With one longer rest interval than planned...

I'm not sure how I can go every cross season without a single mechanical; how I can run the bikes through mud, over hurdles, slammed across rocks, with nary a complaint. And yet whenever I hit the road with a purpose.

Today was the first really proper move into my new world of cycle training. The intervals were taped on, the route considered to avoid traffic lights and too much traffic, the legs feeling not too bad despite the rest intervals being hampered by the raging headwind... 10 minute warm-up timed perfectly to hit a short-ish off-road section to begin a fast pace, that left me feeling tired but upbeat, the next rest section took me absolutely perfectly to the route for a series of short sprints and.... puncture.

I must have had about 2 all year, and there we go, right at a pivotal moment. Worse was to come. Last week I carefully reassembled and organised the bike tools, complete with a spare tube, into a new (old) metal box that could live in whatever bag I was using for work. Also included was a mini-pump, which was fine last week, but chose this morning to fall apart. There was still 'some' air in the tyre, so I thought I'd try to get slowly to work, but a mile or so further on and it was clear it was deflating too quickly. Off the bike, and schlep a mile or so to the nearest supermarket.

The only one in the city without a sports section to buy a replacement...

Stuck. Thankfully Mel doesn't work Fridays, and it was late enough in the morning for me to call her. While she picked me up, I emailed work to make sure I didn't have any early meetings. Home, changed, into the car, to work (not feeling too bad as there was a 5pm conference call in the diary). I've had better starts to the day though.

Still, found the problem later in the evening was an old repaired puncture letting go (it was a glueless patch clearly come to the end of its life), so the new tube is in, tyres pumped, and tomorrow morning's session (a threshold test) taped to the top tube. What could possibly go wrong? (well, apart from me not having the hoped for power meter attached as the battery is knackered and won't charge, so the unit is having to be replaced, but at least the heart rate strap, cadence sensor and speed sensor are all working).