I didn’t realize it had been three weeks since riding on the “Atascocita – Balmoral – Walden” route when I started at 9 AM. I thought it had been two weeks. Riding my Cervelo Caledonia I went on several new streets in Balmoral and Eagle Springs using the map on my Bolt computer to avoid getting lost. I stopped at the Balmoral Blue Lagoon which you can see in the video. The water was inviting. I only started riding this route in 2022 and this was the 8th ride and the distance today was 35.26 miles, slightly above the average distance of the previous times. I stopped to check the construction on the railroad overpass at the southern end of Timber Forest. I show the status in the video. On the way back to Kingwood I took some interior streets through Eagle Springs on the way to Will Clayton Parkway. I saw two other cyclists in places I don’t normally see them: first on Trophy Place Drive and the other at Kingwood Drive and Kings Crossing.

No rain interruption during the ride though rain clouds gathered after I finished at 12:06 PM. It was hot enough to generate some salt stains on my dark kit. Weather conditions: start 86 (humidity 77%, dew point 78), mostly cloudy, wind SW 6 mph; finish 92 (humidity 57%, dew point 74), partly cloudy, wind S 8 mph. Wind wasn’t too strong today and thankfully the humidity went down as the ride progressed.

The ride headed south with a headwind which though light took a toll on my legs. I shifted from the 35×13 to 35×15 gears on Timber Forest because my legs didn’t have any extra power and I thought I’d save them for the return to Kingwood, hopefully with a tailwind. So I consider the ride a recovery one. When I finished and looked at Strava I found a PR on Valley Lodge Interval Segment (2:38), a street I think I rode maybe once before. My AXS.SRAM.com ride report shows the time close in each of those combinations: 1:16:07 in the 35×15 and 1:12:23 pedaling 35×13.