I just thought the wind was strong on Tuesday. It was even stronger for today’s bike ride. From the south at 22 mph with 33 mph gusts. I chose a route riding into that wind because it’s Thursday and the previous 2 Thursday’s I rode it. Why not make it three Thursdays in a row. I altered the “Atascocita – Balmoral – Walden” route a little from the previous ones. At Madera Run Parkway instead of continuing south to Greens Road I turned right on Madera Run riding to Woodland Hills Drive where I turned left. This gave me a slight rest from the brutal headwind on Timber Forest. But biking south on Woodland Hills and then east on Greens Road required all the power my legs could muster. I rode up to the railroad overpass construction on Timber Forest adding an incline to the headwind. Not easy. But making the u-turn there most of the way back to Kingwood a tailwind helped me.

At Atascocita Shores Drive and FM 1960 two cyclists made a left turn from FM 1960. One of them, a lady, yelled the headwind was hard but the tailwind was great. I agreed. I think she thought I was about to ride east over Lake Houston, not continue north on Atascocita Shores. Biking over Lake Houston would’ve exposed me to the wind big time. Later I saw another cyclist on Waterpoint Lane in Kings River. He was riding into the wind.

As I got ready to leave on the bike ride the weather app I check wasn’t pulling up the conditions not alerting me to the severe wind. I looked at another app but it wasn’t clear on the wind omitting the wind gusts speed. I rolled away at 11:12 AM into the wind. I finished at 2:03 PM. Today I rode the Lynskey R300 bike while the previous 2 rides was on the Cervelo Caledonia.

A summary comparison of the three rides on today’s route in 2022. My average speed was lower today probably because of the headwind. The tailwind part of the ride wasn’t fast enough to recover the speed lost. The Lynskey doesn’t have the shifting data like The Cervelo does. I had a shifting error at one point when I tried to shift gears like as I would on the Cervelo ending up in the wrong gear combination. I flipped the left brake lever to go to a lower great but almost shifted to the big chainring instead. I caught my mistake before the chain moved but there wasn’t time to make the correct rear change before stopping for a red light.

I moved slightly ahead of the pace I need to reach the 650 mile goal for March with today’s 34.72 miles. I’m up to 368.1 road miles. For the week I stand at 142.98 miles. A cold front probably will pass through early Friday morning. Not sure if the weather will be okay to ride outside.

Today’s ride weather conditions: start 70 (humidity 73%, dew point 61), cloudy, wind SE 22 mph; 74 (humidity 67%, dew point 62), partly cloudy, wind S 22 mph gusts 33 mph. I wore another long sleeve performance fabric T-shirt under a short sleeve jersey. I felt comfortable with a light wind shell jacket. One drawback on the jacket, no side pocket to hold the GoPro. I used the big back pocket which wasn’t as handy. Sometimes it was hard finding the GoPro in that pocket. Twice today the GoPro froze up requiring me to hold the power button for 10 seconds or more.

Strava reported a 2nd fastest time on Northbound Sprint (1:45). That was with the tailwind.