Today’s weather did not turn out the way I expected. The rain threat vanished quickly just before 11 AM thanks to a brisk wind and the sky turned a nice blue with the temperature moving up to 76 by the time I left on my ride at 1:36 PM. The weather service issued a wind advisory of up 40 mph winds late yesterday and I wondered how hard this would make my ride. The weather at G. Bush Intercontinental Airport showed the wind from WNW at 15 mph and 28 mph gusts. There were a couple of times where the wind made pedaling very hard mostly heading into it. The worst was going up the Community Drive overpass into the wind. I rode so slow and when I stood up to apply more power my right knee protested and I sit down, went to a lower gear and crawled over the top. I had to pedal on the downhill side of the overpass  to overcome the wind.
With the warmer temperature and sun I wore a lot less today with shorts; shorts, short sleeve jersey and long sleeve jersey. I am glad I rode north and the route put in the position most of the time to enjoy the wind rather than riding into it like I would have on my south route. I rode 28.47 miles at 15.2 mph average speed. The first 5 miles generally was into the wind and on residential streets. All of the remaining 5 mile sections were at 15 mph or more except for the last 3.46 miles, again back on residential streets with a lot of stops and starts. With today’s miles February now totals 310.5, 59 miles from my goal for the month. Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com.
Tomorrow’s weather may make riding interesting with a high of 64 and a NW wind of 10 to 20 mph. This could be a decent practice for Saturday’s Gator Ride. The Baytown forecast for Saturday as of today:
The high is getting lower.
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