July Heat With Little Breeze Bike Ride
I selected a longer route for today’s bike ride to make up for missing two days this week. The “SR242 – FM1314” route came up to 48.6 miles, the longest bike ride in July so far. I attempted to leave early but the 10:16 am start was about an hour later than I hoped for. This put in the beginning of the temperature build up for the day. The partly cloudy sky made for a good backdrop and the almost no wind meant moving was required to cool off. Temperatures ranged from 87 at the start to 95 when I finished at 2:21.
To give a flavor of the way it looked today I stopped at the Woodridge Forest Community Center and Pool and took these pictures. (Click on the images to enlarge them)
The map has the street names on it which I plan on updating Google Maps and Openstreets maps. I never can remember the names of all the new streets.
I stopped at the Chevron station on SH 242 and FM 1485 for a quick water and ice refill. It was hot and I lingered in the A/C for a minute or two before going outside and getting back on the bike. Later on FM 1314 I stopped at the Valero station at Sorters Road for a longer break to drink some Gatorade and eat some snack crackers while sitting in the somewhat cool shade. I refilled my water bottle again to get me to the finish of the ride.
For some variety I changed the route through Oakhurst turning off Briar Berry Lane onto Lavone Drive. I don’t think this changes the distance too much but I get to see some different houses.
More hot and dry weather tomorrow (Saturday) and I plan on starting earlier than today.
On Monday I emailed Bellwether about a problem I had with a pair of Endurance Gel bike shorts. The seam holding the gel pad in the shorts was unraveling. I got a quick response that the shorts were covered by the warranty and offering a quick shipment of a replacement pair if I wanted to do a “field destroy” by cutting the shorts in half and sending a picture. I had never done that before but took a pair of scissors and cut them in half. I sent the photo Monday afternoon and the contact at Bellwether said they would ship the shorts out via FedEx Ground and they arrived this afternoon. I am glad I chose Bellwether shorts and they are comfortable too. I bought 5 pair at the beginning of the year to replace older shorts.