Well, we are well and fully into the darkness of winter now!  Most of our training is now done either part way in the dark or completely!

Headlights have become our best friend and I am starting to think we should buy some stock in Duracell so we can at least earn some of our money back!

But really, training is going EXTREMELY well.  In fact this team of dogs- all of which, except Goldeen and Creamer, are under two years old- is the best team I have ever trained!

I don't know if it is the genetics of these dogs or the new training system but they are a VERY fun team to run behind!

We have pretty consistently been sticking to the plan of 2 long slow runs with 3 short fast runs.  We have played around a bit with the resting schedule of this plan in Nov. running more than resting.  But I have been watching them close for any kind of physical or mental slumps... haven't really had any, just a brief period when all the females were in season.

Last night we put it all together in a 45 mile race-pace run.  They totally RIPPED IT UP- powerfull the whole way and maintained a nice strong 10-11mph pace.  Even though we did a run where we had to do two laps of a 22.5 mile out and back loop.  And dogs COMPLETELY hate that kind of thing.  So I am sure on a "funner" trail they would have been even quicker and stronger.

Which leads me to the mental conditioning of the dogs.  This is one side of training a set of yearling sleddogs that I feel I need to be most careful.  Physically, I feel these dogs are VERY tough, but mentally, they are fragile teenagers so I am being VERY carefull to keep everything upbeat and fun!

So far it's working and I am having more fun running dogs this year than I have in a VERY long time!

I can't wait to race them and see how they compare to other teams...only problem is that our low snow levels this year keep forcing races to cancel!  One so far, and it looks like another next weekend!  Poop!

Eventually we'll get in a race though, so we will keep training hard so we are ready!