A big surprise on today’s ride was the strong wind. I should have realized it was so strong when I watched the trees sway in our backyard before I started my ride. Looking at wunderground.com the wind showed to be almost calm but on the bike riding south it was anything but calm. The temperature fluctuated from 79 to 81 so I was thinking finally a warm riding day but the strong wind made it feel 5 degrees cooler especially in the shade. I was glad I wore a long sleeve jersey. I am not sure how strong the wind was from the SSE but the gusts had to be 25 mph or more. Riding across Lake Houston on FM1960 east took a lot more effort than the return ride going west. Some gusts pushed my bike around.

Once I reached Huffman on the return leg the wind finally became helpful and I managed to increase my average speed significantly. My mileage at Huffman was 22.8 meaning all but the 2 miles riding north on FM2100 was into the wind. While I stopped at the Huffman Chevron to recover from battling the wind sitting in the partial sun was cool due to the wind blowing through the station’s fuel cover. Action Sign’s temperature board showed 80 degrees dropping to 79 a couple of cycles. Looking at the average speed for the 5 mile intervals in the slide below reflects the wind affect. The last two 5 mile laps were the only ones I average 15 mph or more.

The ride to Huffman came in at 32.47 miles at 14.8 mph average speed. April miles increase to 199.92 and 1514.56 miles year to date. Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com maps and stats.

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