I wanted to start today’s bike earlier than the previous rides this week. As I ate breakfast and watched stage 17 of the Vuelta a Espana I kept an eye on the temperature. Slowly it warmed up from the low 50’s to the mid 60’s signaling it was time to get ready. I stopped watching stage 17 at the 30 K point and got dressed. By the time I put my shoes on and everything together the temperature was up to 69. I almost put leg warmers before I knew it had warmed up to 69. Thankfully I left them home but I did wear a long sleeve thermal jersey and a wind breaker jacket. That was a mistake. I should’ve wore a short sleeve jersey under the jacket.

Rolling off on the bike ride at 9:41 AM, about an hour and a half earlier than recent rides, on my Canyon Endurace bike I thought I stood a good chance to other cyclists along the “Atascocita – FM 2100 – Walden” route. This was the first Saturday since DST ended and I thought there might still be some of them along the route. I did see other cyclists scattered along my ride. Some I captured on the video and some not.

Lacking 28 miles for a 200 mile week I knew today’s route usually comes in at 31 miles and today followed the norm with 31.21 miles. This put my week total at 203.56 miles, versus last week’s 104.23 miles. After 7 days in November my 360 mile goal is only 157 miles away. If the weather holds to the forecast next week I might reach the goal. Month’s goal activity.

The Zwift portion of my month’s goal consists of “goose eggs” but the weather will probably push me indoors before Thanksgiving.

GoPro microphones are frustrating me. The replacement mic adapter arrived yesterday. I test it with my original lavaliere mic and got no sound. Trying a new mic I got sound at home so I felt good the combination would work during today’s ride. But I started overthinking and reverted to the old adapter with the new mic because it recorded my voice at home. Using the old adapter with a new mic on today’s ride the sound from the Hero 7 Black camera with the adapter and new mic sounds horrible; scratchy and distant voice to no voice. The good sound in today’s video came from the Hero 7 Silver camera with no external mic. Go figure. It now seems the cheap mic I used today cannot pickup sound more than an inch or two away. My search for a good mic continues.

Other than the sound issue today’s ride went as planned. Looking at the bike ride data summary in Golden Cheetah 50% of the moving time power output hit zones 3 through 7. That is move than yesterday’s 47%. Max average speed today was 14.0 mph. This route contains a lot of starts and stops pulling down my speed. The 2 long stretches not interrupted with traffic lights or stop signs cross Lake Houston. On northerly rides the uninterrupted stretches are longer and more numerous. I need to improve my re-start speed and quickness to full speed time. Summary data below.

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Strava told me that today’s bike ride was harder than my usual efforts.

Road construction along FM 2100 is making progress with new concrete parallel to the old road south of Old Atascocita Road. North of there is still dirt but equipment is standing around.