The Wind Left, The Sun Stayed Leaving A Chilly Bike Ride
After getting beat up by the strong wind the last two bike rides today it was the temperature. I waited until 10:05 AM to begin the bike ride while the temperature crawled from 42 degrees when it got up to 60 degrees. I started getting ready when it was in the 50’s and planned on starting around 10 even if it wasn’t above my 60 degree threshold. To compensate for the chill I wore shorts, leg warmers, a long sleeve thermal jersey, windbreaker jacket, and new Giro full finger gloves. I felt comfortable and didn’t overheat by the time I finished at 12:33 PM. For a few minutes early in the ride I thought about biking in yesterday’s wind and 60 degrees but quickly moved on to other musings. I rode my usual Saturday route, “Atascocita – Huffman – Walden”, on my Canyon Endurace bike covering 32.04 miles. Those weren’t enough to make a 200 mile week, lacking 3 miles which I can get on tomorrow’s bike ride. Sunday will wrap up the week and the month of October biking. October bike rides total 932.39 miles so far. October will the 3rd highest month this year; very unusual. 2021 YTD is at 8,541 miles, the most in any year as of today.
12 times on this route in 2021. Without the wind slowing me down I pushed my overall average speed up to 14.5 mph as I returned to Kingwood. I had to look twice at my bolt computer to be sure.
I did not see many other cyclists today (check the video for the cyclists I saw). I don’t know if my late start missed them or if they stayed home because of the chilly weather. The sun shined brightly but by the end of the ride it only moved the temperature up to 71. Weather at the start and end of the bike ride: start 60 (humidity 54%, dew point 44), fair, wind W 3 mph; finish 71 (humidity 33%, dew point 40), fair, wind NW 7 mph. November will usher in my return to some Zwift biking.
I bought the Giro gloves during the summer in preparation for rides like today. Looking at the package they have these features: 3 panel palm, microfiber, gel padding, and touch screen technology. I never did find the touch screen though.
