Pffffft

I got my first flat of the season last night, on the rollers no less. How does one go about getting a flat on the rollers? You're pretty much guaranteed that you won't be running through any piles of broken glass, or nails, or thorns, or whatever. It was a new tube too, but one of those stupid ultralight tubes. I usually steer clear of them, but I got this one free from a race sponsor, who shall remain nameless. I put it in when I mounted the beat-up trainer tire at the beginning of the winter. I can only assume that the tire, being old and full of cuts and whatnot, has some stiff kevlar fiber sticking out somewhere, and it gradually wore through the paper-thin tube. I'll give it the twice-over when I replace it tomorrow. It was a fairly slow leak, so I was able to get about half an hour on the rollers out of each pump, and I didn't bother to replace it last night.

Despite the ever softening tire, I got in a great ride last night. I completed my 3x8min threshold intervals, although it was a big effort to hold the power up where I wanted it in the last couple minutes of the final interval. After that, I rode out the rest of the 1.5 hours tempo, playing around and doing some low-cadence muscle tension work every other mile. The quads were complaining a lot by the end of the ride. So much so, in fact, that twice while standing to give my bum a rest, my tired legs lost a bit of smoothness in their spin and sent me off the rollers backwards. The worst that happened was two black streaks on the carpet, but it's still a bit shocking when you unexpectedly drop four or five inches and everything suddenly stops.

See you on the road.