Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
TOA Blog Hop: Shining Star
I’m still contemplating my 2014-in-review post, so have an easy post, courtesy of The Owls Approve Blog Hop to tide you over.
Let’s talk about the biggest achievements your horse has accomplished. I’m not talking about you as a rider – I want to know what your ponykins has done to make you proud. Is there a glorious satin collection, did he/she figure out some dressage movement that took months to learn, or are is it just a great day when your butt stays in the saddle? It’s not all about shows or the things that people see.
She’s my 50-mile endurance pony. She successfully did a sport that not many horses can do, and even fewer still within her breed. She’s definitely got “unlikely endurance candidate” stamped on her, but she still did it…200 miles worth, with three other pulls, only one of which was about her.
Above and beyond that, she completed the Man Against Horse 50-miler. I could not be any more proud of my less-than-14-hands of Go Pony than I was at the finish of that ride. She reduced me to tears as she strode proudly across that line, nearly 12 hours after we had started that morning. Didn’t matter we were the tail-end of that pack…we had conquered the trail that had thoroughly whupped up the previous year…in her mind, we had won.
As sad as I am that she’s now retired, I’m happy I was able to give her the years of endurance that I did, because that is where her heart is happiest.
an article worth sharing
As 2014 wraps, this is a very, very timely article to read in the wake of a year that most definitely has not gone according to plan.
I wanted to copy excerpts of the post here, but couldn’t narrow it down to the “best few” excerpts, because they’re all applicable, so instead, just go to the source material and read:
Reading this article this morning was exactly what I needed to “hear” right now, and it’s something I have bookmarked to easily access and read whenever I need the mental boost and encouragement.
Hot Chocolate 15k
I really don’t do road races. I don’t like the monotony, the hard surface, and the crowds. My schedule prevented me from attending the December race that Aravaipa put on, but I wanted to do something that would increase my mileage, so I opted for the Hot Chocolate 15k. Plus, the goodie bag hoofie looked pretty awesome, and you all know what a sucker I am for good swag.
Plus, I did figure that the flat course would be an excellent opportunity for me to work on my consistency, form, and pacing, as well as sustained aerobic activity. (It must have worked, because this past Wednesday’s group trail run post-race went really well.)
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| ready to run, bright and early Sunday morning |
Gear Rundown:
Bondi Band headband (and opted for free-flying pigtails)
INKnBURN “Flutter” tech shirt
Oiselle Cable Knit arm warmers (I love these…my new favorite accessory)
CW-X Stabilyx tights
WrightSock CoolMesh socks
Panache sports bra
Hoka One-One Stinson ATR shoes (delightfully cushy for hard surface, but too ankle-rolley for trail)
Ultimate Direction Ultra Vesta hydration vest
The large crowds are part of why I’m not a fan of big road races. Over 3000 people, divided into 5 start corrals, with 10 minute gaps between each corral starting. I was in the third corral back, so had to wait about 20 minutes. It makes for a spread-out course, but difficult if you were hoping to find people in a different corral.
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| sea of people |
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| in my designated start corral |
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| toeing the start line! |
I was there early enough to get right in at the front of the corral, which meant I didn’t have quite so much early on crowding.
The first two miles, I clipped along at just over a 9:30-minute mile…I kept telling myself to back it off and slow it down, because I’ve never been able to sustain that kind of pace. Prior to this, the fastest I’d ever managed a single mile was a 10-minute mile…in junior high. So to break that now, about 17 years later, kind of tickles me.
Eventually, I reeled myself in and finished the rest of the thing at paces between 10:00 and 10:30-minute miles…and ran the whole thing. I took my “walk breaks” at the water stations, because I cant run and chug from a little paper cup at the same time, but aside from that, I kept on running.
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| clipping along in my own little world, likely rocking out to my music |
Admittedly, much playlist abuse happened on this run, since usually the only way I road run for any sustained period of time is with a killer playlist at my disposal. I left my iPod in the truck, thinking “How bad can it be?” Fortunately, my phone is synced with my playlist, I had my phone on me, and by mile 5, I was grateful I had at least remembered by headphones and had them plugged in to the phone and rockin’ out.
The course was all roads, and taunted me just a bit by being in plain site of the McDowell Mountains, with the Superstitions in the background. But doing that kind of road work was excellent for my sustained pace-building…too hard to set a consistent pace on always-changing trails…and it was excellent for me mentally to push myself and keep going even when I was hitting mental walls. (And it was all mental, because I physically felt great.)
I shocked myself by actually having legs left at the end to sprint the finish and finish in pigtail-flyin’ style.
The 15k finishers got really awesome medals shaped like chocolate bars, and all finishers got a plastic mug with hot chocolate, chocolate fondue, and all sorts of yummy goodies to dip into the fondue. It was really good chocolate, too.
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| finisher’s medal and chocolate |
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| One of my endurance buddies was running as well, and we found each other after our respective finishes and spent some time hanging out together. |
With that race, I wrapped up my official competition run miles for the year with 48 miles…which is more than I’ve ridden this year. Not sure how many miles I’ve run, total, since I started back around March…I do a lousy job of tracking some of my shorter, casual runs. That’ll be my next project…seeing if I can total up what I’ve done this year.
Pass Mountain 10k
A little late, since this was actually mid-November…
Originally, I wasn’t going to do Pass Mountain, since it fell on the same day as the Lead-Follow Endurance ride at McDowell and I had plans to ride. Well, the original ride plans fell through…and the subsequent plans fell through…and all of my efforts to obtain a ride resulted in nothing, so I decided to go do a trail run instead.
Pass Mountain was yet another Aravaipa Running race, which meant awesome swag, great trails, and another well-run, organized, fun race.
The race was held at Usery Mountain Park, which I’ve ridden at for years and years and know the trails all really well. (Said it before, I’ll be in trouble when I get to a race where I’ve not been to and have to actually pay attention to where I’m going.
This one was also just the weekend after my half marathon at San Tan, so I stuck with the shorter 10k distance as a good stretch-out. I’d also talked one of my buddies from the group I run with into bumping up to the 10k, and told her I’d run it with her.
The 10k course stayed down on the flatter part of the park trails, so it was almost infinitely runnable. My challenge to myself was to see how much of it I could run, non-stop. And with the exception of the short climb up Cat’s Peak Pass, I did end up running the whole thing.
It was a fun change to run with someone…I typically run alone, intentionally…I like the time to be in my head-space and sort things out. But for a shorter race, I really enjoyed it.
We ended up doing the 10k in about 1:06.
Seriously short race report this time, since it really was a short, fun day on basic, straight-forward trails, and no drama involved.
I will do a quick “Gear Used” rundown though:
Buff Headband (and as you can see in the photos, hair was loosely braided, so I had some hair movement happening)
Oakley Minute 2.0 sunglasses
INKnBURN “Flutter” tech shirt (I love these shirts. Awesome designs, comfortable, breathable.)
New Balance running shorts
Shock Absorber “Ultimate Run” sports bra
SmartWool socks
New Balance Fresh Foam WT980 shoes
Ultimate Direction Ultra Vesta hydration vest
Photos from the day, courtesy of Aravaipa Running!
bombing down Cat’s Peak Pass
finish!
running buddies!
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| me and Carolyn did the 10k |
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| me and Leslie (she did the 25k) |
Go the Distance Endurance 
