Rubber, Meet Road. Road, Meet Knee, Elbow, and Bum.

Saturday was my first ride with my team. Well, my team didn’t come, but my coach and his wife did (Brad and Cheri). One of the part time staff members of Team in Training (Lynne) came to see us off and took our picture just before we headed out. I let Coach Brad know that I knew nothing about road biking and Lynne said that I looked like I was a pro. We started out by talking about how and when on the road to clip into your pedals. Then, on the road, we talked about cadence (pace), shifting gears, going up and down hills and shifting gears, many other things, and shifting gears. We did a couple of “small” hills, but to this beginner, they seemed to be never ending. (I know, in a month or two, I’ll be laughing at those hills.) When we got to the top of the first one, I decided that I needed to stop to get a drink and just take a little break. I unclipped my right shoe and promptly fell to my left, left foot still nicely secure in the pedal. I am still laughing at what my imagination tells me that I looked like. I just went “flop”. Brad and Cheri asked if I was ok, and Cheri said that now that I have my first fall out of the way-I don’t have to do it again, and at least I was going very slowly when it happened. I skinned and bruised my knee and elbow, but the “prettiest” bruise is on my bum. After a short break, getting myself stood back up and stretched out a little bit, we took off down the hill and just kept riding. Every-so-often, Brad would ask how I was feeling, and I would say just fine, other than a stinging knee. His response? “Good! I can torture you a little bit longer,” with a moo-ha-ha sort of tone in his voice. Up the next hill we went with no casualties this time. By the time we got to the top, I told him that my legs were jelly so we headed back to the car. We had planned to go 10 or so miles and ended up going just under 14. As expected, this morning, I’m discovering muscles that I either didn’t know I had, or had forgotten about. I’ll be meeting up with Cheri tomorrow morning to ride about 15 miles. I think Brad will be joining us, but I’m not sure. Molly and I went for a walk to work some of the soreness out this morning, and oh what a gorgeous morning it was!!!