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Hot spots

 
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Josh
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PostPosted: Thu May 01, 2003 5:20 pm GMT +0000    Post subject: Hot spots Reply with quote

Howdy Doc,
In the summer, I get a very painful burning on the my balls of my feet after about 2 hours of riding. It does not happen in the winter and it happens with all of my cycling shoes. It goes away after I walk around for a bit.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Josh
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The Bike Doc
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Joined: 08 May 2003
Posts: 1398
Location: Corpus Christi and Warda, Texas

PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2003 7:48 pm GMT +0000    Post subject: Reply with quote

Josh:

I suspect your problem is related to foot swelling that is likely occuring in the summer time heat. This in turn causes increased compression of the nerves that run alongside the long foot bones called the metatarsals.
This then leads to burning in the balls of the foot and or to the toes.

You may want to consider slightly wider shoes for your summer riding or loosing the straps or laces up after the first 30 minutes of riding. As you get older, you will be more prone to foot and leg swelling. I often recommend wearing knee lenth support stockings to those individuals who have problems with foot and ankle swelling. (You can procure these from medical supply stores without prescriptions depending on the model you choose.) Even fit athletes experience this problem. Greg Lemond writes in his autobiography of his feet swelling during long rides.

Thanks,
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jt
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Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 274
Location: San Antonio

PostPosted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 9:24 am GMT +0000    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey Doc,

Along the same lines, I experience what I would describe as mild cramping of my right foot.

I don't notice it until post-ride. Maybe call it stiffness, it is more on the top of my foot, feels kindy stiff and achy.......

Could this be from swelling as well? Occurs with two different brand of shoes and pedals....

thanks,
jt
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The Bike Doc
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Joined: 08 May 2003
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Location: Corpus Christi and Warda, Texas

PostPosted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 12:04 pm GMT +0000    Post subject: Reply with quote

jt:

It could be due to swelling. Consider getting a pair of mens support stockings (procurred through a medical supply company, check the yellow pages in your area). The compression stockings can significanly reduce the swelling (and they decrease chain ring tattoos to boot). They are available in different colors and look like conventional knee socks but provide more compression to keep the swelling down.

Also consider having your foot sized checked to make sure your right foot is not significantly larger than you left foot. If this is the case and there is a significant size difference between to the two feet then you may need to have a larger right shoe to avoid the problem. Sometimes buying for the larger foot and double socking the smaller foot can compensate for the size difference but occassionally there is a great enough difference that you will require two pairs of the same shoes, one for the right foot size, one for the left foot size, an expensive alternative, but a vialble option to avoid long term pain and complications of poor shoe fit.

Do not hesitate to get an evaluation by a Podiatrist (foot doctor) if the symptoms persist or worsen. There could be other problems such as a neuroma or a local tendonitis (inflamation to the tendons) or fascititis (inflamation of the fibrous surrounding of the muscles and bones in the foot).

Thanks,
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Anonymous
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 10:12 pm GMT +0000    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm not a doc but I used to sell shoes.

Bike shoes are particularly prone to not being long enough. The mechanics are involved, but a bike shoe should be as long as the TOTAL length of your foot, not the rhumb line from heel to toe. So the usual pusing down and making sure your toe can wiggle is usually inadequate - or worse - getting something that looks the same size as your running shoes.

Having a large "toe box" - like on the Answer XC-1 - is invaluable, especially if you have a high instep and/or wide forefoot.

Long story short - your shoes are probably too small.
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Anonymous
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 9:57 am GMT +0000    Post subject: Reply with quote

Certainly all these things could be true, but there has got to be other reasons for hotspots.

on my MTB I never get hotspots. I've got a pair of Sidi dominators (the vented version) and I use Time ATAC pedals

On my road bike I always get them. Nike carbon shoes (possibly not wide enough) and Time pedals.

so last week I put ATAC's on my road bike and rode in my SIDI's and STILL GOT HOT SPOTS.

could seat height and possibly ankle angle have anything to do with it? If the seat is just a touch too high and your toes are pointed down rather than your foot being flat you could see an increase in friction along the sole of the foot, but most heavily along the ball and heal.

I'm just throwing it out there.
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The Bike Doc
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Joined: 08 May 2003
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Location: Corpus Christi and Warda, Texas

PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 12:11 pm GMT +0000    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rek:

You may be onto something with the saddle height. Try bringing your road bike saddle down some to a height near that of your mountain bike. Also look at the differences in the saddles between the two bikes. If they are the same model move on. If the road bike saddle is different, you may want to try your MTB saddle on the road bike. The issue here may be compression of the nerves coming under the thigh bone (femur) and the variation of the seat height or saddle width may be causing some compression on the sciatic nerve leading to your hot feet.

Thanks,
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AKA: The Bike Doc
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Murkona
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Joined: 31 Jan 2005
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Location: Austin

PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:40 pm GMT +0000    Post subject: Reply with quote

In my road racing days I had foot problems all the time until I moved my cleat back and worked on my pedaling. No matter what shoe I wore there was a problem. It turned out I was smashing my toes in the toe box of my shoe and ended up with hot spots, in grown toe nails and pain on the sides of my feet. I thought this was just part of the sport until I got some coaching.

Some options:

Try raising your saddle and move the cleat back, on your shoe, more towards the arch of your foot. Also, try to flatten out your foot by not driving the pedals down-forward with your toe's while pedaling. By practicing dropping your heels when you pedal you'll also figure out how to use your hamstrings etc... Dropping heels, moving the cleat back, raising the seat and picking the correct fitting shoe...one or all of these will most likely fix the problem. I eventually did them all and haven't had problems since.
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CBaron
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Joined: 20 Jun 2003
Posts: 219
Location: Austin, TX

PostPosted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 9:33 am GMT +0000    Post subject: Reply with quote

After briefly reading through this thread, I figured I'll give my Hot Spot experience. It seems to be different from the ones listed above but may be it can help some other people who may be having issues.

I too had hot spot issues during the early portion of the road riding 'carreer'. It was on the outer portion of the ball of my right foot. It would get soooo bad that I'd have to stop and take my shoe off, massage my foot and then get going again. The last straw was me litterally being worried that I wasn't going to make it home because I couldn't pedal my bike any more.

The problem, I found, was that I was using my mtn bike shoe/pedals for the road bike. Two things were occuring: 1) my shoe/pedal interface was to small 2)the sole of my mtn bike shoe was too flexible. These two things when combined allow me to "roll my foot" (pronate?) to the side and this caused undue pressure to build up.

The solution was for me to get road shoes/pedals. I aquired some look pedals (with larg cleat interface) and also some stiff road shoes and viola(!) the problem immediately went away when all the pedaling forces were distributed amongst a larger area.
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