A turn in the weather for today’s bike ride. Rain percentage dropped below 10% and the forecasted high is in the mid to upper 90’s. I started at 9:06 AM, about an hour earlier than yesterday. In a bid for some route variety I put together some roads I ride from time to time but not in this combination. This required a new route name, “Community Drive – Valley Ranch – Gene Campbell Blvd”. With a new combination of roads I wasn’t sure how far the ride would be guessing 32 to 33 miles. It turned out to be 34.48 miles. Those miles pushed my week to 189.76 miles. Tomorrow’s bike ride should make a 200+ mile week. My August mileage is at 663.86 miles, 137 miles to my 800 mile goal. I rode my Canyon Endurace bike putting the odometer to 23927.6 miles. 2021 YTD miles expanded the difference to 2020 TD miles to 131 miles. Last year I was in the hospital August 18th through the 21st.

I was ready for the probability of rain fall. Biking with the threat of rain is not my preference. Starting an hour earlier helped me finish the bike ride at 11:49 AM before the temperature got close to the maximum forecasted. Ride conditions: start 85 (82% humidity, 78.8 dew point), partly cloudy, wind S 4 mph; finish 91 (62% humidity, 75.9 dew point), partly cloudy, wind S 7 mph.

The long uninterrupted NW stretch on FM 1314 to Gene Campbell Blvd. allowed me to set a good pace improving my overall average speed to 14.3 mph. I expected a headwind when I made the u-turn at Gene Campbell Blvd. riding to the SE. There was a headwind but whenever the trees were close to the road they blocked most of the wind and I could keep the same pace maintaining my average speed. This screenshot from Golden Cheetah shows the charts for several markers.