After biking two days in a row to Huffman I wanted to ride to the north but the Community Drive overpass work might not be over. So I plotted a route going north on Loop 494 and then left onto FM1314. The reason I stayed on Loop 494 was so that if I wanted to cut through the Auburn Trails subdivision to the southbound US59 service road I wouldn’t double back on the route, at least on the map. I don’t know why I took that into consideration when the route doubled back on FM1314. Oh well. As it turned out the overpass work must’ve finished because traffic flowed on the main lanes when I rode under US59 in Porter and I didn’t go through Auburn Trails later .

Overnight and this morning a cool front passed over the area dropping the temperature to 61 and bringing light rain during the morning. This delayed my ride until after lunch to give the roads time to dry out. With the stiff north wind it didn’t take long. When I start biking at 2:20 it was 76 degrees. That NNW wind almost got the best of me. Riding north on Loop 494 and northwest FM1314 went into the wind. My legs definitely lack strength. As you can see on the interval average speed below I barely crawled until the 15 mile point when I reached Gene Campbell Road on FM1314 and turned around to head home. I had to take a short break at Cumberland Blvd. on FM1314 because my legs needed one. Getting back on the bike I was able to increase the pace somewhat to Gene Campbell Road. While I was riding NW two bicyclists rode the opposite direction. They were going a lot faster than I was so I knew once I reached the turn around I would go faster. Unfortunately I lost too much time on the outbound segment to get my average speed to 15 mph. I wasn’t sure how far this route would be but I hoped for 28 miles or so. It turned out to be 31.27 miles.

For the first time in awhile I had to out sprint a dog, in the Briar Tree subdivision. As I approached the elementary school on my right I saw this large brown dog running through the parking lot in the same general direction as me. At first I thought he wasn’t paying attention but he angled towards me so I sped up. He reached my side barking and I did not want him to get in front of me so that I might run into like I did over near Crosby some time back. He must not have been too committed to the chase because he didn’t stick with me for more than 5 to 10 seconds before slowing down. As I rode away I could hear someone yelling back behind to the dog. I wished they had yelled sooner.

If I needed reminder that my left calf muscle is not fully healed I got one riding south on Rock Creek Drive just before Northpark Drive. A section of “decorative” cobblestones cross the street and the jarring of the bike tires going over these really brought the soreness to my attention. Just for good measure there are two sections of cobbles; one long and one short. Over time I think I found a least jarring route through the long section but it still is rough. The short section of cobbles cross the street at a slight angle so there is no path of least jarring.

With the cooler temperature I chose a long sleeve jersey for the ride. For the first 15 miles I didn’t really need it but the last 16 miles was in the shade more and the cool wind was more noticeable. Fall arrived but not completely so there should be some warm rides yet.

The miles this week turned out pretty good totaling 176.88. October miles increased to 156.05 and year to date I rode 5373 miles. The Garmin Edge 510 reported a new personal record ascending 629.9 feet during the ride. That’s interesting since the terrain appears to be very flat. The turnaround point is known as Porter Heights so that may account for the record.

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