Changing up a route can be difficult at times when riding them so often. Before starting the I thought of how to make biking Kingwood streets different and came up with biking the opposite direction plus adding a couple of different streets or parking lots. Starting in the heat of the day at 1:26 after getting home from church and getting dressed meant it could be a tough ride compared to the other days when I start at 9 AM or earlier. I finished at 3:00 and the temperature increased even more after the ride so I guess I didn’t ride in the hottest time of the day. Good training for the HH100 in late August. I rode the opposite direction on almost every street which looks different, potholes are in new places, the turns can look different (I got confused at one intersection almost making the wrong turn), scenery is backward and new. In Royal Brook which I always use the Bolt’s maps because I can’t remember which turns to make was even more strange going the opposite way. I surprised myself getting to Hueni Road through Royal Brook without making any wrong turns. Not too long after than I rode through Woodstream in the opposite direction but with not so many turns and emerged where I wanted to be. The next challenge was biking streets through Fosters Mill which I’ve only done a couple times in the other direction. I recalled a couple of landmarks and made the correct turns with the help of the Bolt computer’s map. This was not the route to ride in a daze, I had to think about the streets and turns.

Today completed my biking for the week and the month which doesn’t happen often. I biked 19.27 miles finishing the week with 233.1 miles riding every day in July. For the month the total was 1015.2 miles beating April’s 1014.9 miles just barely. Checking my logs I don’t see a year with more than 1 month at 1000+ miles. This was the 10th week in a row at 200+ miles which got me to the 1000+ miles for July. All the rides this week were less than 40 miles and the longest all month was 43.4 miles on the 18th. This put the average ride distance at 32.74 miles. for July. I’m keeping the year to date mileage close to 2021 (5,788 miles) and 2020 (5,806) numbers with 5,773 this year.

July is hot in Texas and today was no exception. Starting in the afternoon adds to the exposure to heat but it made me appreciate the moments riding in the shade more. Some salt stains again on my mostly black kit. The CamelBak ice melts some but kept the water cold until the finish. Weather conditions: start 95 (humidity 45%, dew point 70), partly cloudy, wind SE 8 mph; finish 95 (humidity 41%, dew point 68), partly cloudy, wind SE 6 mph gusts 20 mph. At times during the ride the wind felt strong but I didn’t realize it was 20 mph gusts until I saw the weather after the ride. Kingwood’s trees buffered some of the wind.

During the night I had a leg cramp and I wondered if that would affect my ride but I didn’t notice any problem thankfully. Biking Kingwood’s streets is not a high speed ride because of the stops and greenbelt twists and turns. I did manage a Strava 3rd fastest time on pool to the school (2:24) riding along Mills Branch Drive, a segment I wasn’t aware of.