Sheesh! It’s already November and I haven’t yet posted anything about running our dogs. What’s the matter with me?
Well, part of it is that Jenn and I had decided in the late summer that we were going to downsize some of our animals and try to get some work done on our house. We only have three chickens left; the others were sold, and we only have one goat – the infamous Ty. That leaves the dogs.
Originally, we were going to not focus on racing this year. Instead, we were going to have fun runs – like camping, icefishing and daytrips – with the dogs, but when a friend, after hearing our plan, asked if he could use our dogs to run a race this winter we felt it to be an all-round benefitial idea. He could help train and condition the dogs, the dogs would get out on runs, and we would not feel guilty about not running our dogs as much this winter.
This is our string of dogs that we are training this year.
Then, Jenn came up with the idea that we were going to try a different method of training. She’d heard about this eleven-day cycle that is used by some mushers who do races similar to ours. Basically, the eleven days are broken down like this:
- Day one: long, slow distance run. We try to keep the dogs between five and seven miles per hour for an hour.
- Day two: rest
- Day three: rest
- Day four: another long, slow distance run.
- Day five: rest
- Day six: rest
- Day seven: Speed run. We keep the dogs running at between 14 and 16 miles per hour. We do this for four miles.
- Day eight: speed run.
- Day nine: speed run.
- Day ten: rest
- Day eleven: rest.
When the next cycle starts up, the distance is increased by a mile and the time spent running the long, slow runs is increased by half an hour. In theory, we are working two different muscle groups on each different part of our training and we are giving plenty of rest for recovery and muscle building. So far, we are really pleased with what we have been seeing. Another nice thing about this method of training is that we have a concrete plan: in years past, I would just try to get out as much as I could with the dogs and, as our past racing track record shows, I was evidently not allowing the dogs’ potentials to be reached.
I wish this trail was longer. We can only use it for runs up to eight miles or so, but it’s so nice to run on. It’s a seldom-used concession road that only really sees traffic during hunting season. We use a trail that comes off of it and goes four miles into a cut-block to a nice turn-around so that we don’t have to manually turn the team around on the road.
So, with the help of James, our friend, we are having a great season so far and the dogs are looking every bit the honest dogs we know them to be.
This is the part of the trail that goes through the cut-block. It is still nice and wide, well packed and enjoyable to run.
The end of our second 4-mile speed run. The dogs finished looking really strong, I thought. James is driving and Hunter’s friend, Emily, is riding with us. She was covered in mud and had a great time.
Filed under: Writing | Tagged: Fall training, honest dogs, new way of training, run/rest, sled dog picture, sled dog training, sled dog video, sled dogs
I’ve heard of the 11 day cycle before as well. I’m guessing training this way is more for mids than sprint, or would it be beneficial for sprint training as well? I have no concrete training plan myself. Most times I’m running 4 dogs on a lightweight 3-wheeled cart and doing 4-5 miles or so. Sometimes when I have one of the younger ones on I take just 2 dogs out and go 2 miles. I probably should be planning it out better than I do.
I think that in the early stages of fall conditioning, this cycle would work well for just about any length of race. It really helps work all the muscle groups and it keeps the dogs honest, running some days and pulling others.