March almost got away from without biking the spring Creek Greenway. Today’ was a great day to ride it. No bike races to watch and delay my start and the weather was nice and warm though a little windy. It’s March and wind is normal. Before the ride started I gathered two new bike kit items: a Primal short sleeve jersey and AeroTech Design bike shorts. Normally I wear Primal bike shorts but the AeroTech shorts had a unique feature: side pockets. I bought them to try out the pockets holding the GoPro camera instead of the rear jersey pocket. More about the shorts in a minute.

I rolled away on my Cervelo Caledonia at 10:26 AM. The route was on the Spring Creek Greenway to John Pundt Park. I added a couple side excursions at the Carter Park trailhead and at John Pundt Park. I wanted to be sure I rode 40 miles or more. The ride distance came in at 41.63 miles when I finished at 1:56 PM. Those miles put me over my 650 road mile goal for March with 686.3 miles. With a few more days I will add to that number. March 2021 I biked 709.8 road miles. This is a good start for a 200 mile week too.

Fortunately pine pollen doesn’t bother me too much. The pollen is in the air and riding the greenway put me in the thick of it. I took a picture of the pollen sticking to my water bottle when I stopped at the Jesse Jones Park trailhead.

This was the second time riding the route in 2022. The last time was February 22nd. Today’s ride was the most miles in the last 5 times but just barely. My average speed was “average”. It’s hard to ride fast on the greenway because of the turns and blind spots plus other people can appear quickly. Today there were some cyclists, not a many as I have seen sometimes, and people walking. At the Jesse Jones Park trailhead I stopped and chatted with 3 other cyclists, Jeff, Judy, and I can’t remember the other man’s name but he rode a white Trek. Later I caught up with Jeff and Judy at the u-turn under US59 and stopped again to chat. Judy was riding some hill to train for the MS 150.

Back to the AeroTech shorts. They have a gel pad which is not my preference but it was okay for the ride. The side pocket worked nicely holding the GoPro camera. In the video you can see my tan line on my legs which meant the inseam on these shorts didn’t match the Primal shorts I wear. Also the fabric is not as heavy as the Primal shorts. The AeroTech shorts fabric felt too thin for my preference. I will not buy another pair but will use these from time to time. I’m still looking for a better GoPro holder.

Weather conditions: start 76 (humidity 61%, dew point 62), a few clouds, wind S 6 mph; finish 81 (humidity 48%, dew point 60), mostly cloudy, wind S 15 mph. The wind picked up during the ride but the trees dampened it some. I felt the headwind on the way to Pundt Park and less on the way back. The long sleeve and short sleeve jerseys were comfortable for the temperature and wind combination.

Not many RD shifts during the bike ride, 13 total from AXS.SRAM.com. Almost the entire ride time was spent in the 35×15 gear combination, 2:40:38 out 3:24:39. Once I was in the 35×15 gear there wasn’t many reasons to change on the greenway. Off the greenway I changed gears more often.

Top results galore from Strava for the bike ride. See the picture below. Having rode the greenway a number of times I didn’t expect this many results.