The legs felt great today. I wanted to pick a route about 35 miles long to get closer to the 900 mile mark for July and today’s New Caney – Casey Ridge – Roman Forest route did just that at 35.29 miles. This puts me at 856.87 miles for the month, only 44 from my goal. Year to date miles are 4182. I checked my average speed at 22 miles and had to look twice to be sure I wasn’t seeing wrong: 16.8 mph. Looking at the interval average speeds in the slide below shows 1 at 18.4 mph and 2 at 17+ mph.

Fortunately the wind helped me for the first 20 miles or so coming from the south. When I got to US59 to go south I picked up the headwind and it stayed with me until Kingwood Drive. Scattered clouds did hide much of the sun and the temperature reflected it. When I started the ride at 10:13 it was 86 degrees and 67% humidity. I did not stop for a break along the route other than to refill my water bottle in New Caney. The one drawback about this route was no stores have Diet Pepsi fountain drinks. As a result the total time and riding time were only 7 minutes apart: 2:28:12 and 2:11:54 respectively.

Generally the roads are good on this route except for the section of Roman Forest Blvd from Peach Creek to US59 was like a washboard. The shoulder on FM1485 is about 3 feet wide except for the approaches to the two bridges where it widens out to 8 feet or more.

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