I thought flipping the calendar page over to a new month the wind returned to normal but not on today’s bike ride. Maybe choosing to ride north to Splendora wasn’t such a good idea because of the strong SE wind on the return. My legs got tested big time. So much so that I needed to stop a couple of times to let them recover. The ride began at 10:31 AM as I rode away on my Cervelo Caledonia bike. This would be the first time biking to Splendora since last August 9th. Today’s ride also turned out to go the longest distance of 2021 and 2022 bike rides to Splendora. I’m not sure why it was slightly longer though. I checked the map from August 9th and thought I followed it. By the end of the ride at 2:10 PM I biked 43.74 miles. My goal for May is 700 miles. May biking will be different and getting those miles will will require some extra effort.

Above shows all of the 2021 bike rides on the “Kingwood – Splendora – Kingwood” route in 2021 and 2022. Three different bikes.

Wind is the story of today’s bike ride. The weather conditions: start 81 (humidity 74%, dew point 72), mostly cloudy, wind S 14 mph gusts 20 mph; finish 84 (humidity 68%, dew point 73), partly cloudy, wind SE 18 mph gusts 33 mph. Getting to Splendora I enjoyed a mostly tailwind and the effort wasn’t too hard letting me use the 35×13 gears mostly. Getting back to Kingwood was another story. The AXS.SRAM.com ride report shows the 35×15 gear took the most riding time at 2:24:01 out the total 3:32:48 riding time. At times the gusts were so strong that I leaned the Cervelo into the wind to compensate. My legs worked hard but I changed from the 35×13 gearing to 35×15 riding south because I only rode at 7 to 10 mph into the wind. I made 31 RD shifts. The few times headed back to Kingwood where I rode to the west gave my legs a breather. Maybe a shorter bike ride to the north would’ve not been so hard on my legs.

I tried using the Tickr Fit heart rate monitor strap today thinking maybe my skin wouldn’t get inflamed but that failed. I have a red patch of skin and some swelling. Back to the cut off sock.