The seat is now in and working.

I was encouraged not to give up on those spring loaded pins by some emails I got from y’all, so I gave it another go. I cut off one side of the T-handle and filed down the other side so that it would not rub on the boat bottom.

Then I drilled and counter-sunk a straight line-up of holes down both stainless rails and welded the entire seat hinge together. It works pretty well – I can pull both “L-handles” (formerly T-handles) out and slide the seat forward or back as much as I need to. When all the way forward, the seat will lie flat on the floor.

To support the seat back, and to also make it adjustable, I plan on extending an aluminum tube from the right side of the hull to the left side. This way, the seat back will rest on the tube and the tube could be moved forward (tilting the seat UP) and backward (reclining the seat).

And also, I finally weighed WiTHiN.

Drive Leg: 9 lbs
Rudder: 4 lbs
WiTHiN with seat and seat rails installed: 84 lbs

The center of gravity is 114 inches back from the bow (not including the drive leg or the rudder)

The summer is starting to shape up nicely – very exciting actually. When I get back from Ironman Arizona, it’s FULL SPEED AHEAD on finishing WiTHiN-24:

Then it’s FULL SPEED ahead on a new training plan for the 24!!!!!. It looks like we might schedule an attempt at the human powered boat 24 hour distance record for early summer, so I don’t have much time to squeeze in the ultra milleage training I need to be ready for the challenge. But hey – that just makes it even more challenging, so I’m really looking forward to getting into it.

I might have only around 6 weeks – so a 150 km ride the first week, then a 170, 200, 220, 250, 300 ? I hope that’s good enough… For the 24 hour HPV record I worked my way up to a 400 km ride! but that was over a period of 3 months – not 6 weeks. I think I can do it.

My official expedition coach is Cory Fagan. I’m planing on meeting with him for a full line of physiological tests. Then I get the old M5 ready for the road, and get out there! I love the M5 – such a pleasant change from the tri bike. It’s different enough that it gets plenty of interest from other people and other cyclists. And, it’s WAY faster than any road bike. My favorite thing is to hit the road on a weekend when all the roadies are out for some ROADIE HUNTING. I approach drafting packs, slowly pass, pull to the front, pull away a bit while watching them stand up to catch me, then when they get near, I put the gas on and watch them disappear in my mirror. So much fun. Really looking forward to the change from slogging away on my triathlon bike in my basement all winter long.

Anyhow, I leave for Phoenix tomorrow morning for Ironman on Monday. I just finished reviewing my race report from last year where I had the race of my dreams and came in 4th and qualified for world championships in Hawaii. The real value in keeping a Blog is that I can go back and refresh my aging memory so I don’t make the same mistakes twice (or three or four times!). My goal this year is to win my division, but who knows what will happen. This will be my 11th Ironman race and I know well enough by now that anything at all can happen, so I’ll just be happy to be there in sunny 30 degree C weather and away from all this snow Calgary has been getting!

On top of the new training, I am REALLY getting exciting about getting WiTHiN onto the water and seeing what she can do. This will bring such a cool and different angle to my riding – it’s going to be a blast. The plan is to get her into Glenmore reservoir (google maps link here) around the 1st of May when the ice melts. Perhaps into a pool for some tests before hand. As usual, I’ll keep you well informed.

Cheers,
gk