First run of the season!

Hey everyone!

We had our first run of the season last night. We hooked up 14 dogs and training from our kennel out toward Reinsåsen and back. We trained on the truck because we wanted to have complete control for the first run. The first run is to get the mental gymnastics out of the way. The truck is not a great way to build conditioning and fitness. We will use the truck a few more times before we will switch to running smaller teams on our fourwheeler.

The dogs looked great for having a summer off, and settled in like they had been doing it for months! We had our three new dogs with us. Kajo, who just arrived last weekend, ran with Harry in the middle of the team. Kajo is a very good lead dog but, because she is new to us and we are new to her, it makes sense not to put to much pressure on her to soon. We will have her up in lead for a little bit of time within the next few runs, and then after she has run a dozen times with us she will start rotating through the leader position with the others!

We had a few of Bjørn Petter Kaltenborns dogs with us including his lead dog which he graciously let us borrow for a few runs until Kajo and some of the youngsters start rotating through.

Epo was a rock star as usual. Freya looked great, and Subchief was charming and steady as always.

We are beginning this season with a new training schedule. It is an 11 day cycle.
Day 1: Long and slow run
Day 2: Off
Day 3: off
Day 4: Long and slow
Day 5: Off
Day 6: off
Day 7: Fast and Short
Day 8: Fast and Short
Day 9: Fast and Short
Day 10: Off
Day 11: Off

This training schedule should give the dogs adequate rest, while still builing up the muscle and endurance that we will need. Later in the season some of the long and slow runs will be camping runs where we run long and then camp, before running long again.
This should get us in shape for the Skelbreia Sweepstakes race in February and the Amundsen Race in March.

Updates as events warrant