Friday, June 19, 2009

Summer Training






The above photo was a feature in the local paper taken out at Martis Valley near Truckee CA. I am lucky to live where morning temperatures are often in the 30s F all summer long. The Martis Valley near Truckee CA is often the recorded coldest place in North America during the summer months. At higher latitudes, the days are so long that the night temperatures do not vary as much. Truckee is at latitude 38 and 5800' in elevation. At Martis Valley I have a trail I like to use to train my team. I will rotate my three dogs and use two dogs while leaving one dog at home. The trail is a 4.1 mile loop that is mostly flat. The dogs are able to run at top speed. I use my scooter instead a mountain bike because the trail is not very technical. The trails just outside my front door are steep and rocky that require me to use a mountain bike. There are several creeks that cross the trail that have cold clean water that the dogs can refresh themselves in.
Recently I bought a helmet cam to record my rides. I can scrutinize each segment of the trail and know by the time reading just how fast my dogs are running. Because this is summer I am not pressuring my dogs to run fast and I am not running them as often as the other seasons. I stop at least once at a creek to let them drink and swim a little. Here is a recent youtube post of one of my runs.

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