Planning today’s ride I took several things into consideration.

• South wind at 13.8 mph with gusts to 21 mph
• Biking over Lake Houston for about 1 1/2 miles each way
• Gathering clouds
• My physical condition for road bike riding
• Route modification if the clouds started dropping rain

The rule I try to follow; start biking into the wind and return with the wind. This addresses two points in my planning: the strong wind and my questionable conditioning since not road biking for so long. With a 75 degree temperature at the start and some sun peeking through the clouds I expected the ride to be warm for a change. This brought me to the riding over Lake Houston point. When I bike over the lake with a cooler water temperature the strong wind blowing over the water is much cooler than the air off the lake. I did not want to dress for the lower temperature for just the 3 miles so I compromised by wearing a long sleeve jersey and a short sleeve one over top. This also handled using sun screen and covered my healing incision on my left arm.

So with all of this planning how did the ride go? The increased to 17 mph from the south with 24 mph gusts so heading into the wind was a good move. It was chilly biking over the lake when I was going to the east but not as much as when I returned back over the lake going west. I rode into the wind going west and the traffic did not block it much. When I was headed east the water was not too far to my right so I expected it to be cooler but because of the tailwind I biked at a faster speed so the exposure time was short. Going west my speed dropped and the exposure time increased even though the cooler water was now the causeway width away. The clouds thickened but no rain fell so I did need to modify my route. This route offers several places to get shelter whereas my northerly route does not.

My physical condition turned out to be good enough for a 15.1 mph average speed over the 29.77 mile route. I pedaled a 22.4 mph max speed as well with an average cadence of 78.9 RPM.With the wind I was not expecting this high of an average speed. Riding into the wind at the start worked well and I enjoyed the tailwind most of the way back. With the mileage today January is at 105.42 miles. Of course this is also the YTD total.

Bike ride data and route map at Garmin Connect and RideWithgps.com.

1-16-2012 Bike Ride Data and Route Map

1-16-2012 Home Weather Station End