January 2007
- Sunday, January 21 (Snow Dog Super Mush)
- Saturday, January 20 (Snow Dog Super Mush)
- Tuesday, January 16 (Siskiyou, CA training run)
- Sunday, January 14 (Siskiyou 135 Sled Dog Race)
- Saturday, January 13 (Siskiyou 135 Sled Dog Race)
- Wednesday, January 10
December 2006
- December 8 (Update on recent runs)
November 2006
October 2006
- Sunday, October 29 (LaPine Oregon)
- Saturday, October 28
- Thursday, October 26 (Human Popsicle)
- Friday, October 20
- Saturday, October 14
- Friday, October 6 (Busted front wheel)
September 2006
- Saturday, September 30 (Two busted snub lines)
- Sunday, September 24
- Saturday, September 22
- Wednesday, September 13
- Friday, September 8
- Sunday, September 3
August 2006
SNOW
DOG SUPER MUSH
6 Dog/23.5 miles each
day
Wow, what a day! I never really think of the mid distance class as “action packed” but I gotta tell ya, I was kept on my toes by the musher behind me for about 17 miles! At a big circular turnaround nine miles in I could see she was only two minutes behind me, and I knew she was only three minutes behind me from yesterday’s time. I noticed that it was a team of Alaskans and they looked fairly strong, so I knew I couldn’t afford to waste any time. So I worked my butt off for the entire rest of the trail!. I ran, I pushed, I worked almost as hard as my dogs and we managed to stay ahead of her by 30 seconds when all was said and done. She actually passed me at the very end close to the ½ mile “free zone” where passing rules don’t apply and just had an all out sprint to the finish! We finished side by side through the finish line and gave the spectators a good show. But I worked, really I did. I am now sitting at Elaine Hamilton’s house (the organizer of the race) in my jammies, eating a Hershey bar and totally exhausted (it’s not yet 8 p.m. but I feel like it’s midnight!) As with the race the weekend before, it was Donner and Warner who tired at the end. Both those dogs where whomped when we got back in, but they drank and ate well and after a few hours of rest they were looking just fine.
The best treat of all was that although I came in ninth (out of 13 teams), I won the veterinary award for “Best Cared for Team” in the 6-dog class. This is the highest honor that can be given to a musher and I have oftentimes strived to try and get it, and never have. When they called out my name for that award I was shocked and said: “Did they call my name?” I just couldn’t believe it. I almost cried. I spoke to the vet afterwards and really thanked her. I mean, it is all about the dogs, right? So, that has me STILL smiling and probably will for a very long time.
The dogs and I are tired, but little Angel darling just became “breedable”, so we are going to be making tracks back home where she will be bred to one of Karen Yeargain's dogs IF I can get there in time. This will be my kennel’s first ever litter and I am very excited, and also a bit nervous. Angel is really a special dog to me and I would never want to do anything to put her in danger. (She and Panda led again for me today!)
SNOW
DOG SUPER MUSH
6 Dog/23.5 miles each
day
As usual, this trail in the Cascades was anything but flat! Although while I was running Siskiyou last weekend I thought it was probably as hilly as this would be, I was wrong! Mostly because this race is 8 miles longer, and therefore 8 miles more hills-up and down! I wanted to average 10mph and I think I did better than that although I haven’t done the math yet. I finished 9th out of 13 with a time of 2:23:40. I am hoping to keep my placement tomorrow, but the person behind me is only behind me by three minutes, so, anything goes!
I ran Angel and Panda in lead and they, like usual did an awesome job, especially considering Angel is just about breedable now! With two females in season it is defiantly a challenge, but they are doing well. Warner didn’t eat at first due to being a bit distracted, but he did later.
The trail was nice, but it was a little warm so dogs’ feet were punching through in parts and I had to hold the speed down. I know my team is not as fast on the downhill sections as other teams, but they are pretty steady on the up hills. I think they did very well considering this was the longest run of the season!
As with Siskiyou, I got to meet some new folks, I had dinner with Steve Riggs from MT. He runs Seppala Siberians and is from MT. We know some of the same folks and had a good time talking dogs and people.
January 16, 2007 (training run at siskiyou)
I did an 18-mile training run on the race course. Although it started out kinda crazy (see the story I wrote about it!) the run itself was fabulous. I ran eight dogs, the six dog race team and Magic and Loup. We did is just about two hours which was the same time frame as the race. I think it went smoother actually and that “big hill” didn’t seem quite so big as it had on Sunday!
SISKIYOU
135 SLED DOG RACE
6 Dog/18 miles each
day & 4 Dog/5.5 miles
I thought the “long hill” would never end today! The dogs were tired, I was tired, it seemed to go on forever. I think it did for other competitors as well! My time was a little longer than on Saturday, but not bad considering! We had a good time and they all came in strong. I ran Angel in wheel instead of lead due to her being a bit distracted the day before. I put Warner up there with Panda instead and so ended up with the brother/sister pair. I think those two are going to be dynamite together next season! Warner really has a stride that just won’t quit, but he did get a little tired coming in.
I could tell I needed more miles on the team in general to do this quite hilly race as both Warner and Donner tired at the end. All things considered though, they did very well.
The race was put together well and had a great group of competitors show up! Definitely one I want to hit again next year!
SISKIYOU
135 SLED DOG RACE
6 Dog/18 miles each day &
4 Dog/5.5 miles
Well, after all the hard work of the fall, the first race was finally here! The morning started out auspiciously with my truck being dead. I hooked up two trucks (one to each battery) and after 40 minutes still couldn’t get it started it again. So, a quick call to AAA and they had me at least started!! After that the day went smoother!
Siskiyou offered several different classes (all the way from 2-dog skijor up to a 12-dog 135 mile race. As such, my two classes ended up being the last two classes of the day with 4-dog starting at 1:30 and 6-dog mid at 3:00. This had me running back to back races, and also having to hurry up and get ready for one class after just ending another. This was kinda hectic, but it worked out okay. It was kind of a bummer to be out on the trail so late as by the time we were coming back from the race most of the parking lot was cleared out and only the Timer was standing there at the finish line. I felt like I had been out there all night, when really it had been less than two hours, and I had to fight some feelings of being “slow” or “late” when really I had done the trail in exactly the time I thought we would do it in!
I ran my normal duo of Angel and Panda in lead, with Tucker and Piper and team and Donner and Warner in wheel. (For 4-dog I ran retired Nickel, retired Magic, Loup and borrowed a dog from Karen Yeargain to round out the 4-dog team.) Two dogs of my 6-dog team are in season (Piper and Angel) so that made it a little interesting, Angel seemed distracted and kept looking over her shoulder at Wanrner in wheel. She still led okay, but had a lose tug sometimes and I’m thinking I’m not going to run her in lead tomorrow.
I was proud of all the dogs. The 18-mile course has a very difficult hill which was fun on the way out when it was downhill, but was really a bear on the way back when it was uphill. The trail was generally hilly – so lots of downhill and uphill. We are not used to flat out running on downhills and I had trouble keep ing them slower as it was fun to run! I knew we ran too much and would pay for it when we turned around and all the downhills turned into uphills!
This was my first time on a sled with my dogs this season and although it started out kinda rocky (that seems to be a common theme for me) it was a great run. Barb was also running a team and brought Christian Hollingsworth up from Colfax to train with us. I put him on a double sled behind me and although most of the run was not exactly at break neck speeds, I did manage to get some good speed on one of the turns and dump him off the sled! :-) We went 18 miles because that was the distance of the first race I was going to next weekend: “Siskiyou Snow Dog” race up in the Mt. Shasta area of Northern California. I hooked up the eight main dogs for this run.
December 8, 2006 (Update on recent runs)
From December first though today I have put 67 miles on the team! I have run 5 times in the last 8 days in an attempt to get some mileage on them and endurance. I’ve started feeding the team twice a day, on a running day the first meal is about 2 hours prior to the run. (I have had some issues with dogs losing weight so am trying to compensate for that and help them have energy through their runs.)
In all runs I have run an 8-dog team, all the regular’s minus Nickel. (Nickel did run the first of the 5 runs, but it was a very difficult run and I noticed she had some leg tremors when we stopped and rested in a few miles, they disappeared and she was fine at the end of the run but upon talking to Barb, she warned me she had seen that in one of her older dogs once and it was after the dog had had a possible stroke… so, that was enough for me to leave Nickel at home! She is 11, she has done her job, now it is time for others to get their chance. She hates being left at home, but it is best for her. She can still do some short runs, but we are not doing short runs anymore, so, she gets to sleep on the couch!)
Back to the log…The first two runs were back-to-back at Barb’s house in Grass Valley. She lives near a road called “Chaulk Bluff”. I don’t know how to explain just how steep this road is, but suffice it to say: VERY STEEP! It is comparable to running the Cascade Mountain range races in WA, which is where I’m headed, so I wanted to get some good hills on my team, and that is exactly what we did. But boy did it show us exactly where we are in training!
The first run we did (Sat 12/2) was 13 miles- ½ uphill, ½ back downhill. The uphill was quite challenging, but fun. The terrain was hard packed dirt, then turning to mud, then snow and ice. This 13-mile run took us 2 ½ hours to do – which was about 2 hours to get up, then ½ hour get back down! The downhill was fun, but I REALLY need new back tires on my rig as they are essentially bald and I don’t have traction – especially on ice!
The next day we went farther – we went back up Chaulk Bluff and did an 18-mile run. As we got higher we hit more snow and ice. This was tough going on the 260lb cart-I really need an ATV! There was one point a couple of miles from the top when I was so tired I couldn’t push or help in any way, and the dogs were so tired they were having a hard time and it was very frustrating. (When you start pushing yourselves, you start to see how you are going to act when you get tired and stressed.) No matter how many times we stopped to rest for short periods, that rest didn’t get us very far before we were all tired again (and then I banged my shin really bad on the cart, which didn’t help my mood!) I was very conscious of the fact that my being tired and (now) irritable, didn’t help the dogs, so I really tried to be upbeat even when I was not quite…I couldn’t wait to get to the top.
When we got to the top we turned around the teams and took a good, long break for about a half an hour. Magic was really showing signs of being tired so I decided he was going to be my gauge as to how long to rest. I knew the rest of the team was very tired, but even so I couldn’t get them to rest! (Something else we need to practice for one of my races-the Cascade Quest). Some were even whining and barking and wanting to go. Barb took off, but I tried to wait, as Magic was not ready yet. But when she took off mine started going nuts, so I moved them down the hill a little until I came to a patch of nice, clean snow in the sun. I parked them and sat down in front of the leaders, trying to make it clear we weren’t going anywhere. It took about 5 minutes of that warm sun on them before a couple of them started to teeter-totter as they couldn’t help falling asleep! (I was tempted as well!) They all sat or lay down except one – Panda. She is impossible! But at least she was standing quiet so the rest could get a power nap. In about a half an hour, Magic sat up, shook himself off, took a long pee, and was ready to go! So up we went and down the hill back to the truck we went! That 18-mile run took 4 ½ hours!!!! I fed them their second meal at the truck, and then went back to Barb’s so WE could get a meal!
The next day the dogs and I rested, but then we ran again Tues and Wed in Truckee at our regular training site at Hobart Mills after work. It was a different challenge running after work as I had to get up an hour earlier than usual (which meant 4 in the morning), so I could get off an hour earlier, so I could get out there and on the trail before dark came. Tues they were totally jazzed! I could tell they were happy to be on their familiar trails! However, at about 9 miles (out of an 11-mile trail), they totally pooped out on me (I wasn’t too surprised when I thought about it). The smallest excuse of a hill had them stopping and looking at me. I got frustrated at first, but finally realized that 9 miles had been the mileage they were most used to prior to our long runs of the days before, and they were still tired. I pulled them together with a few “group corrections” until they got it in their heads that even if they are tired, they still need to work. We had a little while of them being discombobulated, then they figured it out and we came in nicely.
Thursday was a different story. I wanted to do 15 miles, which is a joke given how tired they were just the day before, but that is what I thought I wanted to do with them according to the “schedule” I had worked out with Barb. So we headed off. I was VERY tired, hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep, and was physically tired from the last 4 days. So I don’t know how I thought I would pull off a 15-mile run, but I tried! At about 4 miles it was clear we weren’t going to make it. They were all over the place, very disorganized, dipping snow, jumping in the smallest of water puddles – I couldn’t get enough water into them! – and just generally not all there. And neither was I, so that wasn’t a good combination (back to: “learning how to control yourself when you are tired). We struggled for a few miles together and then pulled it together a bit and headed back to the truck early. That 10-mile run took us almost two hours! It was dark and cold when we were done. It was all I could do to get their harnesses off so I waited until we got home to feed them-I don’t think they would have eaten anyway. (In hindsight, I should have rested this day and run the next rather than trying more back-to-back runs knowing everyone was tired.)
We rested the next day, but went out again today as we are going to take the next three days off and I didn’t want them to go 5 days without running and lose any of what we had just worked so hard to gain in the last week! So, we went back to Truckee and was met with a perfect day, a perfect trail, perfect temperatures, and had a fantastic 15-mile run. I was very proud of them. They were happy going out and happy coming in. I paid careful attention to water! I feel like I am battling that, so I watered well yesterday, watered twice this morning before I ran, watered twice during the run (as well as letting into some puddles), watered again (with food) when we got back from the run and then still watched them all drink when they got home. Hydration! Hydration! Hydration! That 15-miles did take us two hours, but I was okay with that. We rested a couple of times and watered, and I didn’t push them. We had a good time the whole run.
Now we are taking a well-deserved three days off and then we will run again on Tuesday. Hopefully another 15-mile run in Truckee (20 if we are on snow), but that will depend on weather.
Happy Trails.
I ran a seven-dog team this morning (left home Nickel and Tucker) and went 10 miles on my normal Hobart trails (not the loop that goes out to Stampede). The weather was cool (30-35 degrees) and foggy. Pretty much perfect. They hadn’t run all week, and I expected to have a fun, fast run, but that is not really what happened. We did have a good run, but the dogs were more tired than I expected. About six miles in and headed back home, they were tired. I needed to coax them a bit up the hills and rest a couple times to wait for them to get rested. It took an hour and 15 minutes to do the run. I put Warner up in lead for the first time since training began, he and Panda made a good pair up there! Put a neckline on them for the last couple miles in as Panda was wanting to turn around and look at me, and they were running kinda far apart. Neckline worked to bring them together. Panda’s need work with not turning to look at me.
Possible cause of them being tired: 7 dogs vs. 8 or 9 would make a difference, and it was really six the second half because Magic was tired first. I have been running larger teams since I started so I imagine it they would be able to tell if I took a couple out of the line-up! It was a mistake not to take Magic to OR… don’t know what I was thinking. He is now about 30 miles behind the main six dogs. You’ll notice that I’m starting to get stressed about not having enough miles on the team. (This run today doesn’t make me feel any better! ) I need to run them tomorrow, will run all 9 and maybe only go 7 miles. See if I can’t get in a nice, strong run. But soon, they better be strong at 10! I really think I need to be at a strong15 (on dirt) by the of the month.
(At the end of this run, the main 6 dogs have about 110 miles on them, Magic, Tucker and Nickel about 75. For the record, this is about 50 miles short of where I wanted to be right now!)
Sunday, October 29, 2006 (LaPine, OR)
Figured out Karen’s map and went for a nice 12 mile run. Roads were nice, dogs did well, made lots of directional changes and Panda and Donner did awesome with them. Even had a herd of Elk cross our trail TWICE! Took us about an hour and a half. Temp was about 20-25 degrees.
Spoke with Karen about Piper’s “side-winding”. We looked at Piper, couldn’t see any immediate issue, and tried on a “CV” harness made by Tiaga that has a spreader bar kinda like a weight pulling harness, but not as low down. She said that it may help her as it will teach her not to lean on the center line, rather on the extra harness straps that go to the spreader bar. She stated that she has known a dog that side-winded that this harness helped to straighten out. Basically she felt I was on the right track in trying to run her on her “off” side (the right) to try and build up those muscles. We’ll see, she is going to order one in Piper’s size and send it to me. I’m interested to try it!
Visited OR for Karen Yeargain’s “LaPine, OR” training weekend. Temps were very cool in the morning (20 degrees). Wanted to do a long run this day, but couldn’t figure out the trail map and ended up only going 6.5 miles. <sigh> It was nice to see lots of teams on the trail! Around most corners was a team coming or going. It was fun.
Thursday, October 26, 2006 (Human Popsicle)
Went to a Hobart for a run before leaving for LaPine, OR. This is the first time I have four days off, and want to take advantage of it! Went for a 10 mile run, it was in the low 20’s-I froze! (Did not take road to Stampede-worried about feet – will try it again when I am doing a 10+ run on a Sunday and they have a week off.) At halfway point the leaders had ice crystals around their mouths. Haven’t seen that since -13 in South Dakota!!! I took a picture with my camera phone, hope they come out!
Tucker is probably at his limit at 10 miles, he looked sore by end of run. He was fine when we got home, but I think his heart can go farther than his body!!! Nickel probably too is reaching her limit – her shorter legs just can’t keep up!
I spent some time watching Piper’s sideways gait and realized that she is “single-tracking” with her rear feet and wider with her front. Would this cause the “side-winding”? Not sure. Right side seems like “weak side” so am going to run her on the right see if building up muscles on that side will help the issue. She is keeping up just fine, no problems with that, and seems happy – not uncomfortable.
!!!!!!!ROVER’S RUN!!!!!!!!!!
Hooked up 9 dogs again (love it!) and mixed them up a bit. Wow, I can tell I haven’t done that in awhile! The dogs were all over the place! Left side of trail, right side of trail, leaders splitting the road. Wow, funny. I think I need to do that more often! Angel took commands great, Panda was a little off. Nice run overall.
(I wanted to run last week on Sun – the 15th – but two dogs had sore shoulders the next day. Tucker and Piper. I checked everybody’s feet and it seems like that new trail might have been a little hard on them. There was lots of downhill, so lots of pounding on shoulders despite trying to keep slow, and more gravel than on my main trails. Hmmmm, may not be able to use that road!!) All dogs recovered fine with rest and were raring to go today.)
Well, got my cart fixed during the week, so I can finally run again!!! Went to Hobart and ran 10 miles on the new road I found leading out to Stampede reservoir. It is a beautiful road - the dogs and I enjoyed being in new territory. Nickel was tired at the end, did well, but the 10 miles might be about her limit. I put Piper in point and she seemed VERY happy-seemed happier in point than wheel. Maybe run her up closer to lead than wheel for awhile, see how she does.
Friday, October 6, 2006 (Busted Front Wheel!!)
Wow… another terrible run!!! You know, the next time I get the feeling that I shouldn’t run, I’M GOING TO LISTEN!! I hooked up all NINE dogs for the first time and was a little apprehensive. The dogs new it. I know they did! But I took my time, hooked them all up (screaming and yelping and raring to go), I released the snub line and away we went!! It was smooth, it was nice, I thought: “hey, that’s not so hard!” I was just settling in for fabulous 10 miler, when they was a loud noise from the front wheel, and the cart stopped dead. I had busted a bearing. I won’t go into it, because I already wrote the tale down in a story, but lord, what a drag that was! (Ok, pun intended.) We ended up only doing three miles - a mile and a half out at lightening speeds, and a mile and a half back at a turtles pace! <sigh> and this was the beg. Of a 4 day weekend!!!! Totally wasted, cart is done until I can get it fixed.
You know, one always sets goals, and trys to set goals you truly think you can do. And STILL stuff happens to get in your way!!!! I don’t know how anyone can really train a team of dogs when one has to work to pay for them!!! Your time is just so limited.
Saturday, September 30, 2006 (Two busted snub lines!)
Oh my Lord! Did I have a wild start to my run today! Almost decided it might be best to pack it up and go back home! But I finally got going and had a good run, did not go 10 miles because I just wasn’t up to it after my start. I ran 8 dogs, left Nickle at home. It was 45 to 50 degrees.
What went wrong? Everything went very smooth for almost the whole hook-up. I was going back to the truck to get the 7th dog when I realized that Donner (hooked to the front of the truck) had chewed through the snub in his enthusiasm to run and the cart was free! I quick jumped on it, but then not get off of it or they could drag it away. I still had two dogs on the truck. I tried dragging the cart back closer to the truck to tie it off again, but couldn’t. I realized I had my extra snub line, but couldn’t figure out how I was going to grab it and get it attached to something before the dogs took off. They were CRAZY and wanting to run and were not listening to me to “Hold”. (I have to figure out this problem!) I finally, and very carefully, worked my way up the line to Panda who was in lead and took her and wrapped her back around to the truck and snapped her to it. The dogs became a tangled mess but I didn’t care. I reattached the cart to the truck, then unhooked the dogs and snapped them all back to the truck. Then I started over. Straightened out the line and started attaching dogs again.
I got to the 8th dog (Loup) and was going to hook him up when AGAIN, the cart was free. Something gave with the snub line and it had snapped. I jumped on the cart again only this time I had a dog in my hands. I knew I didn’t have time to hook him up before the dogs took off with the cart so I stood there a couple minutes trying to figure out what to do. I finally decided that the best thing was simply to let Loup go. I figured he wouldn’t veer from the road and would want to stay with the team. So I let him lose (what a strange feeling to LET a Siberian run off down the road!). He was in heaven! He ran and ran and then realized he was ahead of the team and would turn around and come back and line up with the team and keep going. It was pretty funny actually.
I let the team just RUN and RUN. I figured if they were to act like out like that, then I was going to run them until they were good and tired. We went a mile and a half and then came to a good hill. I stopped in the middle of the hill and was able to call Loup and attach him into the line of dogs. He came to me right away, so that worked like a charm! I noticed though that Magic had chewed his neckline so he was running without one. Because I had used my spares to tie dogs to the truck in my chaotic starting moments I didn’t have anymore on my truck. Oh well, he ran without one for the whole run, didn’t seem to cause a problem.
We only went seven miles. I had really wanted to go 9 or 10. We probably could have, but at the turn off to 9 miles there were hot air balloons landing and I decided not to interfere with them, so just stayed with the 7 mile trail. I took some pictures of the balloons though, hopefully they will turn out! I also surprised a jogger on the road. He looked pretty astounded when he saw us coming at him. I told him to keep on going and the team would go by, and he did and they did. He turned around to stare in disbelief at what he was seeing and said to me: “Boy, that’s not something you see every day.” I laughed and said, “no, it’s not.” The dogs didn’t even look at him, that is good.
Ran with Barb today, it was nice to have someone to run with! I ran 8 dogs (Ieft magic at home), it was nice and cool, less than 40 degrees when I started. I did the 7 miles 10 faster than I have before, I’m sure the weather had something to do with, as does the fact the team is ready to move up more mileage. Next time run 9 miles, see how they do. I scouted the trails a bit and found a nice 10 mile run, but should probably not up the mileage that much at one time. Or maybe, guess we’ll see what I do next time!
I put Piper in lead with Nic, which is the first time I’ve had Piper in lead since getting her and was I pleased! She was a little insecure at times, but never turned around and held the line well. She did much better than I expected, which teaches me not to “expect” anything!! I need to run her up there more. Now the only dog I need to get up front that I would like to see do well is Warner.
I still have not purchased a thermometer, so I’m estimating that the run this morning took place all within the 40 degree range, low 40’s when I started, high 40’s when I stopped. We went 7 miles and I rode the cart the whole way – didn’t get off to help them at any point. The dogs are getting stronger! It’s nice to see. I am getting ready to make the next jump up in miles to 9 or 10 miles. I want them to see at least one “10” before the end of this month so I only have couple runs left! I am a little behind my target mileage of putting 50 miles on the team this month (I’m at 30 now). It’s proving hard to run twice in a weekend with my schedule. If only I didn’t have to work!
I hooked up 8 dogs (not including Panda who is in full season and is distracting the males too much). I ran Angel in lead next to trusty Nickel, to continue to give her lead experience – and she did awesome! She appears to be learning commands from Nickel, but I should mix up the trail a bit so they are making different turns than they have the last couple of times to really test it.
Only thing note were that Piper appears to be running at an angle aimed right (head inside, butt outside), so today I had her on the left side of the line and center line kept hitting her nose. I hadn’t noticed this before, so checked my training notebook and noticed I’d had on the right most of the time. I think I need to run her conscientiously on the left to try and get her used to both sides. I was thinking that I want to try her to lead in the middle of a run… just see what she will do up there. She is running well in team.
And then Loup – he is still a butthead, maybe not as bad as he had been in previous years, but he is still “biting” at his partner when he wants to go and we aren’t moving yet. This has been a hard habit for me to break because it is difficult to reprimand. Yelling does nothing. I have to get off and go reprimand him and then get back on the cart, but this is tricky at the beg of the run when the dogs are raring to go and can pull the cart. I need a second pair of hands!
Tucker was coughing after run…
still only dog doing that. Hmm.
Piper eating fine – meat seems to have been the culprit to her weird
stools and picky eating.
The day was beautiful… I had a lot of fun. The run took an hour, but I think it would have been faster if I hadn’t stopped to take pictures of the team with my cell phone! Now if I can just get the pictures off the phone…
Today was a special run because my boyfriend went with us, which is a happy first! <smile> We had a good time, we did too much talking though as I told him what we were doing and why, etc., so we didn’t concentrate on training dogs, it was more of a fun run… although they did have to work due to the extra weight on the cart! We did 7 miles in about an hour. It was a cool morning but we started later than usual, so, I think we were high 40’s for the high run. Hard to say without a thermometer.
I hooked up 8 dogs, left Donner at home, no particular reason, just with two people in the truck, thought it would be easier to leave the “truck dog” at home. Piper hadn’t eaten night before, she didn’t handle this last batch of meat well, so I have stopped the meat (I goofed up with it and let it thaw too early –I’m throwing the rest out). She seemed to run fine.
Magic and Nickel (the old farts) ran lead the whole time. Magic seemed winded and frothy early in run, but we stopped twice to water and rest and he ended fine. I HAVE to get some weight off him though! He’s the only overweight dog on the team and it is affecting him.
Yeah! I get to run in the middle of the week! My dad is in town so have a couple days off. How nice to run mid-week, wish I could do it every week. Then I could really put the mileage on. BUT, I got out there too late, started around 8, finished around 9 – went 7 miles. The morning was warmer than I thought, so I’m sure it was low 50’s the whole time. We all felt the heat. Dogs did well in spite of it, but I did stop to water twice.
Worked on “gee over” with the whole team, especially Magic – boy is he stubborn! Like I didn’t know that already! I kept team fairly slow and everyone came in fine. Panda seemed warmer than she usually is, but she is also hitting the high part of her season, so maybe that is affecting her internal thermometer. She drank a lot of water as well. BUT I didn’t water before the run, so I did everything wrong for a warm day… ?
Took 8 dogs four miles (took Patches, left Nickel & Tucker at home). Temps were high 40’s, low 50’s. Ran Angel and Magic in lead and they did great. The run was short and fast, whole thing took 25 minutes, had a short rest at halfway point. Magic did tire at end, but the main six dogs look great! Patches did well as well, her new owners will be enjoy her tremendously I think.
Nothing to note about run except that I have to not be lazy, I have to water before I leave the house. I am not in the habit of that, and I need to be in the habit! The longer we run, the more important it is going to be.
Ran 8 dogs, 5 miles with Sage and her Alaskan Titan! She had a thermometer, said it was 47 degrees when we started, 50 when we ended. It is nice having another person on the cart who can help with dog changes and other stuff! Titan had fun, but needs to lose a pound and could pull more! Practice would fix both of those things… hopefully she can get out with me.
Nickel tired at end of run, she is 11! What a trooper! She will only run as much or as often as she wants, I don’t expect her to be on the race team, but we’ll have to see what happens. She is still eager to go and doesn’t want me to leave at home!
Ran Panda in lead with Nickel. Panda does need some refresher courses in “gee” and “haw”! We worked on it a little. Warner pulls VERY hard, digs in with every step! Piper pulled well. It will be fun to see how these two new dogs to me do in harness! I expect good things from both of them!
FIRST RUN OF THE NEW SEASON! Ran up at Laura and Jane’s place by Kirkwood (about 8,000 feet elevation I think!). The road we were on was dusty and hilly and I used Jane’s ATV – which is a first for me! I did like it, it was certainly more comfortable than my cart as you are sitting down, but I was a little awkward with the changing of gears and definitely need more practice with it!
Ran 8 dogs (inlcuing Patches and Tucker) and we went about 5 miles – like I said, it was hilly. I thought the dogs did fantastic! I felt they maybe could have gone farther, but I didn’t want to push it on our first run. I felt disorganized in getting dogs in the right harnesses and lines set up and everything – it took me quite awhile to get going! But now that I’ve done it, it should be a lot quicker from now on.
My main six dogs are: Donner, Panda, Angel, Warner, Loup and Piper. My three “extras” are: Nickel (11), Magic (8) and Tucker (who knows! 4?).
I only feel comfortable running 8 dogs by myself on my rig (anymore can drag it wherever they want to!) so I will try to run the main 6 each time, and pick two of the three others to go as well. That means that one of the 9 will have to stay home each time… not ideal… we’ll see how it goes as we get going.
| Copyright © 2006-2008 Arcticgrace Siberians. All rights reserved. |