Almost Made It Home But the Rain Got Me – July 15th Bike Ride

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I checked the radar before I started, applied sunscreen and chose the route away from the green spots on the radar. I still got rained on. Instead of the sunscreen I should have used water repellant. I almost made it back home but at the 22.5 mile point the big rain drops started. Since I was watching the dark sky get closer and closer I thought of some places I could go to for shelter when or if the rain came. Sometimes I am out in the wide open spaces but this time a shopping center was right at hand and I found a dry spot without getting more than a few drops on me. Once I was under the roof the rain came down. Not long after it started a lightening strike hit not far from where I stood followed by a very loud clap of thunder.

It looked like the rain was going to stick around awhile so I called my wife for a ride back home where it wasn’t raining. That was only 4.5 miles away on my route but enough to make a difference. As we drove back home the streets were wet almost right up to where we turned to our house. Once I was inside a few sprinkles came down but nothing like when I stopped.

As a result of stopping my average speed was 15.9 mph and max speed was 24.6 mph. Where I stopped was just before I get back into the residential area and lots of stops and starts. Now 4 hours later the sun is shining and rain is a distant memory. Tomorrow the forecast sports a 30% chance of rain. I plan to get back on the road for some serious miles. Mileage after today’s ride: 83.5 miles this week, 166.17 for July and 3479.58 YTD.


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Upcoming Events: TTF Skills Clinic and STS Flintridge

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Article category: 
General

This coming weekend GHORBA is offering two fun events, the popular Technical Trail Features (TTF) Skills Clinic and Justin P Brindley Park in Sugar Land and the final race of the STS Series at Flintridge in The Woodlands.  Space is limited for the skills clinic, currently the Beginner class at Noon has two slots remaining and the Intermediate class at noon  has five slots.  All other classes are currently full.  The STS is not capped for participants, join us for a fun day of racing and a celebration of the expansion at Flintridge.

  • For more information and to register for the upcoming Skills Clinic on 7/21, click here.
  • To register for the upcoming STS Flintridge race on 7/22, click here.
  • Current GHORBA Membership is required for both events, click here to renew.
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Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for July 14th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Lucky Man
by Steve A        DFW Point-to-Point
While few records are truly unbreakable, Cal Ripken’s MLB consecutive game streak is one that is unlikely to be broken in my lifetime. The current active leader, if he never missed a game, would need until 2027 to break it. While it might not be quite so newsworthy, Jon Grinder achieved a somewhat similar feat by bicycle commuting for over 800 consecutive work days. His last one was reported here. Interestingly, even he has concluded it was something special, as indicated by his added post, here. Personally, I agree, though it is the sort of achievement that few with options other than cycle commuting can accomplish more than once, so he better get over it.

I found his report inspiring, though I do not expect to ever come near that mark. In fact, while I’m closing in on 350 consecutive bike commutes, I really do not expect to work enough extra days before I hang up the old “engineering triangle”  to come close to Jon/Cal. Over time, I have come to…

By the numbers at the bike ride
By JOHN HAMILTON Special to the Daily Light        www.waxahachietx.com

Another successful Cow Creek Country Classic has come and gone. This is one of the two fundraisers the Rotary Club holds each year along with the flag subscription program.

People always want to know statistics.

What does it take to operate…

Erwin Park Mountain Bike Trail Training
by TexasMTBtrails
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y7V3usWvmk
This is my training ride at Erwin Park in McKinney Texas from July 11, 2012. This is the full course including the expert section, lap time of 42:38. …

Bicycle Cleaning For Dummies
by Shawn McAfee            Texas Mountain Bike Trails
Remember way back when your mountain bike was pretty and shiny and new? Come on, you remember. Before you abused it against rocks, sand and trees? No?

Well that bike is still there, just waiting to be made all pretty again. If you can’t remember back that far, then I think it’s time you did some bicycle cleaning.

Cleaning your mountain bike doesn’t have to be a complicated process, it can take you as few as 10 minutes to…

Skills Camp Coming to Austin
BetterRide            forums.mtbr.com
Want to have more fun on the trails, be more efficient and mountain bike with more confidence? Just like any other sport, to ride with skill you need proper technique. BetterRide’s team of professional coaches is dedicated to teaching riders of all levels the skills to ride in balance, in control & have more fun on their bikes!

The BetterRide structured skills progression has under gone 13 years of evolution to become the most effective mountain bike skills coaching in the US. With the help of World Champions, top coaches from other sports and 21 years of coaching experience BetterRide founder Gene Hamilton has taught his certified coaches to…

https://twitter.com/AndyOdom7/status/224194191142551552

Window of Opportunity – July 14th Bike Ride

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After all of the rain I looked for a window of opportunity to get out and ride. Checking the weather radar the rain was off in the distance except around New Caney. I wanted to go to the north for some reason and figured the rain would move out and the roads dry off enough to not be a problem. So out the door at 9:14 AM I began my ride. The streets were dry in Kingwood. As I got to Loop 494 and FM1314 the shoulders showed some dampness but not enough to splash. This changed as I got to New Caney. Riding over Caney Creek on Loop 494 the puddles hinted that the rain had not left just before I arrived. No other bicyclists crossed my path. I did notice my chain sported some rust from my one ride on Tuesday so I will need to wax it before riding on Sunday.

The mild 76 degree temperature at the start was comfortable but the 90% humidity meant sweat would be flowing freely once I got warmed up. By the end of the ride the temperature had increased to 85 degrees. The rain forecast shows 50% dropping to 30% on Monday. The light breeze did not help much.

With a shortage of miles this week I added a few extra streets to my route going north to Roman Forest Blvd. before turning back south. My route ended up at 33.64 miles. This brought my week miles up to 60.95 and July miles now total 143.62. Average speed looked like it would be less than 15 mph but I sped up and moved it up to 15.2 mph with 21.2 mph max speed. Average cadence was 78.3 RPM. YTD miles now total 3457.04. Riding time today: 2:12:30 with 9:53 time stopped.

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