My bike ride plans for Labor Day got washed away but not today. I delayed the start to give the clouds time to move away and to watch stage 10 of the Vuelta a Espana. At 11:50 am I pulled away to bike the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route with the sky filled with mostly white clouds but some gray ones on the horizon. I hoped I could complete this bike ride without getting rained on. I bicycled 34.57 miles enough to push the September total to 76.67 miles, 11% of my goal of 700 miles. Now that the daylight is getting shorter and fall is only 17 days away this month’s goal is not ambitious as August.
Weather during the bike ride: start 85 (78% humidity), mostly cloudy, wind E 9 mph. Finish 88 (68% humidity), mostly cloudy, wind E 12 mph. The higher humidity was evident and caused me to produce lots of sweat. For the first couple of miles I didn’t notice how warm it was but once I started heating up the higher humidity worked against the cooling flow of perspiration.
The ride went as planned though I battled the wind whenever I was out in the open and riding to the east. This was most noticeable crossing Lake Houston on FM 1960. There was a brief encounter with light rain on FM 2100 for about 1/2 a mile while I was riding in sunshine which is always kind of strange.
At the Huffman Chevron I refilled water and ice for the 11+ miles to the finish. I was there about 5 minutes. Biking west on FM 1960 was definitely easier than going the opposite direction. I improved my overall average speed to 14.1 mph.
With the late start I was concerned about getting to Kingwood Drive when Kingwood High School traffic let loose but I crossed 30 minutes before that time. With some dark clouds gathered to the west as I rode through Kingwood I finished the ride at 2:27 pm without getting rained on.
Wednesday the chance of rain drops below 50% so a bike ride should take place.
SportTracks Bike Ride Summary
