How I Solved My Cycling-Induced Foot Pain

I am infatuated with my DIY Peloton setup. It has not only helped me stay active during quarantine, it’s been a great way to relieve anxiety. I may have relied on it too much, though, because not long after I started riding regularly (ie, more regularly than my pre-pandemic 2x a week spin classes) my feet started to hurt. A lot.

Part of why I exercise every day is to help relieve chronic pain symptoms. Weirdly, if you don’t exercise enough the pain is worse, and if you exercise too much, the pain is worse. So when my foot paint started, my first thought was that I overdid it, I played myself, and now I was paying the price. But after some research, I’ve learned that just about all cyclists experience foot pain, and I found some helpful tools that have virtually eliminated my pain completely.

First I changed my shoes. The first pair I got solely because they looked nice. This turned out to be a bad plan, and I think my foot pain was noticeable so quickly after I set up my bike because I was wearing the wrong shoes. I knew the shoes they give us at my spin studio were good, so I just bought them in a 42, the size I wear there. But then as I was riding at home, I noticed that my toes were hitting the end of the shoe, and sometimes my toes would get numb and I couldn’t really wiggle them in the shoe, so I got one size bigger. All this was happening while I couldn’t go to a store and try on shoes, so it was a lot of online ordering and mailing back what didn’t work. I’m now in a Shimano RP1 43, which I would have never guessed, as I’m a 40 in European sizes AND I wear a 42 at the studio AND according to their size chart, a 43 is a women’s 10.5, a full size larger than what I wear. Can you see how this non-problem was turned into a problem by not being able to try on in store? But now I have good shoes and hopefully that’s the end of that.

Fixing the shoes was a big help, but I needed to do what I could to prevent more pain, and treat the pain I had. This is when I learned about toe socks. I mean, I knew about toe socks, I thought they were a fashion choice made solely by weird preteens. Turns out, wearing what are essentially gloves for your feet is really helpful for activities like running and cycling. When you’re in regular socks, your toes all rub together and you can’t easily extend them and flex them, plus all that rubbing together leaves your feet with all kinds of other problems. With toe socks, I can fan out my toes, wiggle them easily, and they don’t rub together and cause blisters or who knows what else. The best of the best, according to my internet research are from Injinji, and I got two pairs (and just ordered some more). They’re maybe the most expensive socks I own, but they’re worth it.

This is the underside of the pads. You can faintly see the outline of the gel pads inside the lil’ socks

The arch support pads are labeled L and R, which I definitely needed to help me figure out how these are supposed to fit

Then I looked into padding. I had pain on the bottoms of my feet, particularly in the metatarsal area, which again, is common in cyclists. I found some metatarsal pads that are kind of like half-socks. They’re good, but hard to wear while in my spin shoes, which is what I originally thought I would do. Instead, I ended up wearing them around the house when I wasn’t exercising, and it was very helpful in relieving my pain post-cycle. I also got some arch support pads, because I wasn’t super certain the metatarsal pad alone would cut it. These pads are really nice, they come with three levels of gel padding to put inside the strap (I use the smallest one, the large was shocking) and they’re super easy to put on. Again, I wore these around the house when I wasn’t working out. I don’t wear either of these anymore, but I think that’s because they worked!

Finally, I learned about toe spacers. Actually, I was already very familiar with YogaToes, from a childhood spent poring over SkyMall catalogs. Because of my association with SkyMall, I never thought YogaToes were actually useful. Turns out, they are! They’re also not cheap. First I tried these toe separators from Mind Bodhi, because they had good ratings and were under $10. They really did help my feet and toes feel stretched out. As someone who experiences chronic joint pain, and frequently complains about how certain parts of the body just can’t be stretched properly, I wish I had known about toe separators years ago. The first pair are good, but they do take awhile to put on. You need to be careful not to rip them, but also get them positioned properly, and I am impatient. Which is why after using the cheaper separators for awhile I splurged on some YogaToes Gems, which are very similar to regular YogaToes, but even easier to put on. They’re open at the top, so you just tuck each of your toes in and boom! Done. I wear them in the evening for an hour or two, and it makes a big difference in how relaxed and stretched my toes and feet feel.

My days of terrible foot pain didn’t last exceptionally long, but having nothing else to do, it did feel like I had irreparably damaged my feet. Now that I have the proper tools? I’m a cycling machine. And good thing to, I’m starting to get really attached to “my friends,” AKA the Peloton instructors that are saving me from pain and panic.