I drove in today. The main reason is: for the last couple of days, I've had some pain in the area of the right foot arch. It's difficult to describe it - a bit like a shooting pain when comes and goes when I am walking. It isn't constant, happens sporadically. There is no swelling or inflammation that I can see. I'm taking a couple of days off from cycling, will visit a podiatrist if it continues/worsens. Just thought I'd check here if someone had a similar experience.

One thing to note: I've changed my cycling habits recently (since about a week). My route is still the same, but there is road work going on, so the lanes are much narrower. I could ride closer to the sidewalk before, and cars could pass comfortably. I've been forced to take the lane for almost a mile now, as a result, I'm going much faster - riding between 20 and 28 mph. Could this be related to the pain?

Anyway, my plan of action is to take a couple of days off, start again on Monday and take a different, slower route. Hopefully that will help. Any other suggestions?

You have enough arch support?

J.

Yes, I had the same pain. It took months to go away completely, but OTOH, I didn't rest it very much. New cleats and stretching helped.

I should have added: I have Shimano shoes which seem to fit well. Arch support has seemed adequate so far - I've been wearing them for more than a year now. I used to cycle in soft soled shoes, and my left foot (arch) started hurting - but that was constant, not a shooting pain. Switching to cycling shoes did away with the problem entirely, until this latest occurrence - albeit on the right foot.

Sounds like Plantar Faciitis. Swellling of the tendon that travels below your heel to you toes. But I may be biased because I've been suffering with this since last October. If it is PI you will need to rest your feet for two to three weeks after the pain subsides. You should stretch the tendon by standing on a stair and lowering your body until you feel the stretch. You can also use a towel or a belt under the ball of your foot with your knee straight and pull your foot towards you. Use a tennis ball in the morning to roll under your foot to stretch it. Use a frozen water bottle at night to relieve the pain and swelling. The swelling is hard to see if it's not that bad yet. When you can see it you will be really sorry. Lastly take an anti-inflammatory like Ibuprofen everyday.
I was training for a Half Marathon and decided to up my mileage by 25% in one month. I found later you should only increase 10% per month. My foot started to get sore. I rested it for two weeks. I ran a 10k and then started snowboarding season and within a month I had to use a cane. I'm an avid snowboarder so I didn't stop right away. I should have stopped right away. I get re-evaluated in two weeks to see if I can start training again. If I would have rested for a month in October I would have been much better off.

My Podiatrist recommended ditching the stock arch support in any shoe I'm using and replacing them with something like Superfeet > https://www.superfeet.com/en-us/cycling

From the replies above, sounds like it could be related to the sudden increase in exercise - from easy 17 mph to 20-28mph. I will take another road and slow down, hope for the best!

Question: do you stretch by standing on a stair before every bike ride? Or is that more of a once-a-day thing?

+1

1. Rest and standing on stairs to stretch the Plantar.
2. Rub Gold Bond cream -- This really works!
3. Start buying orthodics from Foot Smart. I say this because all feet are not the same. A product might work for someone else but won't work for your. I had professional orthodics made and they were horrible. I could not walk on them because they were made of hard plastic! Get some quality soft orthodics from Foot Smart like SuperFeet.

Gold Bond Therapeutic Foot Cream | Walgreens
Comfort Shoes, Foot Care & Lower Body Health at FootSmart

If you have high arches, you may also want to look at insoles that have a metatarsal arch support too. I have high arches and suffer from problems like you describe and I need arch support under both. In my cycling shoes I use the specialized body geometry arches (green ones - high) and they work well.

J.

Something like this happened to me a few times. It was pretty much muscle pain.
Stretch and rest that's all it took. Keeping putting pressure on it and it will take more time to heal.
Happened to me as well when riding with mountaineering boots that have hard soles with no flex at all.

Happens to me all the time (1-2 times a year), then again i am a pretty big guy & i attack hills pretty aggressively. I will agree its the sudden increased demand on your foot parts. Try wrapping something thin underneath to bolster arch support & definitely stretch gently every day. It will eventually go away once the tissue stops being inflamed.

- Andy

I had a similar problem - excruciating arch pain after a few miles in my (left) foot. Never happened in the right. What fixed it for me was adjusting the cleats - ideally, they should be under the ball of the foot. Sure enough, the left was slightly back compared to the right. I haven't had the problem since.

if it continues, see a doctor...
sounds like Plantar fasciitis
I had it on and off, one thing I learned was to stretch every day to prevent it, but not so much when there is pain.
The pain means it's an injury, so let it heal first and don't do heavy strecting or it may delay the healing.
Once healed, stretch everyday

I had plantar fasciitis... and actually was a chronic condition, got out of cycling for a few years and when I came back to it, the PF came back, milder but immediately... turns out, I needed to tape my foot for a bit and allow it to truly heal...

I think I'm looking at the same thing. My arch hurts like a mofo this morning. My doctor is talking about Cordisol (sic) injections. How did you tape your foot?

well, my problem was the heel and included Achilles tendon pain...
I used this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi-gX5P4GAo

I used normal athletic tape that you can find in a pharmacy... worked like a charm, and when I went down to Disney, I was worried about a relapse so I brought the athletic tape with me and I would tape up in the morning like it was going to be an athletic event because once it starts, it takes a while to heal back up and it would make walking impossible...

I'm surprised that your doctor didn't mention plantar fascitis when you were in to see him. It's probably the most common foot problem around. It's worth a visit to the podiatrist to confirm.

Plantar Fasciitis - Symptoms, Treatments, Causes of Plantar Fasciitis - from WebMD

That said, you need arch support to prevent it. It's probably better to have too much arch support than too little and I think most people tend to underestimate the depth of their arch because it flattens when they stand on it (part of the whole problem). Once you have it, you need to be very careful to wear proper arch support until it heals - like no barefoot, like putting the orthotics in all your shoes, etc... Bike shoes, above all, typically have the *worst* arch support of all to the point of being laughable. My Sidis come with an insole that is a stretch to even call it an "insole". Some shoes are getting better about this but in general, the stock insoles in cycling shoes just suck.

Specialized dealers have three sets of their BG insoles for low, medium (blue) and high (green) arches. You stand on this thing and it tells you which one to pick. Even when they do that, if you show up as low or medium, I'd try the next size or two higher arch - you'll know when you find the one that works for you almost instantly. Also, the good thing about these is that they also have a metatarsal arch support ( that's the spot towards the front of your regular arch that is the arch that is in place for your toes. Look it up, hard to explain). This also can be crucial for foot pain and needs good support. My understanding is that people with high arches tend to need support there too.

As for the taping, it's sort of a stop gap thing. If the tape slips or if your arches are high, it's not going to do the deal. The problem with this stuff is that PF is sort of like a sprain - once you stretch it, it starts hurting and won't stop until you allow it to heal by either staying off of it or making sure you have consistent quality support. So you can try the tape thing, but you'd be way better off to get insoles. Even if this isn't the problem, having insoles is kind of a big deal anyhow. Most people feel a lot more "connected" to their bike when they have proper alignment of their foot with the pedal so that the foot is completely engaged and not just part of it (or the foot is pronating or supinating).

Anyhow, hope that helps.

J.