Hi Group,

I’ve been riding for several years with the same shoes and bike, but this spring season I have been stepping up my training. Started out 2 to 3 times a week at 10 and 20 miles each for the first month. Then gradually increased to 30 and 40 miles the next month. This month I started to do even more riding and this past week I’ve been doing daily 20 mile rides with longer 40 mile weekend rides. Then all of a sudden I noticed my left big toe was bruised! Not sure what triggered it. Maybe I applied too much effort going up hills or maybe it’s some other reason. Is this common and have others experienced the same? Maybe I need a new pair of riding shoes or don’t do too much too soon. I’m more concerned about losing my big toe’s nail!

Losing a big toenail is a gift. I hate those things. I had my right one permanently removed and I'm going to get my left done next fall before ski season. Big toenails hurt and are generally in the way.

Your shoes are probably too narrow.

I was having issues with my big toenails when I rode. I found a pair of wide cycling shoes, problem solved.

Your nails thick & yellowish?

Google yourself Onychomycosis before you start trying DIY cures.

While we’re on the Google machine, Subungal Exotosis. That’s my variety of toe pain.

Thanks for that. Expands my knowledge base as your post is the first instance of my encountering that condition.

Google tells me it's common... whether as common as the fungus causing thick nails (with their attendant discomfort) I have yet to come to terms with.

I went to a foot doctor who basically said he could do surgery. He’d remove the toenail then open the toe and rongeur off the piece of bone that’s growing up. Or he could just remove the toenail and see if relieving the pressure helped.

100 percent better. I’m even wearing tight climbing shoes again.

Without the pressure from the toenail, I’m hopeful that the bone will not continue to grow. If it does, I suppose the eventual surgery would be a little easier now.

Everyone’s feet continue to grow as they age. Sounds like you need to upsize your shoes. I went from a 10 to an 11 and now all is good.

ah you don't need it & it will grow back

Gotta change out your foot gear. As you get older your feet flatten out getting longer, bigger. A few other things get bigger too. Of course some things unfortunately get smaller...

I posted a picture of my bruised big toe in my gallery if anyone is interested to see it! :-) LOL hopefully my nail won’t fall off!

I’ve changed my shoes and all is good. It seems to be the case as quoted.

Good news! It seems essential that feet have room to spread and do the work we want them to do.

I wasn’t comfortable with running or long walks for a number of years, as my big toes would get pinched and painful afterwards. As soon as I switched to wider, foot-shaped minimal shoes, that all went away entirely. Now running is a part of my workouts throughout the year, especially in the cold dark half of the year.

Otto

I bought an expensive pair of shoes, tryingi to find the perfect shoe, I found it (mine was a Bimbli),,,,,this week I took out an old bike,,,,,,left foot hurt bad,,,,these shoes are absolutely perfect on my. "regular" bike,,,,both are Roubaixs but set up slightly different,,,,obviously for me its the shoe/bike combo that has to be perfect

I did break my big toe off of the bike a year ago, after 2 weeks off the bike I tried to ride,,,about 20 miles in my big toe felt like I had destroyed it, I expected it to be a bloody mess when I took of the shoe,,,,no blood at all, but I had rebroken the toe from trying to ride again too soon (and it hurt more when I rebroke it than when I first broke it
'

Wow you actually broke your toe twice????
The same one????
How the heck did you do that?

I also had the dreaded black toenail and had to change a few shoes because they seemed too small. According to the internet, it's not that the foot grows, it actually flattens out, making it longer. Thus the small size.

At least you did not have the expense of calling a toe truck

Oh, come on, I cannot believe I was the only one to post this

For many decades I wore size 8 in most shoes, going to 8.5 in my early 50's. In the past 10 years, or so, I have gone from a size 8.5 to 9.5, and I have shoes that have a wider toe area. I had an episode a couple years when a blown out sidewall caused me to walk 2 miles home. The toe next to the big one was a mess, and very painful, when I arrived home. I wound up losing the nail, and cutting and filing away the callous the had formed over the years. The nail has come back, and fallen off two times, and now looks like it may not be growing back again. I have to keep the toenails trimmed very well, especially on the sides where the toes get squished together.
I have had no pain or other issues for the past year, but my miles are way down due to a bike crash last May. BTW, my feet really like Giro Berm shoes. They have very good toe room.

Removing toenails to fit in shoes is proper Cinderella's-stepsisters stuff. The lack of width of shoes is borderline criminal incompetence by shoe companies.

A podiatrist I used to work with said this pretty much every time he’d do a toe amputation.

It was funny every time.

My guess is that the companies maintained the same designs even after bike shoes transitioned from thin, stretch-to-fit leather uppers to all-synthetic construction (resulting in shoes that retained their original shape forever) without changing the fundamental dimensions.

Greg LeMond raved about his discovery of Carnac shoes back in the mid-1980's. Those shoes were wide and tall across the toe box. They were unlovely to look at compared to sleek traditional shoes, though, so they didn't catch on among amateurs. "It is better to look good than to feel good."

I think that's partially right, but the problem is more widespread than bike shoes. The core of it is that the people who design and test shoes are people who like shoes, which is to say they are people for whom current shoe designs work well. If you like shoes and they fit you, you're more likely, especially as a child when your feet are growing fastest, to wear snug-fitting shoes that don't give your feet room to expand. Thus, even when a company tries to design a foot-shaped shoe, they're measuring mostly shoe-shaped feet.

I was getting an ingrown toenail worked on and the resident told me she had all her toenails removed. This is now my dream for when I win the lottery. I have lost the ingrown toenail at least 3 times. Once due to frostbite and twice from riding. Bigger shoes helped so I don't lose it from riding any more.

No lottery winning needed. Call the podiatrist and tell them you want that toenail permanently removed. They’ll tell you that the risks are infection during healing and that your toe will be a lot less protected from injury without the nail.

The procedure takes about 10 minutes, you’ll limp out of the office because your foot is numb. It’s the same as a normal toenail plus a quick little acid burn.

I was mountain biking and ripping it up pretty hard the next day it was padded in gauze and hurt but was fine.

The portion my insurance didn’t cover was $800. That includes and X-ray because of preexisting hardware in there and a culture because I got a minor infection when I went camping for a week while it was still raw. I’m getting the other toe this fall between climbing and ski season. One of the best things I’ve done and well worth it.

That's good to know, I was talking about the cost of having all 10 removed, but I suppose $10k doesn't require winning the lottery either. I never had any problem after my toenails fell off, but they always quickly staredt being ingrown again. I'm getting sick of them cutting me up only to have a sliver grow back. One time I had a resident that wouldn't listen to me and cut up my toe, but didn't cut out the sliver. I hope he gets to specialize in gangrenous feet since he couldn't handle a toenail. Fortunately their rotations only last a month, and it took me a few months to realize it didn't work.

I absolutely can not stand to be around anyone who's lost any of their toes. I'm lack-toes intolerant.

I broke it helping a contractor working at my house, but I didn't let it heal enough and went back to riding, it was weak and on the ride I rebroke it,,it would not have broken the second time if it wasn't still weak from the first break,,,It was more painful the second time than the first