Congrats on your first century!
I rode the Honeysuckle also. I think I was in that fast pack...were we polite? I hope so! We had two fast tandems in the group(I was on one of them), so it's hard *not* to do a sub-5 hour century with that kind of company(drafting a tandem is kind of like drafting a bus, as I'm sure you discovered!).

What I do to recover: I am an "endurance junkie". 12/24 hour races, all day epics, 50-mile trail runs are my kinda fun. I take a Tums(calcium), take an E , take a C, rinse my legs in cold water. Drink a glass of red wine(it helps me sleep and my cardiologist said it was A- ok). The day after an event I am sure to go out and do an easy (and I mean eeeeezzzzz) spin.

If you are in the area, we do a women's road ride on Thursday evenings(NOT at 25 mph ). Shoot me a PM if interested.