Today’s route was a combination of streets and roads I ride but in a very different order. Sometime in the past I rode part of this route but it has been a long time (prior to the Grand Parkway FM1314 overpass construction) since I biked to Gene Campbell road on FM1314. I had to come up with a new route name: “Oakhurst – Gene Campbell Road – Valley Ranch”. About 80% of the ride is the reverse of road and streets I normally ride. Before I left home at 11:54 I was going over the route in my mind trying to think of the turns and how long this ride might be. It turned out to be 43.31 miles long. I could’ve made it a couple of miles longer but when I saw how long it was going to be I stayed on my planned roads.

Before today’s ride the Garmin Connect app on my phone updated to version 3.51. I should have known better but I did not backup the ride using the Ride With GPS app at the start. At the 3.39 mile point I noticed the cadence was not being picked up from the sensor. I stopped and tried to check the status on the Edge 520. The 520 froze and I had to hold the power and right arrow buttons to get it to power off and back on. It asked if I wanted to save the ride, I said no and pushed start and the screen came up with all of the ride data still there. To be safe I started the Ride With GPS app on my phone in case this happened again. From that point the 520 behaved and recorded the ride without further issues.

The wind fought me almost from the beginning of the ride until I turned right off FM1314 onto Gene Campbell Blvd (or Road). Up to that point I thought my average speed would not get above 13.9 mph. Once I made that turn the wind was from my left or back and I could ride much faster. With all of the reverse roads I wasn’t sure where I might stop for a break. For awhile I thought it would be the Valley Ranch Texaco but when I got to New Caney at US59 I was at the 30.57 mile point and I stopped at the New Caney Mobil station at FM1485 and US59. It was nice to sit in the shade eating a snack and drinking ice water. This is my Edge 520 screen when I got there.

I estimated it was 12 miles from there to home. This is the first time in a long time that I stopped for a rest break at this station. On some rides I make a quick stop here to refill my water bottle on the way to the Stripes station. The weather was fabulous for biking except for the wind. I checked the weather on phone and the wind showed from the NW at 9 mph but when I got home at 3:33 the airport showed a NW wind at 13 mph with 18 mph gusts. No wonder it was so hard riding NW on FM1314. The weather while I was at the Mobil station.

Biking on Valley Ranch Parkway after leaving the US59 service road the building construction is in high gear. The work on a new Kroger, Sam’s Club and Academy Out & Sports have the vertical walls up. Due to the recent rain the road has some stretched with lots of dried mud.

My timing on school traffic was perfect today, all the traffic was gone or had not happened yet.

The great weather continues for several days and I plan on biking. I did wear a short sleeve jersey (a new Garneau red/black/white one) 0ver a long sleeve jersey becaause I thought the wind would be chilly. It was and it was a good choice.

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