I mentioned my new stress-less plan the other week, but not the piece of it that applies to my plan for the upcoming ride season. Short story shorter, I've decided to dial my ambitions back.
My big dream for the year is still the Vermont Moonlight 50. No change on that front.
The change is that I'm placing way less importance on Being As Prepared As We Can for that ride and way more on getting there in high spirits and good headspace. Because, much as I would like to have a successful 50 or two under our belts before tackling Moonlight, the fact is that trying to figure out how to get to and through those preparatory 50s was stressing me out. Especially after one of the rides I was eyeing ended up moved to a bad-for-my-purposes weekend. Especially when I thought about trying to get in the pre-attempt conditioning during a Typical New England late winter. Especially when I thought about what would happen if one or both prep rides didn't go well.
Because I know what would happen: I would be a basketcase, and very well might decide not go. And obviously, I might decide not to go no matter what rides we ride or don't this spring! If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out, and that'll be okay.
But I broke my own rule last autumn when I did a move-up as our last outing of the year. I never did it as an eventer and I recommended against it when people because of the same phenomenon I've been living: if it doesn't go well, then you're chewing on it alllllllll winter long.
It has been useful chewing! I am learning a lot. And one of the things I'm learning is that at this stage, it's more important to me to be successful in our early-season outings than to be challenged. Not that those things can be totally separated, or that success can be guaranteed, or that I would be interested if I thought I wouldn't be challenged. But basically, I've decided that the risk ratio involved in kicking off the season with "stretch goals" like more 50 attempts. I get a little reassurance if things go well, but I get a lot more anxiety if they don't.
So, redirect. New plan. Condition, enjoy, and fine-tune in February, April, March. In May, I'm still shooting for Bare Bones weekend but instead of entering the one-day 50, we'll take advantage of the CTR + LD option that I mentioned in previous post. That means either a 15-mile CDR or a 25-mile CTR on Saturday, depending on how our conditioning has gone to that point, followed by a 30-mile LD on Saturday.
Three weeks after that, we'll go back to GMHA and hit up the 25-mile CTR that was our first ride last year. This is the same general area as Moonlight -- don't know if there's any overlap in the actual trails, but the terrain and footing will be similar and I do love a GMHA ride. Especially one that doesn't necessarily require I take any time off of work!
And then in the spirit of the calendar giveth and the calendar taketh away, I've seen on Facebook that someone is hoping to run a 25-mile CTR in central Vermont two weeks after GMHA's ride. This is exactly the hole in the New England ride calendar that I was flailing to fill and if it goes, so will I.
That gives me a more relaxed late winter/early spring -- I'm not scrambling to find a replacement newbie-friendly 50 and get all the preparation and logistics worked out during those months when our weather and footing may be perfect for trail riding or else may be a miserable boggy and/or ice-sheeted mess. It gives me a relatively high-mileage weekend -- with lots of options! -- early on that feels like a good challenge and opportunity to assess while still being within our reach. It also gives me a third ride to fine-tune and/or build confidence in our methods and gear (or else fair warning if I need to start over with something!). It gives a month almost exactly for resting/freshening/tapering between the last ride and Moonlight. And it means that we'll go to Moonlight or not based on an honest assessment of how we're doing and whether I feel like we're ready to try again, and if we go and finish that'll be great, and if we don't go and I volunteer instead that will also be fine, and if we go and pull it'll be whatever it is instead of me kicking myself because I should have known better.
So that's the plan!
...for now. *g*
Sounds like a good plan
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping!
DeleteSounds good. You are seriously OCD! :)
ReplyDeleteI like to call it "prepared"! LOL
Delete@ Amanda - endurance riders have to be :0)
ReplyDeleteI like your strategy, Hannah.
I can't say that I ever did a 50 in preparation for a different 50. 50s were 50s in my mind; some were harder, yes, but once you're over that 35 mile mark, it's still just 15 more miles. I did 50s to prepare for 100s or for multi-days, but never for another 50.
Once my horses had competed their first 50 (I competed four different Arabs over 15 - 16 years), they never went back to a shorter distance. We were able to do our own 25 mile conditioning rides right here at home (or close by) without the need to enter any kind of event.
I think that building your base with LDs, whether they be competitive trail rides or AERC LD rides, is a good choice. We are fortunate here in Central California to be in AERC's backyard which means plenty of ride choices, and we're also next door to the desert so we always had plenty of access to winter rides (25, 50, 75, 100, and multi-day rides).
Building a solid base of long, slow miles is your surest way to success. Long just means 15 - 25 miles. If you have access to trails with those distances, do enough of those, and you'll be plenty prepared for the VM 50 miler. :0)
That 35-mile mark is exactly where we got pulled last time out! LOL
DeleteBut point taken, and thank you for your thoughts! I do feel, the more I think about it, that the idea of 50s as prep rides stems mostly from me wanting to know that we can handle those last 15 miles. Which is understandable, but maybe not the best way to make a decision!
I can string 15-18 miles together on our home trails, so that feels like a good start. I don't have my own trailer, but I do have a very generous barnmate, which is great good fortune...so I'm kind of waiting to see what the weather does, but I'm hoping to haul up to Vermont for a higher-mileage weekend in March and another in April...and I'm slowly scoping out more local places (a 15-mile rail trail!) that look promising. So things are looking up!
I am not gonna lie; the reason I so badly wanted to do Gold Rush over Thanksgiving was to get a final success under my belt before the end of the season. I know exactly what you mean about brooding over ... not failures, not really, but goals not achieved. If I'd let Dixie sit from VC in September to 20MT in February, I'd be a basket case.
ReplyDeleteKaren is exactly right. Just keep adding the miles to your base. I'm constantly surprised at how Dixie continues to get stronger.
I totally understand! I spent all November trying to figure out if we could be ready for the January Thaw CTR. But between EVERYTHING not to mention the insanity of planning to HAUL UP TO VERMONT IN JANUARY, I came to my senses. :-p
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