Due to a morning commitment today’s bike ride didn’t get started until 12:34 PM. By then the temperature was a balmy 75 degrees with a clear blue sky. I rolled out the driveway on my Canyon Endurace biking the “Atascocita – Walden – E. Lake Houston Parkway” route for the second time this week. I chose this route because of the late start.

I dressed lighter today with shorts, a long sleeve jersey, and a short sleeve jersey over it. No need for a thermal jersey today. I felt comfortable after a couple of miles when my body heat kicked in. Weather conditions: start 75 (32% humidity, 43.5 dew point), fair, wind W 8 mph; finish 77 (29% humidity, 42.6 dew point), a few clouds, wind SW 9 mph. The super low humidity helped evaporate the sweat and at the 2:38 PM finish my clothes weren’t that damp.

The ride covered 28.28 miles which improved my month’s total to 88.72 miles, only 60 miles left to reach my goal. It is a small goal but December weather isn’t always bike ride friendly.

Year to date I am up to 8,965 miles. Below is a comparison of 2020 to previous years’ miles. This combines road and Zwift miles.

Power output eased up from yesterday. Today zones 3 to 7 totaled 51% of the ride time according to the Golden Cheetah bike ride summary data. zones 6 and 7 were 12%. This might be a reason Strava labeled today as easier than my usual rides.

Wind wasn’t much of a factor except when crossing Lake Houston headed west. sometimes I got a break when traffic passed me and interrupted the wind. As shown below the route is flat.