Feet Hurting on Descents
- Thread starter jwroubaix
- Start date
What type of shoe are you using?
- Road
- MTB
- Touring
- sneakers
- other
The soles on some ROAD shoes are not as stiff as some others, BTW.
FWIW. Regardless of the shoe TYPE, I suspect that your shoes may be too tight ...
Either loosen them, slightly, before the descent ONE TIME to see if that mitigates the pain ...
OR, even consider stopping & removing the footbed liners ONE TIME to see if that changes anything ...
- if simply loosening the shoes does not resolve the problem BUT removing the footbed liners solves the problem, then you may want to think about a shoe which is a half-to-full size larger than the size you are currently wearing
Backside on saddle, hands in the drops and weight off feet. Relax. It's a bike, not an instrument of torture. That said, if you screw up bad it might be an instrument of imminent death... but no worries. Ride faster, relax and have fun.
Do you descend with the 'death grip' on the bars? If so, start relaxing your hands first. You need to be relaxed and able to move your weight around on the bike smoothly. If it's a positional thing and you can't relax because reaching the bars in the drops is too difficult, move the drops to where you can reach them comfortably. Once you get the upper body sorted out then you might stop compensating by doing weird things with your feet mid descent.
If your shoes were the wrong size they'd likely be hurting nearly all the time. Even if the soles were somewhat flexible, the speedplay 3 hole adapter plates are hardly flimsy items and should spread the load nicely.
Do you descend with the 'death grip' on the bars? If so, start relaxing your hands first. You need to be relaxed and able to move your weight around on the bike smoothly. If it's a positional thing and you can't relax because reaching the bars in the drops is too difficult, move the drops to where you can reach them comfortably. Once you get the upper body sorted out then you might stop compensating by doing weird things with your feet mid descent.
If your shoes were the wrong size they'd likely be hurting nearly all the time. Even if the soles were somewhat flexible, the speedplay 3 hole adapter plates are hardly flimsy items and should spread the load nicely.
Strongly suggest seeing an orthopedist who specializes in sports injuries. It could be anything.
After letting foot pain cut into my mileage and enjoyment of cycling, skiing, walking barefoot, and sleep, I saw a specialist today. Boy, what a surprise that turned out to be. Seems I'm doing everything right with proper fitting shoes, supportive footbeds, etc., etc., but they were just getting worse. About ten years ago I was diagnosed with Morton's neuroma, a nerve inflammation that at the time we believed was caused by ill-fitting Italian cycling shoes and toe straps. Now it looks like the underlying condition is hallux rigidus, caused by fundamental problems with my stance and gait, that I've probably been living with since I was a teenager. That was a long time ago. I get fitted for orthotics this week, and PT starts a week from today.
Get your feet checked out.
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