Working The Walk, Virtual Tevis, 39 Miles, 24 Days

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Interesting sidenote, given the prevailing feelings about the month around here. “The president almost certainly made August the basis for his choice.” Raw Story: The truth about the withdrawal from Afghanistan is hard for partisans to admit. Stoehr. August 16, 2021. [On A Related Note, see comment]
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The things you see when you get up before dawn to get an early ride in.

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Me to Rodney: Yes, I know it’s muddy and squishy. If you slow down and step carefully, you won’t slip as much. If you step slowly … and deliberately … and use your hind end … yes, like that. See? less slipping. Isn’t that better? Keep doing it … step … step … step … think about where you are putting your feet … all four of them … go slowly … See, it’s easier when you aren’t slipping …

Comment: I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired after 50 minutes of walking.

Me to Rodney, on another day: Power walk home! Let’s do this … 3.1 … we can break the previous record of 3.5? Here we go … 3.2 … keep going … 3.3 … plenty of space to gain speed … 3.4 … no slowing down now, gotta keep it up … 3.5 … almost, almost … 3.6! Yay!

Comment: I don’t think Rodney expected quite so much support for heading back to the barn. [Extra Mile]

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You’d think walking most of the our miles would be slow enough. Now I’m asking Rodney to slow down. It started on a day with muddy footing. We tried to help both horses be more careful so that they would slip less in the mud. More care, less slipping, more relaxation, happier horses.

Rodney did so well with it, I expanded it to regular days. We start out with Milton leading while Rodney drinks his coffee and checks his email. Now, I’m telling him it’s okay to slow down. It’s okay to let Milton go on ahead. He doesn’t have to be right up on the fluffy gray butt. He can go as slow as he wants.

Rodney is not stupid, but he gets anxious if things come at him too fast. I’m trying to show him that it’s okay to take on the world at a speed that he finds comfortable.

Turtle Power!

Where are we virtually?

Milestones.

Map. 39 miles in. Graphic from Tevis Cup: About the Trail, shading mine.

Tevis Cup: Trail Sections & Historic Notes

Data dump

Tuesday, August 10 – 1.73 miles, 50 minutes
Wednesday, August 11 – 2.56 miles, 1 hr 17 min
Thursday, August 12 – 1.95 miles, 50 minutes
Friday, August 13 – 2 miles, 56 minutes
Saturday, August 14 – 3.1 miles, 1 hr 19 min
Sunday, August 15 – 3 miles, 1 hr 20 min
Monday, August 16 – 0

Distance this week – 14 miles
Time this week – 9 1/2 hours
Rides this week – 6

Total distance – 39 miles
Total time – 17 hours
Total rides – 18
Total days – 24

Pace, time to go one mile – 25.57 minutes, per VT results page
Average miles per day – 1.73
Average miles per ride – 2.21
Extra miles, Milton – ~1.5

Numbers rounded off for ease of reporting. May not add up as given.

My Links
Last week [Fit The First, Virtual Tevis, 25 Miles, 17 Days]
[VT Archives]

Official Links
Tevis Cup: Virtual Tevis 2021
RunSignUp: 2021 Tevis Cup – Virtual Western States Trail – 100 Miles in 100 Days
RunSignUp: VT results

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine