A lower than usual 68 degrees greeted me when I got up this morning so I decided to wear a long sleeve jersey for warmth and sun blocking. I was meeting some other bicyclists from the Houston Cycling Club Meetup Group for the ride. It was 4.8 miles from my house to the meeting place on US59 in the North Plaza Shopping Center. When I arrived no one was there so I waited a few minutes past the 8:15 start time. Leaving the glass gazebo I rode to the stop light at Northpark Drive and as I waited for the light to change David White from the group caught up with me. So the two of us set out.

Mostly cloudy skies kept the temperature from going up too fast as we rode north on the service road. What breeze there was seemed to come from behind and we made good time maintaining a 17 to 19 mph pace. The goal was to average 15 to 16 mph which we did. I checked at one point and our average was 16.1 mph. When we got to SR242 we turned west to ride to FM1314. We stopped at FM1485 and SR242 to refill our water bottles and a restroom break. While we were there another bicyclist joined us for the ride to FM1314. I did not get his name but he said he was going to I-45 and then back to US59. So we continued keeping a good pace to where we split at FM1314 and SR242.

Once we were on FM1314 the wind started coming at us. I am not sure how but I still managed to keep the speed up around 18 mph but I will attribute it to riding with David. When I ride alone it is easy to slow down but when you ride with someone else it is not so easy. The next stop came at FM1314 and Sorters Road to refill water bottles and dry up some of the sweat pouring off of me. Filling the bottle was easy, drying up the sweat not so easy. It felt good riding into the wind on FM1314.

We took a different direction when we reached Old Sorters Road going through Briar Tree subdivision and then onto the US59 southbound service road. I was pleasantly surprise in Briar Tree that a dog that is not normally outside was laying in a driveway but did not bother chasing me like he has other times. I did not miss the dog sprint.

Our route from the glass gazebo and back was about 37 miles but the distance from my house and back came in at 46.6 miles at 15.8 mph overall. This brings the miles for this week to 208.38, June miles to 252.65 and year to date totals 2692 miles.

I have a meeting at church tomorrow so I will not be riding. Monday I should be back on the road. Later next week it could approach 100 degrees.

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