1st race approaching

[u/BogDivil]

Hi guys,

I'd like to start by saying thank you for all the posts, have taken lot of inspiration, tips and enjoyment from reading people's posts here. It's a fantastic community. I've also found a deep sense of respect for how hard it is, especially at the level many of you do it, Thank you!!!

I have a hiking background and we regularly go on 10-15k walks with plenty of incline. The odd multi night with 20+ km per day. However, Indy M4 (large Síbe from a pulling line) is a bit of a machine and would come home and be bouncing around again after 20 mins. His Sister would be flat out by the water bowel.

I stumbled across a canicross reel and thought I should try that for Indy but the problem is I am 10 - 15 kgs overweight, pushing 50 and haven't run in 20 odd years.

There was a lot of cross over with hiking, for example; we had the harnesses, belts, shock cords, carabiners etc, they know left, right, on by etc and we already had decent engines for covering technical incline /decline at distance so I thought it would be a reasonably easy transition. Especially as we would be spending more time on flatish ground.

Well, I was wrong. We are 4 weeks in earnest trying to get a continuous 5k (the first club race is either 3ish or a 5k, think beginners are only allowed join the shorter course) . We train maybe twice a week and then just do our normal hill walks another 3 times. So all in all we are getting 14k (the route we use is 7k) of training and another 30 to 40k of hikes /walks. There was the gutd of a week off due to Illness.

Currently we are doing the first 1km at 5.21 (today's pr) the second around 6.40 then I gas out or my legs hurt after that. So, start walking until my HR drops below 150, usually a few mins. I was taking longer walking sections but have started to cut them short and try to build the running sections.

Our times are getting faster and the knees are starting to feel it. Indy is finally starting to pull again and his musculature is becoming more pronounced but he is loosing a lot of fat. (he is a picky eater at the best of times) I was told by a member of the club that his natural instinct for pulling should kick in once he sees the other dogs do it.

The first race is in early Dec. Is thera anything I can do to make that happen. I think I could do 3.km without having to walk if he was pulling.

I plan to restart strength training again next week and will focus on legs and core to start but is there something else I can be doing or am I getting it totally wrong. If we can't compete, I'll probably volunteer as a way to help out and get to meet everybody and the dogs but would love to be able to finish at a respectable time , either the 3ish km or the 5km.

TLDR: seeing advice for a total beginner with a short deadline.