Curses, foiled again

Got out of work late yesterday, rushed to Fiesta Island for episode number 2 of Big Ring Tuesday only to find that I missed everyone. The island has two different loops so I headed out to the intersection of both and waited. The group comes by after about 10 minutes looking a little peaked. They had started at 5:30 this week as opposed to the 6pm start last week so they had already done their warm up laps and two series of sprints. Bummer. Anyway, I jump on the line of 6 other riders and up my cadence to try and warm up in the 1/2 a lap I have before the next series. 2-miles later, we're at the sprinting area and I'm still not warmed up completely. The interval is two roadside signs "on" and two "off". I give it a go and hit it. It goes ok but the legs still feel dead. It usually takes me 5-6 miles to warm up.

We regroup after the sprint and start the follow the leader tempo work. I have a minor mechanical mishap starting up and am suddenly 30 feet behind the paceline. No big deal except we happen to be riding into a headwind. I measure my speed and slowly make up the distance so I can rejoin the line with minimal usage of energy. I finally get on after a mile or so just in time as the pace really starts picking up. We get to the "corner" of the island where there is a slight downhill and the headwind turns into a tailwind. It's the fast part of the island and you can pick up 4-5 mph very easily here. My back tire is suddenly very squirrely. It seems that my tire is going flat from a slow leak. I slow way down and limp back to the parking lot. The tire still has air in it. I check the pressure and I have dropped 20 PSI in the 15 minutes I had been riding.

I've got no spare tube on me, daylight is waning so I decide to call it day. My workout couldn't have more than 5 miles long. Frustrating.