Team Belladium Training Camp

At the top of the third climb Saturday
Lisa, Jonell, Shelly, Catherine, me, Parri
Anna, Valerie
Kat, Lee, Todd, Cali, Lisa

This weekend's team activity was a blast. We headed to Blue Ridge, Georgia to climb in the mountains and get some other good training miles in. I had so much fun and rode better than I expected to. Well, I didn't know how well I'd ride, I'd just determined to ride my best and have fun. And my best was WAY BETTER than what it had been last year. Very encouraging!

We did a couple of the same climbs we'd done the last couple years (Team Belladium in 2010 and Harpeth Team in 2009), climbing Woody Gap, Neel Gap, and Wolf Pen Gap on Saturday and including Skeenah Gap in our route Sunday.

Friday, we arrived at our cabins and went out for a short ride, arriving back just before the rain came. We did a little out-and-back route form the cabin and mostly stayed together. 53:52, 14.5 miles, 16.1 avg (41 max), 154 HR (188 max). After the ride and good pizza for dinner, we had a team meeting to discuss mental training.

Supper Friday...yummy pizza!

Saturday, we left pretty early to drive to the start of our ride. After a very short warm up, we started the first climb. We all climbed as we could, and then we regrouped at the top. Then we all descended as we could and regrouped at the bottom. We'd stay together until the start of the next climb and repeat. With 15 riders, that was a good way to do it. We could all work hard, but there was no pressure to be first or not last. However, Todd did give us a little incentive to reach the top first.

At the top of the first climb Saturday

Even though I knew I'd never be the first up, the incentive motivated me to keep working harder. 2:55:12, 41.8 miles, 14.3 avg (46.8 max), 148 HR (242 max hah!). I missed part of a descent, so we probably rode more like 43 miles and 3 hours. Regardless, it was a long, hard morning!

Ice bath in the river :-)

The team activity for the night was discussing team and personal goals.

Working on goals

 Getting ready to roll on Sunday

Sunday, we left early again and thankfully had sun to warm us, because it wasn't warm out! We had a short drive to our loop route, during which we all stayed together for about 45 minutes, played for about 30, chased for about 30, then finished together. It was so much fun being able to play, chase, accelerate, recover, and repeat. 1:58:39, 34.35 miles, 17.4 avg (41.8 max), 149 HR (184 max).

And, rolling. It was cold!