Today’s bike ride started at 12:27 PM after I overdosed on watching three bike races from Europe. I wanted to ride enough miles to reach 700 for the month so I chose the “Kingwood to Ramsey Road – Huffman” route. This came to 38.37 miles putting March at 730.1 miles and the week at 157.41 miles.

The weather was different from Wednesday with the clouds coming back. Weather during the bike ride: start 72 (64% humidity), mostly cloudy, wind S 10 mph. finish 76 (57% humidity), mostly cloudy, wind S 17 mph gusts 25 mph. I dressed for the chill with shorts, long sleeve jersey, and wind breaker jacket. This outfit kept me comfortable.

It didn’t take long to realize the wind was going to be a problem as I rode to the south. My legs struggled to put out enough power to go faster than 14 to 15 mph. Whenever I was in the open the wind felt even stronger and I bogged down but kept riding.

All went as planned until I reached the east side of the FM 1960 Lake Houston causeway when I started to feel the rear tire going flat. I rode to the metal building east of The Cedar restaurant and found a place to inspect the tire. I found a staple/nail sticking out of the tire.

Using the tire tools I broke one side of the bead free and pulled the tube out, careful to watch the spot where the staple punctured the tube. It required some extra effort to get the staple out of the tire for some reason. Marking the spot with the sheetrock screw I roughed the tube and then applied glue from the new patch kit. With the strong wind it didn’t take long for the glue to dry. I affixed the patch, waited a minute or so and stuffed the tube back in the tire, confident that I got the patch over the small hole. Reseating the tire bead I pumped up the tire until I couldn’t pinch it with my fingers and decided this was good to continue the ride.

Back on the bike I had stopped long enough that I needed to restart the PowerPod which times off after 20 minutes of no activity. I still battled the wind on Fairlake Drive and Old Atascocita Road. As I crossed the railroad tracks another cyclist going the opposite direction went over them too. I yelled hello as we passed.

Biking with trees on my right the wind wasn’t so strong but after I crossed over FM 2100 the trees disappeared and I got the full brunt of the wind> I slowed down to 13 mph and slogged to Ramsey Road where I turned around. Finally the wind wasn’t slowing me down and picked up my speed to 17+ mph.

Making the right hand turn onto FM 2100 to go north the wind became a full tailwind and pedaling wasn’t as difficult. Going west on FM 1960 I kept the same pace until I took Atascocita Shores Drive to the right. Back among houses and trees the wind didn’t require so much effort from there to the finish. Completing the ride at 3:50 PM i was about 25 minutes later than I expected due to the flat. I did miss the Creekwood Middle School traffic by a few minutes.

Friday the weather offers High 77 | 64 F, 40% Precip. / 0.02 in., AM Showers. High 77F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. I plan or biking but that might change depending on how the weather happens.

I caught 2016 and 2018 but still trail 2017 by 115 miles. 2017 is a tough act to follow.