Eccentric and fun modes of transportation

Earlier this week I mentioned that Bluevelo, a Toronto-based distributor of velomobiles (human-powered cars), was selling some incredible-looking machines for about $10,000 and up. Well, their site is now listing the Dutch-designed Alligt Alleweder kit (pictured above) for a bargain $3,495 for a limited time.

Since I've decided to bike to and from work rather than take the subway there and joggle home, I could almost justify this cost. My subway pass costs about $1,000 per year (kindly donated by my generous mom), so this vehicle would pay for itself in under four years. And think of the fun I'd have!

I've always had a fascination with the human-powered commute. When I was a kid, I ran ran, walked, skateboarded or biked everywhere. When I was training competitively for the marathon, I ran to and from work every day for a daily total of 16-20 miles, depending on my route. In my recent training for the Salt Lake City Marathon, I've been joggling home from work and doing tricks the whole way. I've become addicted to having fun and exercising on my commute. I could never, ever drive a car to work, and taking the subway both ways every day would be pretty miserable too. I need me-power.

So maybe I'll do my little part to save the planet, make a statement, turn some heads (I'm now used to that), stay fit and have fun and get myself a nice, shiny velomobile!

Can I run like a normal person?

Now that the joggling duel is done, I'm going to take a break from joggling and see if I remember how to run like normal human being. I hope I don't still run with palms facing up, because that would look stupid.

Thanks to my mom for pointing out that I'm listed in Upcoming Stories on the CBC News: Sunday site as the Marathon Joggler. I'm waiting for confirmation on the date this will go to air, but here's the link. I watched the show last Sunday and Evan Solomon did a fantastic interview with David Foster. No doubt hundreds of thousands of viewers will be anxious to see what kinds of insights Evan was able to pry out of The Joggler.

Joggler not a normal neighbour

Today's joggling plan: 6 miles (home from work)

My neighbours think I'm nuts.

They thought I was eccentric even before I began my joggling career, because I was running all the time. They'd be out fixing up their houses or trimming their hedges or doing some other normal thing, and I'd be heading out for a run, usually wearing a tiny amount of clothing, as we runners are apt to do.

Now that I'm The Joggler, things have gone even further off the "crazy neighbour" charts.

A typical scenario: My neighbour and I are both heading out the door at the same time.

"Hey Michal," the neighbour says. "I'm going to play hockey with the boys and then it's off to a pub for a few brewskis afterward."

"Cool," says The Joggler. "I'm going to go running while juggling these three yellow beanbags for three-hours wearing short shorts in the middle of the winter ... alone. See ya!"

Joggler feels the weight of Canadian pop culture on his shoulders

Today's planned joggle: 6 miles (home from work)

My legs and shoulders are both feeling pulverized today after yesterday's 24-mile joggling jaunt. Today's joggle will be a very easy recovery run.

Unfortunately, my backpack will be heavier than usual because I bought a few clothes at lunchtime that I need to cart home, and I also need to take home my book – JPod by Douglas Coupland – so I can read it on the subway tomorrow. So far, JPod is good, but even the paperback version is a little above the weight limit for a joggler's backpack.

Since I began running home from work, I've chosen both my wardrobe and reading materials based on weight. Heavy jackets and pants are out, as are thick-soled shoes. Vikram Seth, Wally Lamb and Tolstoy will never find their way into my knapsack.

I started up a discussion on Running Mania about runners who commute on two legs, so I know I'm not alone here.

I really hope my fingers don't fall off tonight

Today's joggling plan: 6 miles (home from work, with 5 2-minute intervals)

I'm on my way for a 6-mile speed joggle home from work in a few minutes. It's -22C with windchill. Joggling into a cold wind makes your fingers freeze no matter how many pairs of gloves you wear, because you can't scrunch your fingertips into your palm to keep them warm.

I plan to use mental strength to ward off the frostbite, and maybe a bit of yelling and screaming.

I'm doing speed intervals today, which will make things even more challenging. Running fast while juggling can be tough because as your arms pump faster to generate more speed, you can end up tossing the balls much too high. You have to correct this by holding onto the beanbags a little tighter and releasing each one just a touch later than usual. Once you gather up speed, you also have to start tossing the balls further forward so they don't collide with your nose. And with my big nose, I need to be especially mindful of this.

Off I go...

Hatless joggler heads into storm

Yesterday's joggling mileage: 10 miles (into a 50 km/h headwind, ice pellets and a foot of snow on the ground)

Equivalent number of miles based on effort: 3,642

It was a dark and stormy night...

And The Joggler was determined to complete his training run.

A big winter storm hit Toronto yesterday. It made news headlines, some of which I wrote myself at work (as a news editor for Captivate Network). After work, I was training a client in the west end, then I planned to joggle home through the downtown core and into the east end where I live.

In the afternoon, my wife called me and strongly urged me not to run home. My client called asking if our session was still on. I was ready to train and ready to run, but little did I know that this would be one of the most difficult joggles ever.

After the training session, I put on my backpack, took out my beanbags and set out for home. As luck would have it, I was heading directly into a 50 km/h headwind with ice pellets and blowing snow, and sometimes a foot of snow on the ground. I had wrongly assumed that shops and restaurants would have ploughed their sidewalks.

With the slippery terrain, I felt like I was running the wrong way on one of those moving platforms you see at airports. Every step forward took me three-quarters of a step back. The wind felt like a sumo wrestler was continually pushing me backward. Plus, the stacks of wet snow on the ground meant the footing was roughly equivalent to running on piles of lumpy, day-old oatmeal mixed with carpenter glue. My feet were juggling as much as my arms.

It took all the concentration in the world to keep juggling. Often I had to jump one way as I reached in the other direction to grab an errant beanbag that was swept up in a sudden gust of wind. I could barely keep my eyes open because of the ice pellets and snow, but just managed to make out the yellow balls being tossed around by the wind.

To make matters worse, I had no hat. Two days earlier, my trusty toque had fallen into a muddy puddle and I hadn't washed it yet.

As I ran across the Bloor Street Viaduct – a bridge that spans Toronto's Don Valley – the street lights went dark. A car on the other side of the road drove through such a big puddle that the water sprayed all the way across two lanes of traffic and hit me in the side of the head where my hat should have been.

Over the edge of the bridge, I saw an endless line of cars sitting bumper-to-bumper on the Don Valley Parkway. Despite being partially soaked by the passing car and struggling to move forward as I juggled into the wind, I was very, very happy to not be sitting in a car stuck in a traffic jam. I felt liberated. I also felt kind of insane.

Back at home I got Dianne to snap the picture (above) of me joggling down our street. I needed photo documentation of this run – it was a joggle for the ages.

How to break a Guinness World Record

Today's joggling mileage: 0 (a day off – tired out from filling out Guinness World Records paperwork)

I finally got around to sending off the documentation for my 10K joggling record to the Guinness World Records head office in London, England. I set the record five months ago at the Longboat Toronto Island 10K in a time of 36 minutes and 27 seconds, and it took me this long to get everything together.

Here are the steps you have to follow to break a Guinness World Record:

1) Submit an application on www.guinnessworldrecords.com.
2) They'll e-mail you a "Record Breakers' Pack" document that you have to fill out, sign and fax back to them.
3) Several weeks later, they'll e-mail you a couple of documents describing the rules of the record that you want to break, as well as the current record.
4) Now you finally get to set the record. You may feel like all the paperwork is more exhausting than setting the record itself.
5) You need to have two independent witnesses sign sworn statements of authentication.
6) If you submit photos or videos, the photographer/videographer needs to sign away the rights to the material to Guinness.
7) You fill out another stack of paperwork.
8) Assemble all of this and mail it off to Guinness.
9) Several weeks later, Guinness will approve the record (hopefully) and mail you a nice big certificate.
10) The Guinness Book prints about 4,000 records, only about one-tenth of the total, so setting a record by no means guarantees entry into the widely published book.
11) You get NO MONEY for setting a Guinness World Record. Nor do you get a pint of stout.
12) You can also submit your record to the Book of Alternative Records. They require much less documentation.

When I was on my way over to mail the record claim, a woman pointed over to me and whispered to her companion: "That's The Joggler." Maybe I'm famous?

The Long Run

Today's joggling mileage: 21 miles

Every Sunday I do a long joggle as part of my marathon training. Today I used the small yellow Higgins Brothers beanbags that I'm going to use in the race.

After a double espresso and some muesli I took off at 7:45 a.m. At 8:30 I met up with some of my Longboat Roadrunners running club friends and we all ran to a local cemetery to do some two-mile loops.

Cemeteries are perfect for winter training because there is virtually no traffic, and they always clear the roads of snow and ice. We measured out a nice training loop at Pine Hills cemetery in the northeastern corner of Toronto. I've run this loop hundreds of times over the past five years and have memorized all the potholes. There's something very comforting about a familiar route. When I first started joggling ,I felt a little uncomfortable about juggling in a cemetery. It felt weirly inappropriate. I'm used to it now – entertaining the dead.

I clicked off four cemetery laps for eight miles at an average of six minutes per mile. Not bad. To break the world record of 2:52, I need to average 6:33/mile for the whole marathon. Can I do it? Definitely maybe.