There is something calming about sitting in the shade and watching the clouds slowly move by. That was my position when I stopped at the Stripes station on FM1314 west of Porter. The relatively dry breeze evaporated my perspiration and helped cool me down. When I started biking today the humidity was 62% and when I got home it had dropped to 39%. When I was moving I did not drip as much sweat as on Saturday. The temperature ranged 87.4 (start) to 95.7 (finish) but I did not feel that hot in the sun.

Planning today’s route I decided to take a different direction to exit Kingwood to US59 north. In years past I use to ride west on Northpark Drive to US59 but in the evening traffic was pretty heavy. Since I was biking mid-morning I hoped the traffic would be lighter plus I would ride through Kings Mill on some side streets to avoid some of Northpark to almost where Loop 494 and the railroad tracks cross. My guess was mostly right and traffic was light. Once I reached Loop 494 I went north to Community Drive and then to US59. From there I stayed on the usual route to New Caney and then left on FM1485 to Gene Campbell Road.

So far I was able to maintain a good pace as you can see on the ride data for intervals 1, 2, and 3. On Gene Campbell Road I thought the 10 mph south breeze would slow me down but it didn’t have much of an impact. A major change in direction came when I reached FM1314 and riding to Porter but the breeze still was not an issue. when I checked my average speed at 24.1 miles I was at 16.1 mph. This was just after I left the Stripes station for the last 10 to 11 miles to home. All was well until I exited Auburn Trails subdivision onto the southbound US59 service road. The wind bore down on me and I dropped below 15 mph until the U-turn at Kingwood Drive onto the northbound service road.

Now I had the wind at my back or from my right side until I got home. This route ended up at 34.93 miles at a 15.8 mph average speed. Only intervals 1 and 7 were the only ones below 15 mph average speed. Those two are on residential streets with stops and traffic. June mileage now totals 693.35 miles and 3133 miles year to date. It is not impossible to ride 800 miles this month and the weather looks like it will cooperate.

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Link to Garmin Connect metrics and map.

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