Today I decided to ride the route where I had my dog crash on March 19th. There were several reasons to do this:

• Build my confidence about riding this route
• See if the dog was still there and how he reacted to a bike rider
• The wind was out of the south over 11 mph when I started

The other day in one of my ride reports I mentioned that the preferred way to ride is to start into the wind so that you do not over ride your strength to return back to the start. Today that was very important. While the temperature of 88 degrees and partly cloudy skies were ideal the wind was another matter. I was already windy when I started at 8:40AM with a steady breeze at 11 mph and I did not think to check the gust speed. While I did not know the gust speed it was apparent not too far into the ride any riding going south would be into a strong wind. When I got home the weather showed wind gusts at 27.6 mph with the steady wind at 17.6 mph. There were times when I was riding into the wind I could only manage 10.9 mph. I pedaled through these sections with the hope that whenever I turned north the tailwind would be worth it. It was but because of the speed I had with the tailwind these sections ended way too soon. I wore down my muscles with the wind so the last 8 miles were slower than usual even with a tailwind most the way.

I saw numerous riders along the route beginning at the west side of Lake Houston on FM1960. This lasted until I got to where Old Atascocita Road turned north on the other side of FM2100. I saw one other rider after that. This is a gallery of the riders I did photograph.

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When I got to the scene of the dog crash I took these two pictures. The dog had no interest in me unlike the day of the crash as you can see in the picture. In fact after I took the picture the dog went back a few yards and laid down. The other picture shows where the crash took place just past the mailbox.

The Dog involved in the crash

The crash location

With the wind my average speed was lower than usual at 14.4 mph but my maximum speed was normal at 22.9 mph. Average cadence was 76.4 rpm which I can understand because when I was riding at 10 or 11 mph my cadence was very low at 50 rpm or so. I probably should have shifted to a lower gear to keep the rpm higher. This route is very flat but there are portions where the grass farms are that are very exposed to the wind. If there were trees they have been removed in order to plant grass. I think before they raised grass these were rice farms.

April mileage update:

• April miles 532.57
• Miles this week 160.98
• YTD miles 1359.24

4-23-2011 Bike Ride Data

4-23-2011 Bike Ride Route

4-23-2011 Home Weather Finish

Additional charts, weather and map.

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