About 7:30 this morning I walked my niece to school in 39 degree weather. As I walked I wondered if it would warm up enough to go biking today. That walk covered about 2 miles three and back. Later about noon I decided to walk to the post office. Going to the post office and back was around 3 miles. As I walked back I noticed the nice sunny day warming up and I unzipped my jacket to let some of the heat out. When I got back home I checked the home weather station and 64 degrees stared back at me. So I decided a bike ride was in order. The last ride was a week ago on January 11th.

At one point on my walk back from the post office I was on a trail beside a bayou and I looked down to the opposite bank and saw a herd of turtles (probably 6 or 7) basking in the sun. I tried to get closer to take a picture but they saw me and scurried into the water.

As I got ready at first I thought the mountain bike would be my choice but I changed my mind because I can ride my road bike faster so I can go farther. The route through Atascocita and Walden at Lake Houston covered 21.61 miles in 1:29:26 time. My average speed was only 14.5 mph but with the wind chill I don’t know if I wanted to go too much faster. Even though the SSW 4 mph wind normally is not a problem wind chill at 64 degrees is. Fortunately I dressed pretty close to what I needed to keep warm: leg warmers, long sleeve jersey, short sleeve jersey, shorts and full finger gloves. The gloves were most appreciated because moving through the air and shade I could feel the chill trying to get a hold of my fingers. I only encountered one other bicyclist out in the cool but sunny weather.

January mileage is a paltry 70.99 miles, far below last year’s 267.25. I am beginning to think getting to that number will be a stretch with the cold weather and rain dominating January so far. The next three days are supposed to be in the 60’s so I might be able to add some more mileage.

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