-22 and kids

well the skies have opened up finally and gave us some snow. we have about 10 inches over the last few days and I can say I am so relieved, with tours season on us we really were getting worried that the tours we had booked would have to be moved to a time that we did get snow.

well all my complain may have paid off, the temperature is -22 right now there is no wind and I plan on getting out to train some puppies today. I have 2 childrend still sleeping and have decided to wait until they wake up before doing anything I have my teams all worked out now and so I have time to sit and write here.

It is too cold to ask the kids to come along with me training so I will send them off to their grandparents today for a couple of hours while I take out the puppies. trying to juggle both family life and training has been a bit of a challenge but I seem to be managing. in years past I had not had a goal and I was able to focus on the tours as a easy paced event, Now the pace seems almost urgent.

At this temp I am not sure if the quad is going to start which will put a damper on things if I can not get it started. that means I will have to run the sled and the trails have not been packed yet. not that it is a big deal just makes training so much easier. If I have to take out the sled I will ask for the neighbour to ride along with me so that with a big puppy team I have no issues with them as there is really not allot of snow to hook down and help in situations.

I will have to tremain off the trails with the quads now because the weight of the quad pushes the tires into the snow deep and ruins the flat surface for our sledding. I was enjoying the fact that I could still run big teams but now I am not sure if I will be able to run them along the highway now as the snow has come in strong.

I plan to go and have a look when the kids wake up and perhaps even pack some trails today instead of running..LOL I know I am not sure of what the day will bring. I need to see what I can run them with now so a scout of the trails are in order today.

I talked with my mushing buddy last night and he is running alaskans and he is up to our miles with just a bit of training and sounds like he has someone running his team for him. at this point I am not sure if he is just pushing the dogs hard or they have been able to get up to the miles quicker due to genetics. I am not sure but I am a bit concerned about the fact I may not be able to run with him on this race.

perhaps the 350 mile was a bit of a race to bite off for me being a rookie with small kids, there is a option to run a shorter distance of 150 miles with 8 dogs and I am really considering doing this one. I talked with my mentor who also is a vet that runs a amazing team of dogs and he thought for my own sake maybe the 8 dog would suit me better for the first race. His theory and I have to say I agree is to run the race knowing I can finish the whole thing and in the end be proud of my achievement of finishing rather than make it 150 miles and find we are just not experienced enough to do it. I have been struggling with this idea as I would have to take the team from 12 dogs to 8 which the dogs at this point are smaller faster dogs that may not have the strenght to got the distance. this par tof it concerns me. with 12 dogs at least I can drop a few and still fin sh with a strong team.

this is something I am going to have to talk about and see how things go. So I guess I have the training plan written out and the schedule in place so today I will do what the kids and weather allows me to do.

so until next time I guess I am off to turn on the fire place in the shack in the dog yard and I am off and running for the day.

Sibes