If you start with your pedal down, you will have a problem starting going, because you will have all your weight on that pedal, and be unable to get out of the “dead spot”. Pedals vertical is not a happy place, for MUni, standard riding, or whatever.
Learning to Unicycle: Day 5
After yesterday’s new discoveries but slow progress, I was excited to get out today and work on improving on the tips I had learned. I think today was one of my greatest days of growth on my unicycle thus far.
I spent my entire ~2 hours of practice today at area ‘B’, as that is the smoothest, straightest, and longest stretch I have available to me that is also accompanied by a support.
I used the metaphysical approach at the beginning (which was suggested by podzol). I mounted, closed my eyes, breathed deeply a few times, then opened my eyes and center my vision straight ahead at a house across the street. I found my balance, put my weight on the seat, and started pedaling, trying to be aware of each revolution. Surprisingly, I managed about 5 feet before UPDing.
I repeated this process many times, trying to quicken the whole process. Before each try, I would imagine myself pedaling straight down the sidewalk to the object I had chosen to center my vision on. It actually felt a bit surreal after a while, as I was slowly starting to become more “one” with the unicycle, though now I realize it was just my body starting to conform the strange physical demands.
I kept this up for about an hour until I managed to make it about 10-12 feet. I got really excited at this point, so I ran inside, grabbed a tape measure, and actually measured out the lengths of the sidewalk squares; about 4’ 1/2’. I rode for another hour, just repeating the Zen-like process over and over again, eventually going inside because I was starving to death. I think my longest run was about 20 feet.
There was no non-uni’er responses worth mentioning today, just a lot of weird stares.
A few important tips from today:
- Keep your view centered on something ahead of you. Not only will this keep you from looking at the ground, but it will give you some sort of a goal for you ride towards, and keep you riding in a straighter line.
- It might help to keep tabs on how far you’re riding with each attempt. This will tell you if the techniques you’re using to practice are really helping, and can speed up the overall learning process, as well as keep you motivated.
- Stay calm before and during each run. Just imagine yourself doing it perfectly, breathe deeply a few times, and go for it. Don’t forget to breathe while you’re actually riding, too!
Tomarrow you will come upon that dreaded “turn in the sidewalk”. 
Congrats!
Something else that helped me when learning to mount without support was to start on a slight downhill. The gravity will get the unicycle rolling for you, and you just pedal along with it. It helped me.
Yeah Tim, I’ve actually already planned ahead for that. My rear driveway in front of my garage is nice and smooth, albeit short, and it also has a nice little slope to it.
Stick around. It gets better.
Much better.
God, I can’t wait for that day. 
It is closer now than it’s ever been.
Heh, word. I’m already feeling myself approach it.
God, it’s only first period still! I want school to be over so I can practice! 
Learning to Unicycle: Day 6
Today, like day 4, did not fulfill my wishes of riding longer distances. I did gain some newfound control over my unicycle, though, and am slowly starting to ride those short distances with a bit more frequency and a higher success rate.
So I went out to area ‘B’ and started with my usual routine, going for the whole “visualize, breathe, and go” pattern. I immediately started off realizing something was going wrong…I wasn’t doing nearly as well as yesterday. I kept on, though, wondering if maybe I just needed to get my legs warmed up a little more, but after 20 minutes or so of unsuccessful attempts, I began to realize what my problem was. Apparently, every time I would start to get going, I would veer off to the right just a little, and that would cause me to increase my angle exponentially as I rode until I ultimately UPDed into the strip of grass on my right just about every time. This would even happen when I focused all of my attention on my distant object, so I figured I would need to change something else.
First, I tried a short experiment. I simply turned around, mounted the other way, and tried to ride that direction, but that didn’t help any.
Then I tried something that seems quite stupid to me now, but I thought it might work at the time. I loosened my quick release clamp and rotated my saddle a little so it pointed to the left. Unfortunately, that just made me even more unsuccessful in that I would zig-zag all over the place and fall very quickly.
I scratched my head for a moment trying to think of something, and decided to ride a few runs and try and carefully examine just what was happening. After doing this, I noticed that my legs couldn’t seem to stay balanced on the pedals. (that sounds weird, but I can’t think of another way to type it). The pedals just seemed sort off uneven. At first, I tried raising the seat, and I thought that would help a great deal, but it really didn’t affect much. So then, of course, I lowered the seat. I rode this for about 5 runs, and I actually seemed to have much more control over the pedals and the direction I was going, but then I was forced to go inside because of a phone call and had to end my practice.
A couple tips from today:
- If you find yourself not making any progress, try to look at every solution to your problem instead of just riding it out. In some cases, there is just something wrong with the unicycle itself (i.e. a loose screw, uneven seat), and if you fix the problem, it might help your progress.
- When learning, try shortening the saddlepost a little more than seems necessary. I’m not sure if this will apply to every situation, but it helped me quite a lot.
Extreem Zig Zagging is normally an indication of sitting too upright on the uni and can very easily be rectified by leaning forward ever so slightly.
About a smidgen should do it.
As for your directional woes, you will find that you tend to veer in the direction of your ‘strong’, ‘dominant’ or ‘chocolate’ foot. This is simply because that leg is stronger and tends to pedal a little bit harder than the other leg.
This is not only natural, it’s also a handy clue to unlock the wonders of turning the unicycle. Something you’ll get to soon enough.
Just stick with focussing on turning the pedals over smoothly and all should be well.
No learning curve is ever smoothly and perfectly ‘up’. You will hit the occasional plateau.
And get the occasional phone call.
If it’s from someone called Suzanna, just don’t take the call.
Learning to Unicycle: Day 7
There’s not much to talk about for today, since I only practiced for about 45 minutes, but I’ll see what I can squeeze into the post.
I started off just doing more of what I did yesterday at area ‘B’, but the turning problem was still happening (as an aside, I don’t know my left and right-I was actually veering to the left, not the right). Once again, I tried to look at some possibilities.
I probably adjusted the saddle post about 6 times, trying all different heights. Oddly enough, I settled with a height that was actually higher than what I had chosen yesterday. This seemed to help some, but not enough.
At this point, I decided to try a new practice area. I went around to my rear driveway and began riding little distances there. It was actually a lot easier than my other practice area, since it was sloped, and didn’t require much momentum at all to get going. However, my veering problem was still evident even on this much more user-friendly surface.
I contemplated the problem yet again and realized that I was probably unconsciously leaning to the left. I had never really tried to stay aware of which way I was leaning, so I figured now was the perfect time.
I mounted up, chose an object to center my vision on, and let go of my support. I immediately started pedaling and forced my body to lean very slightly to the right, trying to counter any tendency I had to go to the left. Surprisingly, I rolled straight down the driveway.
I did this a few more times, trying to find that perfect balance, and I was mostly unsuccessful. At one point, I accidently swerved so far to the left that I was riding a 45 degree angle and spinning out. I’m glad I jumped out of that one or that would’ve hurt a bit. =P
Couple tips from today:
- First off, disregard my second tip from Day 6. I have discovered that it actually doesn’t help much.
- Be very cautious of any leaning you may be doing while riding. The slightest bit of weight that is off balance will most likely mess you up.
Learning to Unicycle: Day 8
This was a very exciting, albeit short, practice day.
I did my routine exercises at area ‘B’, working on my veering problem for a while. I slowly began to get that fixed, and I can tell that it shouldn’t be a problem at all by mid-next week.
Aside from my leaning left-right problem, I also worked on my leaning forward-backward problem. As Gild suggested, I tried not sitting up as straight as I thought was necessary, and leaning forward just a tiny bit. I was very excited to see that this helped me a huge deal; I made it 20-25 feet several times today. I might’ve advanced even further, but I had only made this breakthrough with about 15 minutes left before it would become dark. I’ll be sure to work on this a lot tomorrow, because it seemed to unlock a lot of barriers that had been keeping me from progressing much.
A tip from today:
- Stay conscious of everything you are doing. Since we’re all humans, it can be very easy to get sidetracked from the task at hand. While it’s impossible to keep your mind on unicycling every single second of your practice sessions, I recommend choosing a place to practice that is relatively quiet, calm, and perhaps a bit boring.
In 8 days you have made miles of progress. Hats off to you, sockarooni!
I’ll second GILD’s observation that plateaus occur during training. If and when it comes, just go back through your journal (great idea BTW) and see how far you’ve made it.
Keep on truckin, socko!
I’m sorry but we have to talk. Your swimming pool doesn’t quite meet code and those steps to the deck really need to be addressed. Have we talked lot coverage or property line encroachment yet? When can we meet. I’ll be bringing my citation pad…
Learning to Unicycle: Day 9
Extremely short practice day today.
I got out there and did my usual at area ‘B’, heightening the post at one point just because I’m still working on finding that “sweet spot” with the post height. I noticed that I wasn’t really putting much heart into today’s practice, and after I got my foot stuck in the pedals and rammed the seat into my crotch, I decided I just wasn’t in the mood today. I probably need a little break so I don’t get too burned out, anyway.
One tip from today:
- As is evident from my post, if you’re not really into unicycling that day, then don’t force yourself. The entire point of riding is to enjoy yourself, after all.
Congrats on your 20+ foot rides man. It’s very exciting when it starts to feel more natural. Keep on keepin on.
my tip: Just git on that one wheeler and give’r, and of course try not to fall
Learning to Unicycle: Day 10
Yay, 10 days have past since I’ve started practicing. Sounds like a good milestone. 
So, for starters, I took a 3 day break from the uni, and I think it really helped. I lost any frustration I might have gathered from last week, and as I walked outside today with the cool wind blowing over me, I started to get a rush because I simply missed practicing.
Not a whole lot to write about, just an average hour-long practice at area ‘B’. I did progress a good deal distance-wise, making 15-foot runs at a very high frequency that pleased me. I also did many more 20-25 foot rides, and I think my highest was 32 or 33 feet before falling. I’m slowly feeling the balance become more second-nature, and I’m becoming a lot more adept at finding the sweet-spot regarding the angle of forward leaning.
I eventually went inside because I was hungry. 
Tip from today:
- Take a little break from the unicycle every once and a while. It’ll help you clear your head of frustrations and get you energized for that first step back on.
I’d say that once you get like 50 feet you more or less have it, at least that’s how it was for me. once you get 50 feet it isn’t a fluke anymore, and it’s actually skill.