Today was the first bike ride since October 26th thanks to a cold front arriving in the Houston area. It still was chilly this morning when I went to the kitchen around 7:30 AM with y home weather station showing 41 degrees. But the forecast promised a high of 80 and I held out before starting the ride at 11:55 AM. Wanting to ride 35+ miles I chose the “Kingwood – Patton Village – Kingwood” route to the north and rode 37.1 miles. This puts me only 13 miles from the 6,800 miles YTD goal by the end of October. I will make if I have to ride in the rain. (I hope this doesn’t happen though) To be safe I wore a long sleeve jersey and a short sleeve one which kept me comfortable for those times I was in the shade. The days off provided some rest so that I could ride with strong pedaling.

With a south wind of 8 mph, 75 degrees and a clear blue sky the ride to Creekwood Drive was with the wind. I built up the overall average speed to 15.4 mph but the u-turn change the nice tailwind into a tough headwind. At SH 242 I went right to make the loop by Speed Sportz where I stopped and took these photos.

The ride back to the south bound service road was easy but once I was on the service road the wind wanted to get the better of me. I could tell my effort was up as the average watts increase from 87 to 104+ as I rode into the wind. I got a brief respite when I took Valley Ranch Parkway and then Azalea Drive back to I-69/US59 where I battled the wind to Kingwood Drive and back into Kingwood. Finishing the ride at 2:35 PM the temperature was a nice 80 degrees.