I would suggest you begin with a visit to a good podiatrist. Find one with good experience and a practice that doesn't focus on lots of surgery.
I have pain which I think is similar to yours, burning in the ball. Some years ago I had a cyst removed there which had caused me a great deal of pain, but it has never fully recovered. I switched from a surgery focused podiatrist to one content with less invasive modalities and that has helped. In my case he looked at my foot and said, "Your problem is that you're not fat enough." I liked him right away, but unfortunately he was only referring to my feet. He gave me a script for a pain ointment (which unwisely I didn't fill) and encouraged me to get good, cushioned sport inserts, and to replace them regularly. That has helped. I have a follow up appointment with him this month. The second thing I do is vary the pedals I use. On my Ram & tandem I use Speedplay Frogs (I know clipless) and on the Saluki I use the Paul's Urban pedal. That gives me some variety of contact point. For shoes, the worst combination ever has been a pair of minimalist sneakers and the Pauls. Now I stay with shoes that have relatively rigid soles - Keen Austins & Keen Commuters, both of which can be used with or without clips. I also like the Keen Austins regular version for walking around because that has also been a source of foot pain. I suspect I am paying the price for a career as a hospital chaplain who walked the halls night & day. Good luck with this. Michael On Thursday, April 30, 2015 at 10:09:58 PM UTC-4, Lungimsam wrote: > > Trying to solve my sore foot conundrum on longer rides and the more > research I do, the more conflicting info I get about whether or not > the shoe matters, or the pedal surface does (this is for platforms, not > clipless pedals). > > *Weigh in and tell me if you think that with the right kind of platform, > you can ride any street shoe you want, no matter how good or atrocious the > sole is.* > *Or, if its the shoe that counts.* > > Interested to know if there really is an answer to this before deciding to > sink money into either shoes or pedals first. Experimenting with bike > componentry gets expensive fast. > > In Just Ride, the author says its the pedal that counts only. Any footwear > works with a good platform pedal. > > *No need to mention the pedal/shoe as others are weighing in on that on > another thread here.* > *No need to mention strength of feet, as we have already covered that > issue, and that is a different matter for debate.* > > I remember riding the last three centuries on my MKS Touring pedals. All > with different shoes. > The first pair left me hurting (Old Nike Sneakers). > The second pair left me hurting (LLBean Mocks). > The third pair didn't hurt at all on that third century, but now they do > when I ride with them (New Nike sneakers). > I do get other minor foot complaints outside of century riding. So I think > a pedal/shoe change is in order. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
