It could be that you’re new, your shoes, your pedals or a combination.
5:10 shoes have the reputation of being the grippiest in the b*ke community. I like shoes w/ a definate heal, others preffer flat soled shoes.
Pedals w/ more and/or longer pins would help. Pedal Thread.
This and your tires question could have both been asked in the same thread. If you forget to say something in a post you can edit it for up to 10 minutes. Or add another post if the time ran out instead of a bunch of threads.