55 degrees at 7:00 AM was not quite as low as the weatherman was forecasting but it was below my cutoff point of 60 degrees if I was to ride at that time of day. On top of that the wind was blowing around a lot for that time of the day with my home weather station wind gauge jumping to 6 mph at times. This is a high number due to the trees and houses surrounding it. So I figured today’s ride would have to be an afternoon one which it turned out to be. I left at 1:40 PM and by then the temperature had climbed up to about 72 degrees but the wind was a stiff 18 mph from the NW. I decided I better ride into the wind for the first part of the ride so that I could have a tailwind on the return ride. After I started I altered my route to staying on US59 and heading north rather than going to the west into the wind. This was a wise choice because riding into the wind was an ordeal. My average speed until the turnaround was about 14 mph so I had to ride fast to end up at my 15.3 mph average at the end. As you can see below there is a disagreement on my max speed in the two ride recaps but only .1 mph. My average cadence over the 29.14 mile route was 81.3 RPM.

With the wind I dressed for the chill with a long sleeve jersey and a short sleeve jersey over top, regular gloves and no leg warmers. This was perfect. Riding into the wind provided body heat to offset the wind chill.

October miles are now up to 449.75 and year to date I have rode 4691.09 miles. The weather is supposed to warmup by the weekend and the wind should die down by Friday.

10-19-2011 Bike Ride Data and Route Map

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10-19-2011 Home Weather End

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