First time to ride the “Kingwood – SH 242 – Kingwood” route this year which surprises me a little after 2 months. The ride started at 11:23 AM and finished at 2:11 PM. I rode my Lynskey R300 bike. This bike has Ultegra 8000 mechanical shifting and it took a few shifts to get the muscle memory going. The Cervelo’s electronic shifting spoiled me. The initial 3 miles was not my usual start on this route because I ran an errand. No SRAM AXS gear data since I rode my Lynskey bike. Today’s 35.69 miles advanced the March toal miles to 69, 11% of the way to the 650 mile goal.

A few degrees warmer today so I left the leg warmers at home. It took about 15 minutes for them to warm up and I felt comfortable from then on unless I rode in an extended amount of shade. The wind had a chill but my 1 day old Bellwether wind breaker jacket did good. I wore a long sleeve jersey and short sleeve jersey underneath. I could’ve left the short sleeve jersey at home too and still be warm. Bare legs absorbed sun for vitamin D production deprived during the winter rides with leg warmers.

The wind moved around from the start to the south at 9 mph by the finish of the ride. My legs felt good and I didn’t have a problem with the headwind most of the ride. 67 degrees at the start warming to 72 when I got back home.

I looked at alternative routes to ride south around Lake Houston and circle back home riding west on FM 1960 but the UPRR railroad tracks get in the way of streets going south except for W. Lake Houston Parkway. Riding on W L H P is possible but the traffic is heavy. Instead of riding east over Lake Houston 2 or 3 times a week I may limit it to one time until the construction area improves on the west end of the causeway.

This route is flat except for a few inclines, the biggest going up at Community Drive to the TX 99 Grand Parkway intersection. I usually stand up pedaling to get to the top.