Wipeout (almost!)

On Friday night we went swimming at Loch Lomond.  Two of us had the loch to ourselves and my swimming felt much better than the previous week.  It's a privilege to swim in such a setting.  The mountains surround the loch so when you look up to draw breath you have a wonderful view.  The light shines through the clear water so you can see you hand enter the water and extend.  No blue line to monotonously follow and chlorine to sting your eyes.
I decided this weekend to concentrate on my cycling and give my foot a rest so I went our with the "big boys" group.  Heading to the meeting point a bus decided to ignore me and pulled out as I was heading down a fast hill. It forced me onto the opposite side of the road in order to overtake it as braking would have been more dangerous.  We completed 60 miles but I needed lots of encouragement as I almost "bonked" (hit the "wall" in running terms).  On most hills I was dropped by the group and then spent the down hills trying to catch up.  At the end I was shattered but pleased at how hard I'd pushed myself.  Thanks guys for waiting on me.
The following day I went out for a ride with my pal and it was windy.  As I headed up the first hill I my legs started to complain, this wasn't going to be easy especially with the wind.  Normally I'd be dropping my pal on the hills but because my legs were tired I was hanging on for grim death.  On a "b" road we were going flat out when a 4x4 pulled out of a farm turning towards us and taking up the whole road not realising we were heading straight into him.  I was 20 yards ahead and as I braked my back wheel started sliding out.  It was at this point the driver saw me and steered onto his side of the narrow road.  I'd already come off the brakes and straightened up as I had picked my spot in the hedge I was going to hit but a small gap appeared and I shot past the 4x4.  That was very close.  Later on a boy racer in a Corsa was burning up another "b" road but at least he saw me in time to take action earlier.  It did bring home to me how dangerous the roads can be but I put my luck down to the bird shit I'd wiped off my arm the day before - it's meant to be lucky and I certainly was.
That's probably the most I have trained over a weekend in  6 months and when I collapsed into bed last night I felt satisfied and knackered at the same time.  I'll get some running in this week and see how my foot does.  Running with my coach at 6.35am tomorrow.