Two bike races to watch the finish of today on GCN+: Tour of Turkey and Giro di Sicilia. I watched the last 10 k of each one via the replay. They started early and finished around the time I made it to the kitchen after getting up. I thought about which route to ride today and settled on the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” one. I gathered my ride kit, got dressed and wheeled the Cervelo Caledonia to the driveway. Rolling away at 11:22 AM the bike ride began. I finished at 1:48 PM. During that time I rode 33.29 miles boosting the week to 74.5 miles. This was the 8th time on this route in 2022. Probably the one I used the most so far. I need 230 more miles to reach my 650 mile goal for April.

Today’s bike ride fit the average of the other 7 rides in distance, time, and heart rate. It was the second fastest average speed at 13.8 mph trailing the January 30th ride of 13.9 mph.

Checking the AXS.SRAM.com activity report, I spent 1:26:07 of the ride in the 35×13 gears out of the total ride time of 2:24:57. I was pushing the gears despite the headwind. I managed to ride .08 in the 35×12 gear until I realized it was too hard. I made 35 RD shift changes.

Returning to Kingwood on W. Lake Houston Parkway I passed a woman cyclist riding in the same direction twice. I looped on a side street and she didn’t.

I didn’t mention the wind first today. When I checked the weather before leaving the wind was from the SE at 16 mph with 25 mph gusts. At the end I checked again and it dropped to 13 mph from the SE. I’m thinking the strongest wind came while I rode into it and slowed when it became a tailwind. It would’ve been better the other way around. Overall weather conditions: start 76 (humidity 83%, dew point 71), overcast, wind SE 16 mph gusts 25 mph; finish 78 (humidity 82%, dew point 72), overcast, wind SE 13 mph. I wore the same combination as yesterday: shorts, LS t-shirt, and a short sleeve jersey over it. I felt comfortable even though the temperature stayed in the upper 70’s.