A week or so ago when I was riding my mountain bike I explored a new housing development. Much to my surprise I found a new way to exit Kingwood to get to US59. To validate what I found I drove it once in my Jeep. Today I decided to try the new exit on my road bike. With this new route section I put on my thinking cap to create the route to use this. The goal was to put a route together of 20 miles or more. Biking on Kingwood streets to start the ride I rode 4 miles before getting to Adams St. on the way to Loop 494. The road surface on Adams is not the smoothest with a good helping of patches and dips. No dogs ran loose to chase me like my last ride when a tiny dog chased me near Gene Campbell Road. I will use this route frequently as it gets me around some traffic and does not loop back on my return route into Kingwood.<\/p>\n
The chilly weather (63 degrees and strong 12 mph N wind with 20 mph gusts) delayed my start until 1:49. To combat this I wore two long sleeve jerseys, leg warmers, shorts, windbreaker jacket and full finger gloves. For the first 4 miles or so I felt cool but after that I was warm going into or with the wind.<\/p>\n
I ended up riding 21.25 miles<\/strong> so I met my objective but my average speed was lower than I wanted, 14.5 mph. Part of the reason was the strong north wind and the chill. I did recover some of the lost speed once I turned south from FM1314 onto Old Sorters Road. The route did not have many uninterrupted sections where I held a higher speed.<\/p>\n January miles total 179.71<\/strong> leaving 129 miles<\/strong> to reach my 309 mile<\/strong> goal for the month. I looked at riding The Texas Independence Bike Tour in Deer Park tomorrow but the overnight temperature is forecast to be 37 degrees. The 7:30 AM start time doesn’t give the sun much time to warm things up. Also a $45 day of ride registration is more than I like. On the 25th the ride in Coldspring is one I like but the long range forecast does not look good for that either (61 degree high and 40% chance of rain). Tomorrow may hit 68 towards the middle of the day and I can bike then. Sunday I have a church meeting. Monday though could be 75 degrees which will put me on the road.<\/p>\n [wppa type=”slide” album=”283″ size=”auto”][\/wppa]<\/p>\n [iframe http:\/\/connect.garmin.com:80\/activity\/embed\/431411530 470px 570px]<\/p>\n [iframe http:\/\/ridewithgps.com\/trips\/2166234\/embed 95% 700px]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"