No rain on today’s bike ride thank goodness. The ride followed my “Stroker Road – Huffman” route for a total of 41.8 miles. The ride started at 10:48 am and as I rolled along the route I was concerned at times with the dark clouds to the east but as the ride progressed they dissipated but I had to remind myself that the new polarized sunglasses were causing the clouds to look a little darker than they actually were. Yesterday afternoon I picked up my new sunglasses so today was the first ride with them. Switching from transition lenses to polarized lenses saved me 40% since the eye clinic had a sale. The gray polarized lenses do a better job of reducing the glare and sun so I didn’t squint as much during the ride.

Keeping a steady pace of 16 to 18 mph once I got onto FM 1960 heading east at Lake Houston I built my average speed up to 14.6 mph by the time I made the loop on Old Atascocita Road, Ramsey Road and Stroker Road back to FM 2100. Riding north on FM 2100 the wind tried to slow me down but I maintained the speed. For a rather calm wind day the biking north and northwest required extra effort. On FM 2100 I saw and hit a number of “love” bugs which probably were set free with all of the rain and lower temperatures. I hope their arrival is short lived.

At the 30.0 mile point and 12:57 pm I stopped at the Huffman Chevron for a 20 minute rest break. I refilled my water bottle with ice and water then sat outside under the canopy in the shade. The temperature was not as hot as last week before the run of rain passed through. At the start of the ride it was 84 with 75% humidity and at 2:12 pm when I finished it was 89 with 68% humidity so I suspect it was around 89 when I stopped in Huffman. The light breeze kind of dried up my perspiration while I sat there. As I left the Chevron station I saw the saw was clearing up and the sun broker through the clouds occasionally as I rode west back to Kingwood.

It was good to stay dry as far as rain is concerned. The weather forecast shows rain chances going down and the temperatures going up for the next few days. I hope to take advantage of that and ride.

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