Fall is here- and hopefully almost gone with winter on it's heels- so it's time to go over this years dog plans.

First, we are a month into training right now and have just under a hundred miles on the dogs.  Which doesn't seem like much compared to some years but we are doing things a lot different now a days. 

That's because of a few training experiences of my own over the summer.  First, I trained for a 12hr endurance mountain bike race in June by basically following the same style of training as I use with my dogs.

this isn't as wacky as it may seem.  Most of the research I have done to learn how to train my dogs has been adapted from reading cyling books.  So it seemed natural to use these same methods to train myself.

It worked okay.

I met my goals in the race and didn't suffer too much.  I was happy.

But then we all went on a cycle tour down the Atlantic Coast for a month- which was GREAT time!  We rode everyday!  Some days easy.  Some days hard.  But EVERY day. 

Now this trip was a month and a half past the mtn. bike race and I had ridden just short, fun rides in between with Christina and Pippin.  We were all comfortable with rides in the 20 mile range.  But by the end of the trip we could have ridden 100!  And not even have felt sore (except maybe our rear ends!).

This was true for Christina and Pippin, as well as, me.  And they hadn't trained hardley at all before the trip.

I could have easily doubled my distance in the 12 hr race after the tour with just a few weeks of intervals and tapering- maybe even more!

And so how does this relate to the dogs?

Well, typically we train on a fairly consistent schedule which has changed over the years but starts easy and then gets progressively harder as the winter moves forward.

That's how I trained for the Mtn. bike race.

It works but I felt a little flat and bored for the training so didn't get as much out of each ride as I could have.

On the Atlantic trip we rode different amounts everyday.  Our bodies stayed actively adapting to each days ride rather than just humdrum moving along.  We are going to mimic that with the dogs this year.

So.

Right now we are laying in easy base miles.  Just getting a funamental layer of conditioning on the dogs.  Nothing stressfull and really being carefull to avoid injuries and any hint of boredom.

We haven't run the same trail more than once this year.

Then in mid-November through mid-December we are going to run EVERY day- sometimes long, sometimes short, sometimes slow with a heavy load, sometimes fast with a light sled.  The goal being a 75-100mi run by the end.

Then we will taper and be ready for our first race- the Knic 200, on the first weekend of Jan.

More on our race plans to come.....

But you can see that dog training is ever evolving and training myself has had a huge effect on how I approach the dogs conditioning!

The Late Fall Blues have struck the team!

Feet are sore, attitudes are down, and training is in the pits!

But this isn't all that uncommon, actually we seem to go through it every year to some extent.  This year seems a bit worse because the team is so young.  They have no idea that it will get better in just a few short weeks.  And the in experience is really effectin my young leaders the most! 

They aren't listening, they are running on the wrong side of the rode, they are stopping to drink at every puddle (rather than taking a quick drink and keeping on the move), they are stopping to play with the Swing dogs behind them, etc, etc... Everything they can think of except going down the trail.

I was getting really MAD!

But then- thanks to some good advice from younger brother- I rembered to have fun!

So I have swapped some things around in the kennel so I can run my old main leader Goldden again (Pippin was running him but now he will run Beatrice instead and still keep Fluffy- the winning pair in last years Jr. Yukon Quest).

Andy is going to go back and run with Charlie and the puppies.

And we are going to take a week off "real" training!  The dogs that have sore feet will get a chance to heel up.  The ones that are good are going to go out on a bunch of short, REALLY fun runs.  And everybody is going to have fun and take it easy! (including me!)

Okay, so a few post back I started talking about Goal Setting.  I started by explaining about all the data I collect for my dogs.  Then I talked about a training run that went funny.

But what does this have to do with goals setting?  And why is that even important?

Well, mushing is a long term planning commitment!  It takes years to put together a good dog team, train them, train yourself, and be ready to compete.  You HAVE to set goals- long term, short term, and everything in between.

Then you have to monitor your progress and adapt to changes!  All the data I desrcibed in my last post helps me do that.  And the big picture goals help me determine what the goals for individual runs should be... and then I have to stay aware, because the world is fluid and dynamic, changing all the time...

So, I am blathering on a bit here, back to the basics.

This is what I have done.  It started in 2007 when I scratched from Iditarod.  That was a BIG goal that I failed at so I evaluated all the pieces that went right and all that went wrong.  I drew a line down the middle of a balnk piece of paper, on side was the "right" things one the "wrong." And across the top I wrote "How to be competitive in Iditarod" I did this right there in the checkpoint as I waited for the little plane to take me home!

I used that as a master document for my planning.  Set out a timeline based on the changes I felt I was going to need to make, then started braking that down into smaller and smaller junks.

For me it was a 5 year plan. 2012 race iditarod again, 2011 competitve in mid-distance, 2010 competitve in short (under 100 miles races), 2009 puppy training, 2008 breed faster team/get family involved...

With each year goal defined, I set out to define seasonal goals for each year. Then montly goals for each season, weekly goals for each month, etc, all the way down to individual training run goals!

Of course I didn't do it all at once! Each year I evaluate the seasonal goals, each season the montly goals, each month the weekly goals, each week the daily goals, each run the minute to minute goals!

All the data I mentioned 2 posts ago helps me.  And the big picture goals help me decide what to do on individual runs when things start to go wrong.

So what goals do you have?  How are you anyalizing them?