My lips felt dry as I was riding and I started to lick them when I remembered pine pollen was everywhere. I saw it on the road in low spots where the water probably washed it during the recent rains. The front edge of my Garmin 510 rubber case was a greenish yellow from it too and when i got home my water bottle felt powdery where it was moist from the cold condensation. So far it has not impacted my breathing that I know of. The pollen usually disappears in a week or two. Dark cars and trucks get a yellow dusting which might increase the car wash business though I wait until it is gone.

The weather wasn’t as nice as yesterday with a mostly cloudy sky, 65 degrees according to most of the personal weather station on Weather Underground. My PWS was the only one with 71 degrees as I got ready to leave on the ride. I dressed based on the other stations with shorts, leg warmers, short sleeve jersey, long sleeve jersey, regular gloves and a jacket. It was a good choice as I was comfortable but not overly warm. It was chilly in the shade and when I stopped it didn’t take long to get cool. It did warm up by the time I got back home to 71 or so, depending on which PWS you looked at.

In a bid to take advantage of the weather I chose a longer route headed to Huffman and east. I call this the “FM2100 – Huffman Eastgate – Huffman” route. The roads are good and traffic is not too heavy. I did have another dog chase me on Huffman-Eastgate Road where I don’t usually even see dogs. I guess they are bored and need the exercise. This dog had a long run from the house to the road. By the time he got to the road I had a 50 to 60 foot lead on him. He chased for a few seconds and then sat down in the road.

The rest of the ride was normal. I saw the first other rider on FM1960 over Lake Houston. I was riding west and he was going east. I noticed him too late to wave. The next one was on Atascocita Shores and we waved. The last one was on Tree Lane in Kingwood. I wasn’t the only rider getting some miles in. Today’s route was 35.8 miles long. My maximum average speed was 15.7 mph. Riding on all of the residential streets makes it hard to get going fast enough to have an average speed like yesterday. My legs felt good though and when I got on the long uninterrupted roads I pedaled at 20 mph or so. This overcame the slower speeds at the start. My final average speed was 15.6 mph.

This ride is the fourth one for March. My mileage is not great but I am making progress: 69.13 miles this week, 131.12 miles for March and 566 miles year to date. I haven’t set a goal for March since the ones I set for January and February were missed so badly. Tomorrow the forecast is 78 degrees and mostly cloudy. No rain so I plan on riding again.

RideWithGPS map, metrics and charts.

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