I am quite obsessed with cycling. I got back into it about 18 months ago and came over to road riding from MTB'ing. Due to being a uni student at the moment my bike is a cheap but functional flat bar road bike (basically a cheapish MTB with road wheels from the looks of it) which my fiance graciously bought me for my b'day (she is the best!). I added a Bontrager saddle, decent BBB tristop brake pads, and some 700c x 23 tyres to it to make it a bit less "hybrid" and a little bit more "road bike".
I was getting bummed about being so busy with uni and work, and not having enough time to cycle the 100km+ a week I wanted to, I decided to start commuting to work by bicycle (roughly 40km round trip) twice a week and have been doing this for a little while now. I'm a nursing student, health is very important to me, as is setting an example to my patients, and plus I just have the cycling bug bad.
So to make this a bit easier I added a Topeak Super Tourist rack, and their compatible MTX TrunkBag DXP. I highly recommend this combination for longer work commutes where you need a change of clothes and shoes. I also have room in there for toiletries, lunch and my wallet and keys with room to spare.
The TrunkBag mounts by sliding in onto the rail and attaches (quite securely, just in case you have your doubts like I did at first) with one clip. If you need to use the expanding side panniers, they attach to the side frames with an elastic cord to stop them flapping about.
Here's my bike kitted up :

I'm building my retro/vintage steel frame drop bar bike up to be a fast cycling / training bike (with shimano 600 EX and 7 speed and as light as possible using late 80's stuff) and the flat bar from now on is going to be my commuter bike.
Now onto the advice part ..
I am getting a lot of punctures with the Michelin Speedium's I put on (got them because I wanted 23mm tyres that would roll a bit faster and they were cheap) .. I don't want to go to a lower pressure or wider tyre but I do want better puncture resistance. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Also, do you rate those puncture-resistant tubes?
And for when I eventually want to upgrade my commuter bike .. are there any alloy-framed drop bar road bikes out there now around the entry level $1000-1500 mark that still have rack mounts?