After roaming rain canceled yesterday’s bike ride I wanted to get out and ride today. I watched two bike races (Tour of Turkey and Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana) while waiting for the temperature to go up a few degrees. When those finished it was in the low 60’s and not inviting. Finally the temperature began going up and I got ready for the bike ride.

Canyon Endurace bike wheels down at 11:42 AM as I began the bike ride following my “Atascocita – Walden – FM 2100” route. I decided to not ride north through Huffman and made it a mostly out and back ride covering 33.62 miles. Reaching 200+ miles this week looks doubtful with a short ride on Tuesday and no ride yesterday. The week’s total stands at 85.27 miles. Surprisingly I am only 24 miles behind 2020 year to date; 2,528 versus 2,552 miles. I stopped for a few minutes at FM 2100 and Old Atascocita Road for this photo. Old FM 2100 asphalt has been removed to make way for the new concrete lanes.

Today’s weather wasn’t in my sweet zone for bike riding. Just a few degrees above my 60 degree threshold I bundled up with shorts, leg warmers, long sleeve thermal jersey, and a windbreaker jacket. For the first 4 or 5 miles I felt chilled except for my legs. The leg warmers did their job. Once I warmed up the chill wasn’t noticeable. Weather conditions: start 66 (84% humidity, 61.2 dew point), overcast, wind NE 14 mph; finish 70 (76% humidity, 61.9 dew point), overcast, wind NE 12 mph. The headwind riding east or northeast was tough.

Biking east over Lake Houston on FM 1960 was stinky. I don’t know which decaying insect was in the mounds as I biked but every whiff was not pleasant and the northeast wind sent it my way. The return trip on the other side wasn’t as bad with fewer decaying mounds. This happens each spring.

A day off allowed my legs some recovery and they were up to the headwind on the way to FM 2100. Average power according to Golden Cheetah came in at 110 watts with a max of 451 watts. Of the 2:23:50 riding time I spent 50% in power zones 1 and 2 and the other 50% in zones 3 through 7.