morning run on Thanksgiving day

click to see it in smugmug.

World Championship Dryland in Saguenay/ Canada

some pics:

we tried out the new trail in Pineland, ME where the DESDC has a race next weekend - that trail is just great 15-20 feet wide, no real steep hills no sharp 180, the dogs loved it.

I went out with Luc on the bike, then with Quest, the old trusted puppy-trainer. He trained Wolk, Lobo and Lund on the rig , and than again with Luc, Kaillou, Chinook and Lund.

you see in the clip below how the puppies behave the first 300m, Thanks to Mark for un-tangle them.

Hopkinton 2009

the first little warm up for the season.

1dog bikejoring with Luc.


2dog bikejoring with Kaillou and Lobo.



Lobo created a little bit of a tangle the first 100m. He didnt really understand whats going on but then he was ok for a 10months old.


4dog rig with Luc, Kaillou, Lobo and Lund.
The old guys did their job, the two puppies where a little bit confused and run fast but didn't really pull of course. It was only to show them all of the excitement of a race atmosphere and for that purpose it worked well, good experience for the pups.

The surprise of the day was again Wolk. I did the 1k canicross with him and he not just run great, he did also some great passings. Good job for a 6month old.

lost and found

lost and found the video from Lake Placid last year ;-)



It was a pretty wet and muddy trail, but we had a lot of fun in Lake Placid:

Hopkinton 2008

Last weekend was again the NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND SLED DOG TRADE FAIR & SEMINAR in Hopkinton NH. Like last year they had a little dryland race. little in distance but seems to me, every year there are more participants. there was 1 and 2 dog bikejoring, a scooter class, 4 dog and a 5-6 dog rig class and new for this year a canicross. The loop is only 0.8 miles or so. it seems there are some issues to get the approval to cross a road so one stays inside the fairground. But that's ok. I like all the dryland stuff because it simply extends the time to be with other sled dog people and race.
team snowrunner went out in the 1dog with Kaillou, who did surprisingly well (first place), the 2 dog bike with Luc and Quest (second overall), the 4 dog rig with Luc, Quest and Kaillou (third overall). Quest is now in an age that he cant keep up with the 3 (Luc) and 4 (Kaillou) year old. He is now the one who slows the team down. BUT and we will see it later in the snow races he safes so much time because he is an excellent command leader.
Interesting is that team snowrunner seems to have a good pace for a mile. as it was last year there were some pretty good sprint dogs at the start but for some reason Luc and Kaillou seem to beat them over that short distance. the difference is of course that the real sprinters would keep that pace over another 5miles whilst the Sibs slow down. But that's the reason we train for mid-distance, the natural distance for Siberians.
In the clip below you can see the whole race trail and one can also see how Quest (in lead on the left) is always one step behind Luc especially in last third.
Since we went out first there is no other team in sight.



Canicross - mass start -
I chose to take Chinook AND Luc. I shouldn't. each of them alone would be fine but together they act as pack. some of the other dogs growled a bit at Chinook and he growled back so that Luc started to make some noises too. At the start I thought it is better to keep a little distance to the other runners. Half way in the run there was a tangle of two or three dogs and their leashes and runners :) so we took the chance to run on by, had a very good pace and would have passed the two others in front of us but those were the ones who growled at Chinook, so I decided to take it easy and keep back. Not to mention that Ed and his dog Maggie was way in front. :-)




more pictures can be seen here and here

Hopkinton is a good start in the season, we have to thank the organizers. Each year the fair, the seminars and now also the race is getting bigger AND better. People came as far as Ontario!

Dogrundog again

the dogrundog in Norwich, VT on Sunday morning was really a great event.

It is so nice to see that it is growing so fast. Almost too fast, if it would double the participants next year again it would burst the event-center where it was held. I do not remember exactly but I believe more than 100+ people with dogs participated. I would say maybe 40 or so really competed all others took the opportunity to have a nice fast walk among other dog-lovers for a very nice purpose.

Ed beat his own time from last year and came in in an unbelievable 16:17min! And the 5K course is not flat! here his little superdog Maggie:

Christa took some more pictures, you can see them here

I was with 43:20 1:30min slower than last year at the 10k but given the fact that I jogged only 100k over all since last year's dogrundog and 50k of that within the last two weeks - that's kind of ok. Luc did his best to drag me over the distance.

As you can see in the picture above it is always difficult to convince the dog to run the second loop when the two only others in front of you turn in to the finish line.

Km 6 and 7 are then like still-stand and waiting for the guy behind us so we have someone to chase again :-)

In the end it was just the right start and motivation to the dryland season.

Still training with the rig but not more than 2-3miles, we had 15 hook up's since mid August, no porcupines so far! knock on wood!

rig training at the "Devils Den" in New Durham, NH

here's a short video of the "sprinters loop" how I call that short 5mile loop. It is just flat, sandy, without any obstacles; a simple out and back. 5miles.
The camera is mounted pretty low on the rig.
So, it is the view of a wheel dog. :)

trainings run with the rig

Just with three dogs today, Quest, Luc and Chinook. a short run in the "backyard"
Kaillou started to limp again thats why he stayed home.
we started rigth out of the kennel. the first 500m are fresh cut last summer.
The rigcam is mounted pretty low on the rig, so it is the view of a "wheeldog".

Video Pineland day2

Here a footage from the "bikecam".
I still have not the right bracket for that thing that's why it is very wobbly. They come out with a bike bracket in two weeks.
I mounted the camera with velcro and a pipe to the fork. but better than nothing.
Watch what happend at the end of the video when Ed Clifford passes us. It was of course at the steepest part of the whole trail.



And here the same run with a "helmet camera".



Edit:
If you have a fast connection and a screen where you can see both videos, let them run at the same time. start the helmetcam 8 sec or so earlier.

Luc and Kaillou in Pineland

Now a short reflection how actually Luc and Kaillou performed in Pineland over the weekend.

We competed in the two dog bikejoring class.

start

flying Kaillou :)

Luc is just great he is focused, he is strong and he has above that speed. He loped almost the whole 2.3miles and was pulling the whole time. He also pulled Kaillou who was “neck-lining” a lot. Luc reminds me on Quest when he was in that age.

I’m not sure if it was that Kaillou missed three weeks of training, that he still suffers from the quills or that he simply is not that fast, poor Kaillou. If the race would have been longer I would have taken of the neck line, but just the 2.3miles that was ok.

The time was 2:30 min faster on Saturday (9:56) than last year and approx. 1min faster on Sunday. That’s a huge improvement especially on Sunday because it was pretty muddy in the woods. Ok last year Luc was just 8 1/2month old and we had a borrowed bike and other issues but still.

The course is an up and down like a rollercoaster and the last 1/2mile are on grass, which is sometimes muddy and wet. So it is a pretty tough course for the dogs. Nothing compared to where we train at home but still tough.

I will also post some videos from both days. I had a camera mounted to the helmet and one mounted to the bike. Let’s see what they look like. It just takes a while to process these video files.

pictures from Sunday in Pineland

Christina Eagle


Marc


Betsy


Ed

and here all the pictures from Sunday.

Pineland, 2007 Down East Dryland Championships

I took a ton of pictures on Saturday.
You can find them here
Since it was very cloudy and overcast I took the pictures mostly in ISO1600 which makes them a bit grainy. But I needed at least 1/640s to catch the movements of the dogs.


Sara Vanderwood in the four dog class.


This picture shows the two fastest 5K-canicrossler in the North-East.
Ed Clifford of Raymond, NH who will be in Italy at the WC in two weeks, and Jason Sperry of Mexico, NY.

More to come tonight.

rig race at the Hopkinton fair

After just 5 training runs with the new rig I decided to compete in the 4 dog rig class in Hopkinton.

And yeah – team SnowRunner run in to the second place overall, just 5! Seconds behind Ed Clifford’s hounds. And that with just three mid-distance Siberians! Next team was 30 seconds behind. Not to mention first place in the pure breed section. 13 competitors over all.

It was a very short trail, just 1 km. A distance Siberians still can keep up with the acceleration of hounds.
Everybody took it as training but still, coming that close to Eds team is great for team SnowRunner. And of course it is also because of the new fast rig!

Now I’m ready to go to Lake Placid.

here some more pics.

But really interesting was Lance Mackey's speech!

dogrundog

Luc run in to the first place in the 10k competition in roughly 42min.

It was a very nice event, great organization, nice folks even some mushers around. They also had a vet check before the race. The race fee goes to local animal shelters.

The only thing was that the course was completely on paved roads. For dogs who pull really hard it is a bad thing to run on asphalt.

Ed Cliffords dog Maggie wore down all four booties! But Ed and Maggie run like crazy, 17:37 for 5k. Congrats to the new "World record" Ed :) !

Here some pictures.

Muddy Moose Trail Race 2007

Mud, Mud, Mud!
They had a big picture on page 1 of the sports part in our local newspaper, the “Baysider”. The picture doesn't show the amount of mud you actually have to run through.
What they always forget is that the dog indeed pulls you but the dog also pulls downhill and there you lose a lot of power in your legs because you have to brake for two. The dog pulls you also through the mud but here again you have to slow him down because you have to run careful and watch your steps. Thanks to Luc we came in second in the Old-Man-Age-Group and we made it to 10th place out of 91 over all.
That race is a lot of fun, I'm always surprised that I do not twist my ankles. This year I just run the 4miles to be more relaxed for the upcoming Pineland race.

Dryland in Pineland, Me 2006

Dryland race Pineland , ME 11/05/2006