Around the 15 mile point in today’s bike ride the wind shifted from my right to a headwind and the temperature felt like it dropped about 10 degrees. I started the ride at 11:58 PM riding the “Kingwood – SH 242 – Kingwood” route to the north. The wind up to that point was from the east and not causing too much of an issue but the headwind slowed me down and made me thankful I chose to wear a long sleeve thermal jersey. After I warmed up I thought maybe the thermal jersey was a mistake but that changed when the wind did. Even with the warmer jersey I still felt the temperature change with the chilly wind hitting me.

At the start my home weather station showed 76 degrees and at the 2:35 PM finish too but out on the road whenever the wind blew it felt cooler. For some reason I chose to wear the thermal jersey rather than a regular long sleeve jersey with a short sleeve one over top; my usual choice for this range of weather.

The headwind to SH 242 where I turned around made pedaling difficult and slowed my speed down to 12 mph or so. Riding to the west over I-69/US59 positioned me where the wind came to my right side and pedaling became easier. I rode west to SpeedSportz Drive and turned left to head back to I-69/US59. Until the wind shifted I expected the ride back south to be hard but thanks to the now tailwind I rode at 18 to 19 mph and boosted my average speed up to 14.7 mph.

With the new rear cassette gearing pedaling and speed seemed to be several mph higher. Maybe my body is more attuned to a 11-28T setup than the 11-32T.

Tuesday weather forecast: High 75 F, 30% Precip. / 0.01 in., AM Showers. High around 75F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. March wind is starting to assert itself. I plan on biking, chasing miles to reach my goal for March.

With today’s ride I moved ahead of all previous years except 2016 and 2017 YTD.