{"id":25633,"date":"2014-09-08T17:21:50","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T22:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.texbiker.net\/blog\/?p=25633"},"modified":"2014-09-08T17:21:50","modified_gmt":"2014-09-08T22:21:50","slug":"longer-ride-on-an-infrequent-route","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.texbiker.net\/blog\/2014\/09\/08\/longer-ride-on-an-infrequent-route\/","title":{"rendered":"Longer Ride On An Infrequent Route"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last time I rode today’s route it was just over 40 miles so I was somewhat surprised when I started to realize today was going to be further coming in at 44.19 miles<\/strong>. The previous ride on the “SR242 – Firetower Rd – FM1314″ route was April 29th, 2013. When I ride on SR242 I sometimes think I should turn onto Firetower Road but don’t for some reason. Many, many years ago there used to be a firetower at the corner of FM2090 and Firetower Road but it is long gone.<\/p>\n

I started out of Kingwood on Adams St. and then parallel to US59 on Loop 494 to Roman Forest Blvd where 494 merges with the service road. At Woodbranch I turned left onto SR242 (State Highway 242 is the official designation. Where i grew up we always called them state routes.) and headed west. I passed the Grand Texas site with still no working taking place but there was a surveyor with a transit by the fence. Maybe this is a sign something is going to happen. SR242 is kinda of rolling in places but I managed to keep my speed up and build my average speed close to 16 mph. Sometimes I dipped back to 15.8 or 15.9 mph. Firewtower Road is a bout a mile long from SR242 to FM1485 and mostly smooth asphalt. I made good time staying at 18+ mph mostly. AT FM1485 I turned left to ride to Gene Campbell Road. This is a road I know well from all the rides and nothing changed today. The traffic was light on Gene Campbell and I arrived at FM1314 hot and with my water bottle needing a refill. The Texaco station just east of Gene Campbell was a quick stop to refill and wipe some sweat off. Then I resumed riding with the next stop being Stripes for a longer break with food and PowerAde. I was close to bonking but the ice water from the Texaco held it off. As I coasted across FM1314 into the Stripes gas pumps I was glad I made it.<\/p>\n

After yesterday’s late\u00c2\u00a0 afternoon rain of 1.1” the temperature today was down about 5 degrees to 89. I could feel the difference at the start of the ride but by the time I stopped at Stripes the sweat was pouring. I used a bunch of paper towels to soak it up while I ate and drank in the shade. At first the wind was moving but after a few minutes the large flag started to move and the breeze helped cool me off. As I was resting I remembered the schools in Briar Tree end at 2:45 which is earlier than last year. I was concerned about getting caught in the traffic so I left Stripes at 2:29. I made it to the schools where the buses were lined up in the school parking lot and parents were starting to gather in another area but the street was open. I made it past in good shape and rode through Auburn Trails to the US59 service road.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the northerly breeze riding south on the service road was fast hitting 20 to 21 mph most of the way to Kingwood Drive to u-turn. I had my average speed up to 16.4 mph. I made the u-turn onto the north service road, cut through Kingwood Parc to Loop 494. Loop 494 to Kings manor my average speed feel to 16.3 at 39+ miles into the ride. When I turned into Kings Manor I was stopped by the school traffic and slowly made my way past. From there to home I slowed some and my average speed dropped to 15.9 as I pulled into the driveway.<\/p>\n

Great ride on a route that was a little longer than I planned. Weather was very nice with a hint of fall, partly cloudy sky and a light 4 mph north breeze. Tomorrow the weather is forecast to warm up to 93. I got a late start today because I was watching stage 16 of the Vuelta a Espana. I left at 11:45 and got back at 3:14.<\/p>\n

Links to Garmin Connect<\/strong><\/a> and RideWithGPS<\/strong><\/a>.<\/h3>\n
\"Ride <\/a>
Ride Route Google Earth <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ride <\/a>
Ride Metrics <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Porter <\/a>
Porter Weather <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Home <\/a>
Home Weather Ride Finish <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ride <\/a>
Ride comparison for this route <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Week <\/a>
Week to date <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"September <\/a>
September to date <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Year <\/a>
Year to date <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last time I rode today’s route it was just over 40 miles so I was somewhat surprised when I started to realize today was going to be further coming in at 44.19 miles. The previous ride on the “SR242 …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22],"tags":[1350,1424,4296,4699],"class_list":["post-25633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bike-ride","tag-ride-report","tag-road","tag-sr242-firetower-rd-gene-campbell-rd-fm1314","tag-stradalli-rp-14-carbon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4tok-6Fr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texbiker.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texbiker.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texbiker.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texbiker.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texbiker.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.texbiker.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texbiker.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texbiker.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texbiker.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}