Epping Forest Epics

Cazza · Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 70

About 18 months ago I stretched all my ankle and foot ligaments (apparently they strap around the foot) running. After being out of action for about 4 months, spending loads of money on a podiatrist and orthotics, suffering the humiliation of being told that I have horses feet (equinus something), I was back to riding and doing pretty well, injury-free for quite a few months.
10 days ago I switched to SPDs. Since then the ankle/foot has been playing up. It doesn't help that the side I get off my bike is the dodgy ankle side. Even so, the SPDs are on really, really loose, so it's not effortful to get out of the clips, so I'm wondering if there's anything else I can do (apart from learning to transfer my weight to the other side and clipping out of the left foot). Such a shame to have to revert to platform pedals when I had really noticed the difference having SPDs made to my riding.
I'm writing this in the hope that there's a sports injury specialist amongst us who can help!
Cheers

Caz

tonto · Joined: 03 Jan 2006 Posts: 151 Location: danbury

oh dear - do you know exactly which ligaments are giving you the problem?

if it is the one that are on the top of your foot ( tibialis anterior, halusus longus etc) then it might be the action of lifting the pedal under load that is the problem. as this is one of the main benefits of spd's it's a shame if its the cause of your pain.

other options to try are
altering the position of your cleat - try sitting on a non spd bike and seeing the direction your toes normally point when pedalling, and copy this with your spuds.

specialised body geometry shoes are very good and supportive of the foot, they rectify a lot of refered knee pain due to incorrect alignment of the foot on pedals

different spds - Time ATAKS or Speedfrogs (I can't remember who makes them) give a lot more float which can releive stress arround the ankle.

if it is the twisting action of unclipping that is the cause then it might be worth posting on singletrack for advice on which clips require the least twisting action to dis-engage.

HTH

paul
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it's all good in the wood!

Cazza · Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 70

Paul - a genius in our midst! Thank you for that advice. Not sure exactly on the ligaments that have been damaged, cos the pain seems to move from the front of the foot and then round to the achilles periodically throughout the day.

I will wait till I'm pain free (funnily it goes when I ride, but comes back with a vengeance afterwards, so I reckon it's just the endorphins blocking the pain temporarily) and then try some of the stuff you've suggested. At the moment it's at the tedious stage of rest and anit-inflammatories that is making me very sorry for myself. Can't do SITS at the weekend and was really, really looking forward to it.

Laters (hopefully not too much later)
Caz