"rorschandt" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
[email protected] (Jfreewheel) wrote in
news:[email protected]:
>
> > for me, what works is not tying the laces on the shoes too tight. I use platform pedals with
> > mini toe clips and low cut walking shoes.
> >
> > When we go on all day tours, what works best for me are cycling sandals. I think the secret is
> > being able to wiggle your toes during long days.
> >
> > Hope you find your solution too
> >
>
> I have had sandals from the start, moved the cleat back, use BeBops, etc. What has finally worked
> for ME: aluminum plates bolted to the sandals that place the cleats at the instep of my feet.
> Special thanks to Mark Stonich for the original idea.
Ain't the internet grand? My solution is the opposite. I move the cleats out as far toward the toe
as I can. This, with proper technique, fully engages the gastrocs (the calf muscles) in the
'circular' pedaling motion.
There's an anatomical basis for this - the veins in the gastrocs (and other leg muscle groups too,
but we're talking gastrocs here) are equipped with check valves that turn the veins into pumps that
lift blood from the feet. Running the gastrocs through their full cycle (and perhaps most
importantly, relaxing them at full extension) ensures that the feet stay fed with red blood.
Unrelated to the numbness and circulation issue is one of simple efficiency. The gastrocs are big,
heavy muscles, designed and developed over a couple of hundred thousand years to propel us toward
stuff we want to eat and away from stuff that wants to eat us. They should be made to work.
One of the reasons that this idea is global anathema is that one of the most informative and
influential websites covering bikes and recumbents warns that engaging the gastrocs ('ankling') is a
sure road to Achilles tendinitis and disability. I'm certainly not looking to pick a fight - just to
state an alternate view along with some justification for it.
Certainly, tendinitis is something to be avoided, but my working view is that, for most people -
even lots of runners I see, the gastrocs are deconditioned. One of the reasons is the declining need
to chase or flee from things. Another is the abundance of free parking in malls near every store on
your itinerary. Another is high heels, both on the things we make some women wear but even the
modern high-tech running shoe. Among many recreational runners, the quad-based propulsion style
doesn't work the gastrocs much at all.
To anyone persuaded to try the technique, I'll warn that the risk of tendinitis is real from sudden
overload or overuse of deconditioned muscle groups, so ease into it. That and the gastrocs take a
l-o-n-g time to come back. Too, the forward positioning of the cleat loads the tendons and
connective tissue in the feet and ankles in unaccustomed ways, and they have to be reconditioned
too. My rule is that if the pain is in the bulk of a muscle, ride through it, if it's in fascia,
tendons, joints, or other connective tissue, or it gets worse under weight, quit.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I have no credentials whatsoever in exercise physiology - only 45 or
so years running and 55 or so biking, injuries too numerous to count, and many thousands of miles
covered using bad technique.
According to me, my foot numbness is largely due to blood pooling in the feet, and it's fixed by
effective use of the calf muscles.
hth, Fred Klingener
I don't have a measurement handy, and of course size isn't
