Keeping a training log for a sled-dog kennel

A training log is the memory of the kennel. It is how you know that a dog ran twice this week, that the lake loop was faster in February than in December, and that the one run where the team fell apart was the day it was minus twenty-six. Most kennels keep one. Fewer keep one that answers questions.

Write the same things every time

The value of a log is not in the detail of a single entry but in the fact that every entry has the same shape. Pick a short list and fill it in after every run, including the short ones and the bad ones.

• Date and start time. Early runs and late runs are different runs.
• Route. A name you use for the trail, so you can compare runs of the same trail later.
• Distance. From the GPS if you have it, otherwise from the route.
• Riding time. The time the team was moving, without the stops.
• Rest. Water stops, tangles, a dog that needed looking at. Short, but written down.
• Temperature. At the start. It explains more pace differences than anything else.
• The dogs and where they ran. Which pair in lead, who ran wheel, who was left home and why.
• Notes. One or two lines on the trail and on how the dogs ran. "Tor pulled left at the end" is worth more than a paragraph.

Why the numbers matter more than the story

With the same fields every time, three things become visible that a notebook of stories never shows.

Kilometres per dog. A dog that misses a run because of a sore foot, a heat or a trip to the vet falls behind the team without anyone noticing. Added up over a season, that is the dog that is underprepared for the long runs. A log that knows which dogs ran gives each dog its own total.

The same route over the season. Pace on a known trail is the honest measure of where the team is. If the lake loop takes twelve minutes less in January than in November at the same temperature, the training is working. If it does not, the log says so before a race does.

Who needs a run. The question every morning is not "who ran yesterday" but "who has not run for too long". A log with dates per dog answers it at a glance.

Paper, a spreadsheet, or an app

Paper is fast at the sled and slow everywhere else. A spreadsheet adds up, but somebody has to type the runs in, and the lineup of ten dogs is a column that nobody wants to fill. An app on the phone is the only version where the log is written where the training happens, by whoever ran the team.

In Nordspann the fields above are the training itself. You start a training on the phone, set the lineup by tapping, and the GPS track fills in distance, riding time and rest. The temperature is looked up where the track started. What is left to type is the notes, and a run that is done but has no result yet is marked, so it does not stay empty.

Whatever you use, the rule is the same: the log only works if every run is in it. A log with gaps tells you about the gaps.