OK. First. I had a really great MOPE moment yesterday. And to give
credit where credit its due, the first use of MOPE (My Own Personal
Everest) that I encountered was in a recent post by Mikefule. So, nice
acronym Mike (if you're indeed the coiner of said acronym). I think
it's the best one since UPD.🙂 Anyway there is a hill in my
neighborhood that is a fairly steep paved road and has become, over the
past few month, my nemesis. I don't know what percent the grade is but
it's one that I need to really gear down my mountain bike for. I'm
sure many of you could go up this one backwards, in your sleep, but it
has confounded my every time. I had just ridden into town to go pick
up some new glasses from the optician and was on my way home. I
decided to take the long way into the neighborhood and this concludes
with THE HILL. I was feeling the anxiety about a hundred meters before
I even started the climb (defeated before I even began) and I turned
the corner and headed up the street. I felt a bit shakey and wasn't
keeping a good line. I made it about 50 meters up and just before it
turns 90 degrees to the right and gets steeper, I UPDd.😠 I cursed
and growled and picked up the uni and, in anger, slammed the tire down
on the ground. This is a fairly typical scene on this hill and usually
by the time I get here I'm pretty exhausted and I end up walking the
uni up the hill to where it levels off and finish my ride home. This
time I was angry enough that I walked it back down the hill and started
at the bottom again. I'm on my 29er, which I still have a little bit
of trouble free mounting. I got up on it first try but a little shakey
and I didn't get my foot placement exactly where I wanted it on the
pedal. I managed about a 2 second still-stand and readjusted my foot
and started up the hill. Still a bit shakey, mostly from exhaustion, I
started to grind up the hill. I really tried to concentrate on keeping
my momentum up and I made it to the turn. I got around the corner.
This is my usual UPD point and I almost lost momentum as the hill gets
noticably steeper right here. I managed to stay on top of it and kept
going. I got about half way up the steep grade and was still going.
At this point I was really going through the internal stuggle of
keeping focus on the climb vs. the little voice inside my head saying,
"you're not gonna make it." I focused on a driveway entering the
street near the top of the climb and told myself that, if I make it to
that driveway, I've got it! As I got close to the driveway, that
irritating little voice was getting louder but I kept going. 5 meters,
3 meters, 1 meter, there! At this point it was still 10 to 15 meters
to the crest but the grade starts to level out and I knew I had it. I
relaxed, but not too much just yet. And then, I was there. Dripping
with sweat and grinning ear to ear, I pedalled to the next turn towards
my house, dismounted and got the water bottle out of my back pack for a
drink. I remounted, first try, and rode the last half mile home,
knowing that I just made a real, noteworthy improvement in my
unicycling.😄 😄
Now for my observation in bike crosstraining. I haven't logged 10
miles on a bicycle since my obsessive/compulsive disorder got
re-focused on unicycling. I used to be a 3 to 4 thousand mile a year
road biker. Well, with gas prices rising and a recent boost in
motivation brought on by National Bike to Work Week (May 15-19) I've
outfitted my mountain bike as a commuter and started riding it. It
makes for an 80 mile week, roughly, so it's more biking than I've done
in a couple of years. It took a couple of days to really start feeling
my 'spin' again, but it came back quickly and naturally. I continued
to ride my uni daily, when I got home from work, and after a few days I
noticed that my pedalling cadence was smoother than it had ever been.
I've been frustrated by the fact that my pedalling on the uni has
always been a little bit jerky with too many little hesitations and
corrections in it. I've been actually able to ride for about a year
and a half now and I've felt really frustrated and sometimes angry that
I don't ride better after that time. Well, the smoother cadance has
been noticable and has really helped my endurance and speed. I still
have a long ways to go but I think that remembering the smooth cadance
I have on the bicycle has been benificial to unicycling. And there you
have it. Thanks for listening.🙂
--
underdog
'I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody
tell you different' - Kurt Vonnegut
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