That "my toes are going to fall off" feeling…

[dasgeh]

So yesterday, I went out to recon the Kidical Mass Arlington ride for next Sunday (btw, it’s going to be AWESOME – fire station, airport, landing planes, river, shade, bridges, boats, marina, pine forest, wooden bridge, Pentagon, tunnel and SPRAYGROUND. Seriously, when is the last time you had all of that in one ride?).

My first mistake was thinking “I’ll just run out to do the recon really quickly while the kids nap”. Ha. Somehow, I thought reconning a over 5 mile ride that’s 5 miles from my house would mean a 10 mile ride, so about an hour. No. 18 miles, 2 hours. Did I mention I haven’t ridden that long since… 2009? (There was one sprint tri with a 17 mile ride in 2011, but I trained for it and knew what I was doing before I got on the bike)

Luckily, I could refill water bottles on the ride (thanks, ArlCo, for having great parks). Also, luckily, my “I can ride for a long time as long as I don’t push it too hard” motor is still there.

Unluckily, when I was coming out of Fort Myer, my foot started to hurt. More specifically, when I stopped at a stop sign, my left foot, which I always leave on the bike, started to throb. My toes felt like they had serious frostbite and would need to be amputated. (This has never happened to me, but that’s my best description). As I pulled out, the feeling went away if I used that foot to pull up (v. push the pedal down), but if the foot was just resting in the shoe, or pushing down on the pedal, it was brutal.

I was pretty sure that if I stopped, my toes would fall off. Plus, I needed to get home to help with kids. So I pedaled on, trying just to use my left foot to pull up. It was brutal.

Finally, I got home. Got off the bike. And my foot was fine. Just fine. I was so confused.

I was riding my road bike (Felt, fit a long time ago, pre kids) with eggbeater pedals and Keen sandals. I’m hoping the solution is just moving the cleats in the sandals, but wanted to get the wisdom of the group (and tell the story). What say you, oh experts of all things bikey?

Topic

[Tim Kelley]

I’ll get a numbness in my toes on longer rides. If I unclip and swing a leg or two, or even get off for a moment at a stop light everything goes back to normal.

[PotomacCyclist]

I was doing that exact move the day before. My legs were dead from a long run (with lots of hills). I was doing an easy recovery ride on a CaBi bike later on. I found that swinging my legs like that helped with circulation. But I was going a lot slower than Voeckler was (although he didn’t seem to be riding that hard in yesterday’s stage).

[jopamora]

I experienced the same thing with my right foot with my eggbeaters after 30-45 minutes on the bike. I moved the cleat back and it doesn’t happen as frequently now. Really need to get fitted soon.

[Dickie]

It could be so many things. Hydration always rears it’s ugly head with symptoms such as hotspots and mini-cramps in your appendages, with me it always starts with my toes and bottoms of my feet. Another possibility is that the sandal’s soles were not stiff enough and the eggbeater pedal was applying pressure to one of the many nerves on the bottom of your foot, causing pain, cramps, or even temporary circulation issues. If you have ever had severe “pins and needles” you will remember that the pain can be quite excruciating. especially when blood flows back into the area. Thus, as you stopped you would feel the pain. I would try different shoes first and see what happens, drink more water during the day and at night and see if that helps before you worry too much.

[Brent]

As Dickie says, it could be a nerve pinch in the area, I’d try jopamora’s suggestion and move your cleats slightly to move the pressure off the nerve. Also shoes: I used to have this problem until I got shoes with a stiffer sole.

[PotomacCyclist]

I remember reading somewhere that Eggbeater pedals might be more likely to cause hot spots for some people. I’ve never used Eggbeaters myself, so I don’t know how accurate this is. But I’ve heard about it a few times.

[hozn]

+1 for stiffer soles shoes. Soft soles are great for walking around but not great for cycling. I find the Specialized Touring shoes to be a decent compromise, but definitely appreciate the carbon soles on my Northwave shoes for longer (4+ hour) rides. OTOH, those are apparently a little too narrow so my middle toes became numb on the Total200 and are still aren’t quite 100%. Having wide feet is a PITA for cycling shoes.

[Brent]

@PotomacCyclist 57906 wrote:

I remember reading somewhere that Eggbeater pedals might be more likely to cause hot spots for some people. I’ve never used Eggbeaters myself, so I don’t know how accurate this is. But I’ve heard about it a few times.

As someone who has ridden with Eggbeaters for years, this is very true. Stiff soled shoes help a lot.

I still like them because of the 4-sided entry and the main spring of the 3 series matches the blue accent color on my road bike.

[DaveK]

@hozn 57907 wrote:

+1 for stiffer soles shoes. Soft soles are great for walking around but not great for cycling. I find the Specialized Touring shoes to be a decent compromise, but definitely appreciate the carbon soles on my Northwave shoes for longer (4+ hour) rides. OTOH, those are apparently a little too narrow so my middle toes became numb on the Total200 and are still aren’t quite 100%. Having wide feet is a PITA for cycling shoes.

I’m the same with wide feet. Mostly in the toe box though. The Specialized Pro road shoes I recently got are among the best for the rest of my foot but I’d still rather have a little more room for my toes. I’m looking at Bont shoes since they seem to be shaped more like, you know, a foot.

http://www.bont.com/cycling/products/Road/vaypor/

Check the part about “Anatomical Forefoot Shaping”.

[Dirt]

It isn’t often that I get stumped on something. I had similar thoughts to others about sole stiffness, different shoes and possible cramping…. but I’ve done all of the above wrong on many occasions this year and never had issues like that. Maybe it is a problem that only humans experience.

I’m sorry, lady. I hope this doesn’t continue.

Rock on!

Pete

[hozn]

@DaveK 57924 wrote:

I’m the same with wide feet. Mostly in the toe box though. The Specialized Pro road shoes I recently got are among the best for the rest of my foot but I’d still rather have a little more room for my toes. I’m looking at Bont shoes since they seem to be shaped more like, you know, a foot.

http://www.bont.com/cycling/products/Road/vaypor/

Check the part about “Anatomical Forefoot Shaping”.

Awesome, I will give Bontrager a try! … Or I guess that is actually “Bont”, oops.

[dasgeh]

I switched to my commuter bike this week with regular ol’ Merrill street shoes. No problems.

It makes sense to me that the issue was caused by a combination of the shoes (sole stiffness and cleat position), pedals and time (I was on the bike for almost 2 hours — I’m usually on for less than 30 at a time). So I think I’ll move the cleat and try that set up again later this week.

It’s weird — last Thursday I twisted my ankle (hole in the sand at the park – ugh). It hurt like hell – I was a little worried about biking home, but that was fine. For the next 20 hours or so, I was limping around, icing, elevating, trying to move it, wrapping it, but still in a lot of pain. Then I sat down for lunch and an email-checking break. When I got up, the ankle was basically fine. Weirdest thing. So between this ankle that I’ve been worried will start hurting again any minute, and this toe thing that suddenly started then suddenly went away, I’ve been suspicious of my feet lately. Ugh.

Thanks so much for

[Author]

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