40 miles today, average speed 13.4 mph, with a climb of Mt. Agamenticus (not really a mountain, but a good sized hill in the town of York). Elevation gain on the road up Mt. A is 896 feet, average 10% grade but up to 14%. Pretty small stuff compared to the climbs some of you do, but was a challenge for me. I was in my lowest gear most of the way, but didn't have to get off and walk. Need to remember the bug spray next time...there were lots of those annoying small bugs that like to fly right in one's face, and I couldn't go fast enough up the hill to drop them! On the way home a thunderstorm blew through so I ducked into a little farmstand store which had all kinds of good stuff; I had a raspberry-oatmeal square, an all-natural soda and tried some of their cheeses, jams and salsas that they had out for sampling. I will definitely have to go back there prepared to bring some things home. Once the storm had passed, the rest of the ride home was pretty uneventful although I have some tweaking to do on the bike since getting the thick-soled cycling shoes which required me to raise the saddle about an inch...my neck and upper back were getting uncomfortable either from a) having more weight on my hands because the saddle is now higher in relation to the bars, or b) having a little more reach because I did not move the saddle forward at all when I adjusted the height. I had no such discomfort before the shoe/resulting saddle height change, including on my 50-miler two months ago which I did in my very thin-soled Merrells, so I know that is the culprit. If tweaking saddle position doesn't solve the problem I guess the next step will be a stem with a little more rise, which will be annoying since I just changed the stem this spring (when I got the bike).