I think I had a breakthrough today. First of all, I became aware of foot pain a few months ago (or really years ago, but the past year has been very bad). I've visited two podiatrists, and the second one directed me to podiatric devices that have gel pads under the balls of my feet. I've been wearing them for a week, and they seem to help with 80 or 90% certainty. I bought new shoes in a much bigger size, and I tried them today. My route is 14 miles long, and I rode 12 miles to a bike shop on the way. So far, so good, and most of my pain is relieved. I was riding cleatless, though. I bought a pair of new pedals at the shop. For my first time, I had the bike shop guy install my cleats. He had a special alignment tool which I had never seen before. I've been putting cleats on my own shoes for decades. He said proper alignment can make a big difference in comfort.

Well waddya know. I rode the remaining two miles to work. Now my pain seems to be 98% gone from my right foot and about 99.5% from my left foot, and my left foot was troubling me more than the right foot. I suspect the cleat is farther back on the left shoe, so I'll match it on the right shoe.

This is a new kind of bliss. I realize more than ever that I've been holding back on pedaling vigorously because of foot pain. Now that it's gone (more or less), I am much stronger than I knew.

Headwinds are usually a challenge on my morning commute. Today was different. The wind was weak and variable and shifty, so sometimes I had a nice tail wind, sometimes I had a moderate headwind, but overall, it wasn't bad.

In summary, it was a fantastic ride in.