I reverted to one of my tried and true routes today. No particular reason other than the easy, no thought required selection. Starting at 9:57 AM got me out the door so that I could be back home by 12:30 or so riding the 33.19 mile route. The end of the ride took a different turn when I started to go on the greenbelt trail to get from street to another and came across a crew grinding up tree limbs from the many trees cut down from last year’s drought and pine beetles. The trees lay by the trail for a couple of weeks but I saw them working on other portions of the trail earlier this week. The rest of the route went as expected. The work continues on the east bound shoulder over Lake Houston on FM1960 so I move to the west bound shoulder to get past the barricades. TXdot plans call for work at a major intersection (W. Lake Houston at FM1960) but I already ride away from that location because of the weird traffic lanes.

The weatherman warns of August heating up from July’s temperatures. Today was not that bad: 85 at the start and 92 at the end. Humidity fell from 72% to 52% during the ride. I could tell the difference when I rode into the wind since my perspiration evaporated more. Sometimes when after finishing a ride I weigh and see a lose of 3 to 4 pounds which must be mostly water. Today I drank almost 3 water bottles. Scattered clouds and a light SW breeze completed the weather picture. No rain clouds that I saw.

Average speed tallied at 15.0 mph with a max speed of 20.3 mph. 76.6 RPM average cadence was decent but I need to get back up in the 80’s. Riding time totaled 2:13:00 plus 27:55 time stopped. The majority of the time stopped was at the Huffman Chevron drinking one of the water bottles of ice water.

Mileage after the ride:

• 185.12 miles this week
• 509.91 miles for July
• 3823.32 miles YTD

Link to RideWithGPS.com data view and map.
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