I got an earlier start today leaving at 9:34AM. Thursday morning vehicle traffic was light so I altered my route slightly and stayed on W. Lake Houston Parkway until I turned left on Aerobic Ave. and into Walden on Lake Houston. This fit my time better because I wanted to get back home by 11:45AM. Today’s route ended up being about 2 miles shorter than another route along many of the same streets. So I biked 30.4 miles and finished at 11:39 right on schedule. May miles now total 93.71 and year to date I crossed the 2000 mark and now total 2029.38 miles.

At the start the humidity was 77% but the air felt cool while I warmed up. Once I got further into the ride the sweat started to roll off the body but as long as I kept moving it was not too bad. Stopping a traffic light or traffic caused a wet spot on the pavement as the sweat ran off my arms. When I stopped to to refill my waterbottle in Huffman I used about 8 paper towels to soak up the perspiration on my head, gloves and arms. After a short break the moisture reappeared when I headed west on FM1960 even going into the light breeze. Temperature ranged from 77 to 86 degrees at the end under scattered clouds with a south 6 mph breeze.

For a change I wasn’t the only biker out today. As I started east over Lake Houston on FM1960 a paceline of 4 bikers were nearing the western end of the causeway heading west. This group passed me on other rides, usually on Atascocita Shores Drive. They set a strong pace. Today I averaged 15.7 mph with a 23.2 mph max speed and a 82.3 RPM average cadence. All three of these numbers improved over my usual numbers. Riding time totaled 1:56:18 with 8:50 stopped time. The 5 mile splits shows that I kept my speed up over the whole ride.

[iframe http://connect.garmin.com/activity/174350789 98% 725]

Link to another view at RideWithGPS.com.

5-3-2012 Home Weather Station End