The clouds remain and the temperature fell a couple of degrees but no reason to stay off the bike. I have a very important appointment this afternoon (get the first dose of the vaccine) so I started the bike ride at 10:28 AM. At first I was going to take a different route but I changed my mind and rode the “Forest Cove – Oakhurst – Valley Ranch” route. This route was 27.55 miles long today. I’m getting closer to my road mile goal for February with 318.9 miles and a 400 mile goal. Combining road miles and Zwift miles the total for February stands 474.66 miles, 25 miles away from the combined goal of 500 miles. I rode my Canyon Endurace CF SLX bike today. I was going to air the tires up yesterday but I forgot. I will do that before the next ride.

Weather conditions: start 71 (81% humidity, 65.3 dew point), overcast, wind S 7 mph; finish 72 (77% humidity, 64.1 dew point), overcast, wind SE 13 mph. Since it was a couple of degrees cooler I changed my attire to shorts, a long sleeve thermal jersey, and a windbreaker jacket. Several times during the ride I was in a light mist but either it moved or I rode out of it. The jacket came in handy with wind increasing during the ride.

This route was conducive to biking without stops which helped my average speed. I built it up to 14.5 mph at times but most of the ride was 14.4 mph. Headed south from Valley Ranch the headwind tried to slow me but I powered through it. Reflecting that the bike ride summary data shows only 41% of the biking time was in power zones 1 and 2 leaving 59% in zones 3 through 7. 17% was in zones 6 and 7 which good for me.

In Strava I set a personal record on the Don’t Get Run Over on Hamblen West segment. This may contribute to Strava telling me This was harder than your usual effort.