So far this week the rides are “30’s” while last week was “40’s” referring to the distance of the rides. Today I was on a route I don’t do very often, “Eagle Springs – Walden – Huffman”. Today’s ride was 37.14 miles long covering Atascocita on the way to Eagle Springs. The wind wasn’t quite as strong as yesterday but it was still a factor. When I started at 12:13 the airport weather had the wind from the SE at 13 mph. By the time I got back home at 3:30 it was from the S at 13 mph with 22 mph gusts. It was warmer today at 87 degrees under mostly cloudy skies.

Pedaling was hard until I made the turn from Old Atascocita Road onto FM2100 north. Riding across Lake Houston to the east the wind wanted to push me to the left and the concrete guardrail was not much help.Riding on residential streets the homes sometimes held the wind back and other times became a channel for the wind to blow through. I wasn’t always headed in the right direction to take advantage of the channel winds.

I arrived at the Huffman Chevron at 1:43, 24.98 miles into the ride. After battling the wind I needed to take a break, eat some and drink some PowerAde. I think the wind was drying me out even with the humidity at 77%. This is what my Edge 520 screen showed when I got to the station.

I needed to time my departure to avoid the school traffic on the way back home. When I went inside the store one of the clerks said she liked my Ohio State jersey. I knew from previous conversations with her that she is from Ohio, not far from where I grew up. I had forgotten I had that jersey on but quickly agreed it was a good looking jersey. Walking back outside I found a shaded spot under the pump canopy to eat and drink. While I was sitting there a freight train came through town. It was probably 50 to 60 cars long, almost all of them covered hopper cars probably carrying some chemical power or plastic materials from the chemical plants around the ship channel. This train didn’t leave all the sand cloud like last week’s train.

The weather screenshots while I was at the Chevron station.

With the higher humidity I thought I would be soaked from sweat but I didn’t feel that wet and when I stood up the Greensheet newspaper I sat on was pretty dry. Both of the wind readings show how hard the wind can make biking. I think of the wind as hills around Houston since we don’t really have any. Finished I got back on the bike and enjoyed the wind help me ride west on FM1960. I built up the average speed but riding back across Lake Houston the wind tried to move my bike around. The 50mm rims give the wind something to push against. When a gust hits you need both hands on the handle bar to hold the bike’s direction. Leaving FM1960 at Pinehurst Trail the wind moved more to my back and left rear quarter not able to grab the rims as much.

My Edge 520 continues to work well. Only one phone disconnect message popped up followed shortly with a phone connected message at the .54 mile mark. I read yesterday that Garmin signed on with several other cycling teams. Each team rider gets an Edge 520 along with some other Garmin gear. The article mentioned how reliable the 520 is. Maybe when it isn’t connected by Bluetooth to a phone the issues I experience go away. I don’t see any pro bike racers carrying cell phones during the race. I am comfortable enough that I don’t use the Ride With GPS app as a backup during a ride.

May miles now total 279 miles towards my 540 mile goal. I am over half way to the goal. If the weather holds I could significantly exceed my goal. Wednesday’s weather looks like a repeat of today.

I watched stage 4 of the Giro d’ Italia before riding today. I watched a couple of ways: on my Acer Chromebook 14 while I ate breakfast and read the paper and then on BeIN Sport on the big screen TV (Dish channel 392). Great scenery now that the race is in Italy. Way more hills, mountains to me, than around Houston.

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