Hot foot cramp while riding

[Dombo]

Got this the other day on the SWRC May Flyer, absolute agony in the middle three toes every time I applied any pressure after about 50 miles. Only my advanced years kept me at Gold given the pathetic time it took me to crawl around the long course.

Does anyone have any tips to cure/prevent this? I'm dreading getting it halfway across the Brecon Beacons on Sunday. Paracetomol and Ibuprofen have been suggested but I'd appreciate any other tips.

[Andrew G]

Have a try of the Specialized footbeds. Pearsons do them and they cost about £40. You get a different colour depending on you type of foot and possibly a wedge/plate or two inserted, although if you've had a bike fit and got special wedges from them I don't know how these would work together. The footbeds are very good though and provide additional arch support and the separator keeps your toes where they should be.

[Robh]

Get back to Cyclefit Dombo to get their opinion unless you've done this already?

[Dombo]

Thanks, I had the blue Spesh footbeds; now in my mtb shoes as Cyclefit did the custom sidas ones for me. Emailed them re the problem but no reply as yet. Fingers crossed for Sunday.

[huw williams]

Riding with your shoes a lot less tight will help the symptom but not the cause, which is almost certainly down to the relationship between your foot position inside the shoe and the shoe's position on the pedal. Only with a proper look at these will you be able to alleviate it. I normally suffer on summer sportives too but after Nick de Meyer had a look at mine and I made some changes I got round the Nove Colli in 40° heat without a trace of hotfoot.

[Toks]

I agree with Huw Dombo. Its probably a foot relative to the pedal issue. Over the winter I unknowingly started pedalling toes pointed down for some reason because of a saddle height change. I got sore toes and slightly hot footed. I then reduced the seat height a touch (originally increased because of a sore knee) and it disappeared within a couple of rides. Good luck mate. Perhaps you can and have a look at your foot/pedal position to see if you can change things before tomorrow

[nick de meyer]

hot foot is generally caused by rubbing of your foot in the shoe from having a forefoot tilt where you foot is not optimally planted in the shoe. Approximately 96% of the population has what is known as a forefoot tilt. This is where the front of your foot is not flat but rather has an angle or tilt. Modern clip-in pedal systems do not accommodate this tilt, instead forcing the foot into an unnatural flat position.

for more info have a look at http://www.sound-coaching.co.uk/shop/pa ... hop_param=

i have a special measuring tool which works out how many wedges you might need when i do a bike fit, and on which side of your foot the raised up section (1.5mm) should be. you don't really want to be guessing this, as if you get it wrong, you'll likely be doubling the problem, so i wouldn't recommend buying these sort of things off the shelf without being measured first..

[Dombo]

Thanks Nick. I'll give the Cyclefit guys a chance to put it right first as they set the cleats with wedges and provided the custom insoles.
I think they may have set the offending cleat slightly too far forward - I had seven hours to contemplate and analyse the source of increasing discomfort on the Dragon Ride while popping painkillers every couple of hours (coming in at 843rd out of 1544 finishers on the long route I reckoned not to be first choice for a urine test at the finish).