I did two this weekend.
With my training buddy of course, as I wouldn't have done this route without him I don't think.
Too freaking scary/high traffic.
A friend of our's was having his bday party in Tampa at his apartment. I figured it would be a GREAT opportunity to ride at the perfect time here in the Tampa Bay Area. When it's dark (no sun exposure), cooler, and a bit less humid.
And yea, those factors were fine..and made the ride great.
However, the route on a Saturday night?? Was a bit terrifying in sections on the way to Tampa. Not so bad (interestingly enough) on the way back.
We left my house at 10pm (in Largo) and headed to the BaySide Bridge. That was ok. Bayside Bridge, the wind pushed it to our destination, which I am thankful for since the ride OVER the COURTNEY CAMPBELL CAUSEWAY was into a headwind, coming from the Southwest with gusts.
Lucky for us, there's a side road on a majority of that bridge, where people go to fish, enjoy the water, and on Saturday night meet up for motorcycle races on the actual bridge, and cars as well. It's basically a service road, but I learned it's a huge place for people to hang out with on a Saturday night. And why not? It's a pretty view of the Tampa Bay Area.
The Service Road was not the problem. We thought that leaving at 10pm would be the perfect lull time..and late enough where most people were at their destination for their drinking/Saturday night fun.
That was/is not the case. I completely forgot about the people that wait until 10pm to head to Tampa/Ybor for drinking.
Now, traffic doesn't bother us so much. We're used to that. However, the median to get over the two humps on the bridge, are no where near as big as the Gandy Bridge. So going over that hump with only oh..about 30 feet?? Or less, maybe a little more?? As a Median was terrifying. My ride buddy was worried as I usually am behind him and he couldn't tell where my headlight was and where the cars headlights were (checking on me as you do with a buddy system).
When that hump was over, we promptly got back on the service road..and battled the headwind, cursing it at this point. But at least we were in Tampa by then. Tampa has provided a new service road called Bayfront or something. Which takes us to a small trail to avoid traffic and to get us to Memorial Drive. ..which worked out perfectly. Memorial we stayed on the sidewalk for all of a mile (maybe less) then turned to our friends house.
The party was great. No drinking, but who the hell needs to. And it was great to see everyone in Tampa as I hadn't seem them in a few months.
The ride back we were dreading. Bars get out here about 3am..so we knew we needed to get on the road before that, so as not to deal with more terrible traffic. It was agreed that we would stop if it got to be too much with the traffic..and just enjoy the view from the Causway of Tampa Bay.
We left the party in the hour of two (I think it was closer to three) and we were both dreading it.
We should not have.
It was the best ride I have been on in awhile.
We learned that the other side of Courtney Campbell's bridge (the side heading towards Pinellas)'s service road is actually longer, bigger, and easier to get to.
Traffic was practically nothing compared to everyone getting to Tampa earlier. We were able to cross the largest hump with little or not effort..and only about 3 cars passed us while we were doing so.
And the headwind we dealt with, became a tailwind. We were flying.
It was fun! It was enjoyable, it was nothing dreading about it.
Now, getting back on the Bayside Bridge was a little much for me. We had a headwind there as on the way there, we did not. My legs had had enough of tailwind, but at the same time I needed the training.
And the fact that we can cut through a neighborhood (as we can use the exit near my old job whereas it's harder to do that on the way to the party) helped immensely.
Got home about 4am, little or no traffic. Tired, but felt accomplished.
And got the milage for the day I needed to get done.
40 miles total for the ride.
I also figured out how to get myself to sleep in...by doing night rides obviously. Only downfall is that I missed out on Lenny's in the morning, woke up too late and it would have been too busy at that point in time. Went somewhere else for Brunch and it was still delicious of course, but I had my heart set on FRENCH TOAST. :D
But this has caused a new...craving in me.
I loved how I felt on the bike late at night, I loved how it looked outside, I loved how energized I felt and how I wanted to keep going ...that feeling that doesn't happen too often during the day as the heat, humidity and sun just get to you on the bike, and can make it brutal in this area.
So I think, I am going to start riding at night now...one night a weekend instead of focusing all my attention's to early morning rides.
And then, that will also enable me to sleep in on a weekend as well. :)
