Wizards 50th Birthday

Quote: Wizard

Update: I went the bike shop and purchased a crank remover.

Probably a wise idea. You may have to go back and forth a few times until you find what you can do with the hills.

Quote: Wizard

Four laps amounted to 2.21 miles in 15:37. That comes to a speed of 8.5 MPH. If we deduct 15 seconds for the time to turn on the app, put it in its case,
and the case in the backpack, and then mount the unicycle, and then reverse the whole process later, then I would be at 8.6.

After a few days of getting used to them, it would be nice to see how much of the theoretical efficiency comes through in real life.

Is the Wiz running the Vegas (Half) Marathon this year as training?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Brake? Where is the lever?

Under the seat. It is used to make going down steep hills easier, but I never got the hang of it. If you squeezed it too hard you went flying off.

Quote: TheCesspit

Is the Wiz running the Vegas (Half) Marathon this year as training?

No. I've done it three times, and the full marathon once, and consider myself done with it. Too expensive. Plus, I'm not in the best running conditioning. I would struggle to do ten miles right now.

Update: I took out my 29" unicycle with the 125mm cranks. It went well. The feeling wasn't that much different that the old 137mm cranks. I did feel it was a little faster and required less effort to cover the same distance.

I went to try my four-lap 2.2-mile route at Bill Braire park. The last time I was there on my bigger cranks I did the 2.2 miles in 15:37, as I wrote about in this post. Today my time was 14:30. That equates to a speed of 9.1 miles per hour.

In the process of doing running this lap four times I had a confrontation with an old hag on the last lap. Before I tell the story, let me say that this path is quite wide and doesn't get much traffic. More importantly, if you go there on Google Maps and click "bicycle" you'll see the path is identified as a bicycle trial. Finally, I've seen a marshal there several times before and he paid no attention to me.

That said, on my fourth lap I was passing this c#%t for the fourth time. She was already off to the side with her four dogs and not in my way. However, to be courteous I said "pardon me" anyway, as I was approaching. The conversation then went like this:

Hag: God damn it!
Me: Is something wrong?
Hag: Why don't you do that on a bike trail?
Me: This is a bike trail.
Hag: I'm going to call the marshal!
Me: Please do.

I said "please do" because I'm quite sure there is no rule against bicycles, let alone unicycles, in that park. Furthermore, as I said before, there is plenty of room for everybody. I ride my unicycle on much more narrow paths elsewhere with never a complaint and plenty of compliments.

It was my plan to do four laps and this was on my fourth lap so I didn't have to worry about passing her again. In fact, I was tempted to do more laps so that it wouldn't look like I backed down, but decided that escalating the situation might not be a good idea.

I ride my bicycle a ton and never run into anybody like that.
But then my main trail, Upper Tampa Bay Trail, is a very busy trail. Hillsborough County sent over 1 mil on this beautiful trail with several bridges.
Well spent govt money, trail gets a ton of use from alot of people and is very well maintained. Have yet to see a unicycle :-)
On the trail, I pass normal speed. its a wide trail so it accomodates walkers and bikers well.

I figure your trail is little used and this Woman and her dogs probably use it every day and she is not used to sharing the trail :-(
You are whithin your rights, she has to learn to share.

On my commute, I ride the sidewalk or bike lane on the road, the few pedestraians I pass if I am on the sidewalk, I pass slow generally going on grass or on the road.

Quote: terapined

I figure your trail is little used and this Woman and her dogs probably use it every day and she is not used to sharing the trail :-(
You are whithin your rights, she has to learn to share.

On my commute, I ride the sidewalk or bike lane on the road, the few pedestraians I pass if I am on the sidewalk, I pass slow generally going on grass or on the road.

I'm mindful of my speed when I'm on the windy narrow paths and usually announce myself before passing. However, this path in question is wide and totally open. I must admit that this is one of those parks that seems to have been claimed by dog owners as most people that walk this boring loop trail have dogs with them. This old hag would probably point out that I was whipping around the track at high speed (9.1 MPH to be specific) and for all she knew I was going to do 40 laps.

Normally I don't do multiple laps there but just one. However, as I explained before, there aren't many places around Summerlin that are flat, straight, with no street crossings, other than this park. That is why I was doing a timed trial there.

Quote: Wizard

I said "please do" because I'm quite sure there is no rule against bicycles, let alone unicycles, in that park. Furthermore, as I said before, there is plenty of room for everybody.

This article indicates that the Park is significant to the bicycle trail plan in Las vegas.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/view/summerlin/park-users-look-forward-trail-connection-improvements

Quote: Wizard

Today my time was 14:30. That equates to a speed of 9.1 miles per hour.

That's great. Now just think what you can do with a little experience on them and/or with the 110 mm setting . If you can get through 30 miles in 4 hours, you'll have more time to work through the pain.

I took my iPhone with its speedometer app around my neighborhood today on my 36" unicycle. Except when making turns or going over speed bumps I maintained 10 MPH. It doesn't indicate the speed to the tenth of a mile but I noticed that I touched 11 MPH once. There are lots of turns, including six U-turns. Over this 3.09 mile course my time was 19:16, for an average speed of 9.6 MPH. That makes me feel my speed going straight must have been close to 11 MPH, but got rounded down on the app.

Once I get used to the current 150mm cranks and put on the 125mm ones I'm sure I can get my speed up. Then again, this 36" unicycle is tiring compared to the 29" one. It may be that I just ride the 36" unicycle once in a while but return to the 29" one being my main thing.

Quote: Wizard

...Then again, this 36" unicycle is tiring compared to the 29" one....

Could the opposite approach help? With longer cranks, you will have more leverage on the 36, and it should be easier on your legs. Since you will cover more distance with each revolution, maybe this is a better approach than using shorter cranks on a larger wheel?

I think you need a friend who will drop you off at Bootleg Trails and pick you up at the Marina. That way you have an hour to work on your balance with the shorter cranks without having to worry about hills.

You should measure your heart rate as well. I keep going back to Ace's warning about exercising for longer times than a marathon (3-6 hours). You have to stay out of the aerobic zone or the pain from the lactate threshold is difficult to recover from.