Ankle pain (OMG not again)

[north woods gal]

Sorry to hear about the ankle issues, NY. Old injuries like that seem like they come back to haunt us, now and then.

One suggestion for when you get back to biking is to try flat pedals instead of clipless on your road bike. I know ditching clipless is almost heresy for the road bike crowd, but I switched to flats, this year, precisely because I was plagued by foot cramps on long road rides when using clipless. Would have to stop and massage the foot and sometimes it was a long and painful process. Going to flats allows me to move my feet around more on the pedals rather than having them locked in permanently in one position. Has greatly reduced the foot cramps and, maybe it's just a coincidence, but haven't had as much back pain or pinched nerves in my legs that also plagued my in the past from too many miles on the bike. I'm no doctor, but I do think locking your feet into clipless pedals might further aggravate the repetitive stress injuries to your ankle.

Remarkably, have kept track of my average speed over the same routes with clipless versus flats and have not found a significant difference. Anyway, just a thought to keep in mind as an option.

[ny biker]

Thanks ladies. I went out and bought some insoles last night and I think they started to help immediately.

I actually was looking into flat pedals with pins yesterday. My bike is in the shop right now for the annual clean-and-tune, but this weekend looks like we'll have good riding weather and I'd like to take advantage of it. I suspect I will be able to pedal without problem, but turning my foot to clip out could be an issue. But, if I get flat pedals I will need shoes too, because I think the soles of my sneakers are not stiff enough. So this could get expensive quickly. Another option would be to put flat pedals on my mountain bike and ride that for a while -- I think I could use my mtb shoes without cleats. My main concern there was Catrin's comments in another thread about the pins scraping up your legs if the pedals hit them, since I do recall cuts on my legs back when I had flat pedals with toe cages on my mountain bike.

But, one thing at a time. I'm wearing compression socks today with Superfeet insoles in my sneakers. Tonight I will look for a better-fitting compression sleeve.

I know you can relate to how hard it so to suddenly not be active. It's bad enough not being able to go out and walk with the nice weather we're having. But around here we have several large outdoor shopping centers -- mega strip malls and "town center" clusters of stores. I always park my car and then walk from store to store when I'm running errands, but now I need to think about driving from one to the other if they're not close together.

[Pax]

One thing that might help is your superfeet in your sneakers, they will stiffen them up a little. At least enough so you could ride some now and figure what you want longer term.

[Catrin]

NY Biker - While I DID get a few scars from pedal slap from my SunRingle ZuZus - that passed pretty quickly as I learned how to both start and stop and avoiding pedal slapping at the same time. I can't even see those scars any longer, so they weren't very deep. Tall socks would help as well - and guards for mountain biking.

[Crankin]

I hope you figure this out, NY.

[north woods gal]

NY, you really DON'T need special shoes for flats. You don't want too floppy, of course, but going too stiff may aggravate your ankle injury. A good walking shoe or light hiking boot is fine. I use my light New Balance hikers most of the time for backcountry work. Heck, in the summer, I've even used my Birks for quick rides, but my lug sole Columbia hiking sandals also work. In the winter, some folks up here even use Sorel pack boots.

There are special shoes for flat pedals if you want to spend the money, of course, but one of the big advantages of going with flats is that it gets you away from needing bicycle specific shoes. The only real advantage of flat specific shoes is the sole material that allows good grip with pins, but all kinds of regular shoes can do the same. Even my lugged hiking boots and lugged sandals have plenty of grab. Just a matter of trial and error with a given flat pedal to see what works.

[ny biker]

So, an update. I bought two different ankle-compression things and lost count of how many others I tried on, and I hated them all. They either are too tight on my foot, or have a heel opening surrounded by too-tight stitching, or bunch up in front of my ankle when I try to walk. I already returned one of the ones I bought and will be returning the other one tomorrow.

Ultimately the best thing has been an old-fashioned Ace bandage, because I can decide how tight to make it. And they cost less than all the other things I've looked at. I've bought two of them so I can wash one and still have one to wear. With the Ace bandage and the Superfeet, I have been mostly pain-free for several days now. After a week off from all exercise, I'm going to the gym tonight for weight training.

While I was at the bike shop the other day I mentioned that I might need to put flat pedals on my road bike for a while while the ankle recovers. I stressed "might" since I hadn't tried to ride or clip in and out yet. But they insisted on lending me a pair of inexpensive plastic pedals and showed me how to take off the Speedplays and put on the flat ones if needed. I had to buy a pedal wrench but can return it along with the pedals if I don't need it. As it turned out, the nice weather we were expecting for the weekend didn't happen and I ended up spending a lot of time working on the furniture painting project, and the place in my living room where I normally set up the indoor trainer is currently full of newly-painted dresser drawers. So I still haven't tried to ride the bike yet.