New shoes and monthly round-up

... ooOoo I got new shoes and I’m ready for the weekend….. (Well I was, but due to the lack of internet access this post is being published a little later than I planned)

On Mikeys return from work on last Friday he pulled out a pair of white and baby blue shimano shoes. I laughed, telling him he couldn’t seriously be planning on wearing them - they were far too girlie. I hadn’t realised they weren’t for him, as they were a lovely and very unexpected gift for me. Usually his gifts are the edible/chocolate kind so I was extremely shocked.

Although they are technically a MTB shoe they are another step towards looking a little more pro-roadie as they are white with Velcro fastenings (which is super as I’ve had far too many near-misses with shoelaces getting caught up in my chainring!)

Last Sunday saw my first adventure with them when we went out for a few hours. The more rigid soles were perfect; recently I’d been struggling with the flexibility of my spesh Tahoes, getting hotspots and sore feet. So the new shoes made a welcome improvement. Amazingly, we managed to get the perfect cleat position and they didn’t need any tweaks half way round. Unfortunately, the next ride in them was miserable; it was raining and on my return my shoes were very wet and mucky from all the dirt on the roads. I’m a lucky girl though - Mikey quickly cleaned and dried them and they’re back to being like new.

As for this Julys ride mileage, it has been a good month. Every week I managed to do in excess of my 50mile target and my total July mileage was 250.5miles, bringing my yearly total to 1590.1miles.
Most of July's miles were on the road bike. With only one 10mile ride on the CX bike. This was an easy ride along the coast path however, I wont be doing that again for some time as it was hellish due to the influx of tourists. There was also one fun MTB ride. 12.7miles of off-road goodness. Most of the local singletrack was dry and dusty but more importantly at the end of the ride we met fellow VeloCaker, RocketDog and his other half for tea and cake. ;-)

This month has been pretty average for mileage but more significantly I am really pleased as my average speed is getting better. With the exception of the MTB ride, my average speed has always been in excess of 13mph. This time last month I was predominantly averaging 12-12.5.