After writing about my mountain bike yesterday I decided today I would ride my Motobecane 700HT MTB instead of my road bike. Also I was suffering from some stomach distress so I thought riding 15 to 20 miles away from home may not be wise. So I hit the greenbelt trails and dirt trail beside the drainage bayou. There is definitely something different about riding in the dirt and trails versus on the road. First is the knobby tires. Rolling resistance is much higher plus bouncing over a rough dirt surface takes a toll on the arms and shoulders. Even though I only rode 15.6 miles I felt like I had rode 29 or more. I suppose the 14 mph wind (23 mph gusts) did not help much when I was out in the open but the trees did not shelter me from the wind that much.

Before I started riding I wanted to get the Garmin Edge 500 to pickup the cadence/speed sensor signal. I adjusted the position of the magnets but still was not getting it to register. Then I went into the settings and started messing around until I found the “rescan” function and the sensor was back to life. I forgot that I needed to rescan when I change bikes. Now I will need to rescan when I go back to the road bike.

Earlier in the week I said I wanted the warm weather back. Well for at least one day I got my wish. It was 80 degrees when I started and 83 at the finish. The skies were mostly cloudy and I already mentioned the wind. Tonight or tomorrow the temperature will drop again. I probably will not ride tomorrow because the temperature will be low and in the afternoon I am going to downtown Houston for the Platts Gas Houston Forum (for my other blog 3MailAt.com ). I plan on riding the Metro bus to save on parking and Jeep Wrangler wear and tear.

Since I was riding my MTB my average speed dropped to 11.3 mph and the max speed was 21.8 mph (going down a nice hill). My average cadence was 72.7 RPM which is higher than I thought due to low gearing. November miles are a whopping 45.19 and year to date miles are 5028.69. Based on my typical November mileage being 300 I am already 15% of the way there with only two days gone.

11-2-2011 Bike Ride Data and Route Map

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Link to the route map and ride data at RidewithGPS.com.

11-2-2011 Home Weather End

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