FAST WORK - How far? How fast? How long for?..

[Chloe_GHE]

I'm curious about how every one does their 'fast work' and what levels they do it at for the level of comp they do.

Last night I hacked Soap out quickly round 'the block' it's just a 2.41 mile long hack (I mapped it using http://www.mapmyrun.com/ it's mega, free, and best if you select 'satellite view') so I tend to try and trot or canter most of it so it's beneficial for keeping him fit, it has one short canter stretch in it, and then I discovered a stubble field!!! We cantered round the edge of that at our avg xc pace (so 450mpm for intro, think that's right?)

I mapped the stubble field canter as 0.83 miles/1.3km/1335 meters

So if we compete at a speed of 450mpm and an avg intro OT is say 4-5mins, that makes an avg intro xc course about 1800 - 2250 meters long so our stubble canter was approx 465 - 915 meters short of a competition length course.

My question is, do you do your fast work to exactly replicate the same length of your xc course, or would you take into account the additional canter and trotting en route round the hack?....

Or do you just work by time not distance and use a watch to interval train?... I have done that in the past too as we have a great loop with a big hill in it, followed by a long canter, then a small downhill which you walk to recover then back up the hill again!

 

[Santa_Claus]

personally currently I have a field which is 450m metres going round the edges (its 520m if you don't cut off corners etc) which I use. It has a decent slope on 2 sides (one more so than other) bottom side is basically flat and top is nearly flat but on silght slope.

Firstly I walk to field (about 300m) then trot round twice in each direction with a brief (30 second) walk when changing directions. I then have brief walk again before going intro XC pace (slightly faster uphill slightly slower down) 4 times round the field in one direction (i.e. aiming at 1min per lap). I then walk for a few mins until she stops blowing and heart rate comes down and then do the same in the other direction. I then depending on weather etc either walk a couple of circuits or go for a 20min walk down the road and back to cool her off.

I know some people do more reps but with the added slope (according to site its a 10m ascent within 100m for steepest section!) thats giving her enough of a workout. So far every time I have asked her to make the time XC she has done so easily (as in over 20secs under time whoops and that was me actively slowing down on last outing!) and recovers quickly afterwards so seems to be working!

Oh yeah and I use http://gb.mapometer.com/en/ to distance my routes its a lot like mapmyrun though

 

[Noodlejaffa]

I do mine by time - actually everything I do is timed - even my schooling! But when I first started doing things this way I did do a lot of work into judging pace so I know myself roughly what speed I'm doing now without needing markers.

I'm also lucky as have lots of gradients of slopes (gentle to very, very steep!) and access to 1,200 acres of off-road hacking so my lot get lots of variety even when they're doing their fast work.

 

[FigJam]

I have a "grass gallop" stretch that is (according to gmap-pedometer) a couple of miles road hack from my yard. I walk/trot on uphill sections along the road to get to here which acts as a warm up. The last little bit to the strip itself is off road on grass and mostly uphill, so can have wee trot/canter here.

Then the strip itself is about 300m uphill, 500m level and then another 500m downhill. Straight line, always kept mown in the summer as it's a public right of way. So you have 800m in one direction for fast work and 1km in the other, with the downhill sections used to get breath back. I tend to keep note of how many "lengths" we do here. I don't time myself. Hopalong loves this track as much as me and we do a brilliant impression of a racehorse when we about-turn at the end to go back again!

During the season I have been doing 3 lengths of this at a fast canter, once or twice a week. I've started tailing it off now, and will probably just do once a week and only 1 or 2 lengths through the winter dependant on ground conditions.

 

[milz88]

Wowee, I have to say that all seems very technical Chloe I just go the long way round the gallops at aston and time myself doing 3 mins continuous canter, then 1min walk, x 3 increasing in speed of canter, interval work is good, as it builds cardiac strength as the heart has to adjust to different speeds and also gets a short recovery period. I sometimes do it to pace e.g. 450 mpm over a set distance but that requires a measuring stick usually

 

[AutumnRose]

I don't do a lot of fast work in the sense of it being a specific activity. Competing, lessons and schooling by their nature involve a lot of canter work. We do have a big field that i've never measured but i might in a second on that map thing....which we can use for fast work. However, it has been so dry here this summer that it would be like cantering down the road I can't remember when i last cantered on a hack.

Interestingly i moved yards in April this year. At the old yard we had a lot of off-road hacking and places for cantering, although this tended to be in short burst sections. The new yard has far fewer cantering opportunity but the hacking is much much hillier. B has one or two hacks a week which are mostly in walk (i dont trot on roads) but very very hilly and he is by far fitter and more muscled than when he was at the old yard and doing more canter work.

I am aware that because of his type if and when i need him fitter and faster for PN/Novice i will have to make an effort to up his fast work. Especially at the beginning of the season. I think once they start running regularly they tend to hold fitness very well.

 

[Noodlejaffa]

Wowee, I have to say that all seems very technical Chloe I just go the long way round the gallops at aston and time myself doing 3 mins continuous canter, then 1min walk, x 3 increasing in speed of canter, interval work is good, as it builds cardiac strength as the heart has to adjust to different speeds and also gets a short recovery period. I sometimes do it to pace e.g. 450 mpm over a set distance but that requires a measuring stick usually

I am a big fan of interval training. But then I'm sad and obsessed!! I go everywhere with my big yellow watch beeping away

 

[Sparkles]

Erm I honestly have no idea!
Todays ride consisted of schooling for about 30mins, jumping [3ft3ish course up] for about 30mins followed by a quick 30 minute hack round the farm doing a few XC jumps. Most in canter, as all grass tracks round the headland, with one or two gallops and looooots of hillwork.

 

[Sparkles]

Oh my. Holy ****. Just done that mapmyrun....and our 'little short easy hack' which we do all in canter pretty much for a short ride when pushed for time is just under 5 miles! It's usually only a 20 minute hack No wonder he's fit as a flea doing that most days after schooling! Woops.

 

[only_me]

We have a few routes;

If I am going to do proper hill work, we hack to a field which is 3 miles away, and it has a very steep slope at the start and gradually gets a lesser slope. It is about a mile to a mile and a half long, and I normally trot up x3 and then canter up x4, twice on left front and twice on right front.
I am building this up as I am hoping this will get him fit quite quickly and with minimal strain on joints
He is very odd though, he loves doing hill work and will keep on going!
This is the hill, if anyone is interested
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&s...oid=ERddqiHzt2zVhWtLI4He1A&cbp=12,228.51,,0,5
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&s...oid=FzqlZDouLVRE5zog9AZR-Q&cbp=12,273.51,,0,5

Hacking our normal routes are 6 miles long with good hills but no canter work as our hacks are all on roads.

We canter in the field or school 4 sets of 6 minutes which will be built up to 4 sets of 7 minutes soon

ive no access to proper gallops, we need to find some so I can give him a good gallop - but my thinking is that the events cover the gallop work so I can just do stamina work during the week

 

[Chloe_GHE]

Oh my. Holy ****. Just done that mapmyrun....and our 'little short easy hack' which we do all in canter pretty much for a short ride when pushed for time is just under 5 miles! It's usually only a 20 minute hack No wonder he's fit as a flea doing that most days after schooling! Woops.

My goodness your short route is not all that short! Our 'round the block' usual short hack is just 2.5miles, and anything longer than that is 6,7,8,miles theres no in between hacks round here sadly.....might start hacking him 'round the block' after schooling to try and up the fitness work.....best of both worlds then I guess

Map my run is mega because I find it hard to judge distances in the flesh (eg not an arial view)

 

[Chloe_GHE]

This is the hill, if anyone is interested
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&s...oid=ERddqiHzt2zVhWtLI4He1A&cbp=12,228.51,,0,5
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&s...oid=FzqlZDouLVRE5zog9AZR-Q&cbp=12,273.51,,0,5

That field looks glorious I want to canter round it!

 

[only_me]

It used to be an event course, so still has a few xc fences up If you zoom in behind the house you will see the steps!

I am enternally grateful to the people that own it allowing me to use it - the only decent field for miles!

 

[Noodlejaffa]

That mapmyrun site is fabulous! I've done absolutely no work this afternoon because of it!

Pleased to see that my lad does 30 mins schooling and a 5 mile fast hack before I go to work every morning. Off to plot all my other routes........!

 

[Sparkles]

My goodness your short route is not all that short! Our 'round the block' usual short hack is just 2.5miles, and anything longer than that is 6,7,8,miles theres no in between hacks round here sadly.....might start hacking him 'round the block' after schooling to try and up the fitness work.....best of both worlds then I guess

Map my run is mega because I find it hard to judge distances in the flesh (eg not an arial view)

Eep I know, I honestly thought it would be 1, maybe 2, miles max! As it's only round our own fields round the farm headland....not even off our property or on the bridleways lol! Woopsy. I like mapmyrun....just found out our really long [6-7 hours?] we do once or twice a year is about 21 miles. Always wondered lol!

 

[Bojangles]

Will have to have a look at that map when I get home from work tonight. I've got quite a bit of off road hacking which have got lovly hills and a good distance to do inv sp? training. Thanks chloe for that map thing.

 

[Chloe_GHE]

No worries enjoy 'map my run' peeps I use it for running and riding it's really useful and theres and iphone app of it too if you are uber tech savvy!

 

[bigboyrocky]

i have always been told, to get the fit for PN/novice (depending on type - obv a tb will need less fitness work than a cross or a heavier type) 5mins at PN speed, 5 mins walking, 5 mins cantering.. every third day (no more as muscles need to recover) worked well for me when my boy was eventing and when were getitng him ready to event again next year we will work up towards this ready for the begining of the season will do what only_me has, and show you where we do our fitness work.. here are our lovely grass gallops.. that oval/sausage shape thingy! "51.095562,-2.355391" into goole maps! its about a mile long... so handy!

 

[KatB]

To go the other way, I know a lot of pro's don't do official "canter work" until they hit novice... but will use walkers/hilly walking hacks to get the horses fit...

I don't do any "official" canter work with madam, as she keeps fitness well anyway, and the cantering we do SJing and the uphill stuff on hacks is good enough, and she is fit enough to go PN tomorrow.. cantering is her "easy" pace though. If she hasn't done much, I will take he for a quick blast up our grass "gallops" behind the yard, which are flat. However, I prefer to do slower hill work where possible

Goddy was a bit stuffier, and I would make sure he did more cantering in his schooling, as well as doing 3x4min intervals at home every 4th day. He made the time at PN easily (when he felt like it )