White Oak Bayou Trail

Normally, I got around the neighborhood in the morning, but with all of the stops and intersections, sometimes getting a good workout can be a little difficult. Since I had some more time today, I took a trip over to the White Oak Bayou Trail. The total trail is over 5 miles, and you can ride from 43rd street to Antoine/West Little Work (a 3 mile distance) without any intersections. The Bayou made for decent scenery and you can quickly forget you are pretty much in the ghetto until you get to Antoine. The underpasses along the way made for some practice riding on "hills."

I certainly got the workout I wanted. It was only my 7th time out on my bike, but I decided to ride for a long distance no matter how slow I rode. I did 11.5 miles and that took me an hour. Some of that was interrupted by lights and intersections getting to and from the trail. My average pace on the trail (6 miles) was just over 13 mph and my best mile was 16.44 mph. I didn't really get out of breath, but my legs got tired. (My butt also got really sore.)

To put this in perspective, in the 2012 Woodlands Triathlon, the 90th percentile of participants in the 30-34 age group was 16.4 mph over 15 miles. So I have a looong way to go. However, it was only my 7th time, and it took about 35 times running for my standalone 5k time to be within the 90th percentile of the same triathlon athlete times for the 5k portion. I have about 30 weeks my planned triathlon, so if I can ride twice per week, that is 60 more training rides. Patience, Chris.