The ride started at 12:30 pm with an overcast sky, 72 degrees and the wind from the south at 18 mph, gusts to 27 mph. I was optimistic about feeling warm and wore shorts, long sleeve jersey and a short jersey. This was okay until I crossed Lake Houston on FM 1960 where that wind made it feel like a freezer. That was the spot where leg warmers would have been warmly welcomed. I rode the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route for a total of 31.87 miles moving my road miles to 50.2. That leaves 250 miles to reach my goal for the month.

I wasn’t the only cyclist out today as I passed two others along the route.

Streets were damp in places and when I finished the ride I had to wipe down the Stradalli to preserve the clean bike after I washed it yesterday. Today was only some dirt while yesterday was full out dirt.

Finishing at 2:47 pm the wind was still strong but helped me from FM 1960 to the north. I was glad to pull into the garage and get out of it.

As you can see below I got the PowerPod and speed sensor to talk to each other and registered the watts for the ride. I did go through the 1 to 100 count up as the PowerPod calculated whatever it does before it started recording the power numbers. Last night I read the setup instructions for the PowerPod and found a step I must have skipped; hold the start button on the PowerPod 4 seconds as the speed sensor is spinning and the LED is flashing. That did the trick. Also the new battery I put sin the speed sensor yesterday is still working. Maybe using the hair dryer to be sure the moisture was gone before putting the new battery in helped. I got that hint from the Wahoo Fitness Google Forums.

Last week I listened to the Outspoken Cyclist podcast. Max Leonard was one of the guests. He authored a book titled “Higher Calling” about bicycling in the mountains. He talked about a recent obsession called “Everesting” where cyclists ride the equivalent altitude gain that Mount Everest is above sea level in 24 hours. That is 29,029 feet. I don’t think I rode that much altitude in a whole year and I am not sure how I could do that in the Houston area because it is so flat. Maybe in the Hill Country but that might require biking up the same hill over 100 times. Maybe a new challenge on Strava?

Another “cold” front is supposed to pass through during the night so I am not sure what that will mean for riding on Monday.

SportTracks Ride Summary