 |
| These two crack me up! |
1 Training, oy-vey! Prior to my first 50 miler I was 49 and did my first marathon distance in May of last year (49 years old) and two 50K’s in September and October. Funny story, my original goal was to do a 50K at 50 years old. After I did my marathon race (of course it was a trail race) I felt good and thought why not train for a 50K this year too since I had most of the year left. So I signed up for a 50K in September after e-mailing and making sure Miles could do it with me. I have never used a plan when training, I was doing it all by feel and with some mentoring from my great friend, but I ended up doing a marathon distance race before she did, so I was pretty much going on my own. Since it had worked for me and was still working, I continued to do that through my 50K’s. I never ran more than 26.2 miles before my first 50K and it worked. I tried to at least run one 20 mile day once a month with a lot of 10-15 mile runs on the weekends between, and 5-8 mile runs during the week days. I would take days off when I felt like I needed to and run when it felt reasonably good. Keep in mind that I work outside daily, so I am always on my feet and not just sitting around behind a desk. I finished my first 50K feeling decent (had blister issues I learned to address before they became blisters after this) and jumped into another 50K a bit more than a month after the first. We managed to finish the 2nd 50K an hour faster than the first with limited mileage between them, but I had learned that it was more a mental game after the first one than a huge training mileage game for me. So, with my 50th birthday coming up and feeling strong after two 50K’s, I decided to go for it and register for a 50 miler in the following spring. I wanted to make it a destination race to celebrate how far I had come at age 50, and make it something to remember. I live in Missouri and put the word out that I was looking for a race and they had to allow dogs. An RD for a race in Utah reached out to me and said they would welcome Miles. A few folks in an Ultra running group on FB I am in also reached out who had done this race and sent me pictures and I was hooked. I was going to Utah for my 50@50. I decided I better respect the distance and get a training plan for this one. I asked around, found what looked like a good plan, spoke to some more knowledgeable ultra runners about the plan, and started training on it. About a month into the plan I started to hate having to run. How could this be? I LOVED to run, it was my favorite thing to do and I always felt so good after a run, but I was looking for excuses NOT to run, as it started feeling like a job. I didn’t like this feeling, no, I HATED that I was beginning to HATE running. That day I crumpled up the plan and joyfully tossed it in the trash. I went back to running by feel, but keeping the back to back weekend long runs that it suggested. That was the only thing I changed about how I loved to train, how I loved to run. I WAS BACK INTO IT! It felt GOOD again. I did see an interesting “running challenge” 3 weeks out from my race. It was the 4x4x48 challenge. You pick a starting time, run 4 miles, then every 4 hours you run 4 miles again, repeat for 48 hours. That weekend I had needed a 28/16 back to back, so I decided to do the challenge instead. Not only would it give me the mileage I needed, it would help me to understand running in the dark while tired without running through the night completely. I thought it would show me if I could make myself get up and run even when I would rather sleep. It worked! It felt amazing to finish the challenge and know I could run even at 2am in the morning after going to sleep just 4 hours earlier, after running at 10pm and then get up again at 6am and run again. It was the last little confidence boost I needed to feel good about running 50 miles in a couple of weeks.
1
What are the considerations you must account for
when doing long distances with your dog?
The #1 consideration is
twofold, water and temperature. I do
most of my runs on trails with water available such as around lakes or with
many creeks/streams along the way. Miles
will drink from the stream from my hydration vest, but I like for him to be
able to jump in if he wants an have a nice soak too, particularly when the heat
goes up. I NEVER consider my time over
his desire to stop for a water break.
Dogs don’t really “gorge” on water, but they need to be able to have
little drinks often when it’s warmer and they are running distance, and
immersing themselves in water is important to keep their body comfortable and
not overheat.
A dog that can jump in
water every few miles will be able to go a lot further a lot longer than one
that only is drinking plenty, but not really able to cool off completely in
water. We often run on 90 degree F days,
but we don’t push for time and he can jump in the water at any point he wants, and I will stand there as long as he wants to soak. Keeping in mind that we are running on trails
with mostly tree cover, so the sun is not beating down on us during the
summer. In the winter we explore more
open trails and he does fine drinking mostly from my hydration vest without
needed a good soak in a stream/pond/lake.
I address nutrition through his regular feeding. It’s not safe to feed dogs while running as bloat is a serious health threat. He gets his breakfast at least 2 hours before we run any distance over 5 miles, and no dinner till 1 hour after any distance run. I feed mostly RAW and include salmon or trout (skin on) for added protein and fat as distance needs increase. I closely watch his condition and if I notice that he is getting a bit “ribby” as we increase distance, I will up the protein as needed. During a race, I will share a bit of a boiled potato I am eating with him to beat the “sad puppy eyes” he would make if he didn’t get a treat too, but other than that he does not require fueling like “humans” do. After a long race or training run (over 10 miles) I will have a raw hock/leg bone with lots of marrow in it for him to gnaw on for a treat on the ride home.
As far as conditioning and physical stress on him, he has never shown any stress from our runs, but I attribute that to our training and building slowly to each distance and not over training. Since he is outside with me most of the day, I don’t have issues with him having to go from the house to physical activity as he’s always on his feet like I am. His pads are conditioned to all outside surfaces that we face on a trail or the gravel road, so they are naturally toughened up as well as being acclimated to the temperatures.
When we run in below freezing temperatures I do have a coat for him since he’s a short haired, non double coat breed and I use a humans running buff to cover his ears and boots for his feet as those are the places most likely to get frostbit with extended exposure. We’ve only had to use those when it’s 20 degrees F or lower. I also have a water resistant jacket for him for rainy runs when it’s in the 30’s and low 40’s but not freezing to keep his core comfortable.
I address nutrition through his regular feeding. It’s not safe to feed dogs while running as bloat is a serious health threat. He gets his breakfast at least 2 hours before we run any distance over 5 miles, and no dinner till 1 hour after any distance run. I feed mostly RAW and include salmon or trout (skin on) for added protein and fat as distance needs increase. I closely watch his condition and if I notice that he is getting a bit “ribby” as we increase distance, I will up the protein as needed. During a race, I will share a bit of a boiled potato I am eating with him to beat the “sad puppy eyes” he would make if he didn’t get a treat too, but other than that he does not require fueling like “humans” do. After a long race or training run (over 10 miles) I will have a raw hock/leg bone with lots of marrow in it for him to gnaw on for a treat on the ride home.
As far as conditioning and physical stress on him, he has never shown any stress from our runs, but I attribute that to our training and building slowly to each distance and not over training. Since he is outside with me most of the day, I don’t have issues with him having to go from the house to physical activity as he’s always on his feet like I am. His pads are conditioned to all outside surfaces that we face on a trail or the gravel road, so they are naturally toughened up as well as being acclimated to the temperatures.
When we run in below freezing temperatures I do have a coat for him since he’s a short haired, non double coat breed and I use a humans running buff to cover his ears and boots for his feet as those are the places most likely to get frostbit with extended exposure. We’ve only had to use those when it’s 20 degrees F or lower. I also have a water resistant jacket for him for rainy runs when it’s in the 30’s and low 40’s but not freezing to keep his core comfortable.
What is your favorite gear for you and what is
your favorite gear for Miles?
1 Gear for me is based on
one ultimate factor: Is it
comfortable? If it’s comfortable I wear
it no matter how it looks. I have a
love/hate relationship with my trail shoes which are Pearl Izumi Trail
N3’s. I love how my feet love them,
never any issues since I found them. I
HATE that Izumi stopped making trail shoes less than a year after I fell in
love with these shoes. I bought MANY
pairs of them that I could find on line once I heard they were shutting their
running gear department down. I don’t
enjoy the thought of opening the last pair and having to find a new shoe that
my feet like. I always wear compression
shorts, Heat Gear from Under Armor to stop the thigh rub chafing, and I enjoy
wearing running skirts in the warmer weather, no particular favorite, just
whatever happens to catch my eye and fit well.
I love all the cold weather running tights from Under Armor, and cannot
live without my Storm Gear UA jacket when the weather turns cold and/or
rainy. My shirts are as varied as my
personality on any given day, the only concern is that they feel good when I
put them on and take them off. I do like
the UA long sleeved running shirts for winter, and I have a favorite wool tank
from Smartwool that is the most comfortable shirt in the middle of a hot, humid
summer. My vest is a UD Wink, which they
also do not make any more and it’s too bad because you can stuff SO MUCH in
that tiny vest and it rides well on my body, so I will nurse it along as long as
I can. I mentioned blister issues
earlier and the way I fixed that was to finally break down and get Injinji toe
socks, which I now LOVE as I don’t fight blisters any more. My favorite are the Trail Weight Crew socks
in nu-wool. Not only do they love my
feet, but they come in really fun patterns too.
You will always find me in a Buff to keep my wild hair out of my face
and for the great sweat wicking properties (and when I drive my jeep topless it
keeps me from eating hair too) and often topped with a previous race hat when
the sun is strong or it’s raining.
For
Miles, after looking at many options for harnesses I chose the Ruffwear
Omnijore system which includes the harness for him, leash and the hip belt for
me. I have however switched out the
Ruffwear leash for a Stunt Puppy bungee leash as I like the responsiveness of
it better. The Omnijore harness is made
for canine sports where you want your dog to be able to pull without straining
their neck or back, it keeps the shoulders free for proper range of
movement. Miles is trained to “go ahead”
when possible and pull me along like in proper canicross events, so I wanted to
be sure he was totally comfortable. The
hip belt comes with two good sized pockets and a water bottle pocket along with
the emergency release system for safety.
I am a solid fan of Ruffwear gear, as I have had a walking harness for
another dog fray within a couple of months of purchase, and when I contacted
them with pictures, they sent me a code to replace it with another harness of
equal value at no cost to me. They stand
behind their products with no quibbling when something is not right, and that
says a lot. I also have their collapsible
water bowl that I carry at races to provide water for Miles. His jacket for below freezing winter running
is the Ruffwear Cloudchaser Jacket, and the boots are the Ruffwear Polar Trex
boots.
Alrighty! That wraps up part 2 of the series! Look for Part 3 coming at you next week!
No comments:
Post a Comment