As I woke up this morning I could hear some rain hitting on our bathroom skylight. When I went to bed the chance of rain was 50% so I figured my biking plan for today would be on hold. But after 30 minutes or so the rain stopped so I thought the streets would be dry by the time I wanted to start the ride. I watched the radar screen online as rain formed and then disappeared. Around 10:45 it appeared the rain moved out of the area so I dressed and left at 11:13 AM. At first the sky looked favorable but when I got close to FM1960 the sky looked dark gray to the south. My route wasn’t going exactly where the dark sky was so I continued riding. Where I was headed the sky looked better. As I biked down Fairlake Drive  lightening struck in the distance just over the the tree line. Still no rain where I was so I kept on my route.

Turning onto FM2100 south I thought I might get caught by some rain but the clouds stayed away to my right front quarter. The wind picked up some and I sensed a drop in the temperature but still no rain. When I turned left onto Stroker Road I now moved away from the dark clouds and the route circled back to FM2100. I watched the sky and the dark clouds were in the distance as I approached FM2100 on Old Atascocita Road. Once I turned on FM2100 north I prepared on a rain encounter but still no rain. I stopped in Huffman at the Chevron station. It turned out to be good timing. I drank my Diet Pepsi and rested for about 20 to 25 minutes. Getting back to the ride it didn’t take long going west on FM1960 to run into wet pavement but the rain had moved on. Wet pavement marked the route until I got to W. Lake Houston Parkway and then popped up off and on until I got home. I skirted the rain for the entire 39.08 mile route. Looking at the weather radar when I got home it looked like some rain was following behind me but it never made it to my house.

The last time I rode this route it was a little over 37 miles. With the rain threat I wanted to keep a good average speed but sometimes the wind had other ideas. I ended up at 15.3 mph average speed with 21.6 mph max speed and 78.2 RPM average cadence. Riding time totaled 2:33:14 plus 27:46 stopped. July miles now total 363.87 and YTD is 3677.28. So far 12 riding days in July. Link to RideWithGPS.com data and map.

With the cloud cover the temperature range was 86 to 88 degrees. Wind was 10.1 mph from the southeast when I got back home. I suspect it was higher when I got closer to the rain.

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