With the good ride yesterday I decided to ride north on the “New Caney – Gene Campbell Road” route which was a little longer at 35.48 miles. Body wise the only problem I had was saddle soreness from a lack of riding. I spent more time standing up pedaling than usual to offset that some. I wore the same amount of clothes today: shorts, long sleeve jersey and a jacket. It was 77 degrees at my home weather station when I got back at 2:55. The blue sky stayed around from yesterday but the wind went from calm to 15 mph from the SE. I could tell the wind was higher but I didn’t realize how much until I got home.

To show how warm it was I noticed my jacket had salt spots on it when I stopped at the Stripes station on FM1314. Sitting there I watched the flag in the middle of of Valley Ranch Parkway stretched out from the southeast wind.

I kept the pace low today to minimize the coughing. The cough is getting better but it is not gone. I got my average speed up to 14.9 mph until I turned from Gene Campbell Road going east on FM1314. The wind provided plenty resistance and the average speed dropped from the 14.9 mph to 14.4 mph when I finished the ride.

Sadly I will not be able to ride this route for awhile. The Grand Parkway construction has moved to FM1314 with an overpass being built. In the center of FM1314 they building a pier and moved the traffic to the north side of FM1314 restricting the traffic to one lane each direction. There are concrete traffic barriers on the east bound lane for about 200 yards with no shoulder. Fortunately traffic was cooperative when I made the dash through the barrier section. This is west of Cumberland Parkway.

As I was nearing home (in the last mile) I spotted a biker shadow coming up on my left. It was a biker I usually see at the Huffman Chevron. He was getting started as I was almost finished. We talked until I had to turn left. He said he biked 5000 miles last year and so far was 350+ miles for January. I told him I was way short of that number and my 330 mile goal for January. If today is the last January biking day my miles will be 141.51, about 189 short of my goal.

The beautiful weather could hang around one more day but I will probably be able to bike tomorrow. Friday the weather gets ugly again.

RideWithGPS map, metrics and charts.

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