Just Short of My Goal on This Bike Ride
I rode to the north today starting at New Caney in the Brookshire Brothers Grocery parking lot. When I left home the sky was mostly cloudy but as the ride progressed the sky got cloudy. The weather forecast said thunderstorms were possible but no rain while I was riding. The temperature was in the upper 70’s most of the time and 80 degrees when I finished at 2:54 to the parking lot.
The plan was to ride 32 miles to reach 100 for the week but I fell short by .53 of a mile. I added another section to the previous rides on the “New Caney – Grangerland – New Caney” route after I left the Valero station at FM1485 and FM3083. I went south on Old Houston Road to SH 242 and then back to FM1485. I thought this might be far enough to ride the necessary miles. The ride turned out to be 31.81 miles long. Average speed was good when I reached Grangerland at 16.4 mph. This was helped by the nice tailwind most of the way. Turning back towards New Caney at Grangerland I had to ride into the wind and my average speed started to go down. When I got to the Valero station it was 16.3 mph but after a 20 minute or so rest when I got back on the bike it had dropped to 16.0 mph.
The ride on Old Houston road south let me keep the average speed at 16.0 mph but riding east on SH 242 put me into a strong headwind. Turning right onto FM1485 for the ride back to New Caney cut the headwind back some but my average speed still went down. At the finish I averaged 15.8 mph.
The long stretches of uninterrupted riding helped me to keep a high pace. On FM2090 west of Splendora I was able to ride at 19 to 21 mph in many places.
The weather forecast for Saturday includes some rain but lower probability than today. I hope to ride after the morning garage sale.
This week I rode 99.47 miles, 333.3 miles in April and 1343 miles for the year to date. 10 biking days out of 17 in April.
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