Andy Moulsters' BHF Unicycle Challenge Blog

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

Hello again! Been a while again, but still been busy!
For starters I was ill around my last post! So my training had a bit of a break for about a week! Then when I did go back out I got another puncture! Bit of a run of bad luck with 4 punctures. In the last month!

Then I went on holiday to Portugal so took another Unicycling break! Managed to borrow a bike while I was there so kept it up, however not knowing the area, the heat and having to cycle on the wrong side of the road made things a little harder!#

Speaking to you now it has been aroun 2 weeks since my last time on my unicycle! However now is the final run into the challenge and I need to step things up. Starting now I will be getting up early to do several exercises to try and lose a little of the excess fat and build the muscle. So I’m talking sit ups, press ups, plank, squat thrusts, burpies and lunges! This will then be followed by my normal cycle to work and the a long ride home of at least 10 miles. Hoping to get this done at least 4 times a week, with at least one or two of the rides being 25-35 miles.

Anyway, I mentioned I was filmed for the BBC recently. Well it was on about a week ago, annoyingly it was while I was in Portugal so wasn’t able to get word out to everyone, however did manage to catch it and it is on BBCs website here check it out, will also add it to youtube when I can too!

Anyway best go, want to jump on my exercise bike now and do some leg exercises!

So, again it has been a while since my last post. Right now I am feeling a bit run down so thought I would get my blog up to date. I put that down mainly to cycling to and from Huddersfield on Saturday in the pouring rain! Took about 4 hour and wasn’t a good ride. The way there was great, made really good time and was feeling strong despite being drenched!

The way back was totally different. Left feeling food, but by the time we got to the top of the first hill I started to cramp up. My legs were killing and my stomach was terrible! Had to stop a few times on the way as I thought I was going to be sick. Managed to struggle through it and got back in a decent time anyway! Needless to say it caught up with me last (Monday) night and I was achy all over and now feel so lacking of energy!

On the good side though things are in general looking up. I tend to look back at my training and think I really should have done a bit more here or there. But then at the end of the week, have clocked up over 110 miles with at least half being on the unicycle! Even got 3 punctures in as many weeks and still managed to complete decent distances! If I keep this up I think I will be ready in about a months time!

This past weekend I set myself the challenge of doing 5 days in a row. This was really to test how well I was doing and where I was in terms of stamina over multiple days.
Thursday – 1 hour of football, then 8 miles of riding
Friday – 15 miles Unicycle ride
Saturday – 42 Miles on my bike (in the rain)
Sunday – 8 Miles of riding before getting a puncture
Monday – 10 Miles, of riding before my friend, Josh, got a puncture on his bike!
All in all I think I did pretty well. The final day I was feel great, thought I could do another 10 miles if I had to! Good job I didn’t as I am achey all over, especially my left arm and feeling very unwell!

Finally the week before last I was filmed for a piece by BBC look north! Was a great day. Was out in the beautiful sunshine for 7 hours and got loads of footage all over Sheffield. Looks as if it’ll be on the TV this Friday (4th June), if not the Monday after, but will pop it on youtube and add it here for all to see. Only problem was the length of time it took!! After 7 hours with no food and 6 ltrs of Water I had a bit of a headache! Was deffinatley worth it though!

Anyway, best get to bed and try to sleep this off!

Andy
x

Sorry its been a while since I last wrote, been a hectic few weeks – booked my wedding, been cycling a lot and got lots done.

Where to start – well over the past couple of weeks I have been racking up the miles. Gone to doing a minimum of about 13 miles per ride. The best part of it is that the ride I have started doing is the same as the ride I started training oin my bike and struggled with. Now I can complete it about two-three times a week on my unicycle no problem! I also decided to change to a road tyre and see how I get on.

First thing I noticed is that road tyre makes everything much harder. Getting on is harder, going up down hills is harder, going flat is harder! The only thing that got easier was going up hills. The main reason is that there is so little resistance and so little of the tyre is in contact with the road. Worst part is that when I go along a road I can feel the camber completely. I end up twisting my body to keep balanced and that really hurts!

I kept the road tyre on for a week and then got a puncture on the Friday. Thought enough is enough and swapped back to the off road tyre at the same time as replacing the inner tube. Not sure if its just a confidence thing or if I actually have improved my balance/skill but going back to this tyre has made things so much easier. Went out on the unicycle the next day and managed 22 miles. Felt so smooth and much easier and managed it in about 3 and half hours!! Managed 35 miles in the past 2 days on this tyre and feel pretty good for it!

But things are getting a lot harder its not as fun anymore and the initial buzz has started to die away! Just keep those donations coming, it really helps me carry on training as well as helping the bhf!
Also had a fun ride today, had a lovely argument with some random guy, was good cause he stopped and I was able to vent my frustration with the ignorance that I get on a daily basis! Also rode past a park car that was shaking and had a dodgey looking blanket inside too!

Anyway best be off, below is a pic of my unicycle travels!

So this week has been a pretty good week, still pushing myself, getting a few extra miles in on my rides and speeding up where I can. Hills are good both up and down too! I’ve ridden a total of about 80 miles this last week, mainly on my unicycle too.

The best day was sunday when I went out with two of my mates, Jon Beagles on a bike and Adam Wall running. We were planning on trying for 20 miles, but thought as it was the same day as the half marathon in sheffield and the London marathon we would try for a marathon distance 26 miles. We actually managed a total of 24.6 miles and Adam managed a total of 22 miles as he had a small break on the bike when he was feeling pretty rubbish. We even stopped for fish and chips half way round, was very nice!

Sponsorship is going great, had some interest from a few big names and the lovely guys at www.firetoys.co.uk have given me a t-shirt and a massive discount on some tools! Got my self a lovely Qu-ax total unicycle kit its proper awesome. Has everything I could ever need it it, from a seatpost cutter to a bearing extractor!

So many positives there has to be one negative! About a mile from the end of my ride on Sunday I was feeling really good, got to this nice little path with a great surface and a gentle incline, perfect for a bit of speed! So I thought, ‘lets go for it, see how fast I can push this baby’ so I really did, my legs going so fast I hardly had control of them. Was just about to go round a corner and was trying to slow down a little and lost my footing, the wheel twisted around a little and pelted me off!! I was still going about 12 mph at the time and slid along on my side and elbow. Worst part was I ripped my lovely Kris Holm gloves! very disapointed, however they did save my hands from losing all the skin. At least I maxed out at 14.6mph whilst doing it, thats some speed on one wheel, very scary!

Thats all for now, sorry its been a while posting, wont leave it so long next time!

Andy

Ok so not all on my unicycle but still a massive personal achievement! Yesterday I cycled from Sheffield to Chatsworth house and back, took just over 4 hours including breaks and covered just shy of 36 miles! Very happy considering my previous longest ride was 25 miles and is was by far the hardest ride I’ve done too!
We did two 30 minute climbs too, both of which I felt like stopping and dying on, but managed to get to the top…eventually.

This morning I went out on my unicycle planning on doing a maximum of about 10 miles but ended up doing nearly 19!I think I am making pretty good progress now, been building up slowly over the last month adding a few miles on each time. Really tested myself today as well climbing hills, going off road and the worst part going down some big hills too. Knee is now feeling pretty sore, going down hills is a lot of pressure on my knees and unfortunately Sheffield is full of hills! On the plus side only had 1 or 2 UPDs in the whole trip. Of course I had a small break in the middle and jumped off when I got cramp in my foot, but I feel I am getting more stable and getting more used to it. Next step is to get stable enough to hold both handles both with sitting and standing and riding so I can get down and push on the speed a bit more.

Feeling pretty good about it all now. I don’t think it’ll be all that long before I am ready for this challenge. I think I could have done 35 miles in two days on my unicycle, give it two months or so and I think I can push that to doing 60 miles in a weekend on my unicycle. In fact I am going to try and do this around the middle of June. Perhaps the weekend of 19th/20th. I’m pretty sure I can get myself fit enough by then! I have decided to put another hole into my cranks too. Luckily a colleague at work’s dad is able to drill and tapper them for me, so I don’t have to go out and find anyone to do it or buy the more expensive ones with shorter distances to the holes!

Donations are going great too, just totted up and I officially have over £1000 raised. That’s just over half way to my personal target. Thanks to everyone that has donated, keep it up and I’ll be there well before the challenge starts!

Speak soon

Andy

So its been a while since my last blog so thought I’d do update you all! Been busy busy busy. Last week I went to the British Juggling Convention in Huddersfield, which was a lot of fun. Plenty of jugglers, unicyclists and all round crazy like minded people there! Of course I took my unicycles with me and went for a few rides whilst there.

What I found most baffling was they reaction I got towards my very large unicycle! Most people would stand and discuss the usability of the handles and the brake. Of all the people there, some juggling 5 or 7 clubs, some spinning 4 diabolos, the thing that people seemed most shocked at was my unicycle. People we very impressed with me riding it.

I had a great time there and even managed to raise just over £100 towards the cause from randoms I’ve never met before! Met a young guy that was a very good unicyclist, he could beat me in a race on his 20″ when I was on my 29″! Was so humbling to have so much support for my challenge from all sorts of random people.

Anyway I managed to fit in three proper rides, managed about 30 miles in total in pretty hilly terrain also! Best part was I was able to go riding with a couple of other unicyclists. Best part of that is I had people that could push me to keep going at a steady speed and to go a bit further. The last ride we did was pretty long and had some big hills, we climbed around 500ft in one go, with other unicyclists you encourage each other to get all the way to the top.

Here we are at the top of the biggest hill

On the first night there I decided to relax a little and have a drink or two. Was a good night, you know the night when you think its a great idea to ride downhill on a unicycle for two miles when you can hardly walk! So at 3am I grabbed my unicycle and started down the hill. Was doing well and could ride, but was coming off about once every 10 minutes. Every time I would look around hoping no one saw and jump back on. Was about half way down when I fell off again, turned round and saw a police car pulling behind me! “Oh god” I thought, fingers crossed they don’t arrest me or something.

I walked up to the car window and the officer wound his window down
Officer “I was going to ask you why you had fallen off, but now I see what your riding it makes a lot more sense”
Lady Office “Where have you come from”
Me (trying to sound sober) “The british juggling convention at the new college”
Lady Office “Will there be many more cycling around”
Me “I doubt it, I expec they are camping, I am staying at my mates”
I half expected them to give me a warning or a lift home, but they just wished me luck and went on their way! Lucky they didn’t understand unicycling, I normally only fall about once per 10 miles, not 10 times per mile!

Finally I have decided to attempt 100 miles on my unicycle in one day. This will be in August just before I go on my trip. There is no actual point to it other than a massive achievement! For this I am having to get even shorter cranks. About 2.5cms shorter, enough to enable to me to go that little bit faster and cover the ground before it gets dark! I will just be adding an additional hole into my dual hole cranks, it’ll make hills that little bit harder but I need a new challenge <tries not to look scared> Still a long way to go in my training, but well on the way now.

Not done an awful lot this week since Saturday, but going to attempt 40 miles between Friday and Sunday finishing on a possible 20 miler on the Sunday morning. Wish me luck, I’m gonna need it.

Speak again keep the donations coming in

Andy

So had a big week this week. Helped mainly by the 4 day weekend and my mother looking after Zack. I have managed to do about 80 miles this week. about 40 on my bike and 40 on the unicycle. Have found myself a new riding partner to go out with, however it is only biking and not unicycling.

Over the 4 day weekend managed 50 miles in total! Wasn’t all good though on the Friday morning I went out alone on my unicycle. Rode just over 12 miles but it wasn’t fun. Knees were still sore from the week before so the pressure on my knees when going down hills was killing me. It was also raining a lot so made things all that harder. Had several UPDs, the worst was at 9 miles. Slipped and my foot caught on the pedal, landed on my feet but my handle clipped my ankle as it fell. The pain was so bad and was made worse as it was the ankle I broke. Still managed to get on and cycle the remaining 3 miles home but by the evening my ankle had swollen like a balloon, put ice on and rested it over night but there wasn’t much change.

Got up on Saturday morning with the ankle still a little sore but thought I would see how the bike ride went, perhaps keep it short. Got ready , strapped the ankle and put my trainers on and the pain was terrible, was limping about and started to worry what the problem was – had I chipped my bone, had I aggravated the previous break. Started riding and the ankle was fine, could sprint climb and control my bike fine, however was when I stopped and walked that it was really painful. Ended up riding just over 25 miles so can’t have been that bad. Got home and was starting to worry I had really done something and only made it worse by cycling. Limped about the house for a while before taking my shoes off, took off my shoes, socks and strapping and the swelling had completely gone and best of all no pain, could jumped, walk, run no problem!! Phew.

Sunday and Monday I managed another 16 miles on the unicycle in total. Both were hard work but went well, felt good and was fun. Feels good to do so much and not feel too tired after! Legs are getting stronger and weight is still dropping. Still on about 5lbs lost, but I no longer have moobs and my waist line is smaller!

That’s all for now, keep sponsoring

Andy

Just got back from my final ride of the week and it went pretty well. Went nearly 11 miles in just over 90 minutes. Pretty pleased especially as I had 2 pretty bad UPDs. First time, Jon, who came riding with me (on a bike) slammed his breaks on to go through a bike gate (that I can ride straight through). I then had to stop in a hurry, but with the shorter cranks the wheel was moving to fast and kept going and left me behind. I tried to step off, slipped and slid down the gravel path on my knees. The second time was on one of my peaks, was pushing hard on the smaller cranks and slipped, fel forward and landed full on my knee.

My legs are getting pretty beat up now, scratches and bruises all over them. However I did manage to avoid 2 UPDs, even at one point I leaned so far forward the handle bars dug into my chest! Still they are now getting quite muscly, have really noticed a change in them! Anyway this has led me to getting a first aid kit to take with me and one to keep at home just in case

On another note, started wearing my new trainers today. They are 5 10 impacts that I bought especially for this trip. They were recommended by many at www.unicyclist.com and are pretty good thus far although will take a bit of wearing in yet. They have a firm tough rubber sole that sticks to the pedals really well, however my feet ached a lot more on the journey today, could also have added to falling off as well.

On the weight loss side I am still doing well despite gorging myself on an entire tub of Haagan Dazs. Waist is getting smaller but legs are getting bigger! Anyway I have now lost around 5lbs in total.

Keep donating, link below

Andy