Thanks Kim

What was suppose to be a 5h30 bike session was reduced by a hour due to some lightning and rain. In the photo above you can't really see the lightning and rain but the sky was white and the lightning just came out of nowhere.

After Church this morning I jumped on my bike and started my long bike session. It was a real sunny day and I was looking forward to getting some sun on the skin and not doing my bike session on the trainer.

O, the swim session this morning did not happen, it was just me and the opening hours of the gym. They open Sunday at 7am ( I thought 6am) and there was no way that I would have been done swimming and be in time for Church. Not that it really bothered me as it was an easy recovery swim scheduled for today.

Back at the cycling, I arranged with Kim to bring me my water bottles at 2pm to replace the empty ones after 3 hours. She arrived on time as I was busy with my second loop towards Bronkhorstspruit ( a town 50-60km from Witbank, depending on where you stay) and as I was changing bottles she looked at all the cars flashing by on a single lane road with no emergency lane.

Kim arriving with my hydration when it was still sunny.

I am used to cycling on that road ( Witbank to Bronkhorstspruit) but today was very busy and scary. Kim told me that she got so frightened when she was approaching me as she saw a car passing me at a very high speed and not moving out when it passed me, less than a meter space. I said to her that's normal when you cycle alone. When you cycle in a group the cars give you some space, guess they feel that there's more than one witness if something happen but when you cycle alone they just feel nothing for you.

She said there is no way she is going to let me cycle on my own again on that road and said she will follow me and drive behind me for the duration of my session. I said it 's OK I am fine but she insisted. Thinking back now I am so glad she offered.

When we approached the road that leads to the steel factory on our way back to Witbank I stopped and told her that, that part of road is very quite and she can go home I am OK. What I didn't see was the thunderstorm approaching us. She said she will carry on driving behind me in case I need some help.

I was cycling for another 20 minutes or so and was heading right into the storm. The rain didn't bother me but the lightning was all over and it became really scary. Having all the heart rate monitors and bike computers I was convinced that I am a mobile lightning attraction unit.

As I looked back to see where Kim was she flashed the car lights and showed me I must pull over. She said that it's better to stop cycling as the lightning is getting worse.

Me the very thankful passenger on our way back home.

As I was talking to her lightning struck not far from us with this massive loud noise. That changed my mind and I loaded the bike in the car. Funny enough as we drove into town there was no rain or lightning. For one moment I thought of getting out and do the last twenty minutes home but it was in town and wouldn't really be that productive with all the stop and go's at the traffic lights.

I am so glad and happy that Kim made the decision to follow me, Thanks Kim I love you.

Had to take a picture of DJ as she fell asleep in front of the TV last night.

Today's Training:

Bike: 4h31, 134.2km, 128bpm, 3698kcal,

Weeks Totals:

Swim: 5km

Bike: 249.2km

Run: 60.3km

Gym: 2 sessions

Total: 17h18, 314.5km, 12914kcal ( crappy week due to work and family missed 4 training sessions)