The third day of mountain biking got a later start than usual (11:57 AM) so the mid-day heat arrived for this one. It was 94 when I started and 93 at the end of the ride. Humidity was a surprising 48% which is not bad for here. Yesterday I watched the Tour of Utah and they were saying the humidity was 17%. The sweat would dry almost as fast as it came out of the skin there. Here it lingers awhile, runs down your face and arms to soak the gloves and the bike. When I was growing up in Zanesville, OH, during the summer I thought it was sweltering if the temperature got in the upper 80’s. As a teenager I would dream of going to Lake Isabel where the water was cool and the hip crowd would hang out. I did not get to go too often because of the distance (9.8 miles) which seemed very far then. Now living in Texas that is a short bike ride away.
The greenbelt trails were not busy today probably because I rode during the lunch hours. I did come up two work crews cutting trees from the drought and pine bark beetle. I was thinking the work would be done by now but there are still trees with orange numbers painted on them which signals removal. One of the scenic views along the trails is a large lake (see the pictures in the gallery). On the side I ride on there are some expensive homes overlooking the lake and on the far side is one of the golf courses in Kingwood. It is always so calm and peaceful when I ride along the lake with several herrings standing on the edge or in the shallow parts. Today when I rode over one of the wooden bridges I startled a gray herring and he took off flying with a swoosh of flapping wings and some bird sounds. A white herring on the other side just looked on as I rode not far away.
Today’s route came in at 15.72 miles although Garmin Connect says I was just over 16 miles. Average speed was 12.0 mph with a 21.8 mph max speed. Average cadence was 73.2 RPM. Miles for the week total 47.25 and August miles now are 169.46. YTD I have biked 4104.43 miles. Riding time was 1:18:34 with 6:10 time stopped. See this link for the RideWithGPS.com data and map.
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