Waking up to 39 degrees was not my idea of a good bike ride day but by the time I started today’s bike ride at 11:29 AM it was 72 degrees and sunny. The start time was delayed as I watched the time trial at the Vuelta a Espana. The course was flat until the final kilometers where it went up a mountain. I think each racer changed from a time trial bike to a road bike at the bottom of the climb. My route today contained nothing like that, thankfully. I biked to the south and east on my “Atascocita – Walden – FM 2100” route and back to Kingwood at 1:59 PM. I rode 32.31 miles boosting my week and November total to 64.59 miles. I am ahead of the pace to reach my road miles goal of 360 for November but behind on Zwift miles.

This route plays tough on average speed because of the numerous starts and stops and lack of long uninterrupted stretches. Until the return leg across Lake Houston my average speed stayed below 14 mph but that 2 miles uninterrupted helped me get it to 14.0 mph. It did settle back to 13.7 mph at the finish as I rode in Kingwood. The Golden Cheetah data summary showed 52% of the ride time I was in power zones 3 through 7.

After yesterday’s bike ride video sound problem I went online to chat with GoPro. After a few questions the rep decided to send me a replacement mic adapter. While I wait on it to arrive I changed my GoPro setup, moving the camera to the front of my helmet without an external mic but with the foam wind muff. The sound in today’s video is pretty good as the Hero 7 Black picks up my voice from below. Also I can hear the camera beeps much better when I press the record button. At 19.9 miles in the ride I changed the mic setting from “Auto” to “wind” to see if that made any difference. It did not so I will leave it on the wind setting. One drawback of the helmet location is the extra weight and possible neck muscle soreness. If I find a good deal on a Hero 8 Black camera I might buy it since it doesn’t require a frame mount like the Hero 7.

With the cool weather my kit choice today: shorts, long sleeve jersey (not a thermal one), and a windbreaker jacket. At times in the shade I felt chilly early in the ride but south of FM 1960 when I was warmed up I didn’t notice the chill in the shade as much. Weather conditions: start 72 (35% humidity, 43.1 dew point), a few clouds, wind E 5 mph; finish 74 (31% humidity, 41.3 dew point), a few clouds, wind NE 5 mph. The very low (for Houston) humidity and dew points show how the temperatures can cool so much and feel chilly even in the sun. The forecast calls for a slight warming as the week progresses. More road biking ahead.