# miles this month - 59
# miles so far this week - 59
£ in kitty for Darmstadt - 134.70
42.3 miles in the last 24 hours! That'll explain why my thighs are aching, and I'm feeling just a bit sore elsewhere. So, how comes so many miles? Well, I took the train down from Beeston to Leicester today, and rode the whole 32.3 miles home again. I was a bit disappointed with the final time of 3h 29m, particularly as I got as far as Ruddington in less than 2.5 hours. Getting lost in The Meadows probably didn't help! But, it's a new personal best, both for the 24 hours, and single ride.
And, if all goes to plan, I should be adding an extra 12 miles to the weekends total tomorrow :-)
Oh, and in other news, I played hockey with the Lunis on Thursday. My first competitive game for many months, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! It was also the first time for a long time that I've ridden my 20". Certainly the first time since I bought the gel saddle for my 29er. And boy did I notice the difference. The lack of foam in the old saddle quite considerable, and probably explains why I'm so sore today :-(
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
October Update
# miles this month - 8
# miles September - 263
# miles so far this week - 8
# miles last week - 55
# miles the week before last - 59
£ in kitty for Darmstadt - 122.50
Ok, first things first. Sorry for the lack of recent updates. If anyone actually read this they would probably be quite disappointed that it's been 2 weeks since I last did an update. Oh well.
Second things next. Last months total mileage was a bit disappointing Nearly 40 miles less than the previous month. In my defence, however, I will point out that I was cat sitting in Essex for 2 weeks, and this ate in to my time quite considerably, and reduced the available mileage. I was getting on the train one stop later than I needed to, and getting off 1 stop earlier so that helped, but the commute on the Fenchurch Street line isn't really conducive to good unicycling.
I've been up to other things one-wheel related however. A couple of weeks ago I tried my hand in some huge GPS art. This involved drawing a picture on to a street map of Nottingham, then attempting to ride the route on the unicycle whilst the GPS unit was tracking my path. This should have then produced a larger than life picture that you could view with google maps. My preparation was pretty shoddy though, and didn't involve taking any detailed street maps with me, so I quickly got lost in what can best be described as one of the more dodgy and less unicycle friendly estates in Nottingham. Without anything telling me which road I should be in, I assumed I was where I thought I was on the map and made a complete mess of it. Needless to say the picture didn't come out exactly as planned. But I'll give it a go again soon and will post the results (assuming they're better) on here when I do.
A also spent a few hours yesterday afternoon with a bunch of the EMUs going up and down hills in Bramcote Park whilst a BBC camera man pointed his camera at us. It was a fun day out, and should end up with a few seconds of us on East Midlands Today tomorrow at 6.30 BBC1. Don't worry, I'll try to post a link to the actual article once it airs. So why were we doing this? Well, to raise some interest for Gary and the 5 other riders doing the 3 peaks challenge this coming weekend. It's all in aid of charidy mate, and you can read more about it here (and bung some money their way too!)
Oh, and I've also been back to play hockey with the Hackney Hokey Cokeys this evening. Hopefully I'll have time to make this a more regular thing from now on.
# miles September - 263
# miles so far this week - 8
# miles last week - 55
# miles the week before last - 59
£ in kitty for Darmstadt - 122.50
Ok, first things first. Sorry for the lack of recent updates. If anyone actually read this they would probably be quite disappointed that it's been 2 weeks since I last did an update. Oh well.
Second things next. Last months total mileage was a bit disappointing Nearly 40 miles less than the previous month. In my defence, however, I will point out that I was cat sitting in Essex for 2 weeks, and this ate in to my time quite considerably, and reduced the available mileage. I was getting on the train one stop later than I needed to, and getting off 1 stop earlier so that helped, but the commute on the Fenchurch Street line isn't really conducive to good unicycling.
I've been up to other things one-wheel related however. A couple of weeks ago I tried my hand in some huge GPS art. This involved drawing a picture on to a street map of Nottingham, then attempting to ride the route on the unicycle whilst the GPS unit was tracking my path. This should have then produced a larger than life picture that you could view with google maps. My preparation was pretty shoddy though, and didn't involve taking any detailed street maps with me, so I quickly got lost in what can best be described as one of the more dodgy and less unicycle friendly estates in Nottingham. Without anything telling me which road I should be in, I assumed I was where I thought I was on the map and made a complete mess of it. Needless to say the picture didn't come out exactly as planned. But I'll give it a go again soon and will post the results (assuming they're better) on here when I do.
A also spent a few hours yesterday afternoon with a bunch of the EMUs going up and down hills in Bramcote Park whilst a BBC camera man pointed his camera at us. It was a fun day out, and should end up with a few seconds of us on East Midlands Today tomorrow at 6.30 BBC1. Don't worry, I'll try to post a link to the actual article once it airs. So why were we doing this? Well, to raise some interest for Gary and the 5 other riders doing the 3 peaks challenge this coming weekend. It's all in aid of charidy mate, and you can read more about it here (and bung some money their way too!)
Oh, and I've also been back to play hockey with the Hackney Hokey Cokeys this evening. Hopefully I'll have time to make this a more regular thing from now on.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Unicycle art - part 1
# miles this month - 174
# miles so far this week - 25
# miles last week - 86
£ in kitty for Darmstadt - 72.50
Here's a little piccy I took on the way in to work yesterday morning;
And at around the same place this morning was the nearest I've come so far to a high speed accident. A dark blue Golf that had just overtaken me suddenly dived to the left intending to go down a side road. Because people were crossing he slammed his brakes on. So, there I am, zipping along close to full speed, and suddenly there's a stationary Golf passenger door about 3 foot in front of me. Eeeek! Lean to the right, bank it over as far as possible, and I just (and I mean only just!) clear the corner of his back bumper. If I'd been on a bike, I would never have been able to stop in time, and there's no way a bike could have turned as sharp as that. However, until this morning, I'd never expected a unicycle to have got out of a situation like that either!
Oh, and in other news, I had a nice little 26 mile trip out to Basildon at the weekend. Taking the 'Hill' route (Orsett Hill, Horndon on the Hill, Langdon Hill, South Hill Garage etc) might not have been the wisest route. But I'm sure it was good for me in the end.
# miles so far this week - 25
# miles last week - 86
£ in kitty for Darmstadt - 72.50
Here's a little piccy I took on the way in to work yesterday morning;
And at around the same place this morning was the nearest I've come so far to a high speed accident. A dark blue Golf that had just overtaken me suddenly dived to the left intending to go down a side road. Because people were crossing he slammed his brakes on. So, there I am, zipping along close to full speed, and suddenly there's a stationary Golf passenger door about 3 foot in front of me. Eeeek! Lean to the right, bank it over as far as possible, and I just (and I mean only just!) clear the corner of his back bumper. If I'd been on a bike, I would never have been able to stop in time, and there's no way a bike could have turned as sharp as that. However, until this morning, I'd never expected a unicycle to have got out of a situation like that either!
Oh, and in other news, I had a nice little 26 mile trip out to Basildon at the weekend. Taking the 'Hill' route (Orsett Hill, Horndon on the Hill, Langdon Hill, South Hill Garage etc) might not have been the wisest route. But I'm sure it was good for me in the end.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Mid september update
# miles this month - 111
# miles so far this week - 48
# miles last week - 53
£ in kitty for Darmstadt - 57.50
Ok, so nearly 2 weeks in to September, and so far I've only done 111 miles. It feels like more, but the figures speak for them selves. It's been a busy week so far though as I went from Holborn to Woodford last night, and back in again this morning. 48 miles by weds evening, considering I only started this week on Mon evening isn't bad going I suppose.
So... Woodford eh? Well, yes, took the long route there last night, which was about 13 miles. Only 1 dismount on route, which was at the North Circular roundabout, so I'm pretty pleased with that. I'm quite happy with 1hr20 too. Then found a shorter route in this morning, thanks to TomTmo, so 11 miles in 1hr10 with 1 dismount again is good enough for me.
Darmstadt fund is coming on pretty good too, although I might have some higher targets soon... will keep you posted!
# miles so far this week - 48
# miles last week - 53
£ in kitty for Darmstadt - 57.50
Ok, so nearly 2 weeks in to September, and so far I've only done 111 miles. It feels like more, but the figures speak for them selves. It's been a busy week so far though as I went from Holborn to Woodford last night, and back in again this morning. 48 miles by weds evening, considering I only started this week on Mon evening isn't bad going I suppose.
So... Woodford eh? Well, yes, took the long route there last night, which was about 13 miles. Only 1 dismount on route, which was at the North Circular roundabout, so I'm pretty pleased with that. I'm quite happy with 1hr20 too. Then found a shorter route in this morning, thanks to TomTmo, so 11 miles in 1hr10 with 1 dismount again is good enough for me.
Darmstadt fund is coming on pretty good too, although I might have some higher targets soon... will keep you posted!
Monday, September 04, 2006
# miles this month - 23
# miles so far this week - 13
# miles last week - 67
£ in kitty for Darmstadt - 35.00
Woo HOo! The Darmstadt fund is growing. I guess the £11 cab fair I saved to the bus station this morning helped a lot :-) Still got a long way to ride until I reach the £180 target though!
Anyway, following on from last weeks post about the paparazzi getting me, I had one of those rides home this evening where I was being snapped by more people than usual. It's normally a dead give away when you hear a car come up behind you, but it won't overtake, even though there's enough room, and then when it does finally go past, there is a passenger pointing their mobile phone at me. Well, there were about half a dozen of these bad driver types this evening, and one guy with a decent camera taking photos of people reading the new free London newspaper that had an oppopportunist shot or two.
But the interesting one tonight was the police car on Clerkenwell Road. It was one of those events where they went past me, got stopped at the lights, I caught up, they came up behind me, I over took a bus, they held back, I pulled in, they went past, I looked, passenger was holding a digital camera, type of affairs. Fairly typical, except that it's never happened with a fully kitted out cop car before. Then, they got stopped at the lights just before Old Street tube station. As I went past, the passenger took a couple more shots, so, I did the only thing I could think of at the time... I grinned and waved! All ok so far. Except that I was now approaching a red light, and it's one of those where there's no convenient lamp post to hold on to, so I never normally stop. The side streets that cross the main road hardly have much traffic, so there's never a need to stop. This time, however, I've got 2 coppers with a camera, and my photo, sitting right behind me. Do I risk an obvious illegal maneuver or do I risk trying to idle, with an audience, where I know I'll fail and make an arse of myself?
Yup, you guessed it... I went for it. And due to the timing of the next lights, my sprinting abilities, the density of traffic, the the combination of directions we each could have taken... I didn't see the coppers again. But it makes me wonder... am I now a marked man?
# miles so far this week - 13
# miles last week - 67
£ in kitty for Darmstadt - 35.00
Woo HOo! The Darmstadt fund is growing. I guess the £11 cab fair I saved to the bus station this morning helped a lot :-) Still got a long way to ride until I reach the £180 target though!
Anyway, following on from last weeks post about the paparazzi getting me, I had one of those rides home this evening where I was being snapped by more people than usual. It's normally a dead give away when you hear a car come up behind you, but it won't overtake, even though there's enough room, and then when it does finally go past, there is a passenger pointing their mobile phone at me. Well, there were about half a dozen of these bad driver types this evening, and one guy with a decent camera taking photos of people reading the new free London newspaper that had an oppopportunist shot or two.
But the interesting one tonight was the police car on Clerkenwell Road. It was one of those events where they went past me, got stopped at the lights, I caught up, they came up behind me, I over took a bus, they held back, I pulled in, they went past, I looked, passenger was holding a digital camera, type of affairs. Fairly typical, except that it's never happened with a fully kitted out cop car before. Then, they got stopped at the lights just before Old Street tube station. As I went past, the passenger took a couple more shots, so, I did the only thing I could think of at the time... I grinned and waved! All ok so far. Except that I was now approaching a red light, and it's one of those where there's no convenient lamp post to hold on to, so I never normally stop. The side streets that cross the main road hardly have much traffic, so there's never a need to stop. This time, however, I've got 2 coppers with a camera, and my photo, sitting right behind me. Do I risk an obvious illegal maneuver or do I risk trying to idle, with an audience, where I know I'll fail and make an arse of myself?
Yup, you guessed it... I went for it. And due to the timing of the next lights, my sprinting abilities, the density of traffic, the the combination of directions we each could have taken... I didn't see the coppers again. But it makes me wonder... am I now a marked man?
Friday, September 01, 2006
August Update
# miles this month - 8
# miles so far this week - 49
£ in kitty for Darmstadt - 21.50
I've just added up all the miles I clocked up in August... 299!
I'm a bit gutted I failed to hit 300, but I guess that can wait until September :-)
Also, I took some helmet-mounted-cam footage on the way home last night, and on the way in this morning.
Plus, I was stalked by the Paparazzi this morning! Well, there was a bloke with an SLR camera waiting for as I got to the Eastway and he took a couple of shots as I rode past. I really couldn't see anything else that he might have been taking photos of, and it's the same time I've been riding past there for the last few weeks. So maybe my infamy is growing :-)
# miles so far this week - 49
£ in kitty for Darmstadt - 21.50
I've just added up all the miles I clocked up in August... 299!
I'm a bit gutted I failed to hit 300, but I guess that can wait until September :-)
Also, I took some helmet-mounted-cam footage on the way home last night, and on the way in this morning.
Plus, I was stalked by the Paparazzi this morning! Well, there was a bloke with an SLR camera waiting for as I got to the Eastway and he took a couple of shots as I rode past. I really couldn't see anything else that he might have been taking photos of, and it's the same time I've been riding past there for the last few weeks. So maybe my infamy is growing :-)
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Third post ever (aka I wonder how long I'm going to keep this blog post counting up for)
# miles last week: 55
# miles so far this week: 8 (but its only Tuesday, and yesterday was a bank holiday)
Darmstadt fund: £2.50
Well, hokey dokey, what's been happening? Well, last Monday I chose to ride from home to the bus station in Nottingham. Only 6 miles. However, if I was to say cats and dogs, it would be a great understatement about the weather. Some of the main road was partially flooded, and it looked like it was going to rain like that for another 39 days and nights. My biggest worry was that Noah wasn't going to let me on unless my unicycle had its wheels two by two! Anyway, I got to the bus station and rung out my socks, as I'd bought clean ones with me. However, everything else for the week that was in my backpack got wet, and I had to sit for the 3 hour coach ride to Nottingham in soaking padded cycling shorts. Not plesant :-(
Overall last week was fairly quiet, and I only clocked up 55 miles. Riding home last Wednesday, and back in Thursday it was heavy rain again. Do I really do this for fun?
Well, today I got the email about the 6th international unicycle hockey tournament in Darmstadt(Germany). Although I'm not a bad unicyclist, I'm not a great hockey player. But it will be so much fun out there. The guys that went last year spent about £180. It's 12 weeks away, so as long as I can save at least £15 per week by riding instead of taking public transport, then I can justify going. I've got £2.50 so far :-)
# miles so far this week: 8 (but its only Tuesday, and yesterday was a bank holiday)
Darmstadt fund: £2.50
Well, hokey dokey, what's been happening? Well, last Monday I chose to ride from home to the bus station in Nottingham. Only 6 miles. However, if I was to say cats and dogs, it would be a great understatement about the weather. Some of the main road was partially flooded, and it looked like it was going to rain like that for another 39 days and nights. My biggest worry was that Noah wasn't going to let me on unless my unicycle had its wheels two by two! Anyway, I got to the bus station and rung out my socks, as I'd bought clean ones with me. However, everything else for the week that was in my backpack got wet, and I had to sit for the 3 hour coach ride to Nottingham in soaking padded cycling shorts. Not plesant :-(
Overall last week was fairly quiet, and I only clocked up 55 miles. Riding home last Wednesday, and back in Thursday it was heavy rain again. Do I really do this for fun?
Well, today I got the email about the 6th international unicycle hockey tournament in Darmstadt(Germany). Although I'm not a bad unicyclist, I'm not a great hockey player. But it will be so much fun out there. The guys that went last year spent about £180. It's 12 weeks away, so as long as I can save at least £15 per week by riding instead of taking public transport, then I can justify going. I've got £2.50 so far :-)
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