I began today’s ride without high expectations. Yesterday when I finished eating lunch I stood up and winced as my sciatic nerve let me know all was not well. I did some stretches the rest of the day hoping this would get it back to normal. When I went to bed last night I felt better but the nerve still sent out pain notices. Getting up this morning I expected the pain to remain and there was some but not as much when I went to bed. I planned on getting started before 9 this morning but I got engrossed in the Tour de France going through the Pyrenees Mountains. So I waited for the finish of the stage and left at 10:30 AM.

Getting on the bike I thought today would be a very easy day to try to work out the nerve kinks. As soon as I sat on the saddle I thought this is not so bad after all. I still kept a slow pace for the first 2 or 3 miles. As I pedaled along the pain lessened to where I could barely notice it. So I upped my speed some.

I tried a different starting route today for the southerly route to Atascocita, Walden and then Huffman. After many rides a little variety helps. When I got to the east side of Lake Houston I went north on E Lake Houston Parkway. This street name is a misnomer by my definition of a parkway. It does have a strip of grass down the middle for about 300 yards but then it becomes two lanes of concrete. Google maps thinks this street continues on past Smith Road but only if you are on a mountain bike and want to ride in very tall grass and weeds. I am not sure where you would end up.

Weather behaved today with 92 degrees at the end, scattered clouds, light 5 mph variable breeze and 57% humidity. The flags were hanging limply when I rode past the City of Houston office on Rustic Woods.

My route was 31.43 miles at a 15.3 mph average speed, 21.8 mph max speed and 78.5 RPM average cadence. I kept to my usual 2 hour plus a few minutes riding time completing at 2:03:21 and 28:14 time stopped. After 9 biking days in July my miles total 263.85, 97.68 miles this week and 3577.27 miles YTD. The link to RideWithGPS.com data and map.

7-18-2012 Bike Ride Data and Map

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