Training For Several Sports

[Esky the husky]

My girl Esky competes in two sports dryland racing 'sledding' and weight pull.

I really want to go into our next season with a more structured approach to training.

I'm trying to work out how do this. I really want to avoid over working her

When my own excercise regime I do my heaviest weights Monday, 90% of that weight on a Wednesday and 80% on a Friday.

On alternate days I do cardio stuff, with 1-2 rest days per week depending on how bad I feel.

I assume the same applies to dogs.

So how would I go about structuring an excercise plan.

Monday: Dryland training run

Tuesday: Rest- light walk

Wednesday: Weights Training:

Thursday: Rest Light walk

Friday:Dryland training run

Saturday:Light weight training

Sunday: Total rest

Too much?

What about on race weeks. Saturday and sunday are both taken up with racing so I'd maybe run tues and thurs instead?

Sorry for going on, I'd just like to be able to measure our progress next year and am trying to work out how to do it. Hopefully someone can help me out

[Tumbleweed]

Great question Esky. I'm afraid I can't help, but will be watching with interest. We started racing as a 2 dog team last year, but my 6 year old Sibe really didn't cope well with the longer distances (we were Novices in 2011) due to lack of fitness, and she ended a couple of races not liking racing much :-( . This year I plan to do ALOT more fitness work and bring back the 'joy' in racing for her. Although with temperatures in the 30s/40s this week I think training is many months away.

My only suggestion would be to maybe mix it up a little more - do some beach training (if your location allows it) where the dogs drag a tyre on the sand, or maybe some bike riding with a springer/Walky dog attachment, where you keep a slower pace than racing but for longer to improve cardio fitness. If your dogs are reliable off lead (my Sibe isn't!) also try free-running at the beach or at a large dog park. There are a few people in sledding that swear by this for increasing and maintaining fitness - particularly over summer.

[Jumabaar]

I also incorporate hill work (straight up the hill and zig zags) at a walk and gait and some work on the wobble board for their core strength. They are mostly for injury prevention rather than building up cardio though.

[Esky the husky]

Thanks tumbleweed. I was thinking of including the bike springer/walky dog running as cardio.

I like the beach idea, got plenty of that around.

Not free running though. :laugh: Sometimes we go to a really dead dog park and let her run there.

She doesn't seem as keen on free excercising when it's just her, so I normally have to encourage her.

Thanks Jumabar, have to try and find a hill.. Would a treadmill be a substitute?