Tuesday, June 30, 2009

New Unis

Cycles, not forms.

I rode several days while Eli 7.10 was in Shreveport. On a 1:1 basis in terms of time spent practicing, he just kills me--I have to go to 2:1 or more just to keep up.

Here's the chart:


His longest ride is just insane now, but mine has finally crept over 1300 feet. On Sunday, I went to the local high school track and took seven rides in total (numbers in feet): 750, 590, 770, 890, 1335, 690, and 650. It's the first time I've gone over a mile in total, and I didn't have any rides where I had to bail out early.

I still can't free mount (although I'm getting close), but I can certainly ride now. Well, in a mostly straight line with mild curves, anyway.

We've both worked hard learning how to do this, so last week I ordered new unicycles for both of us. Unicycles aren't like bicycles, where you have to spend $500 or more to move up in class. Our original unicycles cost about $100 each, and the new ones cost about $200.

They're quite a step up, and even better, the brand is "Nimbus." That's right--the same name as the premier Quidditch brooms in Harry Potter. So I wrapped up his unicycle in brown shipping paper and addressed it to him, with this return address:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
ADVANCED STUDENT EQUIPMENT DIVISION

It says "NIMBUS" on the frame, too. I should get some peel-off numbers and add "3000."

[I wrote this post last night, but we went out this morning to ride for about half an hour. We were riding at the Metro parking lot, and I've marked off something I (goofily) call "The Grand Lap," which is basically a lap around the entire parking lot (which is huge). It's 1260 feet in total.

Eli 7.10 started riding, and I just followed him. He did one full grand lap and kept going. I was so excited to reach one full lap that--at the precise moment I reached one lap--I fell on my ass. Hard.

Meanwhile, Eli was still going. He did over two full laps, finally stopping at 3000 feet. Later, though, I managed to almost do two full laps, falling off at 2300 feet. That's a record for me by almost 1000 feet.

I think the next time that we go out to the high school track (with fewer turns and a smoother surface), Eli may be able to ride for a mile without stopping.]

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