No bike races on GCN+ this morning to delay starting my bike ride. I gathered all my bicycling gear, filled the water bottle, woke up the Bolt computer, applied sunscreen, and rolled the Cervelo Caledonia outside. A quick trip to the street to pickup the recycling bin after the trash men emptied it and I was off at 9:34 AM. I noticed the street had a few damp spots and then I felt a few sprinkles. I hoped this wasn’t a sign I would be riding in the rain.

I chose the “Kingwood – SH 242 – Kingwood” route riding north and returning to Kingwood. Usually this route is 35 or 36 miles but today I added a few streets and the bike ride was 39.41 miles. This was the 4th time biking this route in 2022. The rides have been evenly divided on my 2 bikes. My goal for June is 800 miles and this is a good start. So far this week I biked 116.57 miles. A 200+ mile week is possible.

From the sprinkles at the beginning I grew more concerned when I reached the US59 northbound frontage road at E. Knox St. The road was wet and muddy but not raining. Also a street sweeper rolled by several minutes before my arrival stirring up the dirt into a nasty mud mess. I was determined to keep riding and prepared to wash the Cervelo when I finished the ride. When I stopped at the cemetery to visit my wife’s grave I saw how mud shows up on a black bike. I thought I rode muddy back roads. The wet frontage road was back to dry by the time I reached FM 1314. From then on no more wet streets but a gray cloud moved around some. I finished the ride at 12:44 PM and washed the Cervelo as expected.

While heading west on E. Knox Street at the feed store a large male peacock was strutting through the parking lot making loud sounds. I turned back to record him but I missed it due to the GoPro on/off mistake.

For some reason I got messed up recording video on the GoPro. I thought I turned it off when actually turning it on. Normally I record 10 to 15 minutes of the ride but today I recorded about 45 minutes, killing the GoPro’s battery before the end of the ride. It gave out in Valley Ranch, I think. I missed recording the rare cyclist on Loop 494 at TX 99.

Other than the sprinkles and muddy wet road the weather was typical. Humidity was higher than the temperature at the start making it seem warmer than it was. Weather at the start and finish: start 81 (humidity 87%, dew point 77), mostly cloudy, wind S 7 mph; finish 89 (humidity 64%, dew point 75), mostly cloudy, wind SE 10 mph gusts 18 mph. I thought the wind would stay below 10 mph but on the way back to Kingwood it felt stronger which must’ve been the 18 mph gusts.

AXS.SRAM.com ride report shows the overall moving time was 2:54:07 and a total elapsed time of 3:10:03. I stopped at the Exxon station in Porter on the way back to refill my water bottle with ice and water accounting for some of the time difference. 47 RD shifts is higher than normal. I rode 1:39:40 (25.2 miles) in the 35×13 gears and 52:57 (10.2 miles) using the 35×15 gears. The rest of the time was in the other gears. Average power was 86 watts and the max was 413 watts.