Feeling good and ready to play + Pearl Izumi Road Elite II review

I finally got over my cold and went back to working out.  Last weekend I went for a bike ride on my usual route.Google Route  This was the first long ride with my new shoes and clips (review below).  I knew that there was a good possibility that with the shoes and not being sick that I would be able to drop my time on my 26 mile route.  I also decided to give it a little extra push and see exactly how fast I could go.  The ride went well, I pushed it the whole time and felt relatively fast.  When I got home I was excited and looked at my Blackberry to see exactly how fast I was......... the F*#@'n phone didn't record the workout.  I'll admit it, I didn't handle it as well as I should have.  I usually use a program on my phone call BIM (bones in motion) Active.  It said that I ran out of space and it couldn't record.  I have now downloaded miCoach from Adidas.  It seams to be a better program plus I can link my route for posts directly from the Adidas site.  

This week I also went for a 6 mile run.miCoach Map  It is embarrassing that I haven't ran very much since the 1/2 marathon, but I wanted to focus on the bike while the weather was still good. I generally run in the morning or during the day, but this time I started my run after dinner around 6:00 PM.  The run felt pretty good except for a brief time at about mile 2 I had a side cramp, but I was able to stop for a minute and take a break with some deep breaths and it went away. 

GEAR REVIEW

PEARL IZUMI ELITE ROAD II

First I have to admit that this is my first pair of cycling shoes so I don't have a reference to compare them to.  That being said, after 4 rides I have a pretty good idea of what I think of these shoes.
Comfort
These shoes are pretty comfortable.  I have moderately narrow feet with an average arch and there are not any parts of the shoes that rub my feet in the wrong way or hotspots while I ride.  The 3 strap design allows me to adjust them to a tight and comfortable position within the shoe.
Design
The three strap design works well to lock the foot in place.  The buckle does well with the tightening the foot even further if needed.
Performance
Overall these shoes work as I expected.  My first ride my right foot went numb after about a mile.  It seems like on my other rides that it my foot goes numb initially but then recovers after about 3 miles.  If I were to guess I would say that the problem is with poor circulation in my feet rather than the shoes. 

PAID $180 Pearl Izumi outlet in Park City



SHIMANO 105 Pedal PD-5700

I did a lot of research when looking for the right pedal.  The conclusion was that Shimano was a solid pedal that was easy to get in and out of.  Given that this was my first experience in clipping into pedals I felt that Shimano was a good option.  The 3 Shimano options that I was considering were the 105, Ultegra and Dura-Ace.  When comparing the 3 together the 105 and Ultregra were basically the same pedal.  From what I could tell the only difference was 5 grams and black paint (I suspect the paint is where the 5 grams comes from).  The difference in cost however was about $40.  The Dura-Ace was double the cost of the 105's and had better parts and was lighter.  At the end of the day I decided that I would go with the 105's and save myself the extra cost.  After all I did just drop $180 for the shoes.  So far clipping into the pedals has been pretty good.  I have only had 1 almost tip over.  As for performance they stay tight to the shoe and allow a decent amount of float.  I kept the tension setting at the stock setting and it seems to work well.
PAID $90 at Sports Den 

That is it for today's post.  I will follow up with reviews on the shoes and pedals when I log more time in them.