As I was getting dressed to ride I laid out the route in my mind. It was a little cooler than the last few days so I donned a long sleeve jersey and then a short sleeve over that. It wasn’t quite cool enough for leg warmers so I wore shorts. I loaded the Stradalli in the Jeep and headed for Brookshire Brothers in New Caney. At home my weather station showed 76 degrees and the Jeep showed 70 at first and then edged up to 71. While I was driving on US59 the Jeep thermometer started to go down settling at 68 when I reached New Caney. I had not dressed for that temperature and to top it off the wind was brisk. I added my riding gear and put the wheels on the Stradalli and felt chilled.
The route in my mind was FM1485 west to FM3083 to Grangerland. In Grangerland I would ride east on FM2090 to US59 and then south to New Caney. Riding on FM1485 before I was warmed up I started to think of how to shorten the route and stay warm. It took about 20 minutes of riding for me to get warmed up on the inside. The wind kept blowing from the NE which seemed to be a headwind all the time. When I got to SH 242 I was tempted to take a right and ride to US59 but stuck with my original route going on FM1485. At the FM1485 and FM3083 intersection I stopped at the Valero store to check my rear wheel alignment. On the last ride I didn’t have the quick release tight enough for the first 11 miles and it rubbed the inside of the left chainstay until I corrected that. Today it was tight and no rubbing. After a few minutes I decided to not ride to Grangerland on FM3083 but to take FM1485 north to FM2090 to ride to Splendora. This shortened the route by about 4 miles.
Once I was on FM2090 the wind was from the left front quarter, not a direct headwind. There are a lot of trees along FM2090 which helped to break the wind up some. I managed to up my average speed while riding to Splendora even with the wind. I was on the right shoulder and with my recent dog sprint epidemic I watched each driveway for a potential dog. It went well until I was east of Splendora High School around the 18 mile point when I must have let my guard down. A large brown dog came charging out of a driveway chasing me on the right. He matched my speed and I started yelling at him. I don’t think my yelling had much effect but after several hundred yards he slowed to a stop. After this latest dog sprint I thought of what I should do. Several things came to mind: cattle prod, paint gun, pepper spray. Each of these has pluses and minuses. My favorite is the cattle prod. I have had a run in with one of these when I was a teenager and it has stuck in my mind. Maybe the dog would remember his run in and leave me alone.
Originally I thought my route would be close to 30 miles but with the changes I made it ended up at 25.67 miles. Today was one of those rare rides that ends with a nice tailwind. When I turned right onto the southbound US59 service road in Splendora my average speed was 15.9 mph. With the help of the tailwind I raised that to 16.2 mph by the time I got to New Caney. After waiting at the FM1485/US59 stop light it dropped to the final average speed of 16.1 mph. Not bad considering the chilly wind and the time it took to get that speed. It felt like it took less effort to ride at 20+ mph from Splendora than riding 16+ mph into the wind.
The weather screenshots from New Caney.
Tomorrow is Easter and I will take the day off. The weather looks iffy again too. We may go to my brother-in-law’s for a family and friends get together in Splendora. Way too much food and lots of talking.
Mileage standings: 171.81 miles for the week, 101.03 miles in April, 1111 miles so far this year.
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