The weather forecast for today warned me that going on a bike ride might be a problem. All morning the temperature would not go above 59 degrees. Finally around 1 PM it got above 60 but the strong wind made it feel cooler. Going for a bike ride didn’t look great but I decided to get dressed and head out. I bundled up wearing shorts, leg warmers, a long sleeve thermal jersey, windbreaker jacket, and regular biking gloves.

In the video I say the route I wanted to ride but the 1:35 PM start and weather conditions caused me to change it to “Atascocita – Walden – E. Lake Houston Parkway”. Actually the route reversed the order of the last two names. But to not create a new route name I used the other one. I rode the Canyon Endurace CF SLX bike. One reason I “braved” the cold weather (by my definition) was to not fall further behind 2020 YTD miles. 2021 now trails by 39 miles, an increase from 30 yesterday. Today’s bike ride covered 28.42 miles. The week’s total comes in at 145.06 miles. No 200 miles this week with one day left. Below the chart shows YTD miles progressions for 2021 and previous years.

Last year on this date I rode the “New Caney – Gene Campbell Road”. The weather was more bike ride friendly.

While I was waiting on the weather to improve I waxed the chain on the Lynskey R300 and switched the seat bag on it. Cramming a tube, tire levers, patch kit, a piece of a tire for a boot, and some money inside the Lyzne bag took a couple of tries. It wasn’t as roomy as the Topeak bag I replaced. The Topeak hung down too low, touching the rear light.

As if the temperature wasn’t challenging enough the wind was too. Weather conditions: start 63 (70% humidity, 53 dew point), mostly cloudy, wind N 17 mph gusts 24 mph; finish 60 (79% humidity, 53.7 dew point), light rain, wind N 16 mph. Getting to E. Lake Houston Parkway the wind tried to blow me and the Canyon bike to the right as I crossed Lake Houston on FM 1960. The wind whips stronger where the causeway is open under the road for boats and water to move. The return trip wasn’t as bad because the concrete guardrail blocked some of the force. Back on the west side of the lake a new problem arrived, light rain. Starting in Walden and to the 3:48 PM finish I rode in a light rain. Not enough to get me wet but I felt the cold water come through my leg warmers sometimes. After I finished the sun came out for a few minutes before the cloud cover regained the upper hand.

I don’t agree with Strava’s assessment of today’s bike ride as easier than my usual efforts. Fighting the wind wasn’t easy.