After not biking since last Sunday I rode today. Last night I started thinking of a route I don’t normally ride. The route was on streets and roads I ride on but the order was backwards. The route went from Kingwood to Oakhurst to Briar Tree, Old Sorters Rd to Sorters Road. When I got to FM1314 I went west to Cumberland and turned around riding to Valley Ranch Parkway at FM1314. I stopped at the Stripes store there before riding through Valley Ranch to the southbound US59 service road. On the service road I went to FM1314 and rode east to Loop 494. Loop 44 took me to Adams Street and back into Kingwood. On Adams Street I encountered a large dog who wanted to get me but I out ran him; he wasn’t really committed to the chase since he gave up quickly. His bark was deep and his size was threatening. This is the first time I have been chased on Adams St. Hopefully it is the last.

When I mix up the streets on a route like this it is a guess how many miles I will ride. Today I biked 30.26 miles at a 15.1 mph average speed. March miles now total 98.19. I am not making much progress towards the 505 mile March goal. With 24 days left I have 407 miles to go. The weather this week has been cold again so I have not been out biking like I wanted to. Tomorrow the temperature is supposed to be in the mid 60’s and I plan on biking but not at the Raven’s Revenge in Huntsville. The overnight low is supposed to be 50 and I decided to stay at home to watch the Strade Bianche road race from Italy starting at 7:00AM. After the Strade Bianche finishes around 8:30 the weather should be warm enough for biking. It was 65 degrees when I started the ride at 12:36 and 67 when I finished at 3:19. The wind was rather strong from the SSE at 12 mph with 26 mph gusts. The chill in air made me glad I wore leg warmers, two long sleeve jerseys, windbreaker jacket and my shorts. Regular gloves were good enough to keep my hands warm. The high clouds let the sun through but not at full strength. Riding into the wind required extra effort to get me through the gusts.

One observation: a road kill skunk that has been dead long enough to be flat still stinks like a skunk.

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