Biking “Eagle Springs – Walden – Huffman” for the second time this year I was surprised how close the mileage was each time: 34.75 miles today and on 5/30/15 it was 34.71 miles. Usually the same routes vary by much more than that. I didn’t look at the map before leaving home at 11:03 riding the route that was in my mind. Below is an overlay of the ride routes. The red lines are what is different today from the May 30th ride. I used Google Earth to overlay the routes. (Click to enlarge the image)

May 30th route vs. July 18th route

The route goes by the site of my collision with a car at Atascocita High School back in 2013. I can still see me grabbing the brakes and sliding into the side of the car after the driver pulled out in front of me and stopped. I was not too concerned about that happening today with school out and a Saturday. This area has lots of home construction along W. Lake Houston Parkway. Traffic on W. Lake Houston Parkway going north wasn’t too heavy and drivers gave me plenty of room when they passed.

With the late start I saw only one other biker as I rode east over Lake Houston on FM1960. He was going west but I did not look up in time to wave. I suspect the Bike Barn Atascocita riders were all home by the time I got there.

It was hot. I looked forward to the rest stop at the Huffman Chevron sitting in the shade. I got there 23 miles into the ride and stayed about 35 minutes. I got an extra large cold drink and slowly ate a trail mix bar and two cookies. It took the full time to cool down and dry the sweat on my arms, neck and legs. My shorts were still wet even thought the Greensheet newspaper tried to soak up all of the moisture. It was limp when I put it in the trash along with 7 or 8 paper towels. The weather screenshots during the stop.

The SSW wind was tough going west with the heat and traffic. I managed to ride 16 to 17 mph and got the average speed up to 14.9 mph. I held it there until about the 32 mile mark in Kingwood. Stops and starts drug it down to 14.5 mph by the time I got home at 2:05. The last 2 miles I pedaled slowly due to the heat and being tired.

Miles for the week increased to 188.2. I plan on riding 25 miles or so tomorrow to get over 200 for the week. So I biked 486.77 in July. My goal is 834 so I need to ride 347 miles by the end of the month. With 13 days left I should be able to reach my goal. The weather forecast is rain free for the next 10 days but it will be hot.

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