For a long time my riding guidelines leaned to biking into the wind at the start and finish with the wind. But observing my riding lately I think starting the ride with the wind has advantages. The biggest one is the opportunity to build up the average speed in the beginning and then holding on to it on the return leg. It seems when I build up a solid average speed in the first half of a ride that I maintain that average speed longer than trying to overcome a low average speed and get it up to my goal. Today was one of those days when I started with the wind and then finished going into it. At one point I was real close to 16 mph average speed and while the last 15 miles was generally into the wind I was able to keep my average speed at 15.8 mph for the ride. Granted the wind was not real strong at 9 mph from the southwest but when I got in the open it felt strong.

Along the route I stopped at Sprockets Bike Shop on Ford Road, Porter, TX to drop off some Texbiker.net business cards. While there I saw a bike with some of the super wide knobby tires. They look like they are 4 inches wide. Around here that would ride good in the sand.

The route I choose today is the same one I rode on July 28th, New Caney -Gene Campbell road. The distance was 32.34 miles, almost the identical mileage as last Saturday. My average speed was not the same with the previous ride at 15.2 mph versus 15.8 mph today. The wind direction was different: today from the southwest, last Saturday from the north. This would point to my theory above about starting strong and then working to keep what I had. A comparison of the two speed over distance shows:

July 28th Speed-Distance

August 3rd Speed-Distance

On today’s ride I spent 71.5% of the time in the 17.1 – 21.0 mph range while last Saturday 62.0% of the ride was in the 16.8 – 25.6 mph zone. Note the difference in mileage in Zone 3 for each day. Another comparison is the 5 mile splits for each day:

July 28th Splits-Time

August 3rd Splits-Time

The first 5 mile split was almost the same on each day but after that August 3rd shows better average speeds. Today the tailwind until about the 15 mile point allowed me to build up the reserve average speed to offset the headwind going home. On July 28th the reverse happened with a headwind until about 15 miles and then a tailwind going home. So based on the 2 day comparison I rest my case.

Other numbers:

• 168.35 miles this week
• 89.0 miles for August
• 4023.97 miles YTD
• 2:03:11 riding time today
• 30:49 time stopped today
• 80.6 RPM average cadence today
• Link to RideWithGPS.com data and map

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Click on the image below to see SportTracks data.

[EasyGallery id=’august32012bikeride’]