I’ve never found a shoe/insole I’ve really liked. I can deal with Sidis and a Sole insole, but still have problems. Sidis fit well, i have narrow feet and they are the best I’ve tried in terms of overall fit and comfort. In the past I’ve worn/tried out Bont, Shimano, Diadora, Performance bike brand shoes and none have been as good as the Sidi (mostly in terms of fitting the width of my foot. Molding the Bonts never did much either. I’m a roadie, not triathlete, if that matters.
My biggest problem is at about the 2 hour mark, my big toe starts to hurt under the toenail to the outside of the toe (they are clipped appropriately, not ingrown or anything). I get slight numbness on the balls of either foot, but not terrible, the toe is worse. Very painful on a long ride, but goes away very quickly after stopping. Each time I take my sock off after 3+ hours I’m expecting to see a blood soaked sock.
Anyone know what that might be traced to that I can fix? Experiment with new shoes or insoles?
I recently had a Specialized BG fit, everything was perfect, he didn’t move a single thing (wasted a lot of money on that, haha). The most he’d tell me on the foot thing was to get some specialized insoles, wouldn’t even tell me which ones to try or offer to let me try some during the fit though.
Quick question to clarify, which foot with the toe problem left or right? And which side of the toe hurts left or right? I know you said outside and I’m assuming you meant the side opposite of your second toe? So for instance your pain would be either on the left side of the right big toe or on the right side of the left big toe?
Also, forget asking the specialized fitter who offered you nothing but an option to purchase specialized gear on advice here.
Yeah, sorry, it wasn’t clear. Mostly right toe, the left side of the right toe is what really hurts after a bit or riding.
Id immediately look at 1 of two things before getting too complicated. Either too much pressure on the toe itself or further up the chain.
You’ve gone through your footwear options so Id wanna know if your peddling harder with your right foot (power meter L-R balance concept) and if your foot is collapsing at the bottom of the pedal stroke and you’re putting excess pressure on the toe. But I would expect some sort of skin breakdown without socks. Assuming you wear socks on your road bike?
Option two is looking further up on the fit. Some sort of compression restricting blood flow or compressing superficial nerves at the ankle/calf/knee or groin. Id guess closer towards the foot itself, but you never know. You mentioned numbness on both feet which is usually compression of superficial nerves but can manifest as pain also.
The fact that you went into the fit with a complaint but nothing was changed and instead they took it as a sales opportunity means you need to ditch that fitter and find someone who knows what they’re doing.
Actually, I would go back in and see if you can get your money back. I’m not sure how much time has passed or what kind of documentation they did, but you paid for a fit, had a complaint, nothing was moved or fixed and the pain wasn’t addressed except for a suggestion of buying an insole without the ability to try it IN THE FIT you paid for.
You’d be better off getting the money and putting it towards figuring out the problem IMO.
Here is the report: ETA, removing link to report, there’s some PII in there. can direct PM it or figure out how to remove it from the pdf.
Hope that link works, I think I made it public. The before and after pics are exactly the same, thought during the WU I forgot to zip up my jersey.
RE: getting my money back, he did the full range of stuff he’s supposed to and I still took up a lot of his time. yeah, it sucks that I got nothing out of it (well, I got the peace of mind that I have a good fit), but I chose to do it. I guess I should have trusted that after many thousands of miles of training and racing I’d naturally just self select the best position.
I used to experience this. My fix was to not strap my shoes so tight. I don’t have tri shoes, I use Shimano R106s but if I found no loss of power and no issues with going a little looser. It felt weird at first, but by mile marker 40-50 with no numbness or pain I knew it was worth it. Now it feels normal. I don’t mean so loose that your flopping around in there but loose enough that you don’t go numb. Experiment with it on a training ride and see what works for you.
I experience the same issue. For me onset is usually between 2.5 and 3 hours on the bike. When I hop off the bike the pain is generally gone within 10 minutes. It goes away quicker when immediately transitioning to running. I have tried different shoes, cleat positions, pedals and saddles. No change. Lowering my seat helps a little bit–although that just creates other issues. I have tried loosening the straps on my shoes as well. This seems to delay (but not prevent) the onset.
Based on my own experience I suspect it is a nerve entrapment issue. Primarily because (1) there is no bruising or tissue/bone/nail damage given lack of residual pain, (2) I have a long history of low back, hamstring and other nerve problems and (3) there is a peripheral nerve that terminates under the big toe nail. I am still trying to figure out a permanent solution and would love to hear other ideas/suggestions.