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 :-)