New Helmet. Did It Help Cut Through The Wind?
Started the week with a bike ride to the north on my “Kingwood – FM 1485 – Kingwood” route. Actually I went past FM 1485 crossing over Caney Creek before going under US59 and heading back to Kingwood through Valley Ranch and Oakhurst. The bike ride began at 12:13 PM delayed by about 1/2 hour when I decided to run an errand to Walmart to allow the temperature to get warmer to leave the leg warmers at home. Today’s ride covered 31.28 miles getting me slightly ahead of the miles per day to reach my 600 mile road goal for March; 157.6 miles ridden versus 154.8 miles (600/31*8). This was the third time biking this route in 2021, all on my Canyon Endurace CF SLX bike. YTD 2021 is 31 miles ahead of this date in 2020 at 1,446 miles.
With the 30 minute delay the temperature was 69.6 degrees when I walked out the back door to begin the ride. The wind said calm but that didn’t last long. Weather conditions for the bike ride: start 70 (46% humidity, 47.9 dew point), a few clouds, wind calm; finish 71 (42% humidity, 46.9 dew point), partly cloudy, wind S 13 mph gusts 22 mph. I left the leg warmers at home with the sun offsetting the wind chill on my legs. I wore shorts, a long sleeve thermal jersey (probably a regular long sleeve jersey would’ve been okay with the jacket), and a windbreaker jacket. The ride back to Kingwood was hard since the wind strengthened significantly. I still built my average speed to 14.4 mph and held it there until I returned to the US59 southbound frontage road at Kellington Drive.
I wore my new Lazer Sphere MIPS helmet for the first time. This is my first MIPS helmet. It replaces a Catlike one that has 17,005 miles on my head. It has white deposits around the vent openings making it look old. I tried cleaning it but the white residue returns, not sure what it is. The new Lazer helmet.
Golden Cheetah bike ride summary data. Power zones shows 45% of the 2:14:37 moving time in zones 1 and 2, better than my typical results. Average power hit 115 watts and max power 532 watts. Maybe the max power came from fighting the 22 mph gusts on the ride back to Kingwood.
Strava listed this bike ride “This was consistent with your usual efforts.“
