a day of rest

Kari and I ended up riding Monday with the Mayor , Greg D and Road Legs on Monday. We left from Annie's in Rowena and went south, east (to iowa), north (thru Minnesota), stopped in Manley (I didn't know they had a town named after me!) and then back to South Dakota. It was a good day of riding and my second experience in my new road shoes. After 4 days riding I'm taking the night off (plus it has been sprinkling) to give my quads a break-- they've been tight all day.

A quick review of the new road shoes (Diadora Speed Racer)

1- velcro and adjustable ratcheting straps- way better than laces.
2- walking is for the suck
3- clipping in is harder with SPDs. SPDs and my "comfort" style recessed cleat shoes go together great (and clipping in is easy). I'm hopeful ultegra/dura ace style pedals and cleats work better with the road shoe.
4- the numbness that was plaguing my feet is not present.
5- climbing is great. I got out of the saddle and sprinted up some of the rollers and felt really stable.

These will definately be my long distance serious shoe. I'll probably stick with SPDs in some regular recessed cleat shoes for the casual rides (coffee & donut, pub crawls, etc).

In other news I should be picking up the new bike this week. I'm hoping to get it Thursday or Friday so I can take it for the ride on Saturday up to Brookings. If you don't know about it, Snakebite sent out a missive about a long weekend of biking (sf-brookings-huron saturday, huron-brookings-sioux falls on sunday). I'll be riding the sf-brookings leg of the journey saturday morning. If you want in for part of it, drop a line and we'll see what transportation can be accomodated.