Heat Index Blows Past 100 Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

I was sitting at the Huffman Chevron cooling off from riding 22.8 miles on the “Atascocita South – Walden – Huffman” route up to this point. After eating a Kashi Trail Mix bar I pulled out my phone to take a screen shot of the Huffman weather conditions and check email. As I was looking at the weather page it hit me, “feels like 113 degrees”. While it was 93 degrees when I took the screen shot up until I stopped at the Chevron station I had not been too hot to be uncomfortable. The 50% humidity and 12 mph S wind kept me dried enough that sweat wasn’t a problem. I didn’t need that many paper towels to soak up the perspiration as I sat in the shade of the pump canopy. Later (4:04) when I got home my home weather station showed 97 degrees and a 112 degree heat index. Hello, summer in Texas!!

Huffman weather
Huffman weather
Home weather at the end

Home weather at the end

The ride distance totaled 34.7 miles today. I got a late start (1:09) because I watched stage 2 of the Tour de France after I got home from church. I didn’t want to wait until after the ride because I might see a spoiler on Twitter or email. I wanted to ride longer than my usual Sunday ride since I took a rest day to celebrate the 4th of July. With today’s ride I rode 215.13 miles this week. That’s two weeks in a row over 200 miles. I am at 139.87 miles for July towards my 834 mile goal. The wind hindered my speed some and I averaged 14.8 mph from 23 to 32.4 miles when it started to slow down as I rode through Kingwood to home.

Watching the Tour today I could see the impact weather has on biking. Many times the terrain comes into play but today the wind split the peloton and several contenders lost time. The terrain where I ride is much like today’s stage, flat as a pancake but sometimes windy. I am 2 to 3 times the age of the pro bikers in the tour so I have to not be so hard on myself when I cannot ride as fast as I want to.

Monday’s weather looks like more of today’s. I am watching some of stage 3 before I bike, maybe all of it depending on what time it finishes. The route for tomorrow is 40+ miles.

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Texas Bicycling News July 4th

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Cow Creek Country Classic

Pedal Pushers        roy-pedalpushers.blogspot.com


Christine ready for the 52 mile trip through the back roads around Waxahachie. They had changed the route this year somewhat as traffic in the Fort Worth/Dallas area was getting heavier.
Did the change of route worry Brian? Nope, he was ready to break last year’s record. And he set his …

Community Bicycle Co-op Program

www.texasbids.net

Bid Date & Time: 07/31/15 2:00 PM        Prebid: 07/07/15 10:00 AM
Solicitation Title: Community Bicycle Co-op Program
Owner Solic Number: 15-063, 6100006185
Status: bidding        Report: 6427485
Country : United States     State: TX    County: Bexar        Location: San Antonio
Scope: Seeks proposals from qualified Respondents interested in establishing a San Antonio Community Bicycle Co-op program for the
City’s 1115 Medicaid Waiver Neighborhood Based Physical Activity and Health Promotion Project.
Notes: Pre-Submittal Conference: City of San Antonio, Finance Department – Purchasing Division, 11th Floor Large Conference Room, 111 Soledad, San Antonio, Texas 78205 at 10:00 a.m., Central Time, on Tuesday, July 7, 2015. Written question due: July 14, 2015 2:00 PM Dana Jordan, Procurement Specialist III, email:dana.jordan@sanantonio.gov.
Plans: From Owner. See attached bid ad.
Owner Type: Public …

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

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Texas Bicycling Upcoming Event Reminder

Texas Bicycling News July 3rd

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Driveway Series | Austin, Texas | July 3, 2015

Photos © True Marmalade        texasbikeracing.com

A great night of racing, excellent turnout, and remarkably moderate temperatures for July in Texas.

Bagel Ride July 3rd

EP Cyclists

Celebrating our Independence on The Bagel Ride!!! Cycling in El Paso with EP Cyclists. . . . …o7’o

Amarillo BMX phenom ready for world stage

by Jim McBride        amarillo.com


Caleb Wall is preparing, day by day, for one of his biggest competitive challenges yet.
The Amarillo High School student recently placed second at a BMX racing competition in Albuquerque, N.M., qualifying him for the UCI World BMX Championships this month in Belgium.
His dad, Danny Wall, said Caleb, 16, races in the 16 expert category and plans to hit other races in Texas and Las Vegas before setting …

World’s Longest Charity Bike Ride Passes through La Crosse

By Jordan Fremstad        www.wxow.com


La Crosse, WI (WXOW) – Bikers from the Texas 4000 charity bike ride made a stop at Gundersen Health System Wednesday. Students from the University of Texas-Austin will travel 4,500 miles. The event is promoting the fight against cancer and raising funds for cancer research. The Texas 4000 charity is the largest charity bike ride in the world and is twice as long as the Tour de France.
University of Texas student and Texas 4000 participant Christina Pai said the ride …

Texas A&M professor bikes 3,000 miles across America to help raise money for charity

By Steve Kuhlmann        www.theeagle.com


A Texas A&M University professor has completed a 3,000-mile bicycle race after almost two weeks of nearly nonstop riding. The Race Across America, or RAAM, started June 16 in Oceanside, California, and ended Sunday in Annapolis, Maryland.
Along the way, Jose Bermudez helped Bryan-College Station Habitat for Humanity by racking up sponsorships and donations.
Bermudez — a professor of philosophy and associate provost for strategic planning at Texas A&M — said that while his motivation was largely to take on the “ultimate race” for ultra-endurance cyclists, it was an honor to use …

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Texas Bicycling Upcoming Event Reminders

Up and Over the Hill Twice Bike Ride

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Today I rode the “FM1960 to FM686 – Back” route. The weather was hot (97 at my home weather station) and the wind was from the SSE at 13 mph under a mostly cloudy sky. With the wind it didn’t feel that hot probably because the humidity was 52% instead of the 70%+ for the last several days. That didn’t keep me from perspiring though. When I stopped at the Dayton Food and Fuel store at FM686 (the turn around point) that short period (2 or 3 minutes) was enough for the sweat to pour from my arms. Once I was back riding again it dried up some until I stopped for a longer break at the Huffman Chevron.

This route is the nearest to a hill workout around here. Riding up the railroad overpass twice provides a long range view of the flat farmland. It also exposes you to the wind being 50 to 60 feet higher in the air. The hill is about 5 miles east of FM2100 in Huffman and about 2 miles east of FM686. Before the overpass was built several people were killed over the years colliding with trains. The road did not cross the tracks straight and people ignored or raced to beat the crossing arms.

While I took a 30 minute break at the Chevron I sat under the gas pump canopy with the breeze slowly cooling me down and drying my wet jersey and shorts. The Greensheet newspaper was soaked when I stood up to leave. The paper towels I rested my arms on were soaked as well. The cold Powerade was refreshing while I ate my Kashi Trail Mix Bar and whole grain apple cinnamon bar. When I stopped I was at the 29.6 mile point of what would end up being a 41.38 mile long ride. Today was the 7th time biking this route this year. Here is a summary of the rides.

7-3-2015 Route Rides Summary

Since I was biking at a 90 degree angle to the wind direction most of the time my average speed built up to 15.3 mph by the time I got to the Chevron station. It dropped while I took the break but I moved it back up until the 38 mile point where the Kingwood streets and traffic start slowing me down. I ended up averaging 15.0 mph.

With today’s ride I biked 105 miles this month. My goal is 834 miles so this is a good start. Tomorrow is Independence Day and I will probably take the day off from biking going to the Kingwood parade, watch the Tour de France, rest and eat.

Huffman weather during stop

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