I did not ride yesterday so I wanted to get back on the bike today. Reading the weather forecast a morning ride looked pretty safe with only a 30% chance of rain. The forecast for the temperature showed a high of 90 degrees with a light breeze. As I rode west from Huffman on FM1960 over Lake Houston I saw the dark sky ahead. I realized I might be riding towards the 30% rain and picked up my speed some to try and beat it back home. Before I got off the causeway I heard some thunder but it seemed in the distance.

Riding through Atascocita on Atascocita Shores Drive I thought my chances were good to beat the rain but the thunder boomed a couple of times before I reach W. Lake Houston Parkway and my doubts began to rise. Still no rain but the dark clouds got closer and I raced to my target refuge in Kingwood’s Town Center in a open passage beside Fedex Office. I almost made it before the rain started but the drops started falling as I rode through Kingwood Greens west of W. Lake Houston Parkway. I hurried and ducked into my destination just as the thunder clapped some more and lightning flashed not too far away. As wet as I was from biking the reason to find shelter was not to keep dry as much as get away from the lightning. Not long after arriving in the passage a sharp crack of lightning about block away crashed. A few minutes later a Houston Fire truck came by headed towards the lightning spot. I am not sure they found anything because once they turned off of the street by me the siren stopped.

Earlier in the ride before the rain arrived I was making good progress along my route through Atascocita, Walden at Lake Houston and on to Huffman. While the temperature felt warmer than the last ride the higher humidity really was the problem (76% when I got home). The light breeze offered no relief. When I stopped in Huffman at the Chevron station to refill my bottle I wrung out my wrist bands; a big puddle resulted. My gloves were not wet enough to get any moisture out of them. At the time I could not see the dark clouds to the west but I kept my stop short because I wanted to get back home before noon otherwise I would not made my destination without getting very wet.

As I waited for the rain to stop and the lightning to move on I turned my Garmin Edge timer off. Later when I started back up I turned the Garmin back on but I forgot to start the timer. This turned out to be a good thing because the streets were still very wet and a light rain still falling as I rode back home. So the 29.53 miles recorded on the route is not completely accurate. I was about 2.5 miles from home when I stopped the Garmin timer but I rode slowly to try to keep the road spray to a minimum and avoid slick spots from the water puddles. With rush to beat the rain my average speed was 15.9 mph, 22.3 mph max speed and 81.0 RPM average cadence. Moving time (not counting the last 2.5 miles) was 1:56:43 with 41:25 time stopped, mostly waiting for the rain/lightning to move out. Mileage for the week stands at 66.46, 213.19 miles for September and 4930.45 miles YTD.

Link to RideWithGPS.com map and metrics.

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