I have too many morning things to do to leave early for a bike ride for some reason. I did manage to start today’s bike ride at 9:30 am though which is earlier than the other bike rides this week.

Setting out on the “Atascocita – Huffman – Walden” route I passed about 15 to 20 cyclists that did manage to start their rides much earlier than I did. Most of them passed me on various streets west of Lake Houston with a few coming by on the causeway over the lake. One straggler came by headed east over Lake Houston as I rode to the west almost at Atascocita Shores Drive.

The plan was to ride far enough to hit 200+ miles for the week and I accomplished that with 32.4 miles today moving the week’s total to 209.8 miles. If I’d known it was so close to 210 I would’ve went around the block near the end of the ride.

The sky at the start was mostly cloudy but not threatening. No rain in the forecast until later in the day. With 85 degrees at the start and 78% humidity it felt cool until I warmed up and then the perspiration started flowing mightily. When I finished at 12:12 pm the temperature had went up only to 87 and the humidity dropped to 71% but it was still muggy. I didn’t realize how much I sweated until I took my socks off after the ride and they were soaked. I encountered some rain on Pine Echo Drive with some nickle sized drops for about 100 feet. At first I thought it was an errant lawn sprinkler throwing water but when I went past two houses and saw the wet spots on the street it was rain. Just before the drops hit me I was thinking the ride would be rain free.

With the route today putting me at the Huffman Chevron a couple miles earlier than when I ride the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route I decided to take a short rest break to dry up some of the sweat and drink some cold water before resuming the ride. A lady inside the store offered me a cushion to sit on outside but I turned it down because I would have soaked it with the wet shorts. The Greensheet newspaper soaked up a lot of moisture and when I put it the trash it was limp and wet. This was 17.8 miles into the bike ride. I stayed about 15 minutes and then back on the road.

After finishing the ride taking off my clothes felt like I just stepped out of a swimming pool from the wet clothing.

I will probably not ride on Sunday since I am making good progress towards my 800 mile goal for August with 176 miles so far. A rest day is in order.

National Bike Challenge Standings