It took commitment to get on the bike today. I ate breakfast while watching the women race in the chilly and wet Ronde de Mouscron in Belgium. If they can ride in that weather I can’t wimp out when the temperature is above my threshold of 60 degrees like I did last Saturday. I hoped the temperature would improve and the sun peek through the overcast sky for today’s bike ride. The weather forecast contained a little optimism but as the time to ride got closer I began to doubt it. When I went to change into my bike clothes the sun teased a little and I saw a tiny patch of blue sky but by the time I got back to my Cervelo Caledonia to leave the clouds covered the sun and the temperature went down a couple of degrees. I had put on a light weight long sleeve jersey to wear under a jacket but I went back and forth about changing to a heavier jersey. I decided to change into a heavier, but not thermal, long sleeve jersey and went back to leave. As I put my shoes back on the temperature went down a few tenths of a degree and I wondered if I should wear leg warmers. After more decision time I went back for the leg warmers. Now I was finally ready to leave.

Earlier I had thought about riding north to New Caney over Caney Creek but with the rain last week I read the creek was higher than usual and I didn’t want to chance taking a detour. So I switched to the Community Drive – Cumberland – Oakhurst route which doesn’t go that far north. It also is more miles which I need to get back on track to reach my 700 mile goal for April. With the clothing decided and the different route I rolled out on my Cervelo Caledonia bike at 11:44 AM.

I altered the start of the route onto streets I don’t use that often when going north. It doesn’t change the miles much but Strava didn’t find any previous rides to match. Looking SportTracks I see rides from this year and last year with the same name but varying miles. Before rides I go over in my mind the streets and roads that are part of a route. sometimes I forget some and sometimes I add some. But I assign the same route name. The list below is all of the rides with this route name.

My clothing choices turned out to be good ones. The weather at the start and finish of the ride: start 66 degrees, 75% humidity, dew point 58, overcast, wind E 6 mph; finish 65 degrees, humidity 79%, dew point 59, overcast, wind N 7 mph. The forecast said it would warm up but it actually went down, nowhere near the 72 degree forecast. I felt warm after getting the body heat moving around 15 minutes into the ride.

The legs were strong and the wind was light so I was able to get my overall average speed up to 14.2 mph on the way back to Kingwood from Cumberland. My AXS.SRAM.com ride report showed pedaling the 35×13 gears for 1:42:37 (25.6 miles) out of total moving time of 2:36:13 (35.51 miles). I finished the ride at 2:24 PM.