This time I did not get lost taking my new exit route from Kingwood. I looked at my route notes a couple of times to verify the streets to turn on and made it to Mills Branch Drive and then onto Loop 494. This route is about 3 miles shorter than my old way so I need to take that into account. Today I wanted to ride at least 30 miles so I went north on US59 to SR242 before turning south. There is a new housing development under construction on the US59 south bound service road south of FM1314. Recently they have cut a new road to connect with Briar Lodge Drive. I use Briar Lodge Drive on most of my rides going north so I rode through the new development. If there is a housing slowdown they haven’t heard about it in Auburn Trails. There were a dozen homes being built on several streets.

Daytime traffic is lighter than when I used to bike in the evening after work. This might change when school recesses on June 1st. Maybe everyone will gather at the pools and not be out driving.

Today’s route consisted of streets not biked before along with some old regulars. The route distance came up to 31.13 miles meeting my goal. The biking weather cover our area with scattered clouds, a variable 6 mph breeze, a low humidity of 36% and 94 degrees at the conclusion of the ride. Whenever I hit the shade I could feel the evaporation working on my jersey. One street along side the railroad tracks after Roman Forest Blvd. offered tree cover almost the entire way to Woodbranch Drive. Quite refreshing.

With the variable breeze I hit a headwind from time to time but I still managed a 15.6 mph average speed with 35.9 mph max speed. I am not sure where that max speed came from but SportTracks shows it. Garmin Connect shows a more likely 20.5 mph max speed. An 81.2 RPM average cadence shows good leg speed. This table breaks out time and distance for speed zones.

With today’s ride the week miles total 62.89, 605.56 miles for May and 2541.23 miles YTD. So far I biked 18 days this month for a total time of 38:43:52.

5-22-2012 Bike Ride Data and Route Map

Links to other data and map views. Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com.