The Reebok 'Joggler' ad

Setting the world record for joggling a marathon is not easy, but I do think joggling fits in well with Reebok's Run Easy campaign. My joggling training is mostly at an easy pace and I'm always having fun doing it.

Running Room talk

Here's a short clip of the Mango velomobile in action. It's an ideal vehicle for the city, being compact, manoeuvrable, bright yellow and lightweight.

I gave a talk to the marathon clinic at the Yonge-Eglinton Running Room store last night. Many of the runners were in taper mode for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront or Chicago, so there was a good feeling of pre-race excitement in the room. Reebok even left me a box full of goodies to give out after the talk.

Reebok placed a full-page ad in the current Running Room magazine featuring ... me! I was dumbfounded to see myself in it. To go from being that 11-year-old kid reading the Guinness Book to seeing yourself in the full-page Reebok ad is unbelievable. I'm glad I came out of retirement.

Velomobile gets pulled over

So there I was, happily cruising through downtown Toronto in the new Mango velomobile, when what do I see in the mirror but the flashing lights of a police car.

I pulled over near King and Sherbourne and climbed out of the vehicle. The police officer came out and said to me: "What is this?"

"It's a velomobile, a pedal-powered recumbent trike." I said. "It's legal."

"I don't think you can be allowed on the road with this, you're driving a motor vehicle. It's not safe."

"There is no motor, just pedals."

"But you were going so fast. There has to be a motor."

"Nope, no motor, take a look."

"I need to go check this out. What is this called again."

"A velomobile. V-E-L-O-M-O-B-I-L-E."

The police officer then went back into his cruiser to make a call. About 10 minutes later he reappeared and said it was legal and to have a good ride, so off I went.

Emissions-free driving

Here I am getting ready to drive to work in Toronto's first Mango velomobile. Perfect cross-training for joggling.

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.

Joggling for dummies

This post is for all the millions of you out there who want to learn how to joggle but don't know where to start. Here are some tips:

1. I'm going to assume that you already know how to run ... or jog.
2. Now get yourself some nice juggling beanbags. I use Sportballs, Perry uses Gballz and Zach I think uses Higgins Brothers.
3. Learn how to juggling the three-ball cascade. Click HERE for a great tutorial.
4. It's time to put the two components together. This sport is not like the triathlon, where to get to do your sports separately; the joggler needs to seamlessly mesh together the sports of running and juggling.
5. Find a nice clear path outside. Start out by juggling your cascade, then walk forward for a while to get the feel of forward motion while you juggle. Concentrate on keeping the juggling pattern nice and even, as it you were standing still.
6. OK, you're ready to joggle. Start up your cascade, then break into a slow jog. Each time you toss a ball with your left hand, match it to the right-leg stride, and vice-versa.
7. When you run, the right arm will automatically swing forward as you stride with your left leg. You need to match your joggling tosses with this natural arm swing.
8. The height of your tosses is determined by the speed of your running. The faster you run, the lower the toss. This is because as you run faster, your arms pump at a faster rate.
9. Take care not to toss the balls too far forward. I made this mistake when I was first learning how to joggle. If your biceps start to burn after a short joggle, you're probably tossing too far forward. The beanbags should only be about half a foot in front of your nose.
10. When you're juggling while standing still, your elbows are stable at your sides, but for joggling your elbows swing forward and back with the running motion. To accommodate this arm swing and increase running efficiency, you need to carry the ball back with you on the backswing, then release it as your arm shovels forward. Toss each beanbag just before your opposite foot strikes the ground.
11. Try to avoid any excessive trunk sway and maintain normal running form. When I watched Zach pull ahead of me in the Boston Marathon last year, I could barely tell he was joggling. If it weren't for the telltale yellow beanbags popping up over his shoulders, I could swear he was a regular runner.
12. When you're joggling, you should focus on the road or path ahead of you, not the beanbags. As long as you have them in your line of sight, you'll know where to catch them, but your eyes should focus on where you're going. Otherwise you'll run into a pole or a ditch or other runners or a water buffalo (depending on where you're joggling).
13. That's it. Congratulations, you're a joggler.
    

How much does juggling slow you down?

Adeel asked a good question relating to my 10K forgot-my-balls mishap: Exactly how much does juggling slow me down?

This is easy to calculate. Below is a comparative chart of my running and joggling PB times and the percentage differential:

400m: 53 secs. vs. 59 secs. (89%)
Mile: 4:22 vs. 4:49 (90%)
5K: 15:05 vs. 17:50 (84%)
10K: 31:59 vs. 36:27 (87%)
30K: 1:43 vs. 1:55 (89%)
Marathon: 2:30 vs. 2:53 (87%)

Joggling pioneers like Bill Giduz say joggling should cost you only about 10% of your time. Mine are a bit higher, but that is likely due to the fact that most of my running PBs were set about five years ago when I was a) younger, b) fitter, c) 8 lbs. lighter, d) less overworked, e) less sleep-deprived.

So I think the 10% figure is about right, and it may be even lower, based on yesterday's 35-minute non-juggling 10K. My running speed is slowing down over the years, but my joggling technique has improved greatly, as have my props; the lightweight Sportballs have made a huge difference for the long-distance events.