I started today’s ride at 1:03 but I actually took a short ride to the post office earlier on my mountain bike. The post office is about 1 1/2 miles away if I take the greenbelt trails. So I set off but along the trail route I ran into three crews cutting trees down in different places. Getting around them delayed me some but I completed my mission to deliver a letter and headed back home. Since it was a short ride I did not bother using my Garmin Edge. After eating some food I started the “real” ride for today going to Atascocita, Walden on Lake Houston and Huffman before turning back to home. This route was slightly longer than yesterday’s coming at 31.69 miles. Average speed settled at 15.8 mph but at the 25 mile point I averaged 16.1 mph. Once I get in the residential areas the starts and stops quickly pull down the speed. Top speed was 22.8 mph and cadence averaged 81.3 RPM.

The weather was one of those perfect fall days: scattered clouds, 87 degrees, 34% humidity and a light 9 mph SE breeze. The weather forecast said the clouds should increase with the SE wind but that didn’t really happen. Sitting in the shade in Huffman felt nice as I drank my Diet Pepsi and ate a Kashi Trail Mix bar. In the short time I was at the Huffman Chevron station two freight trains sped through. There is something about watching trains that I can’t explain. Maybe wondering what is in all of those cars? Moving time totaled 2:00:30 plus 31:17 time stopped.

In the past I noticed that when I stop for an extended time my Garmin Edge 500 registers a given elevation of say 58 ft. When I resume the ride but do not move but 50 feet or so the elevation drops to say 9 feet. This shows up in both Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com elevation charts. Not sure why this happens.

Mileage standings after today’s ride: this week = 92.68; this month = 92.68; YTD = 5389.53. I am course to break my total miles for a year of 5640 in 2011.

My last rear tire patch continues to hold air. I might 4500 miles out of the rear Continental Gatorskin tire. The front one should get many more, maybe 6000 or 7000 miles.

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