Sometimes planning the ride route or at least thinking of it requires some mental exercise. After living in the same house for 23+ years figuring out a different route can mean changing a couple of streets or roads. Today I varied a couple of streets before crossing over Lake Houston going to the east. Lately when I ride what I call the “Stroker Road – Huffman” route I go south on FM2100 to Stroker Road and then head back to FM2100 through the grass farms. Today I reversed the direction and stayed on Old Atascocita Road to Ramsey Road and on to Stroker Road to FM2100. I don’t know if that direction was the easiest though. The wind going east on Old Atascocita Road from FM2100 to Ramsey Road was brutal. At first there were some trees and scrawny brush on my right hand side to offer some protection from the wind. Next those gave way to a dirt ridge about 10 feet tall that lasted about 300 yards. That provided some relief but I wasn’t prepared to hit the open grass fields where I was the tallest thing around. The wind was unrelenting and I held on to the handlebars to keep going straight. The gusts would try to move me to the left and I would turn back to the right trying to stay about 2 feet from the right edge of the road. When I started the ride at 1:07 the weather showed a SSE wind at 18 mph with 26 mph gusts. I think the wind was stronger than that. By the time I got back home the wind was from the south at 16 mph with 24 mpg gusts.
When I turned to the south on Ramsey Road I got some relief from the side pressure and now had to pedal into the headwind. My speed was no more than 13 mph until the intersection with Peters Road where I turned right. Now the wind was from my left rear quarter and I got a boost instead of resistance. It didn’t last too long when Peters Road turned south for a short stretch to Stroker Road. The south Peters Road has a few trees on both sides and they held the wind back some. Once I was on Stroker Road going west the wind again came from my left rear and I sped to FM2100 to enjoy the tailwind going north to Huffman. I looked at the Garmin a couple of times on FM2100 to check my speed; 21.8 mph. The pedaling effort was much less. I was thinking of changing to the big ring up front but stayed in the 34 front and 9th position rear gear.
I stopped at the Huffman Chevron to regroup. At that point I was 27+ miles into what would end up being a 39.21 mile ride. The sky was cloudy with the sun coming through occasionally. I was glad I wore a long sleeve jersey to counter the wind. (The temperature was 84 when I got home) I ate two Kashi bars and drank a almost Diet Orange Crush. Just as I finished a woman walked towards me and the pumps. She said she wanted to see the wheels on my Stradalli. She thought they looked sharp and told me she rode on Zipp wheels. We talked about the wind affect when riding those type of wheels and I told her how hard it was on Old Atascocita Road. She walked back to her car and I got some ice for my water bottle before heading home on the last 11 miles or so.
To add some variety to the route when I got to Kingwood Greens Drive where I normally turn left I stayed on W. Lake Houston Parkway and turned right onto a side street and then the trail parallel to W. Lake Houston Parkway.
April miles moved up to 363.11, with 414.89 left to reach April’s goal. For the week so far I rode 209.01 miles and year to date 1623 miles.
The weather forecast for tomorrow (Palm Sunday) shows a 50% chance of rain but it was 80% earlier. I have biked 6 days this week so tomorrow may be a rest day.
Link to RideWithGPS map and metrics.
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