What’s really wearing you out is your lack of experience. Your muscles will get stronger, but what will really make the difference is you developing a familiarity with the unicycle. Once your muscles are no longer constantly fighting each other in an attempt to keep you upright it will get much easier and eventually it will be easier than walking or jogging.
You are amazing if you only tried unicycling a week ago and can already ride 2km on different ground surfaces, and freemount!! Both legs too, it’s actually quite uncommon.
Just keep riding, you are doing awesome 
Wow, thank you for your many responses and the warm welcome. 
This gives me courage!
I am very ambitious when learning new things and I am not at all afraid to fall. That seems to be pretty important when learning to ride a unicycle. At least it is for me.
Sounds like something from an alcoholics forum. Glad to hear unicycling is going well. Keep us posted!
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I crashed by motorbike yesterday. The front tire slipped away on wet tramway rails - exactly at the moment when the opposite tramway came. Fortunately, I did not get under the wheels. The motorbike was less lucky.
With a cracked rib, I think I’ll have to take a few days off.
Two wheels seem to be one too many…
But I have to wait anyway for the delivery of the crank bolt and the new pedals. After all, we’re still in lockdown here.
I wish you a speedy recovery!
Hi mario
Sorry to hear about your motorcycle accident and hope rib heals quickly.
With one wheel as others have said here about weight on the seat, try just resting against a wall for support and without riding just play with putting your weight on the pedals and then lift pressure off feet so your weight goes onto the seat so you can get a feel for it.
With distance I remember being in the same position and just build your distance up as it does get easier and being a distance runner I’m sure you’ll be fine.
Yay, I am back to riding again! My rib is good enough and the crank screw I had lost while exercising was delivered. Given the opportunity I have upgraded to BMX pedals with pins, which I have immediately engraved into my shins.
I had used the past days to watch beginner tutorials and realized that I had taught myself a completely wrong technique for mounting. Instead of balancing the pedal next to me while jumping onto the other pedal I was immediately putting my weight onto the opposite pedal and turned with momentum over the dead point while jumping onto the saddel.
Maybe I’ll make a video of this weird technique and put it in there.
Today I tried the right technique and was able to master it after half an hour. Actually, it is completely logical to mount like this.
Thanks for the tip about smooth pedaling @m00ms . That helped me a lot.This makes driving much more relaxed and I can concentrate more on the balance.
Before learning to ride backwards, I have decided to learn idling. This sequence seems more logical to me now, because that’s just a more complicated way of stopping.
Whatever. I’m really glad I started unicycling. It’s really fun.
Welcome!
I started riding at the young age of 43 (younger than you!) and was a busy dad with young kids, not in the greatest of shape b/c no time to exercise. Fast forward 12 years of unicycling, I am fairly fit and largely unicycle up/down hills in our hilly area (hills are much more fun and a better workout) and routinely ascend/descend 300-400m or more on a typical ride.
I think you getting exhausted after a few 100m is you probably have a small wheel that beginner’s use (20") with long crank lengths (150 or so). After couple of months or so, I outgrew my 20" and went to a 26". Much better. Single revolution takes you so much farther, legs aren’t spinning. Then after a few months I started feeling my legs were spinning and switched from 150 mm to 100 mm cranks. Much better. Then after a few months a 36" unicycle w 150 mm cranks. Much better. And after a few months then changed to 125 mm cranks. Much better.
Anyhow, as you get better you probably want to transition to a bigger wheel and shorter cranks. You won’t be as exhausted and it’s more fun.
I think you invented a new mount! The fact that you could do it even some of the time is amazing!
That sounds great! I hope I manage to stick with it for such a long time too. 
My kids are grown up already. That gives me more time to practise.
There‘s a totally crazy BMX track near me in Vienna. But I‘d rather practice for a few more weeks before I venture there. Anyway, I‘m pretty sure, the 20“ unicycle will be good enough for this year. At the moment I don‘t want to be fast at all. I try to ride as slowly as possible while keeping my balance.
I have to learn to forget that I‘m on a unicycle and learn to move freely instead.
So falling in love takes on a twist of meaning. 
Servus Schorsch!
Are you making fun of my bad English? 
Are there any German-speaking communities you know of?
A double no, just the german section of this forum, but I`m not into facebook.
PS: the german section is not that active anymore, `cause it is a bit hidden since the introduction of the new forum software
It takes a while and it was about 9 months until I got my 26" and another 9 months until I got my 36".
And everyone’s different. I tried off road, flat, hills, different crank lengths, etc., etc. You’ll figure out what you like best, etc.
And BMX track, yeah, that can be fun, but it can be very challenging when you are still learning. A 20" for the year sounds right to me.
Have fun!
Thanks. And thanks for giving me a sense of how long it will take to get really good at it.
Today I practiced two hours on the unicycle. By the end of the day, I couldn’t even mount it anymore.
When you start something, you want way too much and way too fast.
I guess I have to become more patient.
There’s a fair chance you might have a family of unicycles at the end of the year.
The thing to avoid though is using no name hubs, they will break.
I found idling hard, it took ages to learn (I only got it after riding 2.5 years, though I didn’t focus on it much, just every now and then) but I felt every time I tried there was no improvement till suddenly I got the feel. It’s still something that isn’t easy for me though and I can pretty much only do it left foot down, and only do it well on a 20". The skill of hopping came quickly though. So if you get discouraged with idling and backwards, try hopping. But don’t try it on a no-name hub as they will break.
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Nah, I ride my 19" with 140mm 99% of the time. The 24" and 27.5" are hardly used at the moment so it really depends on your definition of fun. Bigger wheels with shorter cranks isn’t better. Just different
If you can keep up with that motivation for learning you’ll notice the progression comes really fast!
Just focus on a few techniques each session, maybe even one technique, and your body and mind will adapt quickly. I’ve been riding for less than 6 months now and my jumps are getting higher (62cm last pr), drops are getting bigger (>1m), riding gets more and more effortless (mentally), hops are getting more accurate and tricks are getting better too…
But I do ride between 1-2 hours every day…
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