I received two certificates in the mail today from Guinness World Records. One for my HPV 24 hour distance record and the other for the pedal boat 24 hour distance record.

I used to read the Guinness book of world records when I was a kid and I always fantasized about making into the record books. Very cool.

NO RECORD!!!

I’ve know about this for a while now, but I’ve been sitting on it until everything with the Human Powered Vehicle Association (HPVA) and Guinness World Records became ‘official’.

I do NOT own the HPVA human powered BOAT 24 hour distance record as previously thought, but I do own a new 24 hour pedal boat distance record ratified by Guinness. Let me explain:

Unknown to me or any of the HPVA officials I was working with during my 174 km HPB record attempt on June 2, 2007, there were full transcripts of a 250 km human powered boat record attempt by Carter Johnson sitting on the desk of the records chair person at the HPVA . Due to a lack of communications between various parties, this pre-existing 24 hour record attempt of 250 km was not known by me or anyone associated with my record attempt.

Carter Johnson a stock HUKI S1-X surfski on Lake Merced in San Francisco during his 24 hour, 147 mile kayaking distance record attempt

After my record attempt I started to look into my average watts of power that I produced during the 174 km record with the data from the SRM power meter. Rick Willoughby and I did some calculations and we figured that with a purpose-built, state of the art human powered boat, I ‘would-have’ been capable of going at least 250 km with the exact same power output that I exerted during the 24 hour record on June 2.

I had heard rumors of a kayaker by the name of Carter Johnson who paddled his kayak 250 km in 24 hours on a lake in Northern California last year. Now, according to the rules of ‘human power’, a kayak IS definitely a human powered boat. Human powered vehicles including boats aren’t just pedal powered – they consist of anything that is powered by a human being – no use of the wind or stored energy is allowed. And this is really a beautiful thing, as it encourages innovation to maximize the minuscule bit of power than a human is capable of producing. If using paddles in a kayak, rowing a row boat, or simply kicking your feet through the water behind your surf board is a more efficient method of moving a boat forward over time than pedals and a propeller, then so be it! That’s exactly what the whole ‘human power’ ideal is all about.

As far as I knew, Carters record was considered “unofficial” because he didn’t go through the rigorous and restricting ratification process required by a governing body as I did. However, I knew that if it was possible for a paddled kayak to travel 250 km in 24 hours, that my paltry 174 km wasn’t going to stick for very long. I realized that with a new boat, I would be very close to this 250 km unofficial kayak record and I was motivated to pursue that.

I looked Carter up, and contacted him with the intention of inviting him to Calgary for a 24 hour human powered race between the two of us next summer. We would call it the Pedal vs. Paddle showdown. The winner would claim the true title of ‘human powered 24 hour distance champion on water’ and potentially even a new ‘Official’ 24 hour HPVA distance record. We would end, once and for all, the debate over weather pedal is better than paddle. Basically, I thought my race idea would be a whole lot of fun for everyone involved, and a great challenge for both Carter and I.

Greg Kolodziejzyk on his human powered pedal boat WiTHiN on Glenmore Reservoir in Calgary during his 24 hour, 108 mile human powered boat distance record attempt

It would be an understatement to say that I was shocked when Carter told me that he was a member of the human powered vehicle association. And that he had registered his record attempt with the HPVA, AND had followed ALL of the rules of the HPVA with regard to record setting. He had his rectangular course measured by a surveyor, had official members of the HPVA act as observers and even submitted a full report to the HPVA records chair person subsequent to his attempt. “So why do you not own the official HPVA 24 hour human powered boat record?” I asked. He told me that after he had submitted his information package to the HPVA, he hadn’t heard back from them. At the same time, Carter had applied to Guinness World Records for the most kayaking distance in 24 hours category, and had received ratification from them, so he just let the whole HPVA application drop.

I was kind of pissed. Not at Carter, but at this whole mis-communication mess with the HPVA. Why was Carter’s record not ratified? Why was I not even aware that a record attempt over a YEAR OLD was being considered for ratification? That news alone may have changed my strategy regarding my own attempt at the record. I knew that my boat WiTHiN was not capable of 250 km, so I may not have attempted it.

I immediately sensed an injustice. I told Carter that I would do my best at getting to the bottom of this and see that he receive his just recognition from the HPVA, as in my opinion, if he did follow all of the rules, he deserved to be recognized for his amazing accomplishment. To Carter’s credit as a pretty admirable person, he insisted that I not pursue this, and that he was happy with sharing the lime-light, as he did have his Guinness recognition for kayaking distance. That didn’t sit well with me. It is about the ideal of the human powered pursuit. What justice would be served if my distance record of 174 km was seen by the world as the most distance that a human being can cover in 24 hours on water when indeed it is something more like 250 km !!!!!!! A huge difference, and a difference that NEEDED to be rectified.

So, I contacted Al Krause, the current president of the HPVA who was not aware of Carters record attempt. Al eventually traced the problem down, and Carter ended up with his due recognition as the HPVA record holder for 24 hour HPB distance. I’m not blaming the HPVA for any of this, as I think it was just simply a case of mis-communication between many individuals (including myself). Since everyone at the HPVA is a volunteer, I am very grateful that they are all so freely giving of their time. Without the awesome work of people like Al Krause, Rob Hitchcock and many others, there would be no organized process at all for athletes to participate within. No stars to shoot for, no rules to follow, and no recognition our accompishments.

So I kind of screwed myself out of a record. But that’s fine because I figured out how to salvage it – by contacting Guinness World Records and asking about the 24 hour PEDAL boat record. They said it was currently at 175 km and held by an Italian 4 man team. I told Guinness that my 174 km record (only 1 km less than that from a team of 4!) was a solo attempt, and as such, should be considered as a new category. They agreed and after reviewing all of my data and observers reports, awarded me with the record.

So where does this leave us? Well, I really want to challenge Carters kayaking record, and I would be a very lucky guy to have the opportunity to race a guy of Carters calibre for the honor of being the true human powered boat world record holder. Carter said he would think about it.

What are YOUR thoughts? To respond so that everyone can have the opportunity to read your input and respond to it, please submit your comments to the ‘comments’ link on this post.

Best regards,
Greg Kolodziejzyk

I was in the midst of preparing a new KidPower presentation for Elbow Valley Middle School yesterday. It’s their school year kick-off celebration day and the Principal has asked me if I would address the students and staff by speaking about setting goals, accomplishment, and the importance of staying active and healthy.

And then I get this email from Gary B:

“adventuresofgreg.com…….oh please, give me a break. Is the world even a slightly better place because you have two Guinness records in your name. You obviously have lots of energy and time. Why not use it to do some real good. The world has enough blowhard egomaniacs that are really into the adventure for their own gratification, all the while claiming their endeavor is for the betterment of all mankind.”

Gosh – what a downer! I guess I should just trash the email and move on, but for some reason I really feel inspired to respond to this.

Am I a “blowhard egomaniac”? I suppose if you didn’t know me, by looking at my web page you might come away with the feeling that I might be somewhat of an arrogant swellhead. In my defense though, I come from a marketing background and I realize that I am my product and that I need to treat how I am presented as if I am a product being advertised for sale. I market myself not unlike any other corporation would advertise their product or service. I know from experience that if I am to accomplish my long term goals, that I need to start marketing myself appropriately.

So what exactly are these long term goals of mine that are keeping me focused on this polished image?

1. KidPower

I want to make KidPower a national program that includes an interactive component designed to get kids across this country active again. To achieve this goal, I need the financial support of corporations. What can I sell a corporation? Simple: me. The more media attention I get, the more my corporate sponsors benefit from the publicity. Both in brand marketing and corporate social responsibility fulfillment by being connected to the KidPower program. A corporate sponsor is not interested in funding a project shrouded in secrecy.

2. Base building and community building

I have some very aggressive personal goals that I would like to accomplish. These are longer term, much larger projects that need to be built-up slowly. Not many corporations join the S&P 500 index of the largest North American corporations within their first year of business. It takes time to grow, and growth builds upon previous successes. It’s base building. When I approach the experts in the boat building community with some crazy idea about designing a pedal boat to cross the ocean with, how do they respond to someone without any kind of track record? I know, because I have been faced with this before – they ignore you. When you approach them from a strong base of previous successes (and the media recognition to back it up), then people and companies tend to rally around your idea and feel inspired to become involved. It is an amazing thing when you can create a project where so many others can become part of the success.

3. To inspire others

Gary says “The world has enough blowhard egomaniacs that are really into the adventure for their own gratification” and he is partly correct. Am I really doing all of this only for the betterment of all mankind? Probably not. But then again, what do we ever do that is totally for the betterment of all mankind? You probably have a job. A job that pays you money that goes into paying for a roof over your families heads, and putting food on the table. Most of us spend the majority of our time concerned with the betterment of ourselves – not mankind.

But in the end, Gary is wrong – I truly believe that. I can honestly say that my biggest goal with regard to what I want to accomplish and what I have accomplished is to inspire others to achieve the great things I know they are capable of. Nothing makes me happier than to know I have been of some help or inspiration to someone who has decided that they want to drop a few pounds, or run their first marathon, or build a carbon fiber bike frame, or someone who just needs a little motivation to take the first step to making their dreams come true.

“Use what talents you possess. The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang the best.” – Henry Van Dyke

Hello everyone – I have some really great news:

1. Guinness World Records recognizes my HPB and HPV records!
2. Brand new Adventures of Greg web site
3. Pedal the Ice Cap – a new adventure!
4. “Human Power Rocks” weekly video web cast

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1. Guinness World Records recognizes my HPB and HPV records!

I have been working through the Guinness maze of forms and rules and procedures and received some very good news earlier this week. They have added two new categories to their records to accommodate my achievements:

The greatest distance on a human powered vehicle in 24 hours is 1041.24
km (647 m) and was achieved by Greg Kolodziejzyk (Canada) at Redwood
Acres Raceway in Eureka, Alberta, Canada, on 20 July 2006.

The greatest distance achieved by pedal powered boat in 24 hours is
173.76 km (107.9 m) by Greg Kolodziejzyk (Canada) on a lake in Calgary,
Alberta, Canada on 2 June 2007.

As far as I know, I am the second person to be recognized for a human powered vehicle record – the first being Sam Whittingham for his 200 meter sprint. If there is someone else with a human powered vehicle Guinness record, please let me know.

Guinness had a category for 24 hour distance by pedal powered boat, but it was held by a TEAM of 4 Italian cyclists and was 175 km (only 2 km more than mine). I had to convince them that a solo effort should be considered as a category of it’s own.

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2. Brand new Adventures of Greg web site

A new look: http://www.adventuresofgreg.com (if you have the old version loaded, you may have to click your refresh button to clear your cache and load the new page).

The new site is designed to better reflect my goals regarding human power. The new quote says it all: William Pollard said: “Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.”

It’s a high band width site with some small flash videos running. Please check it out and let me know it you had any problems or lengthy delays loading it. Also let me know what kind of internet connection you have.

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3. Pedal the Ice Cap – a new adventure!

This is still in CONCEPT phase. More research needs to be completed before I commit to doing it, but I thought it would be useful to put it up on the web site and get your feedback:

http://www.pedaltheocean.com/pedaltheicecap/

300 miles across the second largest ice cap in the world. Again I am challenging tradition: What happens when we mix cutting edge technology with optimal human performance to cross an ice cap in record time? Can we use technology to improve upon the tried and true cross country ski?

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4. “Human Power Rocks” weekly video web cast

You can click through to this flash video from the new AOG main page, or here:

http://www.adventuresofgreg.com/syndication/episode1.html
I would really like your input. Here are some questions I would like you to answer for me:

1. Do you think something like this is worth continuing?
2. Every week, every month?
3. Should I include ALL news from the HPV world? Interviews with HPV’ers?
4. Any other suggestions?
5. Did it load fast enough on your computer?
6. How was the length?
7. Was the quality good enough? Image quality, content quality, production quality?

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Feedback can be sent directly to me greg@pedaltheocean.com

or, you can enter a comment for every one to read on this BLOG page.

Thanks very much for your support and feedback!

photo from my favorite training ride – the top of the highest paved road in Canada – the Highwood pass

Well, I have survived another Ironman training epoch and I have now entered the taper phase. This is the time where my priority is to allow my body to FULLY recover from the stresses and damage that the last few months have conflicted upon it.

The ‘damage’ started with the 24 hour HPB record on June 3 – mostly my right knee and my left Achilles tendon. Now, my knee seems like it is recovered, but I have a very tight and sore left hamstring, left IT band and left Achilles tendon.

My focus for the next 3 weeks is going to be more extreme than a typical Ironman taper. I am cutting out ALL intensity and endurance work, doing nothing but recovery work between now and race day with a few short, race-pace intervals placed in when I think I can handle it. This means daily easy bike rides of 100 to 130 watts, and daily walk-runs. I will still maintain a similar swimming program as before – 3 times a week for about an hour each session.

I know from experience that recovery happens when you are ACTIVE, not when you rest. Your body tends to go into a state of suspended animation when you sit around all day – Injuries just sort of stick around, as there is no pressing reason for your body to fix them, so it doesn’t. If you are doing nothing, then your body does the same regarding it’s injuries. The way to recover is to be active to the point where you are not further stressing the injury. By doing this you are telling your body that you still require the use of the injured parts, and that it had better fix them. Or you might get eaten by the saber tooth tiger. If you are not using it, then your body thinks you don’t need it anymore and as a result, it does not allocate any resources to the repair work required. “Use it or lose it” is my recovery mantra.

My last big training day was with Greg B. This is tradition – before every Ironman, we finish our training with an epic 9 to 10 hour training day. This was a 216 km ride from hwy 40 at the Trans Canada, up to the summit of Highwood Pass, down the back to Longview, then around to Bragg Creek. We had driven and parked two cars in the morning before we headed out. We also inserted two, 20 minute runs into the bike ride – the first at the top of Highwood pass and the second in Longview. It was a great day despite getting soaked with rain through a few thunder showers.

Helen and Greg outside the Banff Springs Hotel

Helen is also doing Ironman Canada on August 26th. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, we like to escape on the weekend by cycling to Banff, staying in the Banff Springs Hotel and then doing a long trail run the next day. The long training weekend finishes with a 120 km bike ride back to Calgary. We’ve done this 4 times this season, and it’s really a great way to keep the training fresh and fun.

This is the 25th anniversary of Ironman Canada – the oldest Ironman race in the world next to the original Ironman world championships which is in Kona, Hawaii. The last time I did Ironman Canada was in 2004. According to my race report, I did a 5:15 bike split and blew up on the run finishing in about 12 hours. I ‘would-have’ qualified for Kona again in Arizona earlier this year if it wasn’t for two flat tires on the bike. To solve that issue, I am going to give a new product by Vittoria a try. It’s called Vittoria Pitstop ( Vittoria Pit Stop ). It is a small canister that will inflate and seal a flat tubular tire. I testing it out on an old tubular that I have and it worked really well. I punctured the tire by hammering a nail through it, then simply inflated the tire using the Pit Stop product. It pressurized to about 100 psi which is good enough to get me to the finish line and it took all of about 1 minute to do! You don’t have to take the wheel off, or mess around with trying to pry your tire off the rim. you don’t even have to carry any of the heavy tools or spares with you – just a small canister of Vittoria Pit Stop – pretty nifty!

The tire eventually went flat again in about 3 hours, but after re-pressuring with a Co2 cartridge, it stayed fully pressurized for the next week. I would recommend taking a couple of Co2’s along on race day just to be sure than it the tire started to lose too much pressure, that you could top it up with the C02. I think this largely depends on the size of the puncture. In my test, I used a fairly large nail, so it was probably a bigger hole than your typical puncture.

My plan at IMC is to do what I can with the swim – I’m a slow swimmer and nothing I have done over the last 7 years has resulted in any appreciable decrease in my Ironman swim time, so I will be satisfied with an hour and 10 to 15 minutes. According to the SRM data that I have from past races, I know that a 5 hour bike split in Arizona equates to a 5:10 in Canada, so that is what I would like to do.

I was using Pyro Platforms on my bike with water socks, but I recently switched to wearing my running shoes with the Platforms. The reason I was using the platforms with socks is because i found that by providing a FLAT platform for my foot without the restricting shoe, that my feet were not sore after I came off the bike – a problem that has plagued me in the past. I also discovered that when you pull up with your leg on a pedal stroke, that mostly you are just pulling up the weight of your leg and not really adding much to power moving you forward. I found that I could pull up just as well in the platform without any kind of strap holding my foot down to the pedal as I could with a shoe. In testing with my SRM, there was no difference between using a traditional bike shoe, or my platforms with socks (or bare feet).

The reason I switched to using a full running shoe in the platform is that I figured i could save a couple of minutes at transition by being able to run direct from my bike out to the bike course without having to stop in transition. Since all that I required from my T2 transition bag is my running shoes, I am good to go directly from my bike. After a slight seat height adjustment, wearing the running shoes on the platform feels no different than wearing the aqua socks, and for time trial distances like Ironman, I do not see any valid reason to wear tight, restricting, uncomfortable bike shoes.

After my 15 second T2 transition, I hope to better my 3:50 running performance at Ironman Arizona in 2006 where I came in 4th in my division and qualified for world championships. If the plan is successful, I will finish between 10 and 10:15 which should be good enough for a Kona slot.

Ben has been making great progress on the new SolidWorks CriticalPower simulator for Wired Magazines NEXTfest show and also for our new season of KidPower presentations. Critical Power will be on display in the “future of transportation” pavilion at Nextfest from Sept 13 to 16.

We purchased a cheap recumbent exercise bike to use as a starting point. Ben added his wooden recumbent seat at the same seat angle as Critical Power, and we welded on a vertical tube which will hold the large flat screen monitors. The vertical ‘mast’ also holds a flexible computer monitor arm which we welded steering controls to. This arm works GREAT! It allows us to easily move the handle bars forward or back depending upon the size of the rider. A tiltable flat screen monitor will be mounted onto the computer monitor arm just above the steering bar.

This image shows the monitor arm fully retracted with the seat in the most forward (little kids)

The image shows the monitor arm pulled all the way out with the seat in the rear position (tall people)

The above image shows the the rough concept of how the steering bar will control the steering thumb knob on the Xbox controller.

This is a screen shot from the Xbox game that we use called Mid Town Madness. It’s perfect for the simulator because you can ‘drive’ your streamliner anywhere you want in the virtual city while smashing into other cars and pedestrians. The kids absolutely love it. And now that you can pedal up to 150 watts WHILE steering your virtual streamliner through the streets, it should way more fun!

We are also wiring up a heart rate monitor and wattage indicator.

This is me now, one experienced salty dog.

Helen, my son Cody, and I spent 5 days living and learning aboard our chartered 39 foot Bavaria yacht cruising the islands south and east of Vancouver Island. Our captain was a lovely girl from Brisbane, Australia who teaches here in Canada during her winter, and runs a charter business at home with her husband during her summer.

The weather sucked – rain set records and this photo shows fog that never happens in July. We didn’t mind though – the scenery was spectacular.

The purpose of the sailing adventure was two-fold. First, Helen and I have often wondered if sailing the seven seas was something that we might like to get into some day. Second, I need some real ocean experience and education and this was the perfect starting point.

This is Helen at the Helm, our instructor Kelly from down-unda on the Starboard side and my son Cody texting his girl friend.

After our exams, all three of us walked away with our “Canadian Yachting Association Basic Cruising Standard” certifications. We can now charter a 34 foot sailing yacht by ourselves. yikes.

Cody at the helm

Our fearless instructor Kelly from Melbourne, Australia

The next step is to advance to an intermediate course that would take me out into the open ocean. This course should better prepare me for what I might expect on an ocean crossing.

Kelly was a great captain and the course was very informative. My brain is still sore from all the thinking and learning. Sailing terminology seems like a whole new language. Port, Stern, Headsail, Mainsail, Halyard, lines, sheets, a close hauled tack. But the week was fantastic – we all loved it and feel like we learned so much.

Kelly learning us some ‘portant sail’n stuff

Cody MSN’ing his girlfriend. Sometimes we docked in a marina that offered wireless.

A morning photo from the deck of our yacht “New Beginnings”

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Last summer was pretty crazy with adventure and travel packed into our very short 3 to 4 month window of summer weather a-way up North here in Calgary. This summer is no different. Here is a quick list of some of events that we have checked off our summer to-do list, as well as what is still to come:

June 2-3: The human powered pedal boat 24 hour distance record. Actually, that really started in May with trips to the Glenmore Reservoir with WiTHin (my human powered pedal boat) where I ended up logging over 60 hours pedaling WiTHiN around the lake.

July 11 – 15:
Helen and I spent a week in Montreal for Cody’s Senior National Diving Championships. Cody did very well and Helen and I were able to take advantage of the change in environment to fit in some great training for Ironman Canada.

July 18-24:
As soon as we returned from Montreal, the three of us were off to Victoria for the sailing course. Krista is in Ecuador on a Teenage Adventure trip with Adventures Cross Country

August 16-27:
We are at our Cabin in Whitefish, Montana to fit in some last minute training.

August 23-27:
We will head straight to Penticton, BC to compete in the 25th anniversary of Ironman Canada on August 26th!

August 28 – Sept 2:
From Penticton, we head directly to Vancouver Island for a kayaking/camping trip through the Broken Islands off the east coast of Vancouver island.

Sept 10-18:
Ben Eadie, John Mackay, Helen, Cody, Krista and myself fly off to Los Angeles to participate at Wired Magazines NEXTfest.2007 technology exhibition where we will display Critical Power and our new streamliner simulator.

Sept 20-30:
Helen and I are off on a bike trip around Italy to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.

Sometime in October:
A trip back out to Vancouver Island for some ocean testing in the full top-deck version of WiTHiN!

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Have you seen this map? It’s pretty frightening:

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/fit.nation/obesity.map/

WiTHiN – the prototype ocean crossing human powered boat

The various Adventures of Greg projects like Pedal The Ocean expedition are all about to move into a higher gear. After some serious soul searching since the 24 hour HPB record, I have decided that if I am going to accomplish my long term goals, I need to structure my operations to better focus on what I need to be doing with my time.

I find that after a day of hard training, I am next to useless in the shop, and nothing gets accomplished. Either that, or the progress I do make is crap because I have taken short cuts or have failed to see obvious way of solving a problem.

The other problem that needs solving is that I have been avoiding the ‘hard stuff’ – no, not the 8 hour training days, or expedition planing, but the real ‘hard’ stuff – getting on the phone and contacting potential corporate sponsors, lining up media partners, finding gear sponsors, doing PR, etc, etc. I know I am the best person for that job, so I decided that I had better suck it up and learn how to do it, or it won’t ever get done.

Ben Eadie

With that said, I am happy to announce that I hired Ben to work with me 3 days a week. He’ll be mostly working in the shop over the next few months getting the Critical Power HPV simulator built for NextFest and getting the full top-deck version of WiTHiN finished and ready for sea trials this fall.

WiTHiN – the ocean crossing human powered boat

I envision being able to accomplish a lot more in the pursuit of exploring the limits of human power with Ben’s help. Certainly far more than what I would be able to accomplish as a one-man-band like it’s been for the past few years. We have some pretty cool plans for KidPower, ideas for a video blog series, and some really awesome human powered projects on the drawing board! Just training for, and organizing all of this is a full time job. Someone has to build the stuff and that is where Ben comes in.

Here is a brief preview of what may be store for you over the next year or two:

KidPower: We want to build a web site where kids can register their own little mini adventures. I’d like to call it http://www.adventuresofME.com, or http://www.adventuresofYOU.com (those specific domains are not available). The goal of the mini-adventures is to set a personal or community record, or to accomplish a difficult challenge. All mini-adventures would be physical activity based and through the adventuresofYOU.com web site, the kids would be offered blogging tools and support from the KidPower team and community. We could solicit Corporations to donate prizes and awards to encourage the kids to accomplish their adventures.

Some early ideas for some challenges:

1. Walk a 1000 miles
2. Walk a 200 km in a month
3. Run 100 km in a month
4. How many km can you run in one month?
5. How many km can you bike in 6 months?
6. Skate 100 miles this winter
7. Dance 100 hours
8. Run a 5 km race
9. Run a 10 km race
10. How many basketball bounces can you do in 2 hours?
11. How many skipping rope skips can you do in one day?

SolidWorks Critical Power Simulator simulator (funded by – We are building a new portable streamlinerSolidWorks corporation) that will be a part of all school presentations. Now all of the kids will get a chance to feel what it is like to pedal Critical Power to 50 kph and navigate through the busy streets of a virtual city!

The SolidWorks Critical Power simulator

Pedal The Ocean trans Atlantic record attempt: The prototype ocean boat WiTHiN will be ready for sea testing by the end of September and I will be heading out to Vancouver Island for sea trials.

New Adventures of Greg record attempts: Here is a quick preview of some of the potential projects that are being considered:

1. A Paddle vs Pedal 24 hour human powered boat race. Is 260 km in 24 hours on water by human power possible? I think it is!
2. Human powered ice cap crossing record (currently 8 days for solo)

human powered ice cap crossing vehicle concept

3. Human powered flight record
4. Human powered circumnavigation of Vancouver Island record attempt (currently 28 days for solo)
5. The human powered hour record (currently 86.77 km fully faired, or 45 km unfaired)
6. The human powered recumbent 100 mile record

People are always amazed at how far or fast you can go when you mix a little cutting edge technology with good old fashioned muscle power. Human power doesn’t pollute, and it’s use is the key to solving the serious health issues that we are facing today. My goal is to raise awareness of the problems afflicting modern society caused by our sedentary lifestyle. I hope that through my various projects, I can inspire and motivate others to become more active. EVERYONE – not just the kids!

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Here are some more photos of the kind of riding I get to enjoy here in Calgary. Greg B and I drove about 40 minutes west to the Kananaskis turn off and cycled up the Highwood pass, down the other side and back to the car for a solid 6 hour ride.

We say a bunch of mountain goats, some big horn sheep and one Grizzly. Well, I say it was a large Grizzly because it was brown and had a hump on it’s back, but Greg thinks it was a small black bear. I saw it at the side of the road and yelled to Greg who was in front of me. My voice startled the bear and it suddenly looked up at me like it was going to charge. Can a bear out run a Cervelo P3 carbon?

The ride was super tough for me because my legs were fried from the Stampede half marathon I did the day before. It was a good race for me – I came in 4th in my division out of 125 guys with a 1:33 finish time, so I was happy. My PR 1/2 marathon is 1:27, but that was barefoot, so this race was a good chance to compare the effect of your running shoe weight on your average run pace. The rule of thumb is 1% speed gain for every 1 ounce of weight saved on your footwear. My runners are 9 ounces and my kayak booties weigh 4 ounce which is a difference of about 5 ounces. That would equate to about 5 minutes which was just about how much faster I was when I didn’t wear my shoes at the Police Half last April.

In theory, this is all really great, but in practice, I have yet to be able to run longer than about 90 minutes without suffering from brutally sore feet. A lifetime of running, walking and standing in shoes has resulted in some serious atrophy in my foot muscles, so building up to being able to run a full marathon without shoes is going to take some time. Currently, I do about 1/2 of my running without shoes. I usually alternate a day with shoes and a day without shoes. Also, when I am not running, I go barefoot or wear my flat sandals.

This is the view from outside my backdoor!

Sorry for the hiatus in blog updates! I’ve been taking a bit of a breather since the abuse that the 24 hour HPB record inflicted upon my body and mind.

Helen and I have been focusing on our training for Ironman Canada coming up on August 26th. Calgary is such a great place for Ironman training! A days ride (180 km) and check out the kind of scenery we have to suffer with.

This is total training heaven: Helen and I drove out to Banff 2 weeks ago and did an hour swim, then a 2 hour trail run in the mountains. We stayed at the breath-taking Banff Spings Hotel http://www.fairmont.com/BanffSprings/, then cycled 120 km home the next day. The following weekend we reversed it by cycling the 120 km to Banff, staying at the Springs again, then doing a long run and swim the next day and driving home.

This weekend, we cycled 180 km (uphill and into a strong headwind!) to Lake Louise and stayed at another very famous hotel – Chateau Lake Louise http://www.fairmont.com/LakeLouise/. Then the next day, we did a 2 hour hike first thing in the morning, then cycled 2 hours back to Banff and did the 2 hour mountain trail run (a favorite of mine!) and stayed at the Springs again. Then we cycled the 120 km back to Calgary the next day. This is how training should be!!!! To do it right, you need to make your training a part of your life.

If you check out the links to the hotels you will probably think that level of accommodation is quite excessive – however, periodically Fairmont Hotels, who owns both the Springs and the Chateau, offer some spectacular deals to local Calgarians. Typically some rooms go for over $550 a night, but during special times, locals can get them for $120.

I think the 24 hour record on June 2 /07 took more out of me than I thought. Since starting back on my triathlon bike, I only just this weekend had my first real great training ride. My knee is almost fully recovered and my runs are up to 2 hours. My swimming sucks as usual, but I’ve been doing some 90 minute long swims without any major drama, so that’s cool.

My goal in training on the bike this time around is to try to maintain at least race intensity (210 to 220 watts) for my entire long rides (5 to 8 hours), and to make sure that I get more than adequate rest between hard training sessions. My goal for run training is to first and foremost, not injure myself. That means taking more days off between hard or long training sessions to be sure that I am fully recovered.

I have some weight management goals as well. I want to try to make it to race day at 156 pounds instead of the usual 152 pounds. When I qualified at Ironman Arizona last year, I raced at 156 to 157 pounds and had the race of my life. I am currently 158 pounds which is pretty heavy, but I think it will be OK.

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The plan for this summer was to get WiTHiN ready for the ocean. I still plan on getting that done, but the thought of getting back into the shop and into the epoxy isn’t thrilling me right now, so I’m going to chill a bit more on that.

As I mentioned before, WIRED magazine has invited me to display Critical Power at NextFest.2007 in September http://www.wirednextfest.com/. They want us to build a new simulator for the show, so that is something that I will probably start on right away. Here is a picture of the concept:

We need a new sim for the KidPower school presentations anyhow. The old simulator was worked right into Critical Power, streamliner but after a few hundred kids, it just wasn’t robust enough and broke quite often. So, we decided to build a new stand alone unit.

SolidWorks corporation http://solidworks.com – the same company who makes the awesome software used to design Critical Power, has kindly offered to sponsor the KidPower simulator! This is very good news because we can now afford to build a proper stand-alone simulator that can be used for both the NextFest show and our KidPower school presentations that will start again next fall.

You can pedal up to 150 watts and navigate via the steering bar through a crowded city street looking at the LCD monitor. The virtual city course is based on an Xbox game – when you turn the steering bar, it moves a push/pull rod which is connected to the thumb knob on an Xbox controller. It’s really quite a lot of fun for both kids and grown-ups alike!

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Check out this really cool European e-magazine called Beta-sway who just did an article on the PedalTheOcean.com project: http://www.endorphinum.de/betasway/ Click on the July issue.

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And the final item is some web site changes. I have changed the main AdventuresOfGreg home page a bit http://www.adventuresofgreg.com, and added some more photos to the 24 hour HPB record http://www.pedaltheocean.com/photos/24hrHPB/index.html

Here is the 4 minute 24 hour human powered pedal boat record YouTube video: