I came up with another partially unique route for today’s bike ride. Checking my SportTracks ride history I couldn’t find the same route going back to 2011. I added Forest Cove to another route I ride creating what I call “Forest Cove – Oakhurst – Cumberland – Valley Ranch”. When I started the ride I wasn’t sure how many miles it covered. As I rode I added the Cumberland portion to what would’ve been the “Forest Cove – Oakhurst – Valley Ranch” route. With the Cumberland leg the ride covered 34.31 miles. This moved my week’s total to 101.53 miles. If I ride the next three days I could record another 200 mile week.

Yesterday I wrote about the Fabric saddle making popping sounds. After a chat with BikeTiresDirect.com they sent me a return label. Before today’s ride I installed my Koobi PRS Century saddle for the ride. It performed well and the popping sounds are gone. Because finding the perfect saddle is the Holy Grail of cycling I began looking online for a replacement in case the Koobi doesn’t work out or wears out. It has many miles on it and shows signs of wear on the nose where my shorts rub against the leather. I found the BiSaddle, watched several videos and read some reviews. They offer a 90 day return policy so I ordered one. I will see how it works.

The ride today began at 11:32 AM as I rode away on my Canyon Endurace bike. The weather started changing this morning. The blue sky gave way to some clouds and the early morning temperature only dropped to 49 and moved up to the mid 70’s by the time I began the ride. Wind was from the east at 13 mph at the start and eased up to 9 mph by the 2:14 PM finish. More weather details: start 74 (75% humidity, 66 dew point), partly cloudy, wind E 13 mph; finish 77 (67% humidity, 65.6 dew point), partly cloudy, wind E 9 mph. I wore shorts, long sleeve jersey, and a short sleeve one over that. I was comfortable the whole ride.

Sometimes new bike gear or reconnecting with older gear revitalizes a ride. I think that was the case today with the Koobi saddle back on the Canyon. I pedaled strongly pushing my overall average speed up to 14.5 mph and holding there for a bunch of miles until I rode into Woodridge Forest and slowed by stop signs. Looking at the bike ride summary data in Golden Cheetah I saw my power in zones 6+7 totaled 16% of the 2:24:19 moving time. This is 4% higher than yesterday which a big change. Would changing to a different saddle make that possible? Strava says today was consistent with my usual efforts but I don’t think so.