Virginia City 100 - 2015 - Part 3 - in which I only cry a little bit

Continued from Virginia City 100 - Part 2 - The Ride

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The Aftermath

After two hours sleep, at 8:30 a.m. I woke up long enough to peer blearily out of the window and see that BC judging was about to start, and be coherent enough to know that—no—I didn't need to watch it. Fell back into oblivion for another hour and half.

Shortly before 10 a.m. I rolled over stiffly in bed again and saw Kaity walking Ani and Fergus on the far side of camp. It was time to fall out of bed.

Kaity delivered Fergus back to his hay and knocked on the door to drag me out for breakfast. I opened the door, looked at Fergus, looked at Kaity and burst into tears. I was racked with guilt that I'd done wrong by my horse and in any case we were going to get banned for "drug-testing positive".

Apparently 3.5 hours' sleep had done little for my rational-thinking skills.

The awards went by with me not feeling a whole lot better and I stood up in front of the assembled masses and told them that Fergus didn't need to be doing this ride any more - that it was too hard on such a big horse and that the pounding on his feet was more than I should ask of him.

Around 11 a.m. pft showed up on his motorcycle to chauffeur us home (we put the m/c in the front stall of the horse trailer and he drives while I sit in the passenger seat and my eyes roll around in my head).

As it was warming up, pft took Fergus' blanket off and asked me what I thought about the rubs on his back.

"What rubs...??"

Being as tall as he is, and being as short as I am, I can't really see Fergus' back all that well. When I'd untacked him at the end of the ride, I'd palpated his back for any muscle soreness and although he was very slightly reactive, it wasn't a lot considering how long the ride had been and how much climbing had been involved. However his back was wet at the time and I completely missed the rubs in the dark.

Looking in the daylight on a dry horse—indeed, to put it mildly—I'd rubbed the crap out of his back.

I felt awful. No wonder he'd been out of sorts and reluctant to trot with me in the saddle (presumably the discomfort was not as bad trotting in hand since he always trotted well for the vets). It explained a whole heap of reasons for his behaviour the previous day and why I continuously felt that he "wasn't quite right" although I couldn't say why and, despite this, he continued to get good vet scores throughout the day.

Apparently the fact that I'd neglected to wash him, coupled with my choice of saddle pad shims had been the worst possible combination for this ride. While I thought the high-tech Jen-X shims were helping with their superior concussion absorption and ability to mold to his back, I'm now wondering if on a horse who's back moves as much as Fergus' does, if there isn't some heat build-up going on in there too, especially since I was just using the thin-cotton-bottomed pad. Either way, complete and utter fail when it came to saddle pad choice. :(

It seems that my worries about foot-soreness and leg fatigue were completely unfounded - he was perfectly fine - provided you didn't mash a saddle + rider on to his back.

The Future

So where are we now?

It took Fergus almost four weeks before any hair began to grow back, during which time I squinted obsessively at his back on a daily basis.

In addition to the strips either side of his spine, he also had some loin rubs which I was less concerned about, since he hasn't had any problems in that area before and I was  aware of sitting further back in the saddle towards the end of the ride to try and alleviate some discomfort in my knees from all the walking. So I'm calling those "one-offs" and not worrying too much about them.

He has been on vacation for three months and won't get any amount of riding until I can find a saddle + pad set-up that is going to properly support and protect his back.

• Part of the problem was lack of cleanliness - such a simple thing and yet so significant in this case.
• Part of the problem was bad choice of shims.
• Part of the problem was his loss of muscle tone along his back and in his rear end - some due to his body being jammed up (which hopefully Tom Mayes mostly cleared) and some due, probably, to saddle fit discomfort. 

I'm hoping that Tom at Skito Pad can help me with shims that will support his back better and have sent him photos and diagrams of what I think is going on.

And I'm looking at alternative saddles. My plan is to line up a selection of shims and (borrowed) saddles and, using a Port Lewis Impression Pad, see if I can't come up with the best weight distribution possible. I'm also wondering about trying a Triple Thick Woolback pad, despite thinking that sheepskin and Fergus were a bad combination. I'm going back to the drawing board and reevaluating everything all over again.

As far as saddles go, I'm still not convinced that my Sensation won't work with the right shims. This weekend I tried on all three Sensation saddles, as well as a treed Albion that I happen to have temporarily in my possession, and frankly, from feeling around under the saddle, in theory, mine fits the best. It just needs tweaking - shim-wise - to get it to work properly. But if that proves not to be the case, then a new saddle will be needed before Fergus does any significant work. I'm already eyeing the two Bob Marshall Sports Saddles in the basement with a view to selling them to raise any money needed for a new saddle. I'm particularly thinking about Freeform saddles, since I think they may have better weight distribution without needing to move away from treeless saddles. My gut says that a treed-saddle probably isn't the answer.

I'm also reassessing Fergus' heritage when evaluating saddles and their fit. Although I've always known he "moves big" and had attributed that to some of our problems, I'm now thinking more about the deep muscle and what's involved in generating that big TWH movement and how that could be affecting saddle fit.

Either way, I hope I can get my Big Horse back to his former glory so that we can continue down the trail.

Moore's Most Excellent Dude6

.

* * *

Oh - and the drug-testing? Never heard a peep from anyone about it, but this showed up weeks later in Endurance News. Apparently Fergus isn't a secret druggy afterall, regardless of my paranoia.

Pre-Pre-Virginia City 100 - in which I round up those last laggard ducks

Leaving tomorrow evening to drive up Virginia City after work. So how are the ducks coming along?

Saddle Fit

Fergus got looked at by Tom Mayes on Friday and it was a good session and explained a lot of what was going on. His right shoulder was all bunged up. It looks like at some point in his life he ran into a tree/gate post/similar - jamming his shoulder (he does have a divot in that shoulder - perhaps the point of impact?), smooshing his diaphragm forwards, and causing all the force to rise up into his right wither/shoulder area.

Tom spent quite a bit of time releasing that whole mess from sternum to withers. Interestingly, he's always had a "wry" foot on the right front - loading it oddly and causing it to grow crooked. And he also moves strangely on the corresponding left rear (you don't feel or see it much watching him move, but you can see it in his footprints in soft footing, not to mention if he twists off a boot - the left rear will be the one). Which begs the question, how long has he been dealing with this? Well, his right front foot has been like that since he was five, and he's 13 now, so...

Tom in the process of realigning Fergus' sternum and shoulder

Another problem was in his loin area. Admittedly, this is where I'm a little hazy about the specifics, and where the non-conventional medicine part comes in. He was apparently having intestinal problems, which manifested itself in the loin area, meaning he couldn't engage his rear end properly - or make proper use of any nutrition I put into him (which is certainly true - I've been feeding the heck out of him and yet he still isn't getting fat). And because the "point" that deals with that area of his insides manifests itself as soreness in the loin area, in turn this meant that he was having some muscle atrophy in his glutes (hence the weird hunters bump that I started noticing the second half of this year - that was mostly from the muscle dropping away either side, not the bump itself rising up), and also losing muscle along his topline - making saddle fit difficult since I was chasing a moving target.

If you saw the before and after flinch and non-flinch, you'd get Tom in to do your horses too.

The really fun part was watching Fergus' reaction before treatment (poke a finger in the offending area, watch Fergus flinch) and after (poke a finger in, watch Fergus not react at all). I don't understand it, but if it means he's more comfortable, I'll go with it.

At the end of the session, Tom suggested that I took him on a short ride to "jump start" the area again - and show Fergus that all his parts were now working again. I planned to ride at Cronin on Saturday, but woke up to smoke from the Butte Fire, 20 miles to the south. Figured it was a bad time to exercise his lungs and I'd wait until tomorrow. Sunday it was worse, and by Monday it was really bad. Tuesday dawned foggy.... foggy? After a week of 100° temperatures, foggy and wet was too strange.

Sunday morning smoke

Finally this morning I got up early and took Fergus and the dogs up to the Power Lines and back before work - not the work-out I was looking for, but at least got us out to try my latest idea in shimming.

Racing Spike home again - yup, that little dog can sustain about 15 mph

It goes like this. If Skito foam was originally invented to even-out pressure points (and—as people complain—the foam smooshes down to nothing when warm), and I need to shim the dips in his back, if I put a Skito foam in the pad under his Jen-X insert, will it just smoosh away in the ridge area, and shim out the dipped area?

So effectively, my pad currently looks like this:

Certainly not ideal, but might do the trick.

This morning we did a quick 3 miles up and back to see what it felt/looked like. I can't say for sure that it'll work, but do like the way this idea is headed. Admittedly, the pad is now SUPER-PADDED, which is maybe too much padding (have done that before), but it doesn't seem to be doing any harm. Thankfully, the treeless saddle works in my favour here - with no solid tree to deal with, it can't pinch him, since it just spreads wider to suit the shape it's sitting on - and hopefully is now better supported further away from his spine.

I have one last option to try - two sets of Skito foam shoulder shims that I found in the back of the trailer. Initially, I only found one set - and they were only 1/2" thick, so not enough in terms of padding. But doing ride-chores last night, I found a second set down the back of something, so possibly doubled up they will be enough. That would effectively look something like this:

And might work. Something to take with us and use if he looks like he's getting uncomfortable.

So saddle fit, not really solved. And we've run out of time. :(


Horse Weight

Fergus has greatly been enjoying this item on the list. He's now getting his ration of LMF-Gold, Cool Calories, Beet Pulp and Vit E-Mag Supplement. As well as a quarter/half flake of alfafa on top of unlimited meadow grass hay. He's getting to the picky, I-can't-possibly-eat-this-hay-and-need-a-bucket-of-goodies-instead stage. So far, he's still not fat, but showing slight signs of improvement.


Horse Elytes

Enduramax and ProCMC purchased and I mixed up his elytes last night, now safely stored in the fridge - after glopping it all over the counter trying to pour it into the bottle. That was messy but at least I didn't squirt any on the ceiling.


My Fuel Intake

Well, I never got to try Tailwind on a ride, but sat and drank a glass of the lemon-flavoured one while flopping about indoors in the heat on Saturday. The verdict was it tastes like alka-selzer cold medicine and isn't something I'd drink unless pft was standing over me, ordering me to drink it (as he has to with the cold medicine).

So that's a "no".

Yesterday, while having a bleah-moment at work in the afternoon, I tried the raspberry one - which has caffeine in it. The raspberry flavour isn't bad, but the nasty aftertaste (presumably caused by the dextrose, sucrose, citric acid, sodium citrate, sea salt, potassium chloride, magnesium citrate, and calcium carbonate) was... well, nasty. And I made it a lot less concentrated than the lemony one. In theory I could make it even weaker, but at that point I'd need to drink about six bottles of water an hour to gain the required effect of not needing any other food source - and the temperatures are only supposed to be in the high 60s/low 70s on Saturday.

Not going to happen.

(I still have the unflavoured option to try out, but can't see how that will work at all, with nothing to mask the nasty aftertaste).

So as an option, pft dropped by REI this morning and got me three packets of Clif's Organic Energy Food - pizza margherita. (review here: http://www.bikerumor.com/2015/01/30/clif-introduces-new-organic-energy-food-including-squeezable-pizza/)

Ash bought me one of these to try when crewing at Tevis and I really liked it (consumed at 3 a.m. when I was having a lull), so hopefully it'll still seem tempting on the day.

I also grabbed a "Chia Squeeze" in strawberry and banana flavour (who knew you could get these at the supermarket?). I have no idea what it tastes like but "Each Squeeze contains 1200 milligram of Omega-3s, protein, antioxidants and more" - that has to be good, right?


Clothing

The half-chaps were liberally sprayed with "suede cleaner and revitalizer" (or something), which didn't do an awful lot to soften them up, but I wore them around the barn in shorts for a while and they seemed OK, so I'm going to assume they'll be fine.

A new Tipperary helmet showed up in the mail Monday and I spent a happy hour wearing it in bed while reading (didn't get home any earlier than that). It feels snug, but not too snug. And I wore it this morning riding for 45 minutes and my head didn't start throbbing, so I'm going to assume that'll be OK also. Added sticky-backed velcro to the brim area to attach my salamander beak-brim (a super long brim to shade me from the sun so I don't have to wear sunglasses), so the helmet mine now whether I like it or not.

* * *

My list of things to do is mostly done, with the exception of "find GPS" - no clue where I put it, which is a bit disconcerting.

My duck list currently looks like this:

Good enough.

Pre-VC100 - in which I try to get my ducks in a row

You always think you've got it together for a 100 - until about two-three weeks before when suddenly everything seems to be falling apart.

I've been scuttling around, trying to get my ducks in a row.

Fergus and I did the Tahoe Rim Ride on 29th August (two weeks ago) - lovely as always - and I came away with a shopping list of things to sort out (and wishing I had an extra month and an extra 50 miler between then and now to get everything squared away).


First of all - the Tahoe Rim ride. It went great and although I worried a little about Fergus' hill fitness (he was a little "bleah" on the steeper climbs), he bounced back in each case once we got to the top and never felt flat the entire ride. Not to mention he managed to finish the ride with a vet card entirely filled with As. I've never done that before - usually there's a B on guts or something. So my take-away is he's ready for VC100.

That said, I don't feel he's as fit as he's been in past years, which means I'm going to need to ride more conservatively than usual. Not a big deal. The goal is finishing – and finishing-looking-as-good-as-we-can – not finishing-as-fast-as-we-can, so this is a good reminder to me (the so-called brains of the operation) and will hopefully reflect in an equally impressive vet card.

Saddle Fit

Or should I say shim fit. My problem is that Fergus doesn't get sore from the saddle... but weeks later tell-tale white patches show up. I narrowed some of it down to pad material - unlike every other horse in the world, sheepskin pads don't seem to agree with him. This finally became blatantly obvious when he wore a fleece-bottomed Skito pad for the first 65 miles of 20 Mule Team 100 back in February and came in to the tack-off vet check with heat bumps the size of peas. I switched to the cotton-bottomed Sensation pad for the last 35 miles and the bumps were gone at the finish. Voila. Problem solved.

Not.

A month or so later we did NV Derby 50 in the same set up and shortly after that new white patches appeared. Apparently the FreeForm panels I was trying out weren't having the desired effect - in fact they seemed to be creating more pressure along the ridge of muscle either side of his spine. Nix them.

On to NASTR 75. By now, I'd started throwing money at the problem. I bought a set of Jen-X inserts - poron on the top to combat concussion and impact, and [other foamy stuff] on the bottom to cushion his soft tissue. Removed the offending FF panels and just used the Sensation pad with the new inserts (which, predictably, arrived the day before the ride, so no opportunity to try them out). They actually felt really good and I was very happy with them - we were, in fact, both so happy that we went much faster than we should have and he came up lame with sore feet. Ruh-Roh. But hey, at least the pad seemed to be working.

On to Tahoe Rim 50 - I was still happy with the pad, but now very unhappy with how much topline muscling he seems to have lost. He still has the difficult-to-fit ridge of muscle (now liberally covered in white hair) either side of the spine, but has lost muscle below it. He also developed a strange hunter's bump on his loin area. Something out of whack causing the hunter's bump and therefore causing loss of muscle? Or uncomfortable saddle fit causes loss of muscle, causing something to go out of whack and the hunter's bump to appear? Chicken and egg?

Tom Mayes is due to take a look at him on Friday, so hopefully he'll discover something obvious that I've overlooked and he'll be miraculously cured.

If that doesn't happen, the more likely scenarios is that I'm going to need to get really creative with shimming this coming weekend and come up with some way to protect his remaining back muscle for VC100.

How his saddle has been fitting most of this year. 

I tried a quick, five-mile experiment at the weekend. I'd concluded that the top edge of the insert was causing the most grief, so broke out the FreeForm Panels again - now also stuffed with revolutionary Jen-X inserts (instead of the felt + carpet underlay that was in there to begin with when I last tried them), took a felt-shim out of the saddle itself (hoping to remove that unyielding pressure point) and took all the shims out of the Sensation pad - so I was effectively just using the FF Panels as my insert and saddle support. In doing so, I was hoping that I could move the top edge of the insert further up, so the flat side of it was laying against the bulgy area. Like this:

 All that actually happened was the hair closer to his spine, higher up than the white hairs ended up getting really mussed and swirled. It didn't look promising. At  least not promising enough that I'm willing to risk it untried at a 100 miler.

What I think I need to do, is something closer to this:

which will entail finding some sort of shimming-insert material that I can stack, shape, and layer, while tapering the edges to fit in his hollows.

Horse Weight

Fergus isn't thin. But he's not exactly fat either. I was looking at photos of him tied to the trailer at VC100 in 2012 and he was positively round.

Up until a couple of weeks ago, he'd been living with Roo. About ten days ago Roo chomped him on the girth area and that was the final straw. Not only was Fergus not getting fat from this partnership, he also needed a dose of bubblewrap.

So Roo now has Small Thing as his new room-mate (ST has gained about 50 lbs in a week - this will need to be a temporary situation), and Fergus is living the life of free-feed hay - as much as he can eat. Get fat!

In addition, he's also getting a daily bucket of mush in the morning - three coffee can scoops of Elk Grove pellets, three scoops of LMF Gold, a Vit E/Selenium/Magnesium supplement, and, as of this morning, a loading dose of Cool Calories.  Any more than this and I start to feel like I'm completely overdoing it and will have an out of control monster come ride day. And on a horse as big as Fergus, that picture does not sit comfortably in my head.

(I considered getting a big bag of rice bran, but a) would then have to fret about calcium-phosphate ratios, and b) would stop feeding it after a while, keeping it for "special" - which actually means it goes rancid and is full of wugs and cobwebs... hey, I already have a bag of that!)

Horse Footwear

This is actually an area I feel like I might be winning at (famous last words). After his lameness pull at NASTR 75 in May, he got a couple of months off to heal up and since then has been wearing Renegades in front. I'm pretty happy with them - except for the amount of debris they seem to gather that regularly needs emptying. This weekend I'm scheduled to drill debris-holes in the front of the boots to let this stuff out - allegedly that will help.

I still wince when we trot on pavement (f'instance, on our way back from the powerlines on Andy Wolf, when he's super-motivated to get home) because he lands so hard, so that just reinforces the idea that I can't let him blast along at high speed on hard footing.

The boots worked very nicely for Tahoe Rim - but that is mostly very lovely, duffy footing, so not a huge hardship for him.

His spiffy front Renegade glue-ons with squishy gel soles have arrived and we'll glue them on the Friday before the ride. He'll be in Gloves in the back.

I'm a little anxious about the Ren glue-ons, mostly because I haven't glued them before and the protocol is slightly different than what I'm used to with Gloves. Also the glue surface area is slightly smaller, so I'm worried with my pathetic gluing skills he'll be more prone to losing them. But let's face it, he loses the Gloves just as easily when I mess up* gluing, so it's not like anything is actually that different. This is more pre-ride (and pre-gluing) jitters than based on any real problem.

(* At Tahoe Rim, I finally got back the Size 3 glue-on he lost and someone picked up on the trail at NASTR 75 back in May)

Horse Elytes

Yup, I'm completely out. Remedied this somewhat by purchasing a tub of Enduramax, but still need the ProCMC and some applesauce. Add to the shopping list.

Coggins

Yes, I did get that Coggins last year specifically for VC100... and yes, that does mean that it has now expired. Took Fergus in for a new Coggins on Tuesday - it should be back by early next week. Disappointingly the vet used the white marks on his back as "identifying features". I am mortified.

My Fitness

Because of needing to keep Fergus to "normal horse pace" at Tahoe Rim, I came home sorer than I've been in a very long time - my quads were shot, my calf muscles stiff and unyielding, even my neck-shoulder junction hurt. My friend Sally came to visit the week after the ride and kindly gave me three mornings of deep massage release on my legs (as well as my arm - I've currently got a lovely dose of tendinitis in my left elbow, which means I'm doing everything lopsided, which really isn't helping). She was concerned that this seemed to be more than just post-ride soreness. And to be honest, I've felt sore for months - figured it was just age creeping in.

So maybe not.

It could be that I need to a) visit a masseuse after the ride, or b) learn rolling techniques (perhaps during the ride? doubtful) to keep the muscles loose.

Either way, I need to remember to stretch as much as possible leading up to the ride - and the morning of the ride. Which, of course, isn't happening yet. Must. Try. Harder.

My Fuel Intake

Did spectacularly badly at this at NASTR (but it was hot <whine>), slightly better at High Desert with Roo, and moderately at Tahoe Rim - and that was due to Renee feeding me sandwiches. In the meantime, I've acquired some Tailwind Endurance Fuel:

It goes like this. You add the powder to your water bottles - in a concentration that mirrors your water intake. So if you want to consume 200 calories in the next section but will likely only drink one water bottle, then the whole packet goes in that one water bottle*. If, however, you will drink three water bottles, then you divide it among the three water bottles.

(* I'm a little worried that an entire packet in a single bottle of water will make my eyes water from the concentration of it...)

The idea is that you don't even have to eat real food (a definite plus for me when I get pathetic) - you ought to be able to subsist entirely on this stuff.

The downside of this is, of course, I haven't tried this product. I have no idea if I'll even like it. I don't usually love flavoured drinks - water is my favorite drink - so I'm unsure how it'll work out. I'm supposed to try these three packets before the ride, so I can pick which I like best. The bottom, white packet is unflavoured... but surely I'll notice a funny taste? surely? The Raspberry Blitz flavour has the added bonus of caffeine, so wondering if that's something I ought to try at night? The lemony one seems like it'll be the least offensive...?

But you need to try them, Lucy!

And you need to formulate a dumbed-down plan as to how you're going to get this in your water bottle when you get stupid.

Clothing

I broke down and rinsed my half-chaps that were totally caked in dried sweat and grunge:

Now they are clean. And now they are just as stiff and unyielding - only without the grunge caked on. I think I need to find some suede suppler... Or whatever it's called.

Occasionally, when Fergus trots big (as he is prone to do at rides where he can move out), my riding tights not only rotate around my legs, they also begin to creep up my legs until my ankles are exposed at the front - and then the half-chaps rub against the bare skin. Squeak. I need to remember to wear longer socks. Hasn't happened yet, however. Remembering to even bring long socks, that is.

A new helmet is needed. I read somewhere you're supposed to replace them every 3-5 years (assuming, of course, you don't fall off and whack your head). Since I know exactly when I last purchased my helmet (shortly after I fell off and whacked my head hard enough to give myself concussion, despite wearing a brand new helmet, and thus needed to replace said brand-new helmet), I was able to look back at when that Washoe Valley ride was... uh... that would be 2007... about 8 years ago. So yes, a new helmet is needed.

In the meantime, Tipperary opted to very-slightly-redesign their helmets so the "medium" is now just narrow enough for me to wonder if it'll give me a headache, while the "large" is just a bit too big. <sigh>.

My Ariats were coming apart during our trip to UT in July - to the point where I was having to hope that they'd still be together at the end of each hike. So ShoeFix (shoe menders in Auburn) to the rescue and $15 later they are good as new. Ish. Good enough. No longer falling apart. Footwear - check.

So in summation, the ducks are not in a row at all and I've got ten days to make it so:

May - Week 2 and a Bit

Week 2:

This is kind of backwards since the weekends are preceding the weeks - which everyone knows is wrong, since all weekends come at the end of the week. I will try to do better.

High Desert - Weekend 9th-10th:

Roops, Finn, Spike, pft, pft's dirt bike, and I had a splendid excursion to Nevada for the never-before-ridden High Desert Ride. As we arrived the skies opened and the "10% possibility of rain" materialized as about 2 inches-worth of wetness.

Roops and I rode with Dionne and her big mare Storm who was on her first 50 and we had a lovely day yakking away and riding about in the hills. I had wished for a nice relaxing ride with no drama and that's exactly what I got - right up until a rider just ahead of us fell off and broke her hip and had to be care-flighted to the hospital in Reno. Poor Dionne was made to go slower than Storm's capabilities, since Roo didn't need to be trotting along at 10+ mph, but we got the job done and I got a customary 5th from last - huzzah. 

pft rode about on his dirt bike and lolled about at camp. The dogs inadvertently got to gallop about in camp and have a wondrous time greeting all the neighbours until corralled. A fine time was had by all.

Monday 11th - Sunday 17th:

In which I worked, drove, slept, scratched the raging case of poison oak I picked up riding Fergus on the Powerlines and at Cool, and dealt with lumps*.

(*continuing saga from two years ago. I took high doses of Zinc, the problem went away for a year. I was cured so stopped taking the zinc, the problem came back. I am back taking high doses of zinc.)

So much for dynamic thoughts of pre-work riding and "Getting Stuff Done".

In fact, Saturday I didn't get out of bed at all, and instead sat and read a Norwegian mystery - Dreamless by Jørgen Brekke. Good reading, apparently, since it only took me a day to finish. This seems to be a regular cycle for me at the moment - go really really hard, then crash spectacularly.

Sunday I frog-marched myself out of bed and trimmed overdue Small Thing's feet - dug out the interesting remains of an abscess on his right rear - and then took Fergus out of for his final "long" conditioning ride before NASTR 75 in two weeks. Neither of us were filled with energy, so we did a peddle-ride with windmilling legs while Fergus ate his favorite seed-grasses. Lost both back boots - apparently I should read my own blog since it appears I used exactly the same back boots that fell off during our last big conditioning ride . 

Fergus Angst:
I'm hoping Fergus' current lack of enthusiasm has everything to do with being taken out on his own (and not having suitable back feet footwear), and nothing to do with my recurrent angst about saddle+pad fit. Using the Freeform panels for 20MT and NV Derby - something I was really pleased with at the time and seemed to be working beautifully - caused huge white stripes to appear along his back - argh. Every time I look at him, all I can see is those stupid white patches, never mind he's not remotely troubled by them when I palpate his back

Whatever I seem to do with pad inserts results in what feels like a huge wodge on his back along the top edge of the inserts. I had tried some shims which I thought were working, but next time I felt them, they felt bulky in that trouble-area. I will try reversing them so the tapered edge is up towards his spine.

In the Good Girl Department, I mended some torn gaiters with my handy "Speedy Stitcher"... $40 saved.. yay me... I'm trying to work up the courage to do my Ariat riding shoes, which have unravelled stitching down one side, but I'm scared of making a big lump in the wrong place on the inside. It's not rocket science, Lucy.

Remedying the Pre-Tevis "I haven't done enough" Jitters

The original plan for this weekend was to attend the Tevis Fun Ride and ride CA Loop, but the problem with that plan was that it would take up the entire weekend and there was a pile of other things that needed doing at home. So instead I opted for not going and cramming as much into the three-day weekend as physically possible. I think I achieved that goal - I'm tired, I'm filthy, and I have blisters on the bottoms of my feet.



Day 1 - Friday - Jobs B Done

• Gold star to me for doing my 2 mile run* in the morning, even though I left late and it was hot. 

(* I have this vague plan to aim for the Way Too Cool 50 k Run in March. 

There are several flaws to this plan - namely, I don't think I actually like running enough to want to run 50k - let alone train for it. And secondly, it's a lottery entry, with n thousand applicants trying to squeeze into 850 places, so the chances of getting in are limited. And thirdly, I don't think running with 849 other people sounds remotely fun. 

Despite all this, I have the "how to train for a marathon in 16/26 weeks" [depending on which plan you go with] and will work at it - it'll get me in shape for Tevis and I may even lost the extra 10 lbs that popped up over the original extra 10 lbs that aren't supposed to be there. 

It has to be taylored slightly to fit in the conditioning for Tevis and then VC100. For example, I'm supposed to run Monday morning, but that's after having "two rest and recovery days" - which I didn't actually get and right now can barely creak down to the trailer to get out the GPS that I left on my saddle. Perhaps Monday will be yet another "rest and recovery" day.).

Luckily, everything that got done this weekend was accompanied by a small helper.

• Small Thing got trimmed - which was a good thing, given that whoever is his trimmer does a lousy job at keeping on top of his feet. Totally overgrown and out of control. I'm glad he's not my pony and I don't pay his trimmer.
• The boxes from our week trip to Moab that were cluttering up the front hall got emptied and put away, so we can actually walk through the front hall now, not act like it's an obstacle course.
• The annual "put up the sunshade over the back deck" occurred. This year, it is engineered sans cinder block holding it in place, and is therefore, in the words of my friend Funder, "very classy".

• In the evening, we met up with Crysta, Ronda, and husbands at the Fast Friday's motorcycle track racing at the Auburn Fairgrounds - lots of fun in a very low-key way. These were followed by excellent 4th July fireworks (they only set off one fire, but had four fire engines standing by), followed by a beer at the only bar open in the entire town. Good ending to the day.

Day 2 - Saturday - Nine Miles of Cool

Except for a couple of walking rides up at Robinson Flat, Roo, hasn't actually done any work in six weeks, post-NASTR 75. Part of this is because his poor back was totally mangled by the well-past-sell-by-date pad I used, coupled with all the walking we ended up doing on that ride -  so it was better to let his back heal up. It still looks awful, with a large pink blotch - and I feel really crappy about it - but he's not sore on it, so I figure some riding probably won't do any harm - and he's supposed to be doing VC100 in September, so I can't let him sit for too long.

Plus I was eager to try out the new Skito foam shims.

Accordingly, pft and I took Fergus and Roo out to Cool in the afternoon mostest heat of the day and took them up the training hill, and then ran them about for nine miles. Everyone had a lot of fun. I was a little concerned that Roo looked like death at the end... but he looked like that before we even set out - I think he was in "hot weather mode" - where he just looks like he's on his last legs (never mind that for the first three miles of the ride, he was quite able to leap about and try and buck whenever Fergus trotted, so I overstretched my poor abused adductors again trying to stay on).

Climbing the training hill - we were soundly beaten by a woman on foot
...who turned out to be Melissa Ribley, out with Robert and Chris Turney,
presumably doing their version of heat/hill training

starting to regain weight

And in the evening we visited Ann and Jess for fud and talk-around-the-table - haven't done this in too long and it was so nice. And of course drank margaritas (hot day, etc, etc) and then didn't leave there until 1 am


Day 3 - Sunday - Heat Training R Us

My cunning plan for this day was to get up as early as I could and beat the heat.

So much for that.

In reality, after the previous late night, I did my best to achieve a lie-in (fail, owing to being woken up by "something" biting my hair), and then had to trim Fergus because his boots wouldn't fit. And then had to come indoors and lie down because it was hot and my back was cricked.

Amazingly, despite nearly wussing out (pft said "you don't have to ride today", and I nearly fell for it), Fergus and I were packed in the trailer and on our way to Driver's Flat by 1 pm... to ride in the hottest part of the day. Needless to say, neither Fergus nor I were highly motivated.

Mindful of the sad state of my quads after hiking down to Swinging Bridge three weeks ago, I hand-walked (hand-dragged?) Fergus down to Francisco's. The temperatures were in the high 90s (36-37°C) when we left the trailer and they just got hotter. Down on the river road, with the sun reflecting off the white surface, it was well over 100°F (38°C).

The thing I wanted most was to get off that stupid hot road, and to stop watching the happy rafters down on the river, not sitting in their rafts - oh no - they were all in the river next to the raft, bobbing along in their lifejackets. Jealous was I.

Once we got around the river bend and into the trees more, it was a little cooler, but only a little - still in the high 90s. Fergus, who was so fidgety for sponging three weeks ago, stood stock still, totally unmoving while I sponged him, and me, and him, and me, and him, and me... repeat. Getting him to leave the creek proved tricky.

Sandy Bottom - about my favorite place on this section of trail. You're
down close to the river and I always expect to see ancient giant sturgeon
in the clear deep water.

And then you climb - and the higher you climb, the narrower the trail becomes,
and the more steep the drop offs. Fergus was a good boy, though, and looked
after me (as usual), even though I am a weenie.

After the climb to the top of Ford's Bar. Fergus isn't fond of Ford's Bar

On the switchbacks on the way up to Peachstone. 

Huzzah! We arrive at Peachstone and I take a celebratory photo.
Couldn't figure out why it was all 'soft focus' and peculiar - until I
realised I had my iPhone stuffed in the front of my bra and had
then liberally drenched myself with the horse sponge in the creek.
Result was a rather steamy lens

This is what that photo was supposed to look like

My visions of trotting up the switchbacks to Peachstone didn't pan out - Fergus did a lot of trudging. I think the combination of the heat and being out there all alone did him in. He wasn't exactly what I'd call dynamic.

But we got to the top, looped around to White Oak Flat, and then went back down again on McKeon-Ponderosa, back down to Francisco's, and then back up Driver's Flat, for a total of 21.5 miles and 3500' of climbing (and descent, since it was a loop). All in all, a decent conditioning ride, even if it was a slow one. And the combination of this, and the training hill the day before, and the CA Loop planned for next weekend, salved my "haven't done enough" feelings. Fergus worked hard these last two days and I feel less like he's been standing around doing nothing and therefore can't possibly finish Tevis.

On the way back down to Francisco's from White Oak Flat.
Using White Oak Flat as the vet check instead of Francisco's
was an alternate Tevis route that was taken once in the 90s
with the idea to keep the historic trail open. Unfortunately, the
section through Todd Valley is now quite built-up and someone
was hit by a car going through there in the dark on Ride Day, so
I think it was deemed a bit too dangerous. 

Fergus' lack of motivation on the hand-walk down from White Oak Flat had caused me to procure a small whacking stick with which to encourage him. This "whacking stick" was wimpy enough that you could have whipped a baby with it and the baby wouldn't have noticed, but it had the desired effect on Fergus and a suitably animated (i.e. not being dragged along by your face) was produced. I told Fergus that Karen (his former mommy and trainer) would not be impressed by his behaviour.

Wimpy whacking stick that I kept for the trudge up Driver's Flat, just in case

Back down at Francisco's, where he peed copiously and
was suddenly miraculously cured of his inability to go downhill.

We even had an adventure. 

After you leave Peachstone, you climb another 1.5 miles and pop out on a paved road for a short while. This then veers onto a small singletrack, which in turn drops you into Todd Valley.

The entrance to the singletrack had branches across it to dissuade people from going up there. Of course, Fergus and I weren't dissuaded, so marched over the top of the branches and went 20' before coming up against a downed tree blocking the trail. It was a pretty wimpy tree and I figured I could bend it and pull it and shove Fergus through (Fergus is good at bushwhacking), and was in the process of doing this when I noticed a blueish thing lying on the trail behind the tree branches... wait....isn't that a wasps' nest?

The wasps' nest - about the size of a football.

It looked deserted, so I figured it had come down when the tree tipped over and all the wasps had vacated the premises.

Crouching down for a better look, I noticed a couple of sluggish wasps crawling on it, so decided that maybe there were some residents. But the thing was totally blocking the trail, with no way around so it needed to be gone.

I maneuvered Fergus back along the trail, took him out to the road and hung him from a tree (this road just leads to the single house at the bottom, so has zero traffic on it), and went back armed with a branch. My plan was to brush the wasps' nest off the trail with my long stick, and it would just drop off the side and Fergus and I could push our way through the downed tree.

I poked the nest and it moved about 2" and a large number of wasps came out. I squawked and ran back down the trail to the road, startling Fergus by my sudden appearance.

Waited for them to calm down and went back again - with a longer stick - and had another go. This time, the nest moved even less distance and even more wasps came out of it. This wasn't going to work.

So of course, what we did was climb a vertical bank, dismantle someone's fence temporarily (fence that had a sign on it saying "No fishing, No hunting, No trespassing" - which of course didn't mean us, what with this being an emergency), put the fence back together again, and then push through the undergrowth (read "poison oak") to drop back onto the trail 20' further up from the nest (and run like heck when you get there, just in case).

All I can say is it was lucky it was Fergus, who takes all such activity in his stride.

* * *

Looking downriver towards Poverty Bar river crossing. The Tevis trail goes
along the right bank about 20% of the way up the hillside.

Somewhere around 5 miles into the ride, I decided I wanted pizza for supper, so the entire trudge up Driver's Flat was spent txting with pft, trying to figure out where we could obtain pizza from (particularly, given that I had no money or cards with me). He called around and said if I could get to the Cork and Fork by 8:30, there would be pizza waiting.

It was 7:50 and we weren't to the top yet.

Looking down towards Francisco's from Driver's Flat Rd

To his credit, once the climbing part was over, Fergus actually trotted the entire last half mile back to the trailer (by now the temperature had dropped to 82° (28°C) and it felt deliciously cool), and I did the fastest untack in living memory, while at the same time giving Fergus water - he sucked down three small buckets (2.5 gallons? each) in the time it took me to whip off his clothes, and I shoved him in the trailer, and through the canyon we went.

Pizza was procured. Yum.

 And Fergus got another drink once the crisis was over.

pft asked me if I'd actually looked at the pizza because he had ordered a "combo" and didn't know what was on it. I told him, no, I hadn't looked at the pizza at all.

 Good weekend.