Early in the bike ride I encountered light rain but I pressed on hoping it would leave or I ride out of it. I don’t know which happened but the rain disappeared until I rode through Woodridge Forest on the way to US59. The “New Caney – Tavola – Valley Ranch” goes north and the south wind helped me get there. The ride lasted 2:33:48 (moving time) with a start time at 12:15 PM and finished at 3:09 PM. I covered 34.38 miles.

At the beginning of the ride the south wind registered 7 mph but by the time I finished it came from the south at 15 mph with gusts up to 18 mph. This made for hard pedaling after the turn around at Tavola, north of New Caney. The weather during the bike ride: start 73 (87% humidity, 69.3 dew point), overcast, wind S 7 mph. Finish 78 (79% humidity, 71.2 dew point), overcast, wind S 15 mph gusts 18 mph. I over dressed with a long sleeve thermal jersey under a wind breaker jacket atop biking shorts. When I finished the jersey and jacket were wet from sweat. When I rode by Bens Branch Elementary school in Briar Tree their sign showed 81 degrees, starting to get to my kind of temperature. Tuesday’s weather repeats today.

Before the ride I made two adjustments to the Canyon Endurace CF SLX bike: raised the saddle to match the Lynskey R300 setting and loosened the cleat tension on the Ultegra pedals to make the unclipping easier. I loosened the cleat tension a quarter turn and with new cleats on the Sidi shoes exiting the pedals felt easier. The saddle height stretched my legs a little farther and I think helped my pedaling power. My leg muscles will need to adapt to the change.

At the beginning of the ride the PowerPod started a calibration ride count up but this time I understood why. I made a change in the profile of my weight which affects the power calculation by the PowerPod. Once the calibration finished the PowerPod began sending power data to the Wahoo Elemnt computer. I did notice the watts were higher than I expected but with the strong wind and a gearing change it looks reasonable. The gearing change in the rear cassette was going from an 11×28 to 11×25. This wasn’t planned but I think the 11×25 cassette puts my speed and power at higher level. Now if I start biking in hilly terrain I may change my mind.

Links to my Strava activity page and SportTracks activity page.