Originally Posted by
rbart4506
Another Sidi user who thinks he has Morton's Neuroma. My right foot and ankle have been bothered me for 8 months now. Everything started for me with a Plantar Wart on my right big toe. That sucker hurt big time and caused me to adjust my gait. I couldn't put any pressure on my big toe and I was walking on the outside of my foot. By the time I finally got the wart to go away my ankle was starting to cause me issues. I was, and still am, having pain on the outside edge of the ankle bone. Then later I started getting pains on the outside of my right foot, right where I had been putting pressure. At this point I don't believe I had Morton's, but my feet were bothering me so I thought changing my insoles would be good. I had been using the blue Specialized BG inserts in my Sidi's and I found that there seemed to be excessive arch support. I decided to try the red's which have less arch support.
First time I tried them on the shoes felt great. My foot finally felt like it was getting consistent support and not putting so much pressure on the arch. Well as time went on I started to notice that I was getting pain in the area you described. I just assumed it was all related to all the other little pains I was having in my foot.
After reading your thread I thought 'bang! that's what my problem is'. Your comments about arch support make total sense to me. With the red insert the shoe feels nice and seems to fit my foot, but I do notice that when riding that there is a lot of pressure across the ball of the foot. The arch is taking very little of the pressure and I'm sure the ball of the foot area is getting the pinpoint pressure.
My feet are also narrow and I'm certain that the Sidi's aren't to narrow for me, but the floor shape is wrong! It's too curvy and creates excessive pressure on my big toe. One thing I have done with my Specialized inserts is to place one of their shims in the bottom of the shoe. I've cut an area of the shim out to allow more room for my big toe. This modification flattens out the floor of the shoe and gives the toe more room, but it also takes away from the arch support of the shoe. So I think this modification and the red insert have brought the arch support down to zilch.
My next step is to put the blue insert back in the shoe and see how my foot feels. I'm sure the additional arch support is something I need.
My foot wasn't too bad until this past weekend when I hastily carried the laundry up from the basement to the second floor in bare feet. The next morning the Morton's area was really sore and in coincidence was when I read your thread.
Hopefully these changes help. The next step is finding a local podiatrist who has experience dealing with cyclists.
I just wish I could find shoes that fit like the Sidi's, but with a more flat floor across the forefoot....
I hate shopping for new shoes!
BTW at this point I don't have a lot of pain or numbness and it doesn't come close to stopping me from riding, but I know there is a problem.
All good points. I have read exhaustively about this and the whole thing makes a lot of sense to me now. So much can be written about foot mechanics. If you have a narrow foot you have greater psi's throughout the bottom surface of the foot anyway. If one doesn't support the arch, then the pressure goes to the pads or metatarsal heads as they are called as you correctly call point loading. If a foot is narrow and unsupported it is like a hotdog rotating in a bun and this torque distorts the foot and pinches the nerve between the 3rd and 4th interspace...known as Morton's neuroma. This all happened to me. The key is understanding how to address it. The other thing I will mention is Sidi's have a fair amount of arch built into the floor of the shoe. When you introduce an arch support...say a Specialized foot bed or insert, it is the confluence of the shape of the insert in combination with the floor of the shoe shape that dictates the interface with your foot. They are not independent.
This is why you want to seriously consider custom shoes at some point if you are going to ride big miles. The other important thing is cleat placement. Read all the links on mid arch cleat placement. I believe it is critical for those that have damaged their forefoot like we have to pressurize the pedal more toward the middle of the foot. If you want to recover and continue your cycling you have to move your cleats back.
All the best and please update this thread with what you learn.