No need for a long sleeve jersey today. While the temperature at 7 AM registered 59 by 11:29 when I rolled down the driveway it moved up to 79. The clear blue sky still hung around though the wind came out of the SSE from the gulf. This usually pushes in some clouds but not today during the ride. The November weather in southeast Texas is one reason why I enjoy living here. If I still lived where I grew up in Zanesville, OH, today would not have been a riding day. The forecast there called for a high of 56, low of 39 and partly cloudy skies but a lighter wind than here. They have real winter there. As I tell people I served my time in the cold while growing up. I can’t remember ever knowing that other parts in the country did not have the winter like we did in Zanesville.

Yesterday I rode to the south and east. Today I wanted to ride north to vary my routes but I hesitated when I looked at the weather online: 13 mph wind with 24 mph gusts from the south. After a few minutes I decided to go north on a route I haven’t taken since 9/21/2012. I altered today’s route slightly from that one with a shorter exit from Kingwood. One reason I did this was to not overlap the outbound route with the return. With this alteration I shortened the route to 38.27 miles from 41.4 miles on the 9/21/2012 route. The strong wind at my back really helped my speed. At the one hour point I rode 16.9 miles but that is where I turned west on FM2090 to Splendora from Tram Road. I still had a slight tailwind until I reached US59 and took the southbound service road. At that point the rest of my ride battled the wind. By the time I got home at 2:28 the wind increased to 20 mph but no gusts. These two graphics show the two comparisons in data and routes.

11-9-2012 compared to 9-21-2012

11-9-2012 route differences are in red, 9-21-2012 route is in blue

Except for the wind today was a perfect day for riding. I reached my goal for the week hitting 104.21 miles. I won’t be able to ride tomorrow and the weather looks iffy for Sunday but I might ride then to add some more miles to the week. November now totals 163.23 miles and YTD stands at 6103.45 miles. My Garmin Edge 500 continues to perform as it should. Garmin Connect (21.1 mph) and RideWithGPS.com (20.9 mph) do not agree with SportTracks (25.6 mph) on my max speed. The data is in closer agreement.

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