The first ride in August was on a route I haven’t ridden before this year. I have done ones with some of the roads but not this specific route. I call this route “SR242 – Old Houston Rd – FM1314” and I biked 46.70 miles. Thanks to a friendly north to northeast breeze I was able to get my average speed up 15.4 mph but I maintained it at 15.3 mph for most of the ride once I got on the long open sections or road. By the end of the ride it drifted down to 15.0 mph. At the 24.1 mile point I stopped at the Valero station on FM1485 at Old Houston Road to refill my water bottle to get me to the Stripes station another 11+ miles away. I was there for about 5 minutes before heading south on Old Houston Road to FM1314. There is some road construction at the intersection where the Valero is but nothing to cause any problems.

Riding west on SH 242 that friendly breeze helped me to ride at 18 to 20 mph where I built up the average speed. I left home at 10:31 after watching the Clasica San Sebastian on my laptop via Eurosport. The local TV network in the Basque Country was having technical difficulties but managed to get them fixed for the final 7km. Maybe this inspired me to pedal harder while I was out biking. Heading south from the Valero station on Old Houston Road the breeze was still being my friend and I was able to maintain my 18 to 20 mph all the way to FM1314. Riding SE on FM1314 the breeze was more of a headwind and I exerted more effort to got 16 to 17 mph. I arrived at the Stripes station at 12:59 after biking 35.5 miles. This is good training for the HH100 where I try to not stop at the first 2 rest stops because of the large crowds. I pause at those two to take some pictures but that is all. The weather screen shots while I was at Stripes.

Overnight a “cool” front moved through the area dropping the temperature to 71 when I checked about 8 AM. During the ride it was in the upper 90’s but the breeze did not feel like it was coming out of an oven. Maybe the 35% humidity was part of the reason. I wasn’t perspiring as heavily when I stopped at Stripes. The paper towels were barely wet after resting my forearms on them while I snacked and drank Gatorade. I was at the Stripes station about 35 minutes before riding south on Old Sorters Road. Riding through Briar Tree the large dog that briefly chased me the last time must have been taking a siesta. I kept a watchful eye but he wasn’t nearby. From there I rode home getting there at 2:23. Home weather station when I got home.

Setting my mileage goal for August I went with August 2014’s miles: 956. I forgot I rode that many miles last year. I rode 26 out of 31 days. I am not sure I will be able to do that many this year because we are thinking of short vacation late in the month. So I will need to make some longer rides to make up for fewer days. Last year I averaged 36.7 miles per ride. today’s ride is 10 miles over that which will help.

The hot dry weather is forecast to continue for awhile. Good biking weather (for me anyway) but not so good for plants.

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