Friday morning, the USEA convention started with a fitness evaluation of the high performance US riders. The evaluation started at 7am and, being a glutton for punishment, I woke up at 6:55 and sleepwalked down to Hermatage Ballroom B in my sweatpants to participate. This is the story of what transpired in the following 60 minutes.
The evaluation was conducted by a United States Olympic Committee team that has been assigned to assist the US eventing team with fitness, nutrition, and sports psychology. This USOC assistance has been welcomed by the USEF as well as most of the riders. I think that focusing on those three key areas of athletic performance is a blatantly good idea to help our riders perform at their best. The eventers have participated in several of these tests throughout 2011 and the goal is to help the riders to improve their performance over time.
The USOC team is comprised of nutritionist Andrea Braakhuis, fitness expert Amanda Wittenmyer, and sports psychologist Sean Mccan and the riders will also have private meetings with each USOC team member. Although I can only imagine some of the private discussions that go on with the sports psychologist in particular, the USOC team fits in with the eventers really well and all three experts are well liked by the riders.
The overall atmosphere was definitely competitive but also lighthearted and fun. I think such evaluations are a really good team building exercise. In the past, the high performance riders have been only put together as a team at training sessions and pre-competition camps. In these situations I think the competitiveness of selection can definitely get in the way of team unity. I think forcing any team to go through a painful workout builds unity and I think we saw that as we suffered together this morning.
I knew we were in for a long morning when the activities started with active stretching exercises conducted by Amanda. I consider myself to be in reasonable shape and my principle advantage in exercising is that I don’t have any muscle to weigh me down. The evaluation was comprised of three exercises that were the same from the previous evaluations we have covered here on EN.
Planks — In the plank exercise we were required to stay on our toes and elbows with out body completely horizontal and raised off of the ground. It was timed and my only goal going into it was not to be the first out. Will Faudree won the exercise with 4 minutes and 59 seconds. I was proud to finish in the middle of the pack with 4:01. Try it yourself Eventing Nation, what’s your best time? The record for eventers is held by Tiana Coudray at 10 minutes which is completely insane.
Squats — I want to preface this by saying that I think squats are undoubtedly harder for tall people. The squat exercise was conducted using a chair. We would squat back until our butt hit the chair and then stand up. It’s pretty simple other than the fact it is extremely painful after about 30 squats. The record for squats is also held by Tiana at 400. The USOC team told us that 300 was the maximum allowed for today. Boyd finished at 299 but could have gotten to 300. Shannon Lilley reached 300 without breaking a sweat.
Shuttle Run — The shuttle run was held on a 20 meter long course marked by cones. It used a computer timing system that gradually decreased the time allowed to run back and forth across the course. To set the stage, we ran in two groups and the course was in a hallway between ballrooms so we had to dodge people who were trying to get to their first meetings of the day. Boyd broke his own record by reaching level 13 which is a bit arbitrary but suffice it to say Boyd was at a full run back and forth for a number of minutes. I was dropped towards the bottom of the pack at level 8 in a disappointing performance. Will Coleman survived until level 12, Jan was impressive and got to level 11. P Dutty showed the benefits of riding a million horses a day and embarrassed all of the young guns by lasting until level 10.
The USOC team said that the performance numbers had improved in general since the last fitness evaluation, which is impressive considering that we are in the middle of the US off season. I noticed that most riders specialized in one of two exercises and struggled with another and everyone was in the top half of at least one exercise. Hopefully the riders will use the feedback to work on their core, legs, or endurance accordingly. I was definitely reminded how fit our riders are to get the job done at three and four-star competitions on multiple horses.
I was completely exhausted by the end of the shuttle run and it’s going to be a struggle to stay awake throughout the Board of Governors meeting. Yet, with an endless supply of water and Jolly Ranchers in each conference room, surviving the day looks more probable with every passing minute.
Go eventing.
