Andy Moulsters' BHF Unicycle Challenge Blog

Video:

Zack spinning a plate on his finger! First circus trick at age 2!

Last day, track us live on endomondo! http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/uY–EsHeJsw

So day one is over and we managed a total of 34 miles in about 8 hours! Long day with all the rain but we all arrived in good spirits!
Been raining all night with gale force winds, its going to be hard but i’m sure we will be fine!

Yesterday was full of learnings and challenges, but also a couple of disasters! Two bags split including myself own, riders took different routes but all ended up in the same place and my handle bar and brake snapped off! We should be more prepared today at least but we will see!

We were also filmed by bbc look north for Cumbria! Was on twice yesterday and should be on the bbc site now too! Will link to it when I get back!

Right best to get some breakfast and limber up!

Video:

Short clip if mine and Paul's training in Sheffield! We met up with a running friend of mine! This is about half way through our 20 mile ride!

See more about the coast to coast unicycle challenge at
Http://andythegeek.com/

You can also sponsor me & the British heart foundation at
Http://www.justgiving.com/andymoulster

So the count down is getting closer! In less than one week I will be setting off on my unicycle to cycle across the country!

Not too much has happened in the past few weeks, lots more cycling, going a bit faster and a bit further each time, just keeping the fitness up and making sure we are all organised!

One funny story though! I was cycling along, going pretty well, when out of nowhere I lost my balance and fell! This was a proper UPD, the gloves I had on had wrist protection which gave my hands no grip on the ground so I just slid out and scraped my elbows, knees and belly! Felt a bit dazed so sat on the floor for five mins to catch my breath.
Then a lovely lady pulled up in her car to see if I was ok and asked me what happened! I explained that I had just slipped and that my gloves made me fall flat on my face!
She looked suprised and said ‘Oh so your bike is meant to be like that!’. All I can think is that she thought that someone had attacked me and actually stole half my bike! Brings a new light to the old joke!

Anyway I will be tracking my progress using endomondo (http://www.endomondo.com/) on my phone. Should be able to see my live progress and I’m going to try and embed it here if I can. It is also posted on my facebook and twitter feeds so it will be easy access.

The hectic times are nearly over and the event is about to begin. This has been the hardest thing I have ever had to train for and I expect the challenge wont be much easier either.

See you all soon and if you do have anything spare please do give a little. Anything from 50p is welcome and helps a great deal.
http://www.justgiving.com/andymoulster

A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks! My unicycle bearing broke, and when trying to fix it, I had issues removing the broken one! Ended up using a blow torch and a grinder to get it off!

Forced me to have a week off the wheel!

So it got to last Sunday and was the first day I could get back on for a ride! So rather than taking it easy it decided to push myself as much I can!

Got up at 8,and left at half 9 and did 15 miles, got back for 12 and went shopping!

Went back out after the f1 race to do a much longer 2nd leg! Got to about 9 miles and stopped for a rest at a bench and saw a dog jump down a 60 degree 30′ drop!

Further and long story short, I ended up going down after the dog, who was 14. The whole way down was full of brambles and nettles! Took 15 mind and ended up with very sore legs and cuts all over!

Anyway set off again and totalled 22 miles, making 37 for the day! Very tiring, but felt good! Been riding 15 miles each night to try over 100 in a week, on

65 miles so far so I am well on my way to my target! Speak soon!

Video:

Streamed by wired84 in Sheffield, UK. More at http://qik.com/wired84 Qik is the fastest way to upload videos to YouTube from your mobile phone. Find out more at http://qik.com.

I’ve started using a app on my phone called Qik and thought I would try and share some of my rides and show ya the terrain, speed and show ya my point of view!

Going to start recording as I ride so have embedded my channel below. Feel free to look through my past vids!

Ta ta

Hey, so I thought I would put a few facts out there so you all know what I am doing, what I have done and what I’m going to do!

Distance travelled in training so far ~1000 miles (bike and unicycle)

Time spent unicycling ~120 hours

Longest distance travelled in one day ~25 miles

Longest distance to travel during the challenge ~35 miles

Top speed on unicycle 14.6mph

Number of punctures – 5

Average speed – 7.7mph

Quickest Mile – 5:52

Number of UPDs that drew blood – 20 – 25

Number of wheel revolutions needed to complete the challenge (160 miles) – 111,760

Weight lost since beginning of training -6lb

% body fat lost – 28%

Tubs of Vaseline/Sudocrem used – 3

That’s all I can think of at the mo, let me know if there are any others you can think of! Also a random guy stopped me in the street today, said he sees me every morning on the bus and I get a bit of talk on the buses as they go past! Good to know I’m turning heads and hopefully getting more support!

Andy

Oopps forgot to post this, wrote a while ago. Photos to follow too!

First week back riding again properly and I’m struggling to do what I could do easily before, although I feel a lot more steady on my unicycle and I feel my balance has got better.

Got myself some t-shirts printed to try to raise some more support and to make people understand why I’m unicycling around. Wore one of them to work today and got quite a good reaction to it and I suppose I’ll see from how many more hits this site gets. I have also printed some business cards to hand out to people who maybe interested in what I am doing. This was all helped by my friend and colleague Lewis Strangward who took loads of professional looking photos without charge which you can see on my Picasa account which is linked on the right!

From now on I’m really going to have to step things up. As I said before exercises while at home are a must and exercise bike every day is going to have to happen too But mainly I am going to have to make sure I do a lot more distance, I think 100 miles a week by the end of July. At the moment I’m doing about 60-80 so I’m not too far off, its just my after work rides that will need to be extended!

Anyway this was only meant to be short and Ive waffled on

TTFN