Today was my day to take my niece and her friend to horse back riding which put a time limit on riding. I shortened the usual “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route by about 2 miles to 30.54 miles by leaving off a few streets at the beginning. Also I decided to try changing the shifting points to see if I could improve my average speed some. Normally I shift at .5 miles, 1, mile, 2 miles, 3 miles, 7 miles and then 12 or 13 miles. I can do this because the route is flat and it allows me to warm up. Today I changed the last two shift points to 5 miles and 9 miles. I noticed this improved the time it took to get my average speed above 15.0 mph. I think I will use the new shift points on routes around here that are flat. Hilly routes call for different shifting.

After two days of rain today was great for biking. A clear sky and 82+ degrees meant I wore a short sleeve jersey and shorts. I haven’t wore a short sleeve jersey for a while. I sprayed sunscreen on my arms but this caused a problem. The problem was the flying ants tended to stick to the sunscreen while I was biking. This is the time of year when ants swarm around here making biking not pleasant. I try to keep them out of my mouth as I ride and when I stop they can become a nuisance. I stopped at the Huffman Chevron and a few flying ants found me where I sat eating a snack and drinking. They seemed to be concentrated along FM1960 east of Lake Houston.

Wind was another issue today. It was from the SW, which helped with the warm temperature, at 13 mph gusting to 21 mph. On the way to Huffman this was okay but for the return leg from Huffman to home I had to deal with a strong headwind. These wind speed are from Bush Intercontinental Airport to the west of the route I was on but out in the open places I suspect the wind where I rode was the same.

I had built my average speed up to 15.4 mph at the Huffman Chevron station rest stop. From there to home it went down and up settling at 15.0 mph at the conclusion of the ride. My legs did pretty good riding west over Lake Houston on FM1960 with the wind the strongest in the open places. Sometimes the passing traffic gave me some relief but not for long. My speed in that open section was 10 to 13 mph. At the spot where the causeway is open under the road for boat traffic the wind was especially stiff.

In order to reach 130 miles for the week I added a couple of side streets off of Atascocita Shores Drive. It was just enough with my weekly total at 130.02 miles. I biked 363.84 miles so far this month and 1374 miles for the year. 11 biking days so far in April. Monday through Wednesday look like good biking days weather wise.

Weather when I stopped at Huffman

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