Training & Nutrition - Weird foot pain

On today's ride I started having pain in my right foot in a really odd place -- in the area where the foot and the tibia meet, but in the front and not the ankle area. As far as I could tell I didn't do anything to cause an injury; we had ridden about 20 miles and were leaving the rest stop after sitting for a bit and as soon as I started pedaling I noticed the pain. It seemed to get worse with more extertion and the area was somewhat tender to the touch. It still hurts a little, and pulling my foot up seems makes it hurt the worst. I've attached a diagram with an arrow pointing to the hurty spot -- how the heck does one manage to cause pain in this area? :(

Shoe laces too tight?

Originally posted by blwyn
Shoe laces too tight?
Hmmm... maybe, although in my case it would be the top Velcro strap. Another thing I noticed is that the tongue of the shoe is a little too long and kinda crowds that area of my foot -- it's never bothered me until yesterday but there's a first time for everything. I felt it again today wearing street shoes, so whatever happened appears to be a little bit persistent although I don't feel anything now. I went on a ride today and just to experiment I folded back the top 3/8" of the tongue and kinda tucked it under the Velcro strap to get it off of my foot and didn't notice any pain on this ride. I might just cut the tongue back a bit and see if that helps.

Hi Grendel

Old thread and long time to offer a solution, but here goes.

I have suffered the same pain problem in the right ankle on Audax rides. It started when I changed from the original crankset on my Fuji Touring to a Deore 22-32-44 last November. I thought about everything I could to try to solve the problem. Change of shoes, repositioning cleats (Time Attacs), putting new Attac MTB platform pedals on the bike.

The swap-out required a new BB cartridge. I got the new chainline spot-on, but it was only this morning (eight months and plenty of pain afterwards) when thinking hard about it that I should check the Q-factor. Sure enough, the right crank is 7mm closer to the seat tube than the left. It means I have been riding by pushing my right foot inward... not good for the ankle joint.

Simple and stupid. I should have checked the Q first off. Anyway, I am about to solve it (hopefully) by putting a new BB of different spindle dimensions in the bike.

Your problem may well have been similar, if you made a change to your bike at some stage prior to the pain starting. Irrespective, check the distance from the seat tube to the inside of each crank to make sure it is the same. May help.

The other side benefits for me is that I hope my Brooks Team Pro won't bite me like it did on a recent 3-day 645km ride, because from henceforth I will be sitting straight on it; and my left arm won't continue suffering the same ulna nerve problems. Time and riding will tell. At least I discovered all this prior to PBP in August.

R

An update:

I fiddled around with different-length bottom brackets but ended up using the one already in the bike. I did not screw it in all the way from the right side. This had the effect of moving the spindle between 2 and 3mm across to the right. The spacer on the left was screwed in further to compensate and keep the cartridge nice and snug. Loctite 242 also was used on all the threads.

The front derailleur is at its limit in shifting up to the big ring. The chainline to the rear cogs is not too bad. I also put a 1mm spacer on the right pedal spindle where is screws into the crank. It all means now that the offset on the right-hand pedal is only about 1mm, which is tolerable.

I've ridden the bike over distances of 40km a couple of times since, and despite trepidation that the pain was going to return, it hasn't so far. I have a long ride planned for next weekend to fully try out the new set-up.

The moral I suppose is to check and double check the dimensions of your bike to ensure everything is as symmetrical as it can be.

FWIW

R

Goes to show ya that little things can make a difference, huh? I'm still not sure what caused the pain originally, but I haven't had it since. Maybe I just turned my foot the wrong way that one time and didn't notice it until it started to ache... :confused: