Training for the European Unicycle Tour
Training season for European Unicycle Tour will officially start on April 1, and will continue until the day the ride starts. That doesn’t mean that you can’t start training now to get in shape. Also, training in other ways besides long distance unicycling is always a good idea - it helps you get in shape and helps balance the muscles out. I found that if my knees start to bother me, running has helped with the muscle imbalance, which made the knee pain go away.
The European Unicycle Tour is 1600 km, which is twice the distance of Unicycle Across Minnesota (UAM). UAM averaged 86 km per day for 9 days of riding while European Unicycle Tour will average 83 km per day for the 19 days of actual riding. While the daily average is roughly the same, hopefully it will be much more enjoyable since the training is better structured, we will be taking days off, and we will be using Coker unicycles.
As I have said before, training is the responsibility of each rider. Each rider needs to decide how much training is necessary for the ride. Almost all of the riders have been on long distance trips and should have an idea for how much training is needed. I personally plan on training really hard for the ride. My goal is to enjoy this trip, and the more proper training I do before the ride, the more I should enjoy the ride.
Below is a suggested training schedule that people can use to prepare for the ride. A lot of insight has been gained from UAM. The training schedule listed below should help take care of the problems of the training schedule from UAM. The biggest mistake of UAM was that training didn’t encourage consecutive days of training.
The total training distance is 2000 km. While this may sound like a lot, I think that this much training will make the rider prepared for the ride. Actually, I would predict that anybody doing all the suggested training will be able to enjoy and make the most of the ride.
In 1999, for UAM, the riders were told to train so that they could consistently ride at 16 kph (10 mph). While the riders should work towards the goal averaging more than 16 kph, they should be focusing on other aspects of training as well. During UAM, riders took breaks more and more frequently. In some cases, people who were considered the faster riders were ones who needed to take fewer breaks. The training schedule listed below encourages people to learn to ride long distances with fewer breaks. When keeping track of average kph, do it both for the actual riding time and total time, including any breaks you may take.
For those of you who can’t start the training in April because of other commitments, start your training when you can. Starting training in May or even June could work but the later you start training, the harder it could be. I figure that someone could even start their training in July as long as they had a really rigorous training schedule and lots of time (this method wouldn’t work for people who have other commitments - like a job).
Keeping a record of all your rides is essential for successful training. It will let you know how you are doing and how much more riding you need to do before the real thing. For your training journal, keep track of:
* Distance ridden
* Time of actual riding
* Time of the total ride (you may want to exclude something like lunch)
* Average kph for actual riding
* Average kph for overall riding (that includes the riding breaks)
* How the ride went and any other interesting scenery
* Terrain (hilly vs. flat, countryside vs. city, smooth pavement vs. gravel, etc.)
Here are explanations of the types of training.
y km total riding goal for each month – This is the suggested total of km that you should ride each month. By doing the suggested totals for each month, it will get you to the goal of 2000 km of training before the ride begins.
y km without dismounting – This is a training ride without getting off. Breaks by holding on to something is ok, you just can’t dismount.
y km with no breaks – This means there are no breaks at all; no dismounting and no resting allowed. Idling would be ok if waiting for a traffic light or at a stop sign.
y km for x days in a row – For every x days, you would need to do at least y km. This is to build up endurance by going at least a certain number of kilometers each day.
y km of hills – While the route of the European Unicycle Tour tries to avoid hills, there will be some hills each day. Some may be quite steep. A hill workout will help you to deal with learning how to ride up as well as down hills. While some riders live in areas with fewer hills, do your best to find suitable hills. Decide on how hard your hill workout is, but I would suggest making it challenging so you aren’t worn out on the first big hill on the actual ride.
y km of city riding – Everybody should know how to ride in a big city without getting his or her unicycle run over. I’m not talking about riding in the suburbs, I’m talking about going downtown of a big city where there is a lot of traffic lights, cars, and people. Riding in a city should not be too hard, but for those using a Coker, it can take some practice to handle the traffic lights and to avoid people. Running down a pregnant nun on your Coker could ruin your day.
y km of riding in the
rain – It is good to practice while everything is wet to make sure you are
comfortable with wet feet and your equipment works correctly. If possible, try
to get out when it is really raining hard. If it doesn’t rain this summer, this
type training is a lot harder. While we hope it doesn’t rain for the 22 days
that we are on the trip, it is best to plan for some rain.
y km within x days – This means that for x days, you should do a total of y km. You can do the entire y km on the first day or spread it out over x days. For each month there are several different scenarios of days and km. If you want, you could take care of all the different scenarios during one long killer ride.
30 days of available training
250 km total riding goal for April - averages out to be 8 km a day
20 km without dismounting
10 km with no breaks
10 km a day for 4 days in a row
5 km of hills
5 km of city riding
5 km of riding in the rain
50 km within 1 day
75 km within 2 days
100 km within 3 days
31 days of available training
500 km total riding goal for May - averages out to be 16 km a day
40 km without dismounting
20 km with no breaks
20 km a day for 5 days in a row
10 km of hills
10 km of city riding
10 km of riding in the rain
75 km within 1 day
100 km within 2 days
125 km within 3 days
30 days of available training
600 km total riding goal for June - averages out to be 20 km a day
50 km without dismounting
30 km with no breaks
30 km a day for 6 days in a row
15 km of hills
15 km of city riding
15 km of riding in the rain
100 km within 1 day
125 km within 2 days
150 km within 3 days
200 km within 4 days
23 days of available training
650 km total riding goal for July - averages out to be 28 km a day
60 km without dismounting
40 km with no breaks
40 km a day for 7 days in a row
20 km of hills
20 km of city riding
20 km of riding in the rain
100 km within 1 day
150 km within 2 days
200 km within 3 days
250 km within 4 days