Turning a corner
I spent ten or fifteen minutes getting back up to speed today. That seemed pretty good, considering the fact that I'd had a couple of days off. Then I had a few rides in the 50'-100' range. Then I had a nice long 100'+ ride, and from then on I started riding the longer distances fairly regularly.
At about 110'-120', there's a fork in the path that I'm practicing on. Tuesday, I took the fork that veers gently to the right to ride down to my car. Today I made it to the fork relatively early, and was planning on practicing for awhile longer, so I took the fork that veers gently to the left to see how far I could go (the path, which is basically a wide sidewalk within the park, simply meets up with the actual sidewalk at the street corner, which is probably a couple of hundred feet from my launch point).
After about an hour, I rode all the way out to the corner. I didn't want to attempt turning the corner at that point, so I had a PD. I kept practising and made it most of the way to the corner several times, then all the way again; I started to attempt the left turn to stay on the sidewalk, but bailed out before I was able to complete it. But on my third or fourth trip to the corner, I attempted the turn, made it, and kept going. Unfortunately, I didn't go more than a few feet: the sidewalk sloped upwards about one-tenth of a degree, and at this point, tiny changes in grade still throw me off easily. But I was happy with making the turn. I had a few more long rides, then rode to the car at the end.
I had some nice comments today. A woman walking her dog, who I'd spoken with before, saw a long ride and said, "if you need anything for your unicycling resume, you can use me, because I can remember when you couldn't leave that post!" And on my second or third ride to the corner, I grabbed the "yield" sign as I was dismounting, and a guy down the street shouted, "yeah!" and waved. I think he's seen me practicing many of the times I've been out there. Always nice to get a little unexpected support!
At about 110'-120', there's a fork in the path that I'm practicing on. Tuesday, I took the fork that veers gently to the right to ride down to my car. Today I made it to the fork relatively early, and was planning on practicing for awhile longer, so I took the fork that veers gently to the left to see how far I could go (the path, which is basically a wide sidewalk within the park, simply meets up with the actual sidewalk at the street corner, which is probably a couple of hundred feet from my launch point).
After about an hour, I rode all the way out to the corner. I didn't want to attempt turning the corner at that point, so I had a PD. I kept practising and made it most of the way to the corner several times, then all the way again; I started to attempt the left turn to stay on the sidewalk, but bailed out before I was able to complete it. But on my third or fourth trip to the corner, I attempted the turn, made it, and kept going. Unfortunately, I didn't go more than a few feet: the sidewalk sloped upwards about one-tenth of a degree, and at this point, tiny changes in grade still throw me off easily. But I was happy with making the turn. I had a few more long rides, then rode to the car at the end.
I had some nice comments today. A woman walking her dog, who I'd spoken with before, saw a long ride and said, "if you need anything for your unicycling resume, you can use me, because I can remember when you couldn't leave that post!" And on my second or third ride to the corner, I grabbed the "yield" sign as I was dismounting, and a guy down the street shouted, "yeah!" and waved. I think he's seen me practicing many of the times I've been out there. Always nice to get a little unexpected support!
posted by Rich | 9:01 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home