, but if Dixie's going to slow-pace that gently, that's ok with me.
Saturday ~C and I are doing another NEDA ride. Same place as the New Year's Ride, but as long as a stray blizzard doesn't dump snow in the next 48 hours, the footing should be excellent. We're planning on 20 miles - it's flat and sandy, so we should be able to drag on in with happy tired horses.
I think 7 miles on Wednesday then 20 miles on Saturday is ok. Next week I'll probably ride twice, then the week after that is the unbelievably horrible bar exam, then I'll figure out what I'm doing in March. Oh - who's going to the convention? I am planning on shopping and being shy next Friday, so if you want to meet the yahoo from Memphis, let me know. :)
See, I told ya the pace wasn't so bad!
ReplyDeleteHave fun shopping at convention! I won't be there this year ;-( but maybe next year?
LOVE YOUR STATS FUNDER!!!! Too cool....
ReplyDeleteplease tell me more of the Garmin and how hard easy it is to use with the trails...I have my heart set on one...and cost too?!
You can leave a comment at my place or
kacylovingu@yahoo.com
Good luck on your ride!!!!
ReplyDeleteallhorsestuff - I LOVE (or shall I say "heart") my garmin GPS.
Funder - "I heart data". LOL. I LOVE this. of COURSE I heart data too!
Kacy - I have a Garmin 205, which is the most basic Garmin wristwatch GPS. I love it for the kind of riding I do and the area I live in. Your mileage may vary (literally!) with where you live - trees and hills can interrupt your link with the satellites, which gives weird errors. Mine looks like a clunky watch - it has a tiny black and white screen. It's good for time/speed at a glance, and it does have a tiny little map if you get really lost, but I wouldn't depend on it to get me back to the trailer. Also, the 205 doesn't support heart rate monitors - i don't know if you care about that.
ReplyDeleteThe price is the best part. They cost about $100 new, but I got mine for about $50 used. The battery is supposed to last 10 hours, but I haven't ridden 10 hours straight yet!
Once you get home, it's easy to upload the data to the Garmin website or the Garmin application. You can look at it on a map, or in Google Earth - scroll in and out, play the track, compare your rides.
Does that help?