Weather Breaks and I Ride the Bike
The weather finally broke in my favor today. My wife and I had to drive to The Woodlands around noon and as we were driving the clouds started to break up and the temperature was in the low 70’s. While my wife was shopping in Sam Moon’s I walked over to the Bike Lane shop to browse around. It had been a couple years since I had been in. As I entered the door there were 3 Salsa Fat Bikes welcoming me. They were sharp looking but the almost $4000 price on each was enough to require some smelling salts. I walked up and down the aisles looking at the bikes. The brands were numerous and the types varied from road, MTB, comfort, single speed to cruiser. If I had to guess I think the shop had $500,000 or more of bike inventory, not counting the accessories. This visit encouraged me to get out and ride when we got home. Stopping at Arby’s in Porter for lunch we made it home around 3 PM. My wife had errand to run and I got dressed to ride.
I pushed the start button on my Garmin at 3:27 to begin the Atascocita – Walden – Huffman route. With the late start I modified the route by about 3 miles to get back home by 5:30. I ended up riding 29.34 miles and got home at 5:34 as the sun was moving behind the trees. At the beginning of the ride the wind was kicking up from the SE at 15 mph and gusting to 24 mph. As the ride progressed the wind let up some to 12 mph by the time I finished. The temperature was 78 as I started and a nice 74 at the end. It was still chilly riding across Lake Houston on FM1960. One day of 78 degrees doesn’t heat the water up. I was glad I opted for the long sleeve jersey and shorts. I saw another biker with short sleeves but I don’t know if he was going over the lake.
It’s easy to get discouraged about biking with the winter weather not letting up much. Today was the first ride since February 15th and I told my wife I was beginning to wonder if I would ride at all during March. Well today’s ride took care of that. Another cold front is supposed move through southeast Texas tomorrow late afternoon. I hope to ride before that if the rain stays away. So far my miles for the year stand at 464. That is pretty pitiful. The cold may hang around until Sunday when it could warm up but then rain. I have been putting off riding the windtrainer but this may bring it out of the closet.
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