WiTHiN – the prototype ocean crossing human powered boat

The various Adventures of Greg projects like Pedal The Ocean expedition are all about to move into a higher gear. After some serious soul searching since the 24 hour HPB record, I have decided that if I am going to accomplish my long term goals, I need to structure my operations to better focus on what I need to be doing with my time.

I find that after a day of hard training, I am next to useless in the shop, and nothing gets accomplished. Either that, or the progress I do make is crap because I have taken short cuts or have failed to see obvious way of solving a problem.

The other problem that needs solving is that I have been avoiding the ‘hard stuff’ – no, not the 8 hour training days, or expedition planing, but the real ‘hard’ stuff – getting on the phone and contacting potential corporate sponsors, lining up media partners, finding gear sponsors, doing PR, etc, etc. I know I am the best person for that job, so I decided that I had better suck it up and learn how to do it, or it won’t ever get done.

Ben Eadie

With that said, I am happy to announce that I hired Ben to work with me 3 days a week. He’ll be mostly working in the shop over the next few months getting the Critical Power HPV simulator built for NextFest and getting the full top-deck version of WiTHiN finished and ready for sea trials this fall.

WiTHiN – the ocean crossing human powered boat

I envision being able to accomplish a lot more in the pursuit of exploring the limits of human power with Ben’s help. Certainly far more than what I would be able to accomplish as a one-man-band like it’s been for the past few years. We have some pretty cool plans for KidPower, ideas for a video blog series, and some really awesome human powered projects on the drawing board! Just training for, and organizing all of this is a full time job. Someone has to build the stuff and that is where Ben comes in.

Here is a brief preview of what may be store for you over the next year or two:

KidPower: We want to build a web site where kids can register their own little mini adventures. I’d like to call it www.adventuresofME.com, or www.adventuresofYOU.com (those specific domains are not available). The goal of the mini-adventures is to set a personal or community record, or to accomplish a difficult challenge. All mini-adventures would be physical activity based and through the adventuresofYOU.com web site, the kids would be offered blogging tools and support from the KidPower team and community. We could solicit Corporations to donate prizes and awards to encourage the kids to accomplish their adventures.

Some early ideas for some challenges:

SolidWorks Critical Power Simulator simulator (funded by – We are building a new portable streamlinerSolidWorks corporation) that will be a part of all school presentations. Now all of the kids will get a chance to feel what it is like to pedal Critical Power to 50 kph and navigate through the busy streets of a virtual city!

The SolidWorks Critical Power simulator

Pedal The Ocean trans Atlantic record attempt: The prototype ocean boat WiTHiN will be ready for sea testing by the end of September and I will be heading out to Vancouver Island for sea trials.

New Adventures of Greg record attempts: Here is a quick preview of some of the potential projects that are being considered:

1. A Paddle vs Pedal 24 hour human powered boat race. Is 260 km in 24 hours on water by human power possible? I think it is!
2. Human powered ice cap crossing record (currently 8 days for solo)

human powered ice cap crossing vehicle concept

3. Human powered flight record
4. Human powered circumnavigation of Vancouver Island record attempt (currently 28 days for solo)
5. The human powered hour record (currently 86.77 km fully faired, or 45 km unfaired)
6. The human powered recumbent 100 mile record

People are always amazed at how far or fast you can go when you mix a little cutting edge technology with good old fashioned muscle power. Human power doesn’t pollute, and it’s use is the key to solving the serious health issues that we are facing today. My goal is to raise awareness of the problems afflicting modern society caused by our sedentary lifestyle. I hope that through my various projects, I can inspire and motivate others to become more active. EVERYONE – not just the kids!

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Here are some more photos of the kind of riding I get to enjoy here in Calgary. Greg B and I drove about 40 minutes west to the Kananaskis turn off and cycled up the Highwood pass, down the other side and back to the car for a solid 6 hour ride.

We say a bunch of mountain goats, some big horn sheep and one Grizzly. Well, I say it was a large Grizzly because it was brown and had a hump on it’s back, but Greg thinks it was a small black bear. I saw it at the side of the road and yelled to Greg who was in front of me. My voice startled the bear and it suddenly looked up at me like it was going to charge. Can a bear out run a Cervelo P3 carbon?

The ride was super tough for me because my legs were fried from the Stampede half marathon I did the day before. It was a good race for me – I came in 4th in my division out of 125 guys with a 1:33 finish time, so I was happy. My PR 1/2 marathon is 1:27, but that was barefoot, so this race was a good chance to compare the effect of your running shoe weight on your average run pace. The rule of thumb is 1% speed gain for every 1 ounce of weight saved on your footwear. My runners are 9 ounces and my kayak booties weigh 4 ounce which is a difference of about 5 ounces. That would equate to about 5 minutes which was just about how much faster I was when I didn’t wear my shoes at the Police Half last April.

In theory, this is all really great, but in practice, I have yet to be able to run longer than about 90 minutes without suffering from brutally sore feet. A lifetime of running, walking and standing in shoes has resulted in some serious atrophy in my foot muscles, so building up to being able to run a full marathon without shoes is going to take some time. Currently, I do about 1/2 of my running without shoes. I usually alternate a day with shoes and a day without shoes. Also, when I am not running, I go barefoot or wear my flat sandals.