It’s the last week of October and I have the opportunity to ride enough miles to beat October 2020. The weather behaved and I got on the Canyon Endurace earlier than normal leaving at 10:13 AM and finishing at 12:56 PM. I rode a route I usually do later in the week. I wanted a little variety riding north but not past Community Drive. The “Community Drive – Valley Ranch – Gene Campbell Blvd” fit that. I altered the route some by going east on FM 1314 to Loop 494 and north to Community Drive rather than stay on the US59 frontage road to Community Drive. This made today the longest ride for this route since I started doing it in 2021 riding 37.22 miles. I’ve only ridden the route 5 times, all in 2021.

October weather continues to be above normal but that may change when a front arrives on Wednesday. Normal high is 79.5 and the low is 56.3. Wind was light allowing me to set a good pace in almost any direction. The best pace was on FM 1314 riding NW and the return to the SE. I built my overall average speed up to 14.4 mph and kept it there until I made the u-turn under US59 at Kingwood Drive and stopped for traffic long enough for my bolt computer to subtract a .1 mph.

Weather summary: start 79 (humidity 86%, dew point 74), mostly cloudy, wind SW 6 mph; finish 85 (humidity 71%, dew point 74), partly cloudy, wind variable 5 mph. No need for a long sleeve jersey but I wore arm sleeves for sun protection.

The brown and white dog was waiting for me at Rock Creek Drive and Northpark Drive. As I pedaled faster going west on Northpark he raced beside me in the grass barking until he reached the magic spot where he stopped quickly though there was plenty of grass left. The other dog didn’t show up.