A Peek into Peaking

A Peek into Peaking

"If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there."  Lewis Carroll

Here are the numbers from August as we taper off of our monthly peak. 6 AM temperatures through the first 26 days averaged 38 degrees with two days starting at 49 degrees and a low of 30 degrees occurring this morning.  There were eleven days in the thirties with five of these days that aligned nicely with our scheduled peak from the twentieth through the twenty-fourth. We also took advantage of cooler temperatures on the seventh and eighth with a mini peak. Our long/slow runs are 15 percent further than scheduled and we are over 50 percent of our total goal miles for dry land season. “Hay is in the barn,” as some like to say.  For now we get to play and are in a cycle of resting and recuperation.  We will continue to maintain training intensity but will minimize fatigue.

Norbert, our 16 month old yearling, just ran five days in a row for a total of 80 miles.  This morning he ran up front with Fozzie who finished the 2013 Quest in lead.  They did a 2 x 22 minute interval run with a 3 minute rest in between intervals. The team ran back through the yard resting five minutes here, and then left the yard with the same intensity as they had the first time. They repeated the same two intervals in slightly longer run times. Total mileage on today’s run was 16 miles.  Norbert is ready for race training now. 

An old cyclist once said that the art of “peaking” is the timely combination of fitness and freshness. We have been able to maintain our fitness during the summer.  In the past I have found that running longer than a couple of hours on the four wheeler had a negative effect on the dogs freshness as well as causing general discomfort to my body, so after we taper we will start our progressions over.  Now the way to increase our fitness is to up our frequency and our intensity.  Our skinny-a$$ jockey, Heidi,  has returned from her summer job to start her eleventh year of teaching, and with her help on weekends and in the evening, all dogs will start to run 4-5 days in a row.  Twice this summer, during her days off, we increased our frequency; both times doing four days straight around 8 miles each run.  Otherwise we ran day on/day off.  Emily, our daughter, has returned from Italy and has returned in aiding in the poop department.  Heidi has taken over the evening feeding of the dogs.  I still water the dogs at 5 AM, now in the dark.  We are now fully staffed here at KMA.  With all of this extra time I now have the time to map out our “peaks” for our race season. It is a difficult job but someone has to do it.  I will be guided by the past.  “Peaking” is an art form. One must be flexible as well as creative.  A huge part of training dogs is the “freshness” element. 

At this time of year temperatures play a huge role in “freshness”. Dogs overheat easily with temperatures in the fifties and their freshness is quickly zapped.  It is very difficult to work them at their maximum thresholds of endurance. Remember the previous blog post's “stimulate vs. annihilate” concept. Temperatures below forty and around thirty are good temperatures for them to work hard and increase endurance.  One must be really aware at temperatures of above 40.  Cold water always helps during the fall.  It is essential in the summer.   Fall is 40 degrees.  Summer is 50 degrees.  Dogs have no concept of seasons or time.  They are either hot or not.  In a couple of months I will be focused on forecasted cold snaps. I prefer to “peak” the dogs right before a cold snap and then they can recover inside.  I will not run them hard at temperatures lower than -30.  Because there is so much “hay in the barn” we can afford to give the dogs a week off at any time.

Our first run on the sled is always to a location 16.5 miles away that is several hundred yards off of the CB 300 trail.  It is right below tree line at 3000 feet.  All it takes is a couple of inches of snow and off I’ll go with the arctic oven, a chainsaw, a bale of straw, a picket line, dog food and eight dogs attached to my 19 year old freight sled.  We will establish the trail through the swamps until about 6 miles out of Chistochina when we connect into the main CAT trail. The training we do throughout the summer on the braided Chistochina River provides our leaders with the ability to be clock-led through the swamps.  A little gee means a slight right turn and a long drawn out gee means a sharp 90 degree turn. It usually takes a little over 2 hours to get to the camp. Normally, due to orographic precipitation patterns, there is quite a bit of more snow up there.  

This is always my favorite day of the year. This is why I mush. The feeling of being alone with dogs and traveling together without the drone of a motor is the essence of what we do. 

The picket line is set up. Harnesses are removed and dogs are attached to the picket. Straw is spread out. Dogs are fed. As they relax, I set up the tent, find dry wood and establish the camp. This usually happens around Halloween, sometimes earlier, hopefully not later.  None of the dogs are tired.  Keep in mind as I write this at the end of August all twenty of our dogs have just run this distance a number of days in a row. Dogs should lie down and sleep on straw as a habit, not because they are tired.  Around five hours later, I will fill up the basket of the freight sled with ballast in the form of dry wood for the return trip.  This run will not be a peak. The dogs will have done this same schedule a couple of weeks before in one of our fall camping trips on the Denali Highway or on the Nabesna Road. I like to break up fall training into two hour or less chunks of running with race–like breaks of four to six hour in between.

We will travel back and forth between home and the tent camp on a daily basis for the first couple of weeks of November, decreasing our rest time as the days shorten. I try to pull hook when the sun sets. Our next peak sometime in the middle of November will be three two hour runs with a two hour break twice in between them.  Here is how it works: run to the tent camp 16.5 miles, light meal rest 2 hours, run 9 miles out of tent camp, short 5 minute break, back 9 miles to tent camp, very light meal rest hours and run 16.5 miles home. As much as I love the first day at the tent camp is as much as I loathe the three two hour run days. Yes, days, because there is always a second and sometimes third team to do it with.  I believe this is the most essential “peak” of the year though, and the one that the weaker dogs will show there lack of freshness or fitness in. I will do it once with each dog to test their ability to travel. We will follow this three run fifty by going up to the camp and returning home directly with a ten minute break half way through the 33 mile run.  We conclude this November peak period by running through the tent camp to the 9 mile turnaround beyond it (this is Posty’s  for those familiar with the CB 300 trail out of Chisto) and coming back through the tent camp.  We always stop at the tent camp for a snack and if we have a dog that looks tired we are always prepared to stop for a while. This ten day period right before Thanksgiving looks something like this in mileage: 32, two days off, 50, two days off, 32, two days off, 50.  The week after this “peak” we usually give the dogs several days off.  Quite often we have a cold snap at this time that I am being flexible around.  Heidi and Emily have a block of time to play as well with their break from school. They spend Thanksgiving running to the tent camp while I prepare dinner at home.

Around the first of December I will take the Bravo up to Excelsior Creek and establish a high camp that is 35 miles out of Chistochina. Now we run to the tent camp, stop for a feeding and then head north another two hours and camp again. In the past, when I have had young dogs, I have trained between the tent camp and this spike camp for several days before coming home.  A couple of weeks before Christmas, usually on the weekend, Heidi will head up to this camp and back with three 15 minute breaks between the four 2 hours runs. This is the longest run we will do before we start racing.

Last year we used each race to build upon the one before as peaks.  Heidi ran the Solstice 100 and 30 hours later she mushed into the White Mountains with a friend.  In a 72 hour period the dogs did 220 miles.  This prepared them for the CB 300.  In the three weeks in between these two races she ran up to the spike camp and back two days in a row.  This mini peak was 140 miles in 36 hours.  The Copper Basin was 300 miles in 58 hours; finishing the race with an 85 mile run. The Yukon Quest 300 was done in 55 hours; finishing the race with two 72 mile runs.  Three weeks after the Quest I did an 80 mile run here, boxed the dogs drove them to Fairbanks and then did a 100 mile run in the White Mountains both runs completed within 24 hours.  Three weeks after this maintenance peak, Heidi ran the Tolsona 50/50 and then I followed it up immediately with a 70, 60, and 50.  280 miles was done in a 96 hour period.  A couple of weeks later, eleven of our dogs ran 425 miles in 70 hours and were unfazed at the finish of the Kobuk 440.

In summary, every month of the year we pick a block of time to run the dogs hard and then the following week we either run them lightly or give them several days off until we progress towards the next peak. The past three months we have progressed slowly towards being able to run two hours at a time. The next three months we will link together two hour runs until we can run 8 hours at a time.  The following three months we will string these 6-8 hour runs together to run 100-300 miles in a block of time. Finally, in March the dogs and Heidi will run 300 miles in around 60 hours;  rest a day, hoping to come off the rest with full fitness and freshness. If the dogs peak at this time they should be able to run to Nome in fine form in a week.

Finally, the dogs would like to thank Lee and John down the road and the Copper River for the fish.  They would also like to thanks the Biddles for their contributions to the pot.  Protein and fat is the most generous sponsorship anybody can give to a dog team! The dogs enjoy seeing their musher busy cooking. More time on cooking and less on scheming is the mantra coming from the yard.

Thank you for peeking into our peaking!