I forgot to mention yesterday that I encountered a patch of swamp flies (aka love bugs) shortly after I turned onto FM1314 from SR242. These little black flying bugs can be a nuisance if there are enough of them. Thankfully they only lasted for a few hundred yards until I rode out of them. Today I came upon another batch of them on Smith Road east of FM2100. They were few in number but a little more of a pest today. I almost forgot about these bugs this year since the weather seemed to keep them down. I suspect last year’s drought probably helped to keep them in check if their name has any true meaning. Not many swamps kept their water last year. This year with the increase in rain the swamps filled up and I guess the swamp flies came back to life. So far I have not seen any trucks or cars with the front covered in black bugs. Along with the flies I saw a couple of other riders going the opposite direction.
The cooler weather continued today with 79 degrees as I left home to start the ride at 9:47. It got up to 89 by 12:04 when I finished. I could feel a coolness in the air especially when I rode in the shade. Once I got heated up though the cool was a distant memory. The blue sky looked good and the light 6.9 mph breeze was appreciated though not very cooling. According to the weatherman the temperatures will probably inch upward the rest of the week. The weather forecast in Wichita Falls for Saturday is 90/72 with partly cloudy sky. This will be a pleasant ride if that sticks.
Today I took my south/southeast route to Huffman. The mileage was less than yesterday totaling 33.55 miles at 15.2 mph average speed. I wanted to go a shorter route today for a recovery day and then plan for a 40+ mile ride tomorrow. Today’s max speed was 21.1 mph and a 78.8 RPM average cadence. I did not push it hard today but I did skip the rest stop I normally take on this ride. Riding time was 2:12:11 plus 4:45 time stopped for traffic lights and such. This week’s mileage totals 76.62, August miles are 493.81 and 4428.77 miles YTD. Zone 3 time and distance was 65.4%, down from yesterday’s 76.4%. See today’s ride data at RideWithGPS.com.
Construction continues on the causeway over Lake Houston on FM1960. East and west bound shoulders have work with the east bound section being shorter with just big plastic markers versus the concrete on the west bound shoulder. Supposedly the work will finish by the end of August.
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