Mango madness!

Dianne and I are now the proud owners of a Mango velomobile. Specifically, Mango #106. That's right, the 106th Mango ever made by Go-Mango in collaboration with Velomobiel.nl in the Netherlands. The purchase was arranged through Canada's only velomobile dealer, Ray Mickevicius of Bluevelo.

For those who missed my recent velomobile ramblings, this machine is essentially a human-powered car. Or, put another way, it's a very, very expensive tricycle.

I'll be driving the Mango to and from work every day, winter included.

I took it to work on Friday and the ride was superb. It was an odd feeling to be kicking back in a car-like vehicle – with a horn, headlights and turn signals – while at the same time getting exercise and not polluting. My commute in the Mango actually made me look around and wonder, honestly, why there weren't hundreds of thousands of these things driving around town.

From the reactions on the street, you'd think I was driving some kind of spacecraft from the future. I heard a lot of: "What IS that?!" or "That is SICK!" And since my legs and the pedals were hidden under the fairing, there were a lot of questions about how the velo is propelled: "What powers that thing?," one driver asked me. "Quads, hamstrings, some calves," I said.

More photos and video clips will follow. The picture above was me taking an elated Lauryn out for a spin. She is the world's youngest velomobile enthusiast.

The joggling training is winding down now; two weeks to go. Tomorrow I have a 13-mile joggle planned, with 10 miles at marathon pace. That should give me a good indication of my fitness heading into the big race.