Spring arrived today and I am ready. Nice weather for a bike ride: sunny, mid 70’s but strong wind from the SE at 22 mph gusts to 29 mph. Why not strong winds, it’s March. I started the ride after getting home from church at 1:30 PM and finished at 3:39 PM. I rode my Lynskey R300 bike on the “Forest Cove – Oakhurst – Valley Ranch” with some streets changes in Forest Cove compared to my only other ride on this route this year on February 20th. Today’s 27.92 miles was slightly longer than the previous ride and about a minute faster, 2:01:55 today. Maybe the strong tailwind sections helped me ride faster.

The week ended with 225.51 miles. I was just a mile and a half from matching my earlier high week this year, February 28th – March 6th. I reversed the rides this week with 6 road rides and 1 Zwift ride versus last week. I rode the Cervelo Caledonia 4 times , Lynskey R300 2 times and the Blue Norcross AL 1 time. I need 214.1 miles to reach the 650 mile goal for March. I’ve biked every day starting February 17th.

With the nice weather I tried my long sleeve polyester T-shirt with a short sleeve jersey over it and no wind jacket. After warming up the combination was comfortable even with the stiff wind. I have 3 different color T-shirts and once the weather gets more spring like I’ll wear this duo. Weather conditions for today’s bike ride: start 74 (humidity 33%, dew point 43), clear, wind SE 14 mph gusts 24; finish 75 (humidity 29%, dew point 41), fair, wind SE 22 mph. Monday and Tuesday may be too wet to ride ride outside.

My legs got a workout starting at the right turn onto Valley Ranch Bend Drive all the way back to the end of the ride. I shifted gears several times (remembering I was on the Lynskey with mechanical shifting) when the wind was gusting. The last 10 miles were the hardest, especially when I rode east. On the southbound US 59 frontage road passing traffic provided a little relief from the wind as they blocked it for a second or two.

I wasn’t the only cyclist out. I passed one in Trailwood Village and another on Hamblen road.

Strava told me I am the Local Legend on VR Drag Northbound. I don’t ride Valley Ranch Parkway north as often as the south bound direction. My 2 efforts on this segment earned the local legend.