Another summer like day in southeast Texas, just right for biking. The ride started at 12:08 as I rolled out the driveway with 80 degrees, partly cloudy skies and a light breeze of 3.5 mph. A great beginning for November I just hope it hangs around longer. with daylight savings time ending Sunday morning the evening sun will disappear quickly so I will need to start my rides a little earlier. No need for a long sleeve jersey today. In fact the sun called for sunscreen. when I pulled into the driveway at 2:17 the temperature showed 86 degrees with 43% humidity. With this level of humidity I thought I would perspire more but the wrist bands were barely damp and my bandana was not dripping. No rain in the forecast for several days out. Tomorrow is an off day with a trip to the Texas Medical Center with my wife.

After going south yesterday I thought the opposite direction offered some variation in the scenery. So I went up US59 to New Caney then north on FM1485 turning left onto Gene Campbell road past the giant WalMart Distribution center. Before WalMart build here this road did not exist and now several companies located nearby. There must be some expansion ahead because the water utility spent all summer putting in water mains along Gene Campbell Road. Today a man walked in the construction area throwing out what looked like deer corn. Not sure what the purpose was.

My Garmin Edge (Garmin Connect agreed) reported an even 33.0 miles (SportTracks says 32.93 miles and RideWithGPS calculated 33.0) for the route. This moves me closer to the 6000 mile mark for the year. I checked my average speed at 26 miles and saw 16.3 mph. I kept most of that with the final average speed of 16.0 mph. My max speed hit 21.3 mph with 81.0 RPM average cadence. With this nice average speed the riding time was a little lower at 2:03:30 plus 5:34 time stopped. The time window was close today so no stopping except for traffic lights and one convenience store to blow my nose.  I sneezed in New Caney and my nose would not quite running despite the warm weather. So I stopped at the Texaco station on FM1314 just after I turned from Gene Campbell Road. I tired another store back in New Caney but they did not have any towels at the pumps. This helped me keep a high tempo all the way to Old Sorters Road and thus the 16.0 mph average speed

Riding through the Briar Tree subdivision I changed my normal route by turning left on West Wallis Drive and going to the southbound US59 service road. This avoids a number of stop signs which slow me down and lowers the average speed. All of the 5 mile splits were 14.3 mph or faster with 3 at 16.0 + mph and 1 at 17.0 + mph. This table shows the time and distance I rode in different speed zones. Notice how much time I rode in Zone 3.

With a new month today’s ride mileage is all there is so far. The week’s mileage totals 83.62 and 5973.16 miles YTD. Some October monthly statistics: riding time 41:31:16, 3:45 pace per mile, 79.4 RPM average cadence, 15.5 mph average speed, 19 riding days.

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