Getting out the door for today’s bike ride took more effort than usual. I received my PowerPod back from Velocomp after warranty repair and I kind of dreaded the bike ride because in the past I had to go through the “test” ride in order to get it working. I punched the start button on the Elemnt at 11:06 am after pushing the start button on the PowerPod. Within a few feet it started to report watts to the Elemnt and the “test” ride was not required.
The route for today was the “May Park Community Center – Huffman” one going south and then east. I expected to ride around 37 to 38 miles and ended up biking 39.4 miles. Sometimes on this route I add a street in Sherwood Trails Village or Bear Branch Village but with the later start today I skipped those resulting in less miles by 1 or 2 miles.
With 90 degrees, an overcast sky and light wind it was going to be a hot and humid bike ride.
As I pulled up to the traffic light at Pinehurst Trail and FM 1960 another cyclist rode up to the light and stopped. We started talking about where we were biking and he said he was just riding around testing saddle height and stuff. The light changed and we crossed FM 1960. Later I found his name was Jim Lane when parted at FM 1960 and Atascocita Shores Drive. He asked if he could ride with me since I was going a way he had not ridden before. We rode through Walden and back to Atascocita. I told him this was the scenic route back to FM 1960. At FM 1960 he went straight and I turned right on the way to May Community Center.
The ride went well with the wind making it difficult to ride east on FM 1960 to the Liberty County line. I crossed the line and made a u-turn to go to Huffman – Eastgate Road and then to May Community Center. I stopped there for water and to check a voice message on my phone. Back on the bike I rode to the Huffman Chevron for a longer break arriving at 1:15 pm after 27.8 miles into the ride. Breaking my usual ritual I bought a blue fountain PowerAde drink and sat outside under the canopy drinking and eating snack crackers. After 25 minutes I went inside to add some ice to my water bottle before leaving. As I walked the Stradalli to the driveway I looked west and saw dark clouds. Hoping I to avoid rain I headed out.
Getting closer to Lake Houston I saw oncoming traffic with their lights on but no windshield wipers moving. Maybe the dark sky wasn’t ready to let the rain loose. As I neared the west side of the lake the pavement showed signs of rain and I was glad I took the 25 minute break back in Huffman. No rain fell but as I made my way west on Atascocita Shores Drive I felt a few drops. At the pool and tennis courts it started to rain more getting me wetter if that was possible. Fortunately the rain was light unlike Wednesday’s drenching I got. It rained until I rode onto the bridge on W. Lake Houston Parkway going north where it slowed to just a few drops. By the north end of the bridge it almost stopped with a drop or two hitting me. From there to the finish at 2:33 pm I stayed dry though some streets showed signs of an earlier rain.
After the ride I hosed the Stradalli off and went inside squishing like I came out of the swimming pool. Bike rides to the south this week meant getting caught in the rain. The probability of rain tomorrow goes down from today. I plan on biking to the south and would like to not ride in the rain.
