Now that I’m getting more comfortable with riding straight and long, and mounting the unicycle, I started training today, to be able to ride faster. While learning, I’ve consciously tried to keep the speed of the wheel in check, to prevent it from accelerating to a speed I wasn’t comfortable with, and now, I need to consciously reprogram my brain to override this self-imposed limit. This affects the way I ride downhill too; at the moment, even if there is the smallest hint of a downward slope, I end up using a lot of back-pressure, to bring the speed all the way down to around 6-7 km/h, but I’m now trying to allow myself to increase the minimum speed from the existing 6 km/h to around 10 km/h, even while going downhill. Like other things on a unicycle, this too involves some mental rewiring and redefining of internal safeguards, so it’ll perhaps take some time, but like other skills I’ve learnt, I’ll perhaps suddenly be able to ride faster than I’ve been able to do so before. Today’s ride was a 9 km out and back ride, where I rode onto Bergsvägen, till the turnoff to Sättuna, before turning back. I tried consciously to pedal more forcefully and to piston down with the other foot just as soon as the driving foot was done, to ensure that I didn’t end up having any unintended breaking action. I found that I was able to push harder and with greater confidence up climbs, than one flats and descents, clearly reiterating that it’s not about power delivery itself, but about rewiring the limits in the brain, and to pedal freely and without hesitation.