Thursday, September 11, 2008

Tempo running to horses?

I have no idea what I did on our tempo run today. Steve has me still finding my tempo and I have been stripped of my Garmin...it was making me (more) crazy. I know that my run was not fast but it was still a hard effort for me. I have no idea why I am not "fit" enough yet. I did get a later start on training but damn... So, like Kamran, I have been rather comtemplative this last couple of weeks too and here is what I came up with:

Around about 1969 I rode a horse named Blue Boy in my lessons at a German riding school. I was over-mounted but after much begging, pleading, and negotiating, I convinced my trainer to let me try this horse. The first lesson was relatively uneventful and I was feeling fairly frisky. The next lesson was different. I was bucked off seven times in our one hour ride. Not only were my fellow riders getting mad about stopping to catch my riderless demon charging about but with each episode I could see my time on my prize horse was limited. So determination (anger) set in and I figured out how to hold my outside rein so short that Blue's nostril was rubbing along the indoor arena wall as we moved along. He was unable to spin around and go barrelling across the ring. Case solved. We became good friends and my riding improved.

Moral #1 Stick with whatever goal you have chosen for yourself. It will work out.

Of course, after becoming the kid that "tamed" the wild gray horse, I was then given the next one in line, a big, rotten, black wench mare by the name of Orchid. Come to find out her name had been changed to Orchid from Lorelei (the siren that sang so sweetly on the Rhine River causing all the passing ships to crash on the rocks and kill everyone aboard) Still, I managed.

Moral #2 Learning is a forever journey. Just when you think you have it all figured out, Lorelei comes along.

Luckily with the knowledge (from Blue Boy) that things would work out if I just hung in there I did learn to ride the black beast.

So, my tempo run this morning... not quite bucked off...I am still hanging on to the saddle...

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Love It!!!

Priscilla said...

I love the analogy!! Why no Garmin?? I ran without one, because mine are in the Garmin hospital, but does Steve tell you to run without them on purpose??

kirsten said...

Ha, ha!! Now I see what my problem is. When I get bucked off, my solution is to get back on my sweet, precious horse that doesn't buck and grumble about how badly people let their horses behave and how much I hate warmbloods!
I tend to do the same thing running - if I see the time is too fast on my Garmin, I panic and get bucked right out of the group and end up walking home horseless. Only to decrease my goal instead of sucking it up a bit and getting faster.