To joggle or to velo?

Today I faced the tough choice of whether to drive the velomobile to work or to take the subway so I can joggle home. I chose the subway. I only have the Versatile velomobile on loan for another day or two, so it was painful to leave it idle, but that's how committed I am to this training program. Setting Guinness World Records requires sacrifice.

Visualization training

My run home from work today was a mental battle. It was hot, sunny and so humid it felt like running through honey. My eczema was driving me up the wall again and the itch progressed to stinging pain all over my arms, legs and torso.

Last night, I had almost no sleep because of the skin condition. So propelling myself to run uphill with a backpack after a long day at work took some creative motivational techniques.

When I'm feeling sluggish, I like to use visualization techniques to get me through the rough patches. They really work. Here's how to do it:

1) Think of a big race that makes you feel inspired. For me today, this was the Athens Olympic marathon, won by Stefano Baldini of Italy.

2) Imagine yourself as a lead, elite running machine, even if you actually feel like a tub-a-lub slug.

3) Now pick a point partway through your race of choice and picture yourself running alongside the front-runners.

4) Sound out the play-by-play TV announcer in your head. "...and Michal Kapral of Canada has joined Keflezghi at the front. Kapral is on pace for a personal best, even if this searing Greek heat!"

5) Go through the rest of the race and visualize yourself pulling away from the leader at the end. "Kapral's gong to take the gold! Check out the look of determination on that Canuck's face!"

6) You win the gold medal. You feel great. And you got through a tough training run.

The itchy and scratchy (joggling) show

Running with bad eczema in high humidity is like having a severe case of chicken pox combined with poison ivy sprinkled with chili powder. I must've stopped to scratch about 20 times today during my 22-mile long joggle. On the bright side, my muscles and cardiovascular system were in fine form during the whole run. The next few weeks will be key in my "ultimate 10-week marathon trianing program."

To prepare for a potential future five-ball joggling marathon, I have been working on joggling in a five-ball pattern with three balls (55500 in siteswap notation, a.k.a. consecutive three-ball flashes). Five-ball joggling requires not only perfect toss height, but also an accurate forward pitch to match the forward motion of running, much more so than the low tosses of three-ball joggling. Over the course of my long run this morning, my three-ups became dramatically more accurate. This week, I think I'll go for another five-ball joggle. It's great fun, and it makes the three-ball joggling seem so much easier.

"Juggling Show"

I took the day off from running and instead did some cross-training at home. The kids and I often do a thing called "Juggling Show," which involves me juggling and jumping around to music while the kids dress up as ballerinas and jump around and sometimes try to juggle. This was followed by an intense strength-training workout, including push-ups with a four-year-old girl sitting on my back.

I read an article recently about Anthony Gatto's practise methods. According to this write-up, Gatto practises 1-2 hours a day and during that time only spends about a minute working on any particular trick. He switches around continually between different props and numbers. This avoids the frustration of trying and failing one thing over and over, and that one minute per day per trick eventually leads you to mastery of many, many tricks. I've been following this training method and it does seem to work.

The Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon just announced that CBC Country Canada and cbcsports.ca will broadcast the race LIVE on Sept. 30, so if they happen to film me, it would likely be the first-ever live TV coverage of a joggling marathon.

Joggling trivia

This story is too funny to pass up. Fellow bloggler Perry Romanowski was recently playing the "Totally 80s" edition of Trivial Pursuit (a Canadian-originated game, I might add) with some friends. His team landed on the Sports & Leisure category and got this question:

"What sport emerged in the ’80s, requiring athletes to jog while they juggle?"

The answer, you may have guessed, was "Joggling."

Years ago, I was playing Trivial Pursuit with my family, and got a question that went something like this:

"What Toronto-based new media company displays news items in office tower elevators?"

The answer was the company I worked for: "ENN: Elevator News Network." (which has since changed its name to Captivate Network)

The missing long run

Last week I took a mini-vacation at a cottage in Port Elgin, Ontario. The running there is spectacular. You can run along the Lake Huron beach or on a beautiful trail bordered by wildflowers that occupies a now-defunct railroad track.

I went on a few very nice runs and also did a little 5-ball joggling while out on a run with my kids, my niece and nephew.

Juggling on the beach was treat as well – ceiling unlimited! – and built-in audience of sunbathers. The 3-ball juggling is getting to the point where I could put together a decent routine. I'm not Tim Kelly, but I can now string together some combinations of Mills Messes, Burke's Barrages, boxes, showers and 441s to make things look impressive to the non-juggler.

On Saturday, I set my alarm for an early-morning long run, but decided to sleep in. I might have to make up for this this week sometime.

Versatile velomobile review

This weekend, I had the pleasure of zipping around in a Versatile velomobile, courtesy of bluevelo.com. I drove this human-powered machine all over town and found it truly addictive.

On Saturday, I went for a long ride along the waterfront and then stopped by my sister and brother-in-law's place in the Annex. It was surprisingly easy to manoeuvre the trike through city traffic. I quickly became accustomed to the shifting and steering, but going uphill was slow and labour-intensive. It was a hot, sunny day and the compartment got stuffy when I stopped at a light, but the ventilation was fine when I was moving.

The ride itself was very smooth. The mesh seat was luxurious - like pedalling in a lounge chair. The steering mechanism consists of two hand levers on either side – a comfortable and fun way to make turns, reminiscent of those Green Machines we drove around as kids (only this trike costs about $13,000 more).

The grip shifter on this one was a bit stiff, but Ray from bluevelo tells me these actually loosen up over time. The Rohloff internal hub is brilliant. Not only are all the gears on one shifter, but you can change gears at a standstill, which is particularly useful for shifting down into an easier gear to get the velo moving again after getting cut off by moronic cab drivers in city traffic.

I took the Versatile out again on Sunday. This time I rode all the way up into the north end at Avenue Road and York Mills, where I was going out for a family dinner. I stupidly took the Bayview Extension, which is probably the longest, steepest hill in Toronto, and was sweating like a pig as I crawled up in the granny gear, moving at about 7 km/h. I was smart enough to bring a towel and a change of clothes for the restaurant.

The ride home was exhilarating. I hit somewhere in the neighbourhood of 70 km'h on the Bayview downhill ... and I was braking.

Today, I took the velo to work and the looks I got from people in downtown Toronto were priceless. I locked it up on King Street in the heart of downtown and people immediately swarmed around me as I was locking it up. I walked past it a couple of times during the day and got a kick out of watching the passersby ogling this strange and wonderful machine.

And now, sadly, I have to return it to bluevelo. I'll definitely miss the Versatile, and I'm more convinced than ever that this is the ultimate rolling billboard for the right advertiser.