As I was brushing my teeth before getting dressed for today’s ride I went over some potential routes for the record breaking ride to reach 900+ miles for July. I wanted this route to be different in some way to make it easier to remember. I ended up planning to ride the New Caney – Gene Campbell Road route in reverse with a couple of variations.

The weather was cooperative with 86 degrees, 64% humidity and partly cloudy skies as I rode out of the driveway at 10:27. By the time I got back it went up to 94.8 degrees and 42% humidity under even more of a blue sky. Wind was light at 5 mph and did not really slow me down too much.

It didn’t take too long for my route to get a minor correction. I was planning on taking Kingwood Drive west to Kingwood Place and then north but the road construction on Loop 494 at Kingwood Drive backed up traffic and nothing seemed to be moving. So after standing there for a couple of minutes I turned around and went out of Kings Manor to the north bound US59 service road to take Northpark Drive west to Oakhurst and get back on my planned route. After that small detour all went as I visioned it except when I was going on the road in front of the school off of Sorters Road. I wasn’t paying attention and rode over a sharp speed bump that jolted the fire out of me. Fortunately I had both hands on the bar and recovered on the other side of the bump. I was awake after that.

Riding a route in the opposite direction most of the scenery looks new and today was no exception. Biking on the opposite side of the road and streets means the bumps I know are gone and new ones come up.

Another variation was to go through Valley Ranch to get to the Stripes store for my rest break with a Diet Pepsi and something to eat. My snacks of choice are Kashi oatmeal cookies and Nature Valley granola bars.

Today’s route totaled 35.89 miles at a 16.0 mph average speed. This put July’s total miles at 925.79, a new record for one month. WOW! I did it. I watched my Garmin 500 to see when I reached the 11 miles I needed and it happened as I was riding through Oakhurst. Year to date I biked 4251 miles. This will be a hard month to duplicate. In July 2012 I rode 622.77 miles so the 925 is a big increase. I biked 26 out 31 days so that played a big part.

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