First ride in two weeks today having been sidelined by a stupid headcold/sinus infection

I'm trying to break my 300m hill into short sections before attempting the whole thing in one go again. Today I did the bottom part, which is almost half the altitude gain but doesn't include the steepest sections. And that was enough! Sitting at about 60-something cadence in my lowest gear for most of it, and standing in the same gear on the nastier bits. Any steeper and the only option left would have been grinding to a standstill and hoping for a soft landing. I really should get lower gears but that would be like admitting defeat. So I went up and down that section twice, having started from the car parked at the bottom. About 10k (6 miles) total.

Almost at the bottom for the second time I ran over a small stone and got my first flat Could have walked the last couple of hundred metres but decided I could use the practice of changing the tube. Hardest part was working out how the skinny valve works . I didn't realise, until I'd tried everything else, that I needed to unscew the little cylinder thingy. Once I got that sorted it was easy Took bike into the shop later on to buy another tube and asked the guy to check what I'd done just in case. All was fine - he just put a bit more air in with a foot pump and explained how the valve works He also told me about the local Sunday morning rides which I would love to be able to do when my fitness improves, so that was good too. Will investigate repairing the punctured tube later. I'm glad it happened now because I know I'll be OK next time