Katy, Texas: October 13, 2009

My first ride was in Katy, Texas, a ride which I dearly love. Katy is a small town about 30 miles from downtown Houston. This ride is very popular with the locals throughout the area. While I do love this ride, Dec. 13, 2009, was not a great day to ride. It was cold and overcast. I waited for the fog to lift and when it didn’t look like it would, I decided there was enough visibility to keep it from being dangerous. The ride is about 41 miles long; however, my motel was about 5 miles from the starting point or 10 miles roundtrip. I was a little worried about making it through the entire 51 miles before nightfall. I kept thinking I should shorten the ride because of the gloominess that would soon make way for darkness. But I kept going and didn’t even stop for the obligatory rest stop about half way at a great convenience store which caters to cyclists. I kept riding and about 35 miles into the ride, I stopped for about 2 minutes to stretch a bit. Another rider came along and asked how I was doing and offered to give me a wheel to get me back to Katy. I told him I wouldn’t be able to keep up with him, but he said he would slow down for me. He was very insistent (in a nice way), but I declined and he took off. I thought I would try to stay up with him, but he disappeared in the distance…remember it WAS VERY OVERCAST and he was wearing black so that perhaps explains how he was able to “disappear.”

Well, I just bore down and turned it up a notch and finally I caught up with him and even passed him…or put another way, he had a flat!! I offered my assistance, but he said he was okay so I chugged along until I finally completed the course at 15.7 mph which was significantly slower than my previous rides. (I haven’t ridden much for the past several months.) I started out too fast and just plainly ran out of steam…my heart rate was a solid Zone 4!