27 Dec 05 “B” Team Ewok / 15.6 Miles                       Dirty / 28.6 Miles Lena / 5.2 Miles                                       Crazy Willie / 20.4 Miles Zoro / 15.6 Miles                        Wolf / 18.2 Miles Distance approx. 2.6 miles/38 Degrees “A” Team Fawn / 24.5 Miles                          Toast / 42.7 Miles Tundra / 45.3 Miles                       Mack / 45.3 Miles Rocky / 45.3 Miles                        Ajax / 45.3 Miles Distance approx. 3.7 miles/38 Degrees NOTES: Ok today was the first day I took two groups out.  For the “B” Team I started out with Lena and Ewok out front.  It was obvious that wasn’t going to work.  So I stopped the team and switched Dirty and Lena around.  That actually worked pretty good.  Dirty did decent up front.  As of right now My plan is to run the “B” Team when both me and my wife are off work.  I figure this is a good way to keep the back up dogs in shape.  Zoro and Wolf run really well together in the wheel position.  They are both very hard pullers.  Now for the “A” Team.  Man it takes every thing I have not to go crazy with Fawn up front.  She just makes Toast work so hard.  Not only that but she always pulls her off trail.  Toast just doesn’t run with the same amount of confidence up front next to Fawn.  So tomorrow Im going to put Tundra back up there with her.  I will leave Fawn with the main team for now.  I am always changing my mind with team orders and training routine so I will leave what Im going to do open for now.  Truth is I just don’t know what Im going to do yet.  I extended the coarse for the “A” Team and I could tell.  They were wore out after that run.  Also today was the first day I fed my power pack.  I blend up liver and corn oil so its like a liquid.  I use an ice cream scoop for the mixture.  That’s how much I give each dog.   Then I give each dog a boiled egg and fill the bowl up with water.  I am going to try to do this every day I run the dogs at least two hours before they run.  I am interested to see if this improves there performance.
		28 Dec 05 Team order Tundra / 49 Miles                      Toast / 46.4 Miles Fawn / 28.2 Miles                  Mack / 49 Miles Rocky / 49 Miles                 Ajax / 49 Miles Distance approx. 3.7 miles/38 Degrees NOTES: Well I’ve changed my mind again.  I thought it would be a good idea to run two teams.  Its not!  I just don’t have enough good leaders and the time that it takes to run two teams I just don’t have.  I did hook up the “B” Team and it went hireably.  I put Ducky up front with Dirty and she just didn’t want to go.  I probably went about 200 yards then I put Ewok up front with Ducky.  That didn’t work either.  Believe it or not I put Sunny up front with Ducky to bring the team back home and that worked like a champ.  I am still a believer that Ducky is going to make a great leader some day.  As far as the “A” Team all went well.  No problems what so ever.   Tundra and Toast run really well together up front.  Toast also had her confidence back today running with Tundra.  A couple of notables, I took the extended coarse today and on the way out there was a dog barking in the yard by a house we go by.  This caught the teams attention for sure.  So I was needless to say a little worried about the trip back.  On the way back not only did I have that dog to worry about but I also noticed on the other side there was a dog loose.  Luckily there was no problems.  I don’t think I want to push my luck with that though.  So basically I am going to run a bigger team now.  My hope is to switch out Ducky and Tundra in order to spin up Ducky.  With Fawn in the team that does give me another way to get home if I have too.  As it gets closer to our first race I will start weaning out the non players in order to consolidate the team for harder training as we approach the race date.  Of coarse this is all subject to change.
			01 Jan 06 Team Order Distance approx. 3.7 miles/22 Degrees Tundra / 52.7 Miles                         Toast / 50.1 Miles Ducky / 27.1 Miles                         Sunny / 8.9 Miles Crazy Willie / 24.1 Miles                Fawn / 31.9 Miles Wolf / 21.9 Miles                            Zoro / 19.3 Miles Dirty / 32.3 Miles                             Mack / 52.7 Miles Rocky / 52.7 Miles                        Ajax / 52.7 Miles NOTES: Happy New Years!  And it started out well with training.  I am very happy with how things played out today.  I was a little nervous heading out with a big team after the last time.  But every thing played out well.  I will make a few changes tomorrow.  I didn’t like the way Sunny was running next to Ducky.  Sunny was crowding Ducky.  So I will put him next to an older dog and see if we can keep him on his side of the gang line.  Other than that I don’t have any complaints.
				02 Jan 06 Team Order Distance approx. 3.7 miles/32 Degrees Tundra / 56.4 Miles                      Toast / 53.8 Miles Ducky / 30.8 Miles                       Mack / 56.4 Miles Crazy Willie / 27.8 Miles             Fawn / 35.6 Miles Wolf / 25.6 Miles                     Zoro / 23 Miles Sunny / 12.6 Miles                  Dirty / 36 Miles Rocky / 56.4 Miles                   Ajax / 56.4 Miles NOTES: First off, moving Sunny with Dirty was a very good move on my part.  Finally I got one right.  This was a very smooth outing.  I really don’t have much to say about it because every thing went so well.  I actually relaxed and took in the scenery.  I do need to say however that I am so impressed with how hard Wolf and Zoro pull.  Man they pull hard, I love it!
					03 Jan 06 Team Order Distance approx. 3.7 miles/32 Degrees Tundra / 60.1 Miles                         Toast / 57.5 Miles Ducky / 34.5 Miles                           Mack / 50.1 Miles Crazy Willie / 31.5 Miles                Fawn / 39.3 Miles Wolf / 29.3 Miles                           Zoro / 26.7 Miles Sunny / 16.3 Miles                        Dirty / 39.7 Miles Rocky / 60.1 Miles                        Ajax / 60.1 Miles NOTES: Ok Im not really a big fan of ND winters ie: the constant below zero weather and wind blowing 100 miles an hour every day BUT, this is getting a little ridiculous.  It got up to 40 degrees today and smelled like spring.  I worry about the dogs catching colds in this kind of weather.  So it was a late run tonight in order to run when it was 32 degrees witch In my opinion is still to warm.  But training must go on.  A couple of things to talk about today.  First I have to say I am just about out of ideas on how to keep the four wheeler from moving down the driveway when Im hooking up the dogs.  Man they are becoming very strong.  I have all four wheels locked, the four wheeler in gear and the front tires blocked and by the time I attach the wheel dogs they are moving down the drive way.  I may have to tie the back of the four wheeler to a tree pretty soon.  This new coarse of 3.7 miles just isnt enough any more.   Out of the shoot today they were sprinting for a good mile averaging 18 mph.  After that the average was about 13 mph.  I really don’t like running them that fast but believe it or not my hand isnt really on the gas and unless I ride the breaks all the way I really cant go any slower.  If I was on a sled I just know they would be hauling.  Speaking of that if we don’t get any snow soon I am going to head to my first race without “sled legs”  thats going to suck.  One last thing, Today was the first day with a new feeding program.  I am now just giving them the liver water an hour before they run.  I’ve noticed that this works better.  I thing the egg was weighing them down a bit.  I know feed them a scoop of Rice and a hard boiled egg with there dog food at night.  I think this will work better for muscle growth and also recovery.  My goal here is to build a big/strong/fast dog all in one.  I think it is very possible to do.  Oh and a very good run today also.  The next three day break I will increase the coarse to at least 5 miles.
						07 Jan 06 Team Order Distance approx. 5.0 miles/30 Degrees Tundra / 65.1 Miles                    Toast / 62.5 Miles Ducky / 39.5 Miles                     Mack / 65.1 Miles Crazy Willie / 36.5 Miles          Fawn / 44.3 Miles Wolf / 34.3 Miles                     Zoro / 31.7 Miles Sunny / 21.3 Miles                  Dirty / 44.7 Miles Rocky / 65.1 Miles                 Ajax / 65.1 Miles NOTES: We increased the mileage to 5 today.  They all did very well.  I could tell they were more tired at the end of the run today.   Really not much to say today, every thing was pretty smooth.  One thing I would like to say is I really do like how Tundra runs up front.  He runs straight as an arrow head up and ears pointed towards the sky.  He looks really good up there.  Also it seems like his stamina is probably just about the best in the team.
							08 Jan 06 Team Order Distance approx. 5.0 miles/28 Degrees Tundra / 70.1 Miles                      Toast / 67.5 Miles Ducky / 44.5 Miles                       Mack / 70.1 Miles Crazy Willie / 41.5 Miles             Fawn / 49.3 Miles Wolf / 39.3 Miles                         Zoro / 36.7 Miles Sunny / 26.3 Miles                      Dirty / 49.7 Miles Rocky / 70.1 Miles                      Ajax / 70.1 Miles NOTES: Today was just one of those days you don’t like to have.  It wasn’t a very smooth outing today.  I could kind of tell just by the way Tundra was kind of wondering off and looking around.  He doesn’t usually do that.  First thing first, the neighbor had his dog out side today and decided to run across the road towards the team.  So that was a lot of fun let me tell you.  Luckily Ann was there and also the owner of the Lab was there to bring him back home.  So after that Toast decided she needed to pee, and came to a dead stop while we were booking right a long.  So that ended up being a tangled mess.  Then at the turn around point Tundra decided he wanted to get into it with Mack.  Luckily we were able to stop anything bad from happening.  Just one of those days that you can tell nothing is going to go right.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
							09 Jan 06 Team Order Distance approx. 5.0 miles/35 Degrees Ducky / 49.5 Miles                      Tundra / 75.1 Miles Toast / 72.5 Miles                    Mack / 75.1 Miles Crazy Willie / 46.5 Miles         Fawn / 54.3 Miles Wolf / 44.3 Miles                    Zoro / 41.7 Miles Sunny / 31.3 Miles                 Dirty / 54.7 Miles Rocky / 75.1 Miles                Ajax / 75.1 Miles NOTES: I decided to switch it up a little tonight.  What a better way to do that then put a 8 month old Male Puppy up in lead of a 12 dog team!  I have tried Ducky up front before but not with this big of a team.  Ok, the start, was horrible.  There was a orange ball in my yard and of coarse that was the first thing Ducky saw.  So of coarse Tundra must of agreed with him because that’s where they went.  So we get them back on line after moving about 5 feet.  Then we start again and again there must of been something in the grass ducky wanted to play with and again Tundra must of agreed that what ever it was was more fun then running.  Holy Moly talk about keeping my patients.  So finally we get across the road and on the trail.  After that Ducky did really well.  There is no doubt that some day he will be my main leader.  We just need to get past the puppy stage.  As far as the rest of the team.  I noticed the run was a little faster today and also that they weren’t as tired.  So next break I have a idea of a training run I want to try.  I will think about it the next 3 days and see how it goes.  Overall a very good 3 day break!