As I panted along on my early-spring run today, I contemplated the following:

“Wow, I’m REALLY out of shape.  How is it possible that I could be so out of shape after spending all winter running dogs?”

There’s a common misconception out there that mushers just stand on the sled runners and enjoy the trip while the dogs do all the work.  This could not be any further from the truth.  Mushing is an incredibly physical activity for both dog and human, and any musher will tell you that it’s a rare occurrence when they just stand on the runners and let the dogs pull them.  Most mushers will spend the majority of their time pedaling along with their team, running alongside the sled or even pushing up steep hills, and of course bending and balancing to help steer the sled.  In the early days of mushing– before groomed and marked trails– mushers would have to camp their team, strap on snowshoes and break out a trail to their next camping spot.  They would then hike back, rouse their team, and run the team on the trail that they broken out earlier.  Comparatively, the modern musher has it easy!

My eye-opening experience on just how physical mushing can be came during my first sled run with my friend Val who, with her husband Kurt, first mentored me on how to run dogs.  Our first trip together was a 32-miler and I was driving what is known as a “tag sled” or “whip sled”– a second sled connected by a gangline or rope, trailing behind the main sled.  I thought I’d just hop on the sled, hold on for the ride, and stand there enjoying the sights.  Boy, could I have ever been more wrong!  I was bending, shifting, getting off the sled and pushing, pulling, running… The next day, I was more sore than I’d ever been in my entire life!

Where am I going with this?  Because mushing is a lot of work, mushers take a great deal of time making sure that they’re in shape, both physically and mentally, to take the best possible care of their team and help them in whatever way they possibly can.  During the summer, most mushers will give their dogs some time off due to the warm temperatures.  However, this is prime training time for mushers to get themselves in peak physical shape.  You will see many a musher out on the running trails getting themselves “lean and mean” in preparation for the next season– I’ve run in races with Iditarod mushers DeeDee Jonrowe, Aliy Zirkle, and Kelly Maixner (who runs so fast that I felt like I was standing still), and there are many others out there who run as well.  DeeDee, a fixture in the Iditarod world and a breast cancer survivor, also finished an IronMan triathlon in her 50’s– no small feat for anyone of any age!  My good friend Karen Ramstead completed the famous 450-plus-mile bicycling event in Iowa known as RAGBRAI this past summer, and enjoys fat-tire cycling in the winter (whenever she’s not out on her sled).  Dallas Seavey, the 2012 and 2014 Iditarod champion, was a state wrestling champion in his high school days, and one look at him will tell you that he has not lost a step since then. 

There are several very practical reasons for mushers to be in top physical condition.  First, as mentioned before, mushing is an incredibly physical sport.  Mushers who are physically strong will often have an edge over those who are not because of the endurance factor of a race like Iditarod– hundreds of miles (and hours) on a sled and working through checkpoint routines is physically exhausting.  Those who can “stay the course” without faltering will have the best possibility of maintaining their competitive strategy throughout the race.

In a school setting, it’s about this time of year that teachers start really “feeling it”– close enough to the end of the school year that the end is in sight, but far enough away that you know you’ve got a ways to go.  It’s times like this that teachers can get frazzled and begin making mistakes because they tired, frustrated, and aren’t prepared to see it through til the end of the year.  Now is the time when veteran teachers reach down deep into their “bag of tricks” and come up with something to keep the material fresh and exciting, keep the students engaged, and most importantly, keep their sanity intact.  This bag of tricks comes from years of experience, trial and error, professional study, and from collegial support.  My best teaching ideas have all been flagrantly stolen from teachers who I consider to be some of the best in the profession.  We gather these ideas from casual conversations in the teacher workroom, by asking advice of a trusted mentor, even by asking questions of other teachers in social media groups!  The knowledge and ideas are there, if you know where to look.  Constantly searching out these ideas, these different tricks for your “bag”, is one way that experienced teachers help lead their students through a tumultuous time of the school year.  

A second reason for mushers to be physically fit is quite practical, almost a “duh” moment when you think about it– the lighter the musher, the lighter the load the dogs have to pull.  Competitive racers are always looking for ways to lighten the load for their dogs, in order to minimize the amount of energy the dogs have to expend to move down the trail.  Sleds have become significantly shorter and lighter than they were back in the early days of Iditarod.  While you might be able to drop a few ounces by using a titanium cookpot instead of aluminum, or plastic dog dishes instead of metal, it all comes down to this– the biggest single source of weight on the sled is the musher!  At 6’5”, 220 pounds, I am no small guy, and realize that my weight has a huge effect on my team’s performance.  However, it has a MUCH smaller effect than it did when I weighed 263 pounds!  (43 pounds– that’s the difference of an entire bag of dog food!)  After a couple of summers of consistent running, in addition to working at a glacier sled dog tour operation (carrying buckets of dog food, water, and dog poop!), my weight dropped and my performance– and that of my team– improved significantly!

So how does a teacher stay “in shape”?  Obviously we’re not necessarily talking about going out and running a marathon to be a better teacher, though many great teachers will tell you that being in shape helps with mood, energy, and even sleep cycles.  Instead, teachers stay in shape through a variety of methods spanning professional development, collegial cohorts, and individual study.   

It is not uncommon for teachers to involuntarily grimace whenever they hear the word “professional development inservice”.  Don’t get me wrong– there is definitely a need and a place for professional development in education, and I often long for more opportunities during the school year to learn how to better reach my students.  However, mandated professional development often ends up with a lot of teachers sitting in a room, listening to a speaker who is overly enthusiastic about his or her topic (and is alone in that sentiment), or worse, watching a video of a speaker who is overly enthusiastic about his or her topic.  Is this sometimes necessary?  Absolutely– with the astounding number of mandates, regulations, and policies in place in our schools, it is certainly our duty to understand what is expected of teachers in our role as stewards of our students.  Just like my aforementioned early season run, sometimes you just have to suck it up and do it, not because it’s enjoyable, not because it feels good, but because it will eventually make you better and stronger.  However, you will be hard-pressed to find a teacher who says, “Oh boy!  Another meeting about that thing we had a meeting about last year… and will have the same meeting about next year…”  Instead, most teachers would opt for a variety of different methods of professional development from which one could choose– an a la carte selection of ways to enhance your teaching.  A good example of this is something that happens in my school district at the end of the school year– the Anchorage School District Summer Academy.  A week or two after school lets out, many Anchorage teachers gather at one of the local high schools to take 2-5 day intensive classes on all manner of professional development, spanning from AP course prep and geologic surveys to humor in the classroom and National Board Certification.  Having spent the entire year in the classroom, teachers can pick and choose classes that would most benefit them, or classes that they would find the most enjoyable or refreshing.  In this manner, teachers can concentrate their energy on their weaknesses, thereby becoming better teachers, or rekindle the passion that has likely become strained (even in the best teachers!) over the long school year.  

Another manner which teachers use to stay in shape, or get in better shape, is through graduate classes.  Perhaps the most beneficial thing I ever did for my career was to go back to school for my masters degree.  The benefit of going to grad school after teaching for several years cannot be accurately measured.  Most teachers will tell you that their first year of teaching was by far their most challenging, in no small part because it pointed out many of the things they didn’t know.  This is where graduate school comes in– teachers with a few years of experience in the classroom enter grad school with questions to ask and problems to solve.  They already have an idea of their weaknesses– often highlighted and exploited by students who are ever-so-talented at finding that chink in our armor!– so they will search for classes and subjects that will cover those areas.  Some schools will even require an entrance exam that they can use to discover your weaknesses and specifically target them.  There are many graduate programs that cater to teachers who are already in long-term positions at their respective schools, and therefore can’t leave to go off to grad school for two years. These programs are often online or summer programs that allow teachers to not only stay in their current teaching positions, but also to incorporate their own students and classrooms in their graduate work.  In this manner, lessons from graduate classes can be taken directly into the school classroom.  There is no doubt that grad school is not always a practical or affordable option, depending on individual circumstances, but it can be massively beneficial to those who are able to take advantage of the opportunity.  While my undergraduate work was incredibly valuable and laid the foundation for my teaching education, I credit my graduate work for making me the teacher I am today!

Of course, professional development is not limited to teachers; PD is commonplace in most careers.  While most mushers would scoff at anything called “professional development,” you can bet that each of them are engaging in it in some form or fashion on a regular basis.  They will talk at length with other mushers about different training methods or equipment.  They’ll tinker with their sleds and other gear to try to figure out a way to make them lighter, stronger, more efficient and effective. Four-time Iditarod champions Jeff King and Martin Buser are well-known for trying some new piece of equipment in almost every race, some so effective that Iditarod has been forced to make rules regulating certain gear modifications!  Many mushers even attend symposiums to get ideas (or give them) about how to become better in the sport.  While all of this takes place in a much less formal environment than a professional inservice day or a grad school classroom, the similarities are striking!

Competitive mushers and effective teachers can both be summed up in the same way– they are always looking for areas in which they can improve.  Many mushers will tell you that they are the weakest link in their dog team; their dogs are phenomenal athletes who do what is expected of them.  It is up to the musher to make sure that he or she has the correct expectations and has developed in their dogs the skills to meet those expectations.  The most effective teachers I know hold their students to high standards, but hold themselves to a higher standard still.  A lesson that I still struggle with, especially with some of my more challenging students, is this:  As mushers OR teachers, if those we are training (be it sled dogs or middle school band students) don’t know something, or aren’t doing something the way they need to be doing it, we cannot look to them to place blame– we must first look to ourselves.  It is up to us to prepare ourselves with the tools we need to be able to effectively communicate with those we lead, and to have the mental and physical fitness to put them in the best position to succeed.  

Philip Walters is a 9-year veteran band teacher in the Anchorage School District in Anchorage, AK, where he teaches at Nicholas J. Begich Middle School.  He holds a bachelors degree in music education from the University of Georgia, and a masters degree in music from the American Band College of Sam Houston State University.  Philip began working with sled dogs in 2007, and has since worked with over 300 different dogs in several different kennels and tour operations.  He is currently a musher with Snowhook Kennel in Willow, AK, owned and operated by Justin and Rebecca Savidis, and is one race away from qualifying to compete in the Iditarod Sled Dog Race.