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| Mitch Seavey trains a 20-dog team using a snowmobile. The snowmobile allows better control with a dog team of that size, and driving snowmobiles across the trail helps pack the trail down for use with actual dog sleds. |
Cold, Long Training Runs
December 7, 2001
Seavey's Iditarod Racing Team--Tyrell Seavey
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| Mitch Seavey trains a 20-dog team using a snowmobile. The snowmobile allows better control with a dog team of that size, and driving snowmobiles across the trail helps pack the trail down for use with actual dog sleds. |
Today we decided to take one more dog off the racing team. This brings our number to 39 racing dogs, which is still a really large number to be training! (The best 16 make up the Iditarod team.) Buck is the dog we dropped out. He is a young male with no racing experience, and though he was still performing well, he will be much better off in the future if he spends the winter with my younger brother Dallas, training for the Jr. Iditarod.
If a dog is run too much for its individual ability, the dog will mentally "blow fuses" and never perform to his or her full potential. This is especially true with young dogs. We saw this coming in Buck so we are going to stop training him for Iditarod this season. The experience he will gain in a slower noncompetitive team will help him tremendously next year.
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| The temperature was a warm -20oF as Mitch and Tyrell headed out on this run. |
My dad and I have started to run the whole team, split in to two groups, on our snomachines. He runs 20 dogs, and I have the other 19. We are currently going on 44mi. runs, so it is quite an efficient operation. However, the booting and harnessing takes a while; running dogs is just a time consuming thing.
It is cold now. Something to the tune of -40F in places along the trail. Brrr! A very common question I get is, "how in the world do you keep from freezing to death out there?" There is more to staying warm than you think, though, because we not only need to survive; we also need to function and perform, and that’s where it gets tricky. The gear that we wear is made from top-of-the-line synthetic materials, and when combined in the correct layers, it allows us to withstand temperatures down to -80F. It also works when wet, which is a necessity.
Hydration and calories are very important, too. A musher should drink several quarts of water and eat a couple thousand calories on every run to maintain his "furnace".
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| This is an example of a face mask. The fur on the hood is called a ruff. The ruff helps to supplement the face mask and prevent wind from going down the neck of the coat. |
Keeping your face covered is a must, because once it goes numb, you can’t feel whether you are getting frostbite (this is especially important for us young guys who still want to go after girls). I personally like a thick fleece neck gaiter which serves not only to cover my face but it also seals off the top of my parka and keeps wind from going down my back. When in the cold, the most important thing of all, though, is to just keep thinking. Remember: if you take your mitts off, you may not feel cold for a while, but once you do, your hands will take a long time to warm back up.
One reader wrote to me with this suggestion, "I think that you need to come up with a good name for Iditarod fans, like ‘Mushheads’ or something." I agree, so you guys e-mail me at seavey@ultimateiditarod.com and tell me what you think of that one, or send your own suggestions.
See you next time fellow Mushheads!
Tyrell Seavey
Sterling, Alaska