I got up early this morning to go to our 6:00 AM church monthly men’s meeting. I was surprised that the temperature did not match what the forecast called for; 71 degrees instead of 66 degrees. The clear sky though was beautiful as the sun rose. When I got home after our meeting the air felt a little cooler but still not as low as the forecast. After reading the newspaper and checking my computer I decided it was time to go riding. When I started my ride at 10:29 the temperature was 76 and it went up to 82 by the time I finished at 11:57 AM.

My plan was to go road biking but as I got ready I changed my plan to riding the trails on my mountain bike. It just felt like a good weather day to cruise among the trees and take in nature. Several other people had the same idea. I passed two women twice when our paths overlapped. At one point a large group of Kingwood High School track or physical education boys ran on the trails in the opposite direction as me. They must have experience encountering bikes since they would call out “biker ahead.” The cool feel as I rode in the shade definitely said fall is in the air. In the slide show below I include 4 pictures I took on the trails.

The ride was not as long as my road routes but still ended up with 16.05 miles at a 12.2 mph average speed. I hit 22.2 mph as my max speed and 75.6 RPM average cadence. Riding time was 1:18:38 and 9:20 stopped time. When I stopped at Kingwood Drive and W. Lake Houston Parkway I noticed the handlebars moved when I tried to turn the front wheel so I got out my allen wrench to check the two bolts on the stem holding the handlebars. They were loose and tightening them up fixed the problem. Glad I noticed the problem.

The mountain bike runs on some stout knobby tires which makes the usual noise when on concrete so I am thinking the next set need to be less knobby since I don’t spend that much time in the dirt. Tomorrow should see me back on the road bike. Maybe the temperature will stick to the forecast.

Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com metrics and maps.

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