Starting today I will be riding my Motobecane 700HT mountain bike through at least Sunday when the weather and my schedule permits. I thought it would be a change and offer some different exercise and sights. When I first started the ride today I felt some rain drops but when I rode onto the greenbelt trail they either went away or the trees blocked them. My first goal for today’s ride was to visit the US Post Office to mail an envelope. I was biking along but things slowed down real fast when I went into the Post Office. There was a line of 8 or 10 people and no people behind the counter. Every once in awhile a man would walk past behind the counter and then disappear. Eventually he reappeared and talked to the lady at the counter. She must have rented a PO box and he was instructing her on how it worked. Once she was helped I thought the line would advance a little faster but each person seemed to have a special situation that required several trips behind the wall.

At one point a woman appeared to work behind the counter but her customers also had special situations like passports and envelopes that needed a multitude of paperwork to get mailed. This did not help the line I was in which did finally move along. Once I was finished at the Post Office I was back on the trails for the bike ride.

The skies were mostly cloudy and the wind was much like it was on Saturday: 18 mph from the southeast with 26 mph gusts. I noticed that riding a mountain bike into the wind requires a lot of effort. With the more upright position my body acts like a sail. This works to my advantage once I turned around and had the tailwind. My average speed was 12.0 mph but when I had the tailwind I was going 15 to 18 mph most of the time. Where I live is flat but there are some small rises on the trails so I did manage a max speed of 19.3 mph at one point. Today I rode 15.74 miles and November miles are now 120.43, year to date miles are 5103.93.

With a warmer temperature today I was actually over dressed some with my long sleeve jersey. It was 75 at the start and 80 degrees at the end. Tomorrow the next cold front is supposed to move through so the warmth will leave as well but this should take place until around midnight Tuesday. during the day the temperature should reach 83. There is a 50% chance of rain during the day so my bike ride may not take place.

Unlike when I ride my road bike today I stopped and took a couple of pictures with my phone as I was riding over Lake Houston on W. Lake Houston Parkway. You can see some of the trees in distress from the drought.

W Lake Houston Parkway Looking East

W Lake Houston Parkway shoreline

11-7-2011 Bike Ride Data and Route Map

Link to Garmin Connect data and map.   Link to the route map and ride data at RidewithGPS.com.

11-7-2011 Home Weather End