Well, it was bound to happen.
I guess this makes me a real road warrior, now.
Yup, I've finally broken the seal and had a full-speed bike wreck.
You might remember a month or so ago when I first started training for Tahoe.  I embarrassed myself with a static (i.e. standing still) fall.  I had a few bumps and bruises - mostly to my ego.  Since then, we have been getting progressively faster and stronger.  We have been growing closer as a team and trusting each other.  On our last day at the training grounds (way out west in horse country), Bryan set us up for our first "time trial".  This is just you against the clock for whatever the course is - ours was set up to be just under 3.5 miles.   It was fun, and I averaged over 19 mph for this time trial.  I was pretty excited, especially because I am still on old blue Schwinn - I swear that bike must weigh 35 lbs!


Here's me struggling up Water Tower Hill. 
That's Coach Bryan in the lead

 After saying goodbye to our training grounds (sniff-sniff), we moved back out to the roads to get some serious miles in.  Two weeks ago, we rode from Jupiter, up to Hobe Sound, FL - roughly 30 miles round trip.  However, because we need to start getting some hills in (and good luck finding those in South FL), Bryan detoured us a few miles to a little place called "water tower."  This is basically a very long driveway with a very steep hill.  We were supposed to climb it 10 times, I managed 8 and called it a good effort.  We then rode home into a 25mph headwind (whoo!).

Just when we were all feeling pretty good, Bryan had to remind us about the 8 mile climb in Tahoe (gee, thanks) and how that's like doing about 100 water towers back to back.  Sigh...

That brings us to last weekend.  Saturday's ride was actually turning out to be great.  It started out cold (50's) with a 15 mph or so wind out of the North.  We ride north to start, so we struggled, but knew that we'd have an easy ride home with that wind at our backs.  Bryan (of course) detoured us to the Lake Worth Bridge and made us go over it 4 times, and told us we would be going over it 10 times on the way home.  Hey, it's South Florida - we've got to get our "hills" in where we can.  We made it 17 miles to the turn around point at the Lake Worth Inlet, and stopped to regroup and fuel with enery gels, sport drinks, water, whatever.. It was time to head home.  The wind was at our backs, yay! 
We were averaging around 19-20 mph and feeling good, joking around, maintaining a tight pace line, we even picked up a rider who was out there by himself and decided to draft us for a while.
And then, I heard it, and had just enough time to see the bike in front of me go down and think "NO!"
And that was it.
The next thing I knew, I was sitting on the grass looking in our Team Mentor's face - Kristen looked really scared and she was asking me if I was ok. 
I thought about it.
My head hurt - a lot. But, I didn't appear to have any broken bones, and I was concious, so yes, I was ok.


Remember this the next time you are
tempted to ride without a helmet.



We were all really shaken up.  Of our pace line of 5 (plus a hitchhiker), three of us had wrecked.  The hitchhiker stopped long enough to make sure we were okay, and then quickly got out of there - probably counting his lucky stars that he was at the very back of that pileup and had enough time to avoid it.  I don't think he'll be tagging onto another pace line anytime soon!

Upon further inspection, I was pretty banged up, and my helmet was cracked clear through.  Yup.  I hit my head hard enough to CRACK MY HELMET.  The egg on my head went down today (day four), and I don't think I've lost that many brain cells, but you never know...
I have one more picture I could post - but in the interest of not grossing you all out, I will refrain.  Despite wearing long sleeves, and long pants, I still managed to lose many layers of skin, in several different areas.  I'm not sure what I hit my hip on, but it looks like I was beaten with a baseball bat. 
Hmm, maybe I should post that picture.  Something like that is sure to get me some sympathy donations, right?  Plus it is pretty risque (well, sort of).  I'll have to think about it...
Coach Bryan did actually post a picture of my hip (and some other parts of my anatomy) on his Facebook page - however, he took it down after my not so gentle request.  So, if you are friends with him, you've seen it.  But, of course the pic he posted was fresh (ie: bloody) but not bruised.  Now, well, it kind of looks like Isabella went a little psycho on my leg with several (red, blue, purple, green) magic markers.
Maybe I should put it to a vote -
Let's see... How about I will post (or not) based on how much money I raise on my fundraising page?
It's easy!  Simply click on the fundraising link up in the upper right corner (or go to http://pages/teamintraining.org/pb/ambbr11/leannewelch).  Make a donation (any amount - $1 - $1000), and post your vote in the comments section (post that picture versus burn that picture).  By this time next week, based on which side raises the most money, I will change my profile pic to the bloody bruised (and somewhat dirty) naked hip photo, or I will not.  Your choice.