Monday, October 11, 2010

I'm Feeling Old

It was a beautiful fall weekend here with temperatures in the mid-80s. Ranae is out of town so it was up to Jessie and I to go it alone. I charged up the GPS and we headed out on Saturday afternoon. Once on the canal I put her into a trot and we went for about a mile. Hers is not quite the sitting trot, although it has improved. I alternated trying to sit it and posting. When she got to fast, I asked for a lope then brought her down to a trot again.

Once we were past Panama Rd. we loped and trotted all the way out to the development. I had the ipod in and the music cranked and she was doing most of what I asked. We loped around the square, then trotted down the road, then loped backed through the development. We loped some circles, we loped some squares. It felt good to see I was get her to sweat a little bit. When we got back we had ridden for 90 minutes with an average speed of 4.4 mph. Our top speed was 11.2 mph. Our usual rides are around the 3.3 mph range. The 11.2 top speed was much slower than she usually goes too.

Sunday we started out around 11am and rode out to the city farm. We had to wind our way through more residential areas and traffic was busy on two roads we had to cross. Once out in the open I put her into a lope and we went for about half a mile. The ferrier had come on Wednesday and some of the roads are quite rocky so I put her into a trot and we trotted for about two miles. There was an area where we did trot-lope-trot transitions. We worked on our stops over by a cotton field and then trotted to the canal. From there it was an easy walk home. The GPS total were almost the same except she loped faster. She had a top speed of 13.4 mph and our average was 4.1mph.

This morning I am feeling it. My lower back muscles are sore, my shoulder are sore, and my legs are sore from the posting. What happened?!? Geesh, it's not like I spent all day in the saddle, but it sure feels like it.

No comments: