I was late getting started on today’s bike ride while I waited for the temperature to get closer to 70. I rolled away at 11:36 AM on my Cervelo Caledonia bike to ride my Atascocita – Huffman – Walden route. I installed new Ultegra pedals yesterday and this was the first ride. Around the 1.4 mile point I realized I couldn’t get the cleats to unclip. I found a place to get a foot loose without falling on the ground. I adjusted the tension some and thought that fixed the problem but about 100 feet later I still couldn’t get my shoes out of the pedals. More adjusting and back on the bike. This time I could get the shoes to unclip but it was real hard. I left the tension alone until I found a bench at Town Center park and did more adjusting. I got close to the right tension but not where I wanted it. One more stop on the other side of Town Center Park. This time I got the tension how I wanted and resumed the ride. I was glad I didn’t fall over and not get my shoes loose.

Weather during the ride: start 68 (humidity 64%, dew point 56), mostly clear, wind SW 6 mph; finish 75 (humidity 45%, dew point 52), a few clouds, wind variable 7 mph. I was comfortable with my wardrobe choice: shorts, long sleeve jersey, windbreaker jacket, and new gloves.

Sometimes on Saturday I see other cyclists but not today until I was riding through Walden. A cyclist made a left turn from a side street but didn’t see me.

During the ride I started having a problem with the rear derailleur not shifting from the #9 cog to #8. It shifted from the #8 to #9 without any problem just not back the other way. My solution was to shift from #9 to #7 and back to #8. I will try to fix this. Maybe the rear derailleur needs to be adjusted or that cog is worn out. I have a cassette cluster if it needs to be replaced.

All of these problems slowed my ride below my normal pace but I managed to recover some once I got the FM 1960 and ride over Lake Houston.

I used 5 different bikes to ride 9,493 miles this year: Canyon Endurace, Lynskey R300, Blue Norcross AL, Cervelo Caledonia, and Lynskey Helix. Comparing 2022 to 2021 I biked 12 miles less than what I rode in 2021’s 9504 miles. 2022 miles include road miles 8267 plus 1227 Zwift miles. I rode more Zwift miles this year compared to 2021 and fewer road miles. The graphs below show YTD progressions of miles rode.

Road Miles Year Goal, Zwift Year Miles Goal, Monthly Road Miles Goals