I am trying to give my car a rest and do my regular commutes on my bike. I'm trying to get my body in shape for a half ironman and figure as much time as I can get in is a good thing. the problem is of the 10 attempts I have made of the 9 mine commute, one way, only 3 of them have gone smoothly. After the first flat I started carrying a tool kit, 5 flats later, one of them a broken valve stem from my mini pump, I invested in a new foot pump and mini pump. then I had a blowout just airing the tires up, twice, so I broke down and got new tires. I thought I finally had the hardware figured out so I tried again ended up having my rear derailleur fall apart, so I got that fixed along with some other maintenance, it ended up taking a week longer and $20 more than I was originally told. when I finally got my bike back the next shift I decided to try again I hit some uneven pavement going 15mph and ended up in the trauma ward.

I'm starting to think this whole commuting thing isn't for me, or maybe my bike is actually trying to kill me. has anyone else had a learning curve like this? should I give up now before I do some real damage, or take this as another lesson and stick to it?