When I first assembled the clothes for today’s ride I included a jacket but after walking outside to get the chaise lounge for my wife I could tell the 75 degrees was warm enough to skip the jacket. I substituted a short sleeve jersey over the long sleeve one I already had on. No leg warmers were necessary today.

It was cloudy and windy as I started to ride the Atascocita – Walden – Huffman route. I could tell it was going to be difficult whenever I rode into the wind. Before I left I checked the weather and saw 23 mph gusts. Going south made this a headwind and it wasn’t until I rode through the edge of Walden that I turned enough to get some tailwind. I needed this to get quickly across Lake Houston on FM1960 because the wind was quite chilly coming off the water. I got a strong dose of this when I returned back across the lake on the way home. As soon as I was over the lake the wind temperature felt 20 degrees cooler than before. Today I was able to keep my speed close to 16 mph allowing me to get off the causeway in about 8 minutes for the 2 mile stretch. I felt much warmer on the west shore even with the wind coming at me. When I got home I checked the weather. The wind was from the SW at 14 mph with 21 mph gusts, not that much different from when I started. The temperature was 76 on my home weather station.

My timing was good today as I just missed the freight train crossing Old Atascocita Road but by the time I got to FM2100 and FM1960 the train was beginning to move across FM2100 and I still waited. I did see two other bikers on Old Atascocita Road after the railroad crossing. We waved as we passed.

I didn’t stay too long at the Huffman Chevron to avoid cooling down too much. The ride home from there was going into the wind until I reached Atascocita Shores Drive on the other side of the lake.

The ride totaled 33.06 miles bringing the week’s total miles to 73.73 and February miles up to 103.88.

After yesterday’s 40+ miles I thought I would be sore today but the muscles were okay and I rode at a good pace considering the wind. My maximum average speed was 14.9 mph. It took 25 or 26 miles to get up to that average and I held it until about 30.8 miles into the ride when I was riding through Kingwood stopping and starting as I crossed streets and intersections.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday look like good riding days according to the forecast. Thursday and Friday may be below my temperature tolerance with Saturday bouncing into the 60’s. I will keep an eye on it for the Saturday Humble Lions Club ride.

RideWithGPS map, metrics and charts.

[iframe http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/693093101 470px 510px]