Went out on the road again today. While Texas to the north of us is supposed to get a “cool” front (temperatures in the 60’s at night) our weather continues hot. The range of temperatures while I biked: 86 to 98 at the end. Humidity dropped to 44% which is low compared to days earlier in the week. With a 11.5 mph SW breeze I could feel the heat coming in. My experience is that whenever the wind is from the west to southwest it gets hot and dry. Today was no exception. As I write this (3:03 PM) my home weather station shows 101 degrees. The sky was clear blue today. I did not notice that until I stopped in Porter for a Diet Pepsi break at The Star Stop Exxon station. One thing I did notice though was the soaked gloves. I wrung them out at the Exxon station and when I started riding after the break I made it almost 3 miles before the gloves started dripping water again. By the time I got home the perspiration flowed freely. Whenever I stood still a small puddle formed below me.
My route selection took me north to New Caney and the northwest to Gene Campbell Road before turning west and then south to Porter. From there I rode south back to Kingwood. Lately I rode a shorter version of this route but today I wanted to get a few extra miles in since I will not be able to ride Saturday and Sunday. The miles will help me prepare for the Hotter’N Hell Hundred in Wichita Falls on August 25th. Until I heard about this supposed “cool” front I expected it to be very hot at the Hotter’N Hell Hundred but maybe this coolness will stick around or come again. Many years ago I can remember the start line temperature being in the low 50’s and the high only got up the mid-80’s. I think that was the year I rode the fastest 100 miles. Now I ride shorter distances. With the route changes I plan on riding the 66 mile route.
I like this route because it does offer some long stretches without stops, places to stop for water and ice, and no dogs. The shoulders are wide on FM1485 and FM1314. The US59 service road is usually 3 lanes or more.
During the ride I noticed my left brake lever shows some damage from all of the sweat. There is a piece that sticks out when I use the inside lever that shows some rust. Also when I shift to the smaller crank ring sometimes I must move the lever two or more times. I will investigate more. The Ultegra levers are expensive to replace.
So today’s route ended up at 36.48 miles, about 3 miles longer than the shorter route. My average speed ended up at 15.0 mph but one time when I checked it showed 15.6 mph. I lost most of that when I rode in the Kingwood residential streets with all of the stops and starts. I rode a strong max speed at 24.1 mph so I had the ability. Average cadence was 78.9 RPM. This table shows my speed and time for each 5 mile section.
The 16+ mph sections were not enough to overcome the ones below that level. The column that shows the speed versus the average tells it all. Total riding time was 2:26:05 plus 40:53 time stopped.
Miles for this week: 125.55. August miles: 247.76. YTD miles: 4182.72. Link to RideWithGPS.com data and map.
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