The topic for today was the BP MS150. I stopped at a restaurant in Kings Harbor and a couple coming out asked me if I rode the MS150 and then talked about their ride. Saturday the head wind made for very slow biking. They said at times they moved at 5 mph or less. Sunday they saw many people getting in the SAG wagons not because of the Sunday weather but the after effects of Saturday. According to them the wind dropped off a lot on Sunday and the weather was perfect if you had strength left. I told them about my last time to ride the MS150 in 1988 and the high wind we faced on Sunday (it happened in March back then). I am afraid I sounded like an old timer. They ride with a group from Better Bikes in Atascocita on Saturdays.

Later I stopped at the Family Dollar store in Huffman and while I ate some crackers & cheese an older man going into the store asked if I rode in the MS150. I said no and he replied he didn’t think he could do it either.

The last time I biked to the south I thought I would try a different route into Atascocita the time. So today I checked Google Maps before leaving on the ride to see which streets I should go on. Since I do not go on the streets I made a note of the streets to take but when I got there I could not remember which one to turn onto from Lonesome Woods Trail in Atascocita. So I winged it and made my way to Aerobic Ave. (a fitting name) which I knew would take me across W. Lake Houston Parkway into Walden at Lake Houston. From there I wandered around until I got back on my normal route headed to Huffman. This route ended up at 32.16 miles, a nice variation on my typical Huffman loop.

With a third day in a row of brilliant blue sky and 80 degree temperature biking felt great even though the NW 7 mph wind jumped up to 18.6 mph at times with the gusts. The wind direction seemed to move around sometimes so I would hit patches of road where I thought the wind would not be a problem and I would bog down. My average speed ended at 15.1 mph, 24.8 mph max speed and 80.2 RPM average cadence. At the end of the ride I did notice a few wispy clouds in the western sky trying to make their way in.

My legs recovered from yesterday’s ride nicely so I felt some power which I needed going west across Lake Houston on FM1960. The wind tried to slow me down. I should be ready for more biking tomorrow.

To celebrate the great weather I put the top down on my Jeep Wrangler and added the bikini top for some shade.

Some ride statistics:

• 2:07:45 riding time
• 40:48 time stopped (talking to people,eating at Family Dollar and my son-in-law on the phone, tech support)
• 525.48 miles in April
• 1744.84 miles YTD
• RideWithGPS.com data link

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4-23-2012 Home Weather Station End