Overnight Chill Brings Unusually Low Humidity, Dew Point – Bike Ride to Tavola
I skipped biking Sunday and Monday but not today. I waited for the temperature to warm up to the 70’s so I wouldn’t need to bundle up. That happened about 11:15 AM and I got ready to ride. At 11:51 AM I rolled out the driveway on my Lynskey R300 bike to follow my “New Caney – Tavola – Valley Ranch” route for the 26th time this year; 5 times on my Lynskey R300 and 21 times on my Canyon Endurace. By the 2:39 PM finish I rode 35.67 miles. This moved my November total to 446.0 miles, 86 miles beyond my goal for the month. My year to date total is 8,622 miles. This may not be a 200 mile week after missing Monday.
The weather I waited on to warm up contained some of the lowest humidity and dew points we’ve had in a while, very low for Houston. This contributed to the chill but I dressed for it today. I wore shorts, a t-shirt, a regular long sleeve jersey, topped with a windbreaker jacket. I was a little chilled at the start but about 15 minutes into the ride my body warmed up. What it was like at the start and finish: start 71 (35% humidity, 42.1 dew point), fair, wind E 8 mph; finish 75 (27% humidity, 38.6 dew point), a few clouds, wind NE 7 mph. 27% humidity and 38.6 dew point don’t happen very often in Houston.
With two rest days my legs were ready to bike. While the wind speed wasn’t that high there were times when riding north the headwind required extra effort. If you listen closely in the video you can hear my huffing on Kelly Road by Brooklyn Trails. Strava said this ride was consistent with my usual efforts. Some places during the ride were hard but after turning to the south at Roman Forest Blvd. the tailwind came into play.
Some colorful charts from Golden Cheetah from today’s ride.
The summary data behind the charts from Golden Cheetah.
The power output shows why Strava labeled the ride the way it did. 54% of the ride time I was in zones 1 and 2 leaving 46% in zones 3 through 7. Zones 6 and 7 totaled 11% which seems to be a regular amount lately. I still need to figure out what the W’bal zones mean. My average speed maxed out at 14.1 mph which I held for several miles until Kings Manor.
