NC.Com Crit #1

Start line with Tim giving final instructions
Front: Marsha, Morganne, Jenna, Rachel, Jess, me, AJ, Anna
Back: Cali, Kristi, Jes
Kat took this pic

Today was the first of many summer crits at Titans Stadium. Not only do I love racing, I love racing crits, so this is my favorite series. In the women's race, 15 of us lined up for the 30-minute race.

We took one lap easy and then started attacking. Pretty quickly, we cut the field in half. Eventually, we were down to 6: AJ, me, Cali, Morganne, Jess, and Jes. We raced the whole time, with frequent attacks and obligatory chasing. Then, with 4 laps to go, Cali attacked and the other ladies let her go. She stayed away, and with 1 lap to go, AJ and I were pretty sure she'd be able to solo to the win. But Jes had other plans and picked up the pace enough that we caught Cali with less than two turns to go. I really tried to not start my sprint early, in hopes that Cali might still stay away. However, Jess didn't hold back and ended up getting around both AJ and Cali and taking the win.

Sprint: Jess, AJ, Cali, me
Tim took this pic

You can always look back on a race (or anything in life) and figure out what might have been a better way to do it. When you know what the outcome is, it's easy to know what decisions to make. I would have loved to see Team Bd pull out the win tonight, and ideally to have had Cali solo in. The decisions I made to not bridge  to her and to not sprint early were made with that hope in mind. That outcome didn't happen, but I didn't know it wouldn't, so even though we didn't win, I'm happy with the decisions I made at the time. I raced my bike and had fun, and I ended up in 4th place despite holding back. Next week we will hopefully win, and this week we will learn from the race!

I don't know what we averaged or hwo many miles we rode since I forgot to stop my watch when we stopped. We were well into the low 20s for average speed, and maybe around 12 miles.

Here's all the NC.com crit blogs I've written (32 total), which is about 3 years' worth (2009, 2011, 2012).

Big Publix Trip

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a shopping trip, mainly because I haven’t made any good trips. But Friday I found some good sales at Publix and paid $45 for $90 worth of groceries (lots of real food, too, including veggies, chicken, and prepared lasagna, and also the essential TP and sandwich bags), and Saturday I found a couple things on clearance at Kroger, so here’s what I got, saving almost 50% at both Publix and Kroger.

Publix

Food (quantity)	Regular price	Sale price	Coupons	Final price
Celery (2)	2.99 (5.98)	2.69 (5.38)	--	5.38
Broccoli	2.99	2.50	--	2.50
Cauliflower	2.99	2.50	--	2.50
Carrots	1.89	--	--	1.89
Bananas	0.59/lb (2.47 lb)	--	--	1.46
Publix zip-top bags (2)	1.59 1.93	-- --	-- --	3.52
Cottonelle TP	9.19	6.49	$1/1 MQ	5.49
Breyers ice cream (2)	4.99 (9.98)	2.49 (4.99)	2 x $1/1 PQ	2.99
Motts Snack and Go applesauce (2)	2.79 (5.58)	2.00 (4.00)	2 x $1.10/1 MQ	1.80
Stouffers meals (2)	6.99 (13.98)	3.99 (7.98)	2 x $1.50/1 MQ	4.98
Barber chicken	13.99	9.99	$1/1 MQ	8.99
Santitas chips	2.00	--	--	2.00
Hershey’s Simple Pleasures	3.69	1.85	$1.50/1 MQ	0.35
Publix whole sub combo	9.09	7.49	$2/1 PQ	5.49
Green Giant veggies (2)	2.59 (5.18)	1.29 (2.59)	2 x $1/1 PQ	0.59
Extra Qs	--	--	$5/$50 Kroger CQ $1/1 Produce PQ $1/1 Deli PQ $2/$10 Produce CQ –9.00	49.90
Totals	90.05	63.17	8.70 MQ 8.00 PQ 7.00 CQ –23.70	40.90 + 4.49 tax 45.39 (saved $44.66 or 49%)

Kroger

Food (quantity)	Regular price	Sale price	Coupons	Final price
PowerBars (10)	1.00 (10.00)	0.49 (4.90)	2 x $1/5 MQ	2.90
Kroger pint ice cream	2.19	1.25	$0.40/1 MQ	0.85
Kroger sweet peppers	5.99	3.49	--	3.49
Tortilla chips	2.69	--	--	2.69
Kroger cookie cake	10.99	4.99	--	4.99
Coke 6-pack	3.99	2.00	--	2.00
Donuts (2)	0.65 (1.29)	--	--	1.29
Totals (17)	37.14	20.61	–2.40	18.21 + 1.65 tax 19.86 (saved $18.93 or 49%)

Weekend Rides and Pics

Shelly, me, Emma, Kiki, and Catherine at
Granite City Food and Brewery in Franklin

Friday: 7-mile run + 1.5-mile walk. Trip to Publix and Kroger (details to come). Aunt Renee's party (and a late night!). Friday’s 7-mile run was rainy and beautiful. My average (including 4 minutes of walking at the beginning and a 2-minute bathroom break) was 8:33 min/mile. Omitting those, my average was 8:14. That’s closer to where I need to be, but I still have a little work to do to get my endurance and pace up. However, considering I’m running on average once or less per week, I’ll take what I can get.

Friday run

Saturday: 25-mile hilly ride. Catherine's and Ashly's birthday celebration. Saturday I rode up and down and up and down to try to get in some good climbing. In my 25-mile ride, I was never more than about 6 miles from my house and I climbed (according to my Garmin) 3245’. Here was my order of ascent: South Berry’s Chapel, Lynnwood, North Berry’s Chapel, Holly Tree Gap, Sawyer, Lynnwood, North Berry’s Chapel, South Berry’s Chapel. I never went up the same side twice, and I never descended the same road twice. The only thing I went up/down consecutively was North Berry’s Chapel the last time, when I went down toward Farmington and then turned around and came back up to Lynnwood. I did miss a few climbs (like the other side of Holly Tree Gap and both sides of Manley), but it was a great ride for today. Even despite the fact that my average speed was 14 mph (but my max was 44.5, so I did go fast at least a few times!).

Saturday ride with grades

Sat ride with elevation and climbs

Me, Kiki, and Catherine

Sunday: Team ride. Pool time!

Sunday ride

My list...I did all but one thing. Success!

Weekly Recap

Monday I ran 5 miles and walked 1 because it was beautiful outside. Not so much a rest day, but definitely fun. Plus I ran well and felt good.

Tuesday I rode my bike home from work and then joined the HBC crew for a couple miles. Any time I can get in 40 miles on a weekday is a good day.

Wednesday I rode my bike to work and then walked at lunch. We also had a team photo shoot.

Thursday I joined Catherine at Endeavor Performance for a testing session. I wasn't her first choice for competition, but I certainly made her work hard, and she make me work even harder! My 13:21 and 244W finish was very close to my best result yet, but it was definitely not an all-out effort. I'm not sure why that is. I definitely worked hard and never let up, but the feeling when I finished was nowhere CLOSE to the feeling I had back in March (when after the test I laid down on the floor for 5 minutes, curled up in a ball, because I had spent everything I had and didn't have the energy to even sit up). On the plus side, going in I felt like I was in the worst May shape ever, but obviously that isn't true.

Here are all my test results:

Date	Test Number	Completion Time	Average Watts
May 16, 2013	TT #11	13:21	244 watts
March 5, 2013	TT #11a TT #11b	13:44 13:19	227 watts 246 watts
February 23, 2013	TT #10a TT #10b	13:30 (6 mi: 16:45)	238 watts 239 watts
January 10, 2013	TT #9b	13:50	223 watts
January 8, 2013	TT #9a	14:04	213 watts
March 29, 2012	TT #8b (tempo)	13:50 (tempo)	220 watts (tempo)
March 27, 2012	TT #8a (tempo)	14:01 (tempo)	212 watts (tempo)
January 26, 2012	TT #7	13:46	226 watts
January 24, 2012	TT #6	13:43	228 watts
May 4, 2011	TT #5	13:37	237 watts
March 3, 2011	TT #4b (tempo)	14:26 (tempo)	202 watts (tempo)
March 1, 2011	TT #4a	13:38	229 watts
January 6, 2011	TT #3b (tempo)	14:58 (tempo)	185 watts (tempo)
January 4, 2011	TT #3a	14:06	217 watts
March 25, 2010	TT #2	13:56	223 watts
January 28, 2010	TT #1	14:22	208 watts

Friday is Aunt Renee's annual Amber Nest party, which I will help serve at after a good ride/run. I finished reading the book Though My Eyes Friday morning. This is a great book. I never realized how big of a deal football is. It's a big deal. I enjoyed reading author Tim Tebow's recollections of his games and season through the end of his first year in the NFL. But what I enjoyed more was seeing how he does everything he does for the glory of God. Win, lose, or draw, God is there and He is in control.

I also got an early birthday present from my sisters:

It's huge. I threw the Sharpie in there for perspective.

Berry Peddler RR Recap

It's still a little wet here so not styled yet,
but it's definitely short!

Friday I got my hair cut and am donating the ponytail (13 inches!) to Locks of Love.

13" cut off!

My head feels so much lighter now! Then I went to Lauren's dance recital and enjoyed watching all the different-aged kids perform and worship. I thought I'd know a few from children's church, but I knew only Lauren. Still enjoyed it though.

Saturday we headed to Dayton, TN, for the Berry Peddler RR. The race is 32 miles long with a 4.5-mile climb beginning around mile 6.5. My goal was to start the climb before everyone else, so I attacked 0.1 miles in. Unfortunately for me, no one came with me and I was able to stay away for only about 4.5 miles before I got caught by the field, which meant that I started with everyone else. And it didn't take long before I was by myself, which is how I stayed for the rest of the race. Well, except for around 10K to go when I got caught by a group of Cat 5 men who didn't have a moto official with them. I slid into the back of their group for a 4-mile draft until the moto official came back and we got close to the finish line.

I could see one girl ahead of me nearly the entire time, and she knew I was behind her. But we were going at pretty close to the same pace, so I never caught her. It did help motivate me to keep racing my bike, though! I don't know how far behind the leaders I was time-wise, but I finished 16/24 overall and 8/8 P/1/2. It's about what I expected, though I always hope for better. Team Belladium didn't finish nearly as well as we'd hoped, either, so it was kind of a disappointing race for everyone.

It was pretty similar to last year's race for me, and I thought it had been faster, but I was by myself for more miles this year than last year, so I guess I'm OK with it. I wish I still had all the data so I could see whether the climb was different.

2013 RR Stats: 31.17 miles, 1:50:56, 17.0 mph (36.4 max), HR data is on my laptop
2012 RR Stats: 31.26 miles, 1:50:15, 17.1 mph (36.3 max), 169 bpm (192 max), 3643’ ascent, 2487’ descent

Sunday we got in a great ride. I was definitely tired from Saturday, but we rode pretty steady while still working hard. Plus we had some good chat time--always fun!

After our team ride, I headed to the family's house for some yard work and cooking. It ended up being a beautiful day, so we also set up the net and played some badminton. Lauren and I made supper (with a contribution from Bennett, supervision by ARenee, and grilling by UJohn), and it was good enough that we ate it all!

20 minutes of every day are spent here...
Proper care and feeding of the Leaf :-)

New Leaf

Caleb wanted in on the leaf fun

My new car!

I replaced my 10-year-old PT Cruiser with a brand new Nissan Leaf this weekend. Woot! So far, one day in, I am loving it :-) It will be an adventure, figuring out where and when to charge it and learning its limitations. But I'm still pretty excited. No gas? Yes, please!

Girls on the Run 5K and TN State TT Recaps

Team post-race -- Amanda, Kiki, Anna, Shelly, Kailin, Cali

It was a rainy weekend. Saturday was the Girls on the Run 5K; Kaiya and I ran a 26:35, almost 5 minutes faster than our practice 5K a couple weeks ago (April 8; 31:15).

Girls on the run 5K -- Kaiya and me

Then, after I got a ton of stuff done at my house, we headed to Chattanooga. We pre-rode the TT course, had a good dinner, and tried to sleep.

Sunday was another cold, rainy day, but we set out to do our thing: 30K on the TT bikes. My time was 55:22, good enough for 5th place in the P/1/2 field. It was a strong field, and I am happy with top 5! My girls obviously did well too, as you can see in the pictures!

Cat 3 podium -- Anna in 3rd

Cat 4 podium -- Kiki in 2nd

Masters podium -- Cali in 1st

Merckx women podium -- Shelly in 1st

P/1/2 podium -- Amanda in 3rd