I rode 16 miles yesterday, and I realize snowboarding is a closer workout to electric unicycle riding than bicycling
I rode the the electric unicycle(EUC) 16 miles. It was fun-ish. Also, I figured out a better Fitness app workout for riding my EUC than the modified Cycling workout I’ve been using. My rationale is all very logical. 🤓
Yesterday, I rode 16 miles on the electric unicycle (EUC). To be honest, the wind made most of the riding not that fun. Also, I figured out a better Fitness app workout to use when I’m riding my EUC than the modified cycling workout I’ve been using.
The longest trip was to the airport (HSV) from my home on Redstone Arsenal — 12.3 miles. I usually like this run, but I felt more high anxiety than the chill feeling of endorphins. It worked out, and I got there in 40 minutes with no unfortunate events.
I need to ride the electric unicycle (InMotion V11) 75 times for delivering and picking up my cars for Turo for the wheel to pay for itself. Maybe one day, I’ll tally up the number to see where I am with that. Since I log my rides, I’ll be able to use the Fitness app for it.
Electric Unicycle riding is more similar to snowboarding
That reminds me: I need to modify the custom workout based on a snowboarding workout. Apple’s Fitness app doesn’t have an electric unicycle workout in their list, so I’ve modified the Outdoor Cycle workout to use when I ride.
It’s an outside workout that tracks speed, distance via GPS, and elevation. It seemed like the most ideal. Lately, I thought more about the differences in leg effort involved when riding an electric unicycle versus a bicycle. With an electric unicycle, my feet are stationary on a single platform, and the most I do with my body is balance and tilt to shift my weight — to the left, right, forward, back, left-forward, left-rear, right-forward, right-rear.
That makes the movement (or exercise) damn near an identical workout to carving on a snowboarding. In the Fitness app, snowboarding tracks distance via GPS, elevation, and speed. At this moment, I can’t thinking of any workout in the core list that’s more similar.
One other cool thing making these two exercises similar is that mimicking a carving motion on the unicycle helps keep it stable at high speeds. On a snowboard, it’s mandatory to pick an edge at high and low speeds. That means you need to always have your weight on the front side of the board or the back side to maintain control. The electric unicycle has a giro, so a rider can get away with not carving at lower speeds. However at higher speeds — (25 mph (40 kph) and higher — you’ll lose control by not mimicking a carving motion and leaning on the wheel.
Today, I’ll open the snowboarding workout in the Fitness app and create a custom variation for the electric unicycle. Actually, I’ll probably do that right now. Because why not?
I think I’ll post the second portion of this post on Reddit for some overzealous judgement as well. It will be in the r/ElectricUnicycle.
