I began today’s ride at 9:46, earlier than my typical time. The wind speed at 9 mph meant the ride should not be battle but the higher humidity (78%) offset some of that benefit. This did drop down to 62% by the time I finished at 11:53 AM. Mostly cloudy skies kept the sun hidden most of the time and the temperature at 84 degrees at the end. The forecast said rain not likely today but at the 15 mile mark I rode into some rain drops but I think my perspiration produced more water than what fell from the sky. Within 2/10ths of mile I escaped the rain drops for the rest of the ride. The clouds did thin out some at that point as well.

With the high humidity I sweated so much that my biking gloves were soaked as well as my jersey. At one point I stopped at the Chevron station at FM1485 and US59 to wipe away the water on my brow to keep it from running down onto my glasses. I also refilled my waterbottle with ice and water while there. At this point I turned back to the south and into the wind which by the time I got home increased to 12.7 mph from the southeast. By 1:45 the wind picked up to 20 mph so my early ride avoided that.

Today’s ride (30.18 miles) wraps up my April biking with a total of 716.31 miles. This exceeds my April average of 505.06 miles by 211. My year to date miles stand at 1935.67. Thanks to my retirement these miles put me further than ever for this time of the year. Work no longer gets in the way of biking. Yard work can though but asking my wife for a flexible schedule enabled me to fit the two together. According to my Garmin Edge I biked 22.54 miles at 17.3 mph which helped my average speed.

Today’s average speed moved back up to 15.4 mph, 26.1 mph max speed improved as well and my average cadence moved up to 80.8 RPM. I covered the route today in 1:57:34 time with 9:38 spent stopped (mostly at the New Caney Chevron station). For more information about my bike ride data go to RideWithGPS.com and the Garmin Connect information below. Both of these are interactive if you want to move things around.

[iframe http://connect.garmin.com/activity/173388580 98% 725]

4-30-2012 Home Weather Station End