Recently, when cycling, I’ve been experiencing acute pain in my fifth tarsometatarsal (?) - the bone that sticks out on the side of your foot.
This pain is in both feet and is really hampering my ability to move up to the next stage of riding (200+ km rides)
I cycled for 4 hours plus all winter in the same shoes, but a different bike.
I have cycled 205km on this bike in the same shoes with zero pain before, too.
There have been no changes to the bike position at all.
Could it be worn cleats are doing something?
I hate changing shoes, as setting up new cleats is an absolute drag.
Are my shoes too narrow?
I don’t know! One is a 46, which I tend to use in cooler weather, the other is a tri specific 47, which I wear in warmer weather, with booties, or just for triathlons.
Could I be “de-trained” to the position of the bike, having not ridden for seven weeks prior to recently?
Have I gone too long too soon?
My body doesn’t ache anywhere else, I’m not tired or feel like I a particularly pushing myself.
I’m really annoyed as I’ve never had this pain before - GRR!!!
Any help would be appreciated, cheers.
What’s the pain? Really specific, bony joint pain, or a general achiness in that area?
I got the latter for the first time on the Etape last year. I put it down to not having spent 8hrs in a pair of cleats before, and also never having ridden for prolonged periods in 40 degree temps before. I’ve since had it occasionally in other hot temps. So I think it’s quite likely to do with the heat causing my feet to swell.
But as mentioned, this is just general (quite sharp) pain, all around the lateral part of my foot around the point of the main joint of the little toe. And it was certainly not every ride, although I did have a handful of days off the bike after the Etape, so that probably allowed it to settle down.
The position on the bike may not have changed but you may have during lockdown. If that has signiificantly changed your habits then that might be contributing to your comfort on long rides? It could just be like you say and too much too soon. Back off a bit and see how that works out.
It’s like all down the fifth metatarsal, but quite acute on the bony part.
I’ve rarely cycled in the heat before.
I used to do my tri TT rides at 6am - 11am.
It’s meant to be a bit cooler tomorrow, so I’ll see then!
After that I’ve about five days off longer rides.
Could it be anything to do with running my tubs at 160psi?
Although I’ve never had issues with that at Outlaw either.
@pacha - Tri shoes are dreamy.
They’re old, but I’ve never had any issues with them.
My road shoes don’t feel narrow, but are about 0.5 too small (46.5 would be much better), so I tend to wear real thin socks with them.
Turns out that over all of my winter rides, my cleats had gradually “slammed” back on the shoe.
You know, edging back like 0.1mm per ride with all the clipping in.
Having had a look at them, I saw the outline was NOWHERE near the cleat
Turns out you can adapt to pretty much anything given time.
After seven weeks off the bike, that adaptation had gone and I’d gone back to the “normal” way of responding to my cleat position.
Having now done a 45km and 100km ride with the cleats back in the “normal” position, I can report no foot pain
