Beware of overtightening your shoes!!!

English Bob

New shoes for this years club race. Really comfy & light. Went for a size up from last year so reckoned I was going to have to do them up tight. After last weeks race and training I developed a strain / cramp in my calf that was concerning me. left shoes done up comfortable at last nights race as had a feeling they were involved & no strain!!
Cramped at end if race but can't blame shoes for that!!
In hindsight I reckon as my feet heated up my already tight shoes became restricting and put a strain through my Achilles.
Just thought this was worth sharing.
Don't do your shoes up too tight!!!

shamrock55

i find that when i put on my shoes first i have plenty room in them and can wiggle my toes and so on but after a while my toes start getting numb i think its cos maybe my feet swell during cycling would this be common

ashleey

Scrunch up your toes. Tighten shoes. Relax toes. Cycle. That's what I try to do. It seems to help a bit but your warning is spot on. Three hours of numb toes is bad news

kevvhayes

i have a similar problem. my right foot develops a kind of pins and needles sensation after about an hour. thought it might have been due to having my cleats in the wrong position but recently i've been cycling my mountain bike with flat pedals and it's still happening. any ideas what could be wrong??????

trad

There's a clip in the video "Ride the Divide" (link on boards somewhere) where one of the competiors rides the 2,500 mile event with new shoes. His heel was the biggest non accident mess i've seen in a while.

Keep_Her_Lit

kevvhayes wrote: »

i have a similar problem. my right foot develops a kind of pins and needles sensation after about an hour. thought it might have been due to having my cleats in the wrong position but recently i've been cycling my mountain bike with flat pedals and it's still happening. any ideas what could be wrong??????

I used to experience this occasionally after a couple of hours, though thankfully it hasn’t happened recently. The sensation used to alternate between numbness and throbbing pain in my toes – quite unpleasant and an unwelcome distraction.

I found that I could keep it at bay for longer by vigorously wiggling and scrunching up my toes inside my shoes every 10 minutes or so while on the move. If I dismounted and walked around, it disappeared pretty much instantly. It wasn’t caused by overtightening my shoes. Instead, I think that certain nerves in the sole of my foot just became a bit frazzled as a result of the repeated application of pedalling forces while my foot was in a particular position.

Since it conveniently went away of its own accord rather than being cured, I’m a bit short on helpful advice, sorry to say. It sounds like you’ve already experimented with your foot position on the pedals, which I’d agree is the first thing to check. You’re probably already using shoes with reasonably stiff soles. If not, you might consider trying a stiffer pair, though I’ve heard that too stiff can also cause problems!

Regarding shoe tightness, there’s definitely a sweet spot between a sloppy fit and one which restricts blood circulation. For the journey to work in the morning, I can get the straps a couple of clicks tighter than when coming home, so swelling is a factor too. Plenty of shoes can be readily adjusted on the move, which may be something worth having for racing. You can use a comfortable fit for most of the distance, then tighten things up a click or two with a few km to go if you fancy trying your luck in a sprint finish and want to be really solidly connected to your pedals.

MediaMan

I get numb toes a lot and I'm pretty sure it's due to the simple fact of cold air whizzing through the shoes, combined with the fact that my toes aren't doing very much while cycling. No real cure for this during the winter except to wear warm (but not bulky) socks, wear overshoes too, and wiggle those toes as much as possible. Keeping the shoes loose around the toe area helps with this, which brings us back to the original topic of this thread.