This week I am trying to ride routes that I don’t ride very often and longer than 36 miles. Today’s route is one I last rode on August 20, 2011. I did change the route a little using a shorter exit from Kingwood that reduces a route about 4 miles. The last time I rode this route the distance was 41.82 miles while today I rode 38.08 miles with the difference being the different exit roads. This route takes me on some back roads through Roman Forest and Splendora with low traffic although that is not the only reason to ride these streets. I did notice today that Roman Forest Blvd. is rather rough surfaced from US59 for about 3 miles. When I got to the back of Roman Forest the streets got much smoother. Tram Road is especially smooth with a relative new asphalt surface. I think they were about to put the new stripes down when I rode last August. FM2090 west from Tram Road to US59 also has a nice wide shoulder and smooth surface.

One of the nice characteristics of this route is long stretches of non-stop riding. This helps get the average speed up since starting and stopping hurts that. Today’s 15.6 mph average speed and 21.4 max speed pointed to the minimum number of stops. Average cadence came in at 72.9 RPM but that is not correct because my sensor was not registering for time during the ride. I think I moved the sensor yesterday when I washed my bike. I noticed the problem just before I got to Community Drive on the south bound US59 service road. A quick stop and adjustment got things back in order. Riding time was 2:26:34 plus 38:20 time stopped.

Weather did not appear to be as rainy as yesterday but the clouds were thick and puffy with some gray portions. After I got home it did rain hard for about 10 minutes so the threat was more than what I thought. Temperature ranged from 83 to 91, humidity from 78% to 57% and wind was light at 3.5 mph from the south. While I was riding there were scattered clouds.

Mileage standings after today’s ride:

• 77.16 miles this week
• 401.95 miles for July
• 3715.37 miles YTD

Link to RideWithGPS.com data and map.

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