Choose your training partners carefully!

Having enjoyed some pain free running I'm afraid it's back.  Not too bad but when walking I am aware of it.  I ran of Monday which was pain free and fantastic.  Friday's run was a different story with my foot in some discomfort which has continued over the weekend.
On Saturday we had thunder and lightening 1st thing in the morning so I decided not to go out on the bike.  I was going out in the afternoon but after a big lunch my motivation was NIL to going out on my own.  I had a "funny feeling" that I shouldn't go out and the conditions weren't perfect.  I found out later that one of my team mates had an accident in the wet conditions so perhaps my intuition was correct - fortunately he was ok.  But I did feel guilty and lazy for not going out.
This morning I went out for a long ride, a bit longer than I had anticipated - over 100km.  I went out with three team mates who are all starting to "taper" in their preparation for Ironman events in the next few weeks.  This means they are as "fit as a butchers dog" and the 4.5 hour cycle was "easy" for them.  I managed to hold on until near the end but it really showed the advantage of TT bikes v road bikes in head winds - they were all on beautiful TT bikes.  That wasn't the deciding factor for me dropping off - they were just so fit and in fairness two of them held back so I wasn't lost off the back (forever!).  But the chimp had a good go at telling me how unfit and useless I was as I constantly got dropped on the hills but you need to take the variants into account.  I could have gone out for a leisurely spin but chose to go out with the ironmen and burn 3,200 calories.
As I battled up the hills it made me remember just how fit you have to be to complete an ironman event in a reasonable time.  When I was training for ironman I remember completing a 5 hour bike ride and then pulling on my running shoes and going out for a 2 hour run - certainly not fit enough to contemplate it today.  After all on the day they will be completing a 2.4m swim, 112 mile bike and a 26.2m run.  It seems a lifetime ago even though it was only 3 years ago.  But until I have set new goals and have a training plan in place I'll just tick over with my training and try and stay injury free.