50 early and alone

50mi. I could have guessed today’s ride would be different… While driving to the park, it was dark at 6:20am? How would a group be starting at 6:30 I though. I arrived to a mostly empty parking lot. I knew Suzanne M. and Rick were going to the Key Biscayne Triathlon, maybe they took Sal and Suzanne with them? I saw some of the beginner tri group people, they looked to leave at 6:30. It was getting some bit lighter out but still too dark to wear sunglasses. I found Steve B., he said there would still be a 6:45am ride, but with time running out and no crowd of people, I decided to go solo and head to Sandsprit Park. There was a slight west-southwest breeze, that probably helped me a little on the ride up. I noticed a few things about today’s solo jaunt… When you ride alone, you don’t slow over the bridges, you don’t stop at Bridge Road, you don’t mosey through Port Salerno making sure everyone gets through the circles and traffic lights. And the stopover at the turnaround is shorter with no socialization going on. I chose to ride up Dixie Highway instead of Gomez Road, I could just point forward, lower my head, and keep pace. When I got to the turnaround my avg speed was 20.7. I rode back into the offset wind, taking Dixie highway to US-1 and onto the rolling hills.  I got lazy once I hit Indiantown Road and A1-A – riding up in the bars and only going 18-19 mph. My finish average was 20.2. Ok but not a total effort. Sal, Steve and Suzanne rode the same route with an average speed of 20.7.