Another freemount

And now, almost a year later, another successful freemount!

I've only been out on the unicycle a few times in the past year. I'm busy, my back complains about it, etc. But I'm finally starting to get back into some sort of shape, with two or three trips to the gym and one or two bike rides each week, so I thought I'd take out the one-wheeler this morning.

I got in a successful half-lap, then a couple more. Then I practiced on freemounting for awhile, and finally succeeded. After that I did a complete lap plus the extra 100 yards or so to my car. And at that point I was exhausted, so I packed it in.

A successful morning, considering how seldom I've been out lately!

A hard-fought battle

It was a hard-fought battle -- and I'll have the scars to prove it -- but I won: I successfully freemounted my unicycle today.

It's been well over a year since my last post here, mostly because there hasn't been much to post. I've ridden occasionally, when my back was in decent shape and when I had the time. But I haven't been riding regularly at all, and it's only in the past couple of weeks that I've made any progress in my unicycling ability.

The last time I was out, a week or two ago, I took another small step toward freemounting. I hadn't planned on it, but it came to me while I was riding, and I think it helped.

I've been mounting with the help of a post since I started, and I'd gotten to the point where I could hold onto the post (actually the metal box attached to the post, which I could hold onto better) for only a second or two before being on my way.

I decided to try using the post for support, but not holding onto it, just touching it lightly. It seemed to help: at first I felt more unstable, but after a few times I felt like I was able to get going just as quickly. I tried freemounting for a little while, but was unsuccessful.

For some reason, last night I started thinking about the fact that I've had my unicycle for over two years, and that I'd really like to be able to ride freely before I die. And since I don't know if that's going to be tomorrow or 50 years from now, I'd better get moving.

So today I worked and worked and worked at freemounting. I got close several times, getting my right foot on the pedal in roughly the right place and balancing for a second, but I couldn't get moving. I also fell a couple of times, more spectacularly than I have since I started learning how to ride. Then I rode for a while. Then I worked again, and I had a half-success: I think I got one complete turn of the cranks before coming off. Then I rode a little more. Then I worked some more. I almost stopped a couple of times, but convinced myself that I should try just a little longer, and just when I was about finish for the day, I said, "This will be the one." And it was. I didn't ride very far, since I wasn't where I normally start riding and I was really tired at that point. But I knew that I could keep riding, it wasn't the sort of "accidental success" you can have sometimes where you're able to go for quite a ways but you're never quite in control. I freemounted, I was riding, and I was in control. That was enough for me: I dismounted and packed it up and left on a high note!

I have no illusions about the fact that the next time I work at freemounting I might only get two freemounts after just as much work -- or maybe none at all. But I got one today, and I'm confident that I'll be able to do it again at some point. Which puts me just a little bit closer to riding freely before I die. :)

Back in the saddle

It looks like it's been a little more than seven months since I've posted here. There's a good reason for that: I haven't been riding my unicycle!

I think I rode for a couple weeks after my last post. Then two things happened: we got into the rainiest March on record here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and my back started giving me more and more trouble. I could wait out the weather, but I decided to work on the back before getting back on the unicycle.

After many visits to my doctor, a couple of physical therapists, a chiropractor, an x-ray lab, and an MRI lab, I'm happy to report that I don't appear to have any problems with my spine or hips that are anything other than your basic 43-year-old wear-and-tear. Unfortunately, I still have back pain, but with what I learned from my physical therapists and my chiropractor, I think I'm making a dent in it. I'm doing some basic yoga for stretching and strengthening, and hopefully that, combined with some moderate unicycling, will keep my back pain at bay.

The good news is that when I got on my unicycle a couple of weeks ago for the first time in over six months, it only took me about 10 minutes to get comfortable and ride decent distances. And when I got back on a week later, I was pretty much back to where I left off six months ago: able to ride my roughly-quarter-mile practice loop with only one stop, able to make 90-degree turns in both directions, and able to make a few more-than-90-degree turns.

So, hopefully, I'll be riding a couple of times a week (for no more than an hour at a time!), and continuing to improve. The next big challenge: freemounting.

Great beginnings

I got to my trusty starting post this morning, hopped on, took off, and rode almost all the way to the corner. It felt great to get off to such a good start! For the rest of the morning I had a handful of false starts, but for the most part I was able to get on and ride, regardless of which support I was using, and regardless of which side I was starting on.

Jenny brought Molly out walking and was finally able to see me actually riding, which was nice. At one point I started off from the tree in the middle of the park and rode all the way to my starting point, including a left turn; then I turned around and rode all the way back to the tree (including, of course, the corresponding right turn). Jenny and Molly were suitably impressed. As they left, I rode around the picnic area, which was off my beaten path and included several gentle turns and changes in pitch.

The other great beginning today was my first step in learning how to freemount (that translates to "get on the unicycle and start riding without a support" for the uninitiated among you). I used a 2x4 to help keep the wheel in place, and used the support that I've been using for the past month. As I progress, I'll be able to use a smaller block, then no block, then no support (not necessarily in that order). I look forward to being able to freemount, because at that point I'll be able to ride just about anywhere, instead of having to consider whether or not there will be support posts close by. But that won't be for a while: based on what I've read about learning how to freemount, and based on my experience today, I can tell that it won't be a skill easily learned. That's okay, I've got plenty of time. And in the meantime, I'll continue to improve my riding skills, so that when I can freemount, I'll be able to ride away without falling over.

No need for the wrist guards today. But they were on, and I was happy to be wearing them!

Guarded!

As I was driving to the park today, I thought to myself, "Self, those wrist guards haven't been any use at all, I don't think you should bother putting them on today." But when I got out of the car it just seemed natural to put them on, so I did. I will never again think about not wearing my wrist guards until I am so good at unicycling that I can amaze most circus performers.

After a few minutes I was back to long rides; there were certainly plenty of false starts, but they're getting somewhat more rare. I rode to the corner. I walked back to my trusty support and turned around and rode 50 or 100 feet in the other direction. I rode to the corner and used the yield sign to ride down the sidewalk. I used a couple of other supports, including a tree on the left, to complete the loop (mostly). I rode back to the corner, used the yield sign to ride down the sidewalk, and successfully negotiated the corner that took me back into the park.

But at that point, I was getting tired, because this unicycling stuff is much more strenuous than it looks. Or than it looked to me, anyway. I was passing the tree that I'd used for a support the last time around, and either because I was tired, or because the grade changed slightly, or because a butterfly in Greenland changed direction suddenly and upset the local wind currents, I UPDed and couldn't quite manage to get my feet off the unicycle. I fell forward, and I remember thinking during the eight-tenths of a second that I was falling, "No knee pads! Watch the knees! Wrist guards!" It was probably more like, "kneesnowrist!" but whatever it was, it worked. All I ended up with were two tiny scratches on two left fingers and one tiny scratch on a right finger. Yep, those wrist guards will be staying on for the forseeable future.

I played ball with a dog that was out with his owner (who remarked that I'd improved a great deal, so I guess he's seen me before -- the owner did the remarking, not the dog) for a while, then walked back to my trusty support (Fido didn't seem to want to move out of my way when I tried taking off from the tree, so walking seemed the judicious approach). I had a few more really good rides, including a successful negotiation of the yield sign corner. When I UPDed on the sidewalk, I decided to walk across the park to my trusty support instead of trying to ride around again since I was getting tired. At that point I just rode down to the car and called it quits.

A very good day. Due in part to a couple of now-slightly-scuffed wrist guards.

Going in circles

After five days off, I was back at it again today. It took about ten minutes, then I was back to frequently riding quite a ways. I made it to the corner a few times, and on the third or fourth time I decided to keep going. The park I'm riding in has several paths that join together, and I've been practicing on one side of one of the loops, so I decided to just see if I could ride all the way around the loop. One of the school kids mentioned last week that four laps was a mile; I'm not sure how accurate that is, but the loop looks like it's about the size of a standard track, so he might have been right.

It took a few minutes to mount using the yield sign as my support, because the sidewalk angles up slightly, and I'm not used to starting out uphill. But after several attempts I got going, and I was able to go down the sidewalk almost all the way to the next "leg" within the park. Another sign helped me get through that section, and another post like my usual launch post got me going on the final stretch. Unfortunately, I UPDed in the middle of it, and there was no post nearby, so I walked the final hundred feet or so. Still, it was pretty fun going all the way around.

I also began starting out in the opposite direction today, using my usual support, but holding on with my left hand. It was very wonky at first, and I think it will take some time before I'm as comfortable as starting out using my right hand. But I had several good 100'+ rides in that direction. I even got used to the one "drop" in the pavement in that direction: the sidewalk's cracked, and there's about a half-inch drop from one section to the other. Not exactly a curb hop, but you have to start somewhere!

I'll be starting in on learning how to freemount sometime in the next couple of weeks. I might look into serious shin guards before I start.

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!