How I solved my cycling foot pain!

Triathlon Forum
1

Hi All,

I’ve been battling cycling related foot pain for over a year now and have now fixed it (FINALLY!). It started about a year ago when, after about 5-10 miles, the bottom and outside edge of my right foot would be in extreme pain. The pain was concentrated just below my 5th metatarsal head. I couldn’t walk off of the bike because the pain was so intense. I basically quit cycling and pretty much just swam and ran for about a year because I didn’t/couldn’t deal with the foot pain. It only hurt while cycling - never running.

Pass forward to about 3 months ago and I tried to get back into the saddle. The pain was still there.

Determined to solve this issue, I swapped pedal systems. I thought that the additional float of and adjustability of some Speedplays might help so I swapped out my Keos and threw the Speedplays on. Pain was still there.

I had my forefoot measured and found that I had about 8 degrees of varus so I experimented with cleat wedges. I tried everything from 1 to 8 wedges (in Steve Hoggs fashion) just to see if anything helped. Pain was still there.

I thought perhaps my feet had grown so I went and tried wider shoes (Sidi Megas). Pain was still there. At this point, I’m pretty much pissed and wanted to throw in the towel. I opted to try some Specialized BG insoles (red ones for flat feet) and still had pain. I posted on here about my issues and rroof responded that the in-the-shoe wedges might be better.

So, I put one of the hard Bikefit.com wedges into my shoe (along with 2 cleat wedges) and noticed I had some relief. I could feel that the foot pressure went from my pinky toe towards the middle of my foot. I still had a little bit of discomfort so I tried throwing in another hard wedge but it was a little too much - it started to irritate the ball of my foot. I threw in a BG wedge, which is made of a softer plastic, on top of my hard Bikefit.com wedge and finally found the combination that eliminated all of my foot pain. I happily rode three 50 milers this week without pain.

So, moral of the story? Talk to your fitter/LBS to get ideas (cleat angle, wedges, etc.), talk to the folks on Slowtwitch (rroof is a good resource), and try freaking everything. I’m so happy that I can ride again.

2

Good to hear, man. That’s awesome.

3

Foot pain = Experienced fitter session and D2 shoes. Hell, that should solve anything.

4

Dude. I had the EXACT same pain as you had. Outside of left foot (5th metatarsal). It started to show itself last summer in the build-up for the full Vineman when I would go out for over 70+ mile training rides. I ignored it & went for Vineman. By mile 90, I felt like a criple & was only able to pull up on the pedals since the pain was so bad. I made it back to T2, slapped on the running shoes & did about 6 miles before giving up. My foot swelled up pretty bad that evening & I used ibuprofen & ice. Although I never got it xrayed, I still speculate as to whether it was a stress fracture.

After about a month off, I tryed riding again & after a dozen miles = pain again. I had been using Sidi/Speedplay combo. I tryed shoe inserts (Superfeet) to no avail. After reading somewhere that Specialized would be a better fit for me, I made the switch & still used the Speedplays. Problem solved.

5

Yep, I worked with 2 different (very experienced FIST, Serotta, etc.) fitters bouncing ideas back and forth before coming up with something that worked.

The problem wasn’t with my bike fit or cleat angle. It was with the way the bottom of my foot is shaped.

6

The Specialized shoes have really come a long way. I like the fact that they have some varus built into the forefoot as (if you read the literature), >90% of folks have some amount of varus. Their toeboxes are generally more rounded too.

7

I had a similiar experience on today’s ride, first time it’s happened to me, pain sounds like it’s in the very same spot. I rode 4:30 and started to feel the pain about four hours in. I was doing a brick and didn’t feel anything for the half of the run but the pain came screaming back with a vengance approximately 4 miles in. Holy schnikes I could barely run!

As soon as I stopped running I took my shoes off to see if I broke anything because it sure felt like it. nothing, no swelling no reddness. Did anyone who’s had similar problems see any outward indications?

If it flairs up again looks like I will hit the LBS/fitter.

8

That is great news. Enjoy the ride!

9

Glad you persisted. Gotta be a lot more fun now.

10

Persistence paid off - congrats!

11

I think I’ll be going down the same road you did. Had pain develop while training for a 100 mile MTN bike race and it’s still lingering. Did get new shoes, middle of the road $170 Bontragers, so they’re stiff enough. Did you need both types of wedges, cleat and shoe. Where would you recommend starting?

12

Hi All,

I’ve been battling cycling related foot pain for over a year now and have now fixed it (FINALLY!). It started about a year ago when, after about 5-10 miles, the bottom and outside edge of my right foot would be in extreme pain. The pain was concentrated just below my 5th metatarsal head. I couldn’t walk off of the bike because the pain was so intense. I basically quit cycling and pretty much just swam and ran for about a year because I didn’t/couldn’t deal with the foot pain. It only hurt while cycling - never running.

Pass forward to about 3 months ago and I tried to get back into the saddle. The pain was still there.

Determined to solve this issue, I swapped pedal systems. I thought that the additional float of and adjustability of some Speedplays might help so I swapped out my Keos and threw the Speedplays on. Pain was still there.

I had my forefoot measured and found that I had about 8 degrees of varus so I experimented with cleat wedges. I tried everything from 1 to 8 wedges (in Steve Hoggs fashion) just to see if anything helped. Pain was still there.

I thought perhaps my feet had grown so I went and tried wider shoes (Sidi Megas). Pain was still there. At this point, I’m pretty much pissed and wanted to throw in the towel. I opted to try some Specialized BG insoles (red ones for flat feet) and still had pain. I posted on here about my issues and rroof responded that the in-the-shoe wedges might be better.

So, I put one of the hard Bikefit.com wedges into my shoe (along with 2 cleat wedges) and noticed I had some relief. I could feel that the foot pressure went from my pinky toe towards the middle of my foot. I still had a little bit of discomfort so I tried throwing in another hard wedge but it was a little too much - it started to irritate the ball of my foot. I threw in a BG wedge, which is made of a softer plastic, on top of my hard Bikefit.com wedge and finally found the combination that eliminated all of my foot pain. I happily rode three 50 milers this week without pain.

So, moral of the story? Talk to your fitter/LBS to get ideas (cleat angle, wedges, etc.), talk to the folks on Slowtwitch (rroof is a good resource), and try freaking everything. I’m so happy that I can ride again.

This sums up most of what I have tried (unsuccessfully). I hope that others can benefit from our misfortunes. Are you still riding pain free?

One of the distracting aspects of this cycling foot pain is that it arose from nowhere- without any substantive changes about me or about my bike, along with the fact that it chiefly involves only one foot rather than both feet.

13

I too had very bad foot pain on the outside middle of both feet… Usually would okay on easy rides but very painful on big hilly rides or 50+ mile rides.

I first tried to lowering the cleats as low as possible in the shoe position as i ready this could help and also increase power. It did help a little but pain was still there. Since the pain is on the outside of the feet I decided to move the cleats as far to the inside of the shoe as possible… That seems to have solve the problem.

I also use custom insoles from day 1 molded at a running store. My shoes are also specialized.

14

I had the exact same problem, the first time I remembered it happening was in 2004 during IMCdA and for 30 miles I was trying to figure out how I could have possibly broke my foot while riding in carbon-soled shoes. It would pop up from time to time and then the last few years it became more common. Finally last year when I decided to do another IM I had to track it down.

Cleat wedges have solved the problem for me as well.

15

I think I’ll be going down the same road you did. Had pain develop while training for a 100 mile MTN bike race and it’s still lingering. Did get new shoes, middle of the road $170 Bontragers, so they’re stiff enough. Did you need both types of wedges, cleat and shoe. Where would you recommend starting?

The easiest and the cheapest route, for me, was to try a single wedge and then maybe two. If that didn’t work, I went to a different insole with modular arch and varus support. The specialized insoles were highly recommended so I tried the red insoles since I have flat feet. They didn’t really do much for me. I probably should’ve picked up the blue ones in hindsight.

Once we made our new insoles at Pearl Izumi, I tried them with the tall arch support and medium wedge and that seemed to do the trick for me. I didn’t need the cleat wedges after installing these.

Here’s a video of the system:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73cv4OOMDU4

16

Some people that experience pain or cramping simply need to tweak their cleat position. This is an interesting story.

17

I’m riding pain free 18 months after the fact. It all came down to having a better insole and loosening up the front straps on my road shoes. I had been riding Sidis for the longest time and I guess that I ran them too tightly. Now, I run Shimanos which have a slightly wider toe box with PI insoles. That seemed to work for me.

I think the hardest lesson from my experience is that I needed to loosen up my mid-foot straps even though I had run them super snugly for the longest time. At first I thought the fit was somewhat sloppy. But, I haven’t had any performance issues (slipping out of the shoe during a sprint or climbing) at all. It really did make a huge difference.

18

Yeah, cleat positioning is something I played with too. Fore/aft, left/right, and angle are all super important and tough to get right.

19

Here is a great cleat placement article by Steve Hogg. Here is the article

I’ve been employing “method 2” on my fit studio clients with success.

Employing method 2 + G8 insoles + a proper Retul fit have yielded many happy feet on roadies and triathletes.

Here are the insoles

20

Here is a great cleat placement article by Steve Hogg. Here is the article

Good info… I’ve been trying to get back on track after a nasty 5th metatarsel fracture, and I’m looking at nearly every helpful hint out there. My bike has a nice 1/2" layer of dust on it.