WELL, this is on!!!
Record attempt: Thursday July 13th 8:00 am to Friday July 14th, 8:00 am at the Glenmore Reservoir in Calgary
Wow. I’m getting so pumped up for Thursday!! I started my carb load today with a stack of pancakes and a Belgian waffle with Bryon at Humpties. I can feel the power of all those magical super power carbs coursing through my veins! This 8 day fat load / carb load diet will give me super powers for Thursdays record attempt!
So the record attempt is currently scheduled to start at 8:00 am on Thursday July 13th Glenmore reservoir. My course is a 3.236 km loop that goes around the rowing lanes in front of the canoe club. The awesome crew on the Glenmore patrol boat will set 6 additional “turn around” buoys for me on Wednesday. Terramatic Technologies have kindly offered to survey the course on Thursday morning at some point during the record attempt.
According to Guinness rules, I get credit for the surveyed instance around my course multiplied by the number of laps that I complete in 24 hours.
following are my two goal priorities in order of importance:
- To break my own previous Guinness pedal powered boat 24 hour distance record set in 2008 on Whitefish lake of
245.16 km (10.215 kph ave) - To break Carter Johnson’s Guinness kayak 24 hour distance record set in 2014 in Huntington Beach, CA of
249.8 km (10.4 kph ave)
• Breaking Carters record would represent the over all most distance on flat water in 24 hour by ANY HUMAN POWERED means.
• If neither of these two goals looks possible at any point during the 24 hour attempt on Thursday, I will stop. But, I’m not expecting that to happen 🙂
• If we are not successful, then we are planning on driving to Huntington Beach, CA the following week for another attempt at Huntington Harbor. I am hopefully confident that this won’t be required.
I have two major concerns right now: the wind forecast, and my Tibialis Anterior muscle.
When the wind blows from the wrong direction and isn’t shielded by the big hill to the west of my course and the big hill to the east, then the water surface gets wavy and my speed drops in proportion to the size of the waves. Currently the forecast looks acceptable until late afternoon on Thursday when winds are forecasted to max at 20 kph from the south which would cause a lot of mayhem along the rowing lanes. I’m planning on 4 to 6 hours of about .3 to .6 kph average speed reduction. This means that in order to finish with an average of 10.5, I need to maintain average power required to achieve around 10.7 kph. That’s a lot tougher than it sounds!
Also, because I only get credit for the distance around the buoys, and not the wobbly line I’ll probably take including turns that will be wider than the buoys themselves, I’ll need to increase my average speed by another .2 kph! So, I’m sort of looking at maintaining an average speed of 10.8 or so, just to end up with an average of 10.5.
You can follow the wind forecast for the reservoir here at Windfinder.com
I somehow injured my Tibialis Anterior which is the muscle next to my right shin. It’s used to pull your foot upwards and I do use it a lot peddaling Libby because to get a nice even circular pedal motion requires a “circling” motion by pulling back and up with the leg / foot. Anyhow, lower leg has been swollen and very sore. I’ve been resting during my taper, and even seeing a Dr. and getting some therapy. He is confident that it wont be a problem, so that makes me happy.
Please follow my progress on my FaceBook page

Long training day 320 km Highwood loop

Getting the record attempt gear ready from my “record attempt” bin

“Libby” on my car enroute to Whitefish Lake

Training on the road with my NoCom

Gear box