An overcast sky awaited as I rolled out the driveway at 12:01 pm headed to the “Kingwood – SH 242 – Kingwood” route for what I hoped would be a 33 miles bike ride. It turned out to be 34.42 miles which got me a little closer to my 300 mile goal for January. As of now January biking totals 144 miles.

Riding to SH 242 got a boost from the 18 mph SE wind but that meant I would battle it on the way back south. This early in the riding season my legs were complaining as I reached FM 1484 headed south. Fortunately the traffic light was red there and the few minutes waiting helped them to recover some. Then riding the service road south to Valley Ranch Parkway was hard again but Valley Ranch Parkway put the wind more to my back until I came to the Grand parkway underpass. From then on to the finish (2:35 pm) the legs were put to the test as this is the longest ride in 2018 but I have been on the road 5 times.

Temperature was 67 at the start and 71 at the finish. I donned my cool weather wardrobe: shorts, leg warmers, long sleeve thermal jersey and windbreaker jacket. This was a good choice at the beginning but towards the end of the ride the build up of sweat helped the wind chill to make me feel cooler than it should’ve. I plan on biking on Saturday but rain might be in the area and the temperature forecast call for mid 60’s.

Before the ride I adjusted the Elemnt out front mount lowering it a tiny bit to make it flatter; you know to lower the wind resistance. Ha, ha! What this did was move the PowerPod to where the air intake was not positioned properly but I fixed that by moving it up slightly. Later on I adjusted the PowerPod again raising the air intake a tiny bit more. This increased the watts which made sense because I was pedaling hard into the wind. Hopefully this will be correct.

During the ride I could hear the chain squeaking so it is time to wax it. I think riding on wet roads got to the wax which is not as effective in the wet.I will wax the chain before Saturday’s ride.

Link to Strava.com ride summary

SportTracks Ride Summary