Thinking of potential bike ride routes today I came up with a different one utilizing roads used previously. I call it the “Forest Cove – Oakhurst – Forest Colony” route. Searching my ride history in SportTracks I didn’t find a route that traveled this particular street and roads combination all the way back to 2012. One reason I chose going through Forest Cove was the construction on Kingwood Drive at Loop 494. Kingwood Drive west of Loop 494 has concrete barriers along the right curb constructing the lane about half way to US59. Traffic can be heavy in that spot while going through Forest Cove and biking west on Hamblen Road I was passed by 3 or 4 cars. Heading north on Loop 494 from Hamblen Road to the US59 overpass again almost no traffic and on Sorters McClelland Road only 3 cars passed.

The wind from the south felt stronger than 9 mph when I rode into it. Maybe the chill it brought added to it. I dressed lighter than I should’ve with shorts, a long sleeve jersey, and a light jacket. I never got warm during the ride with the mostly cloudy sky minimizing the sun warming me. I started at 12:10 PM with a 9 mph south wind and finished at 2:07 PM with a 12 mph south wind. Temperature stayed at 70 to 71 degrees contributing to my feeling chilly. But it was warmer than yesterday’s bike ride.

I modified the Saramonic mic setup for my GoPro Hero 7 Black camera by adding a dead cat muff. Listening to the video the dead cat muff helped filter out the road noise. I think the Saramonic mic is the best setup since my lapel mic died. Photos of the new setup.

Now if I can figure out how to stop the video jarring when I ride over a sharp bump.

Today’s ride covered 26.17 miles boosting my week’s total to 155.26. Not a bad total considering one short ride in Zwift and not biking on Christmas Day. December now totals 451.65 miles. If the weather allows I may get to 500+ miles for December. I will miss my Zwift miles goal most likely.

After several rides where Strava reported my rides were harder than my usual effort today’s biking came in as easier than my usual effort. Not sure how Strava determined that because I thought I worked hard. My average speed hit 14.2 mph and stayed there for several miles, going up even while riding into the headwind on the US59 southbound frontage road from Forest Colony to Northpark Drive.