In the last few weeks I have started to experience pains in the back of my heels. It’s really noticable when I first get out of bed each morning. It feels like something is stretching really tight. After about several minutes of walking around the pain goes away, for the most part.
I am hoping it isn’t being caused by my practice for hopping. I only have been riding about 30 minutes a week, that’s about all the time I can fit in these days.
Has anyone experienced anything like this and have an suggestions?
It might help if when you are taking big drops (I don’t know if you are,) to land with the pedals under your heels, so that you aren’t stressing the tendants in your feet. Stretching before and after riding would also help with muscle soreness. When I was learning how to hop, my knees started hurting a lot, and then I learned to bend my ankles instead, for smaller hops. I hope it gets better,
I’ve had the exact same thing, but only in one heel. I noticed it after I got off the bus in the afternoon on Friday. I had PE right before school got out, though, so that might have something to do with it.
Have you been hopping a lot? Because if you are hopping to much on the front of your foot, like towards your toes, there can be a lot of bending on down in the heel region, exactly where you are describing. If you try and hop more towards your heel, as in almost put your heel on the pedal but not actually right on the heel, it should give you a lot less bending.
I experienced this pain, and I realized it was because of the way I was hopping, but once I moved my foot back on the pedal the pain immediately subsided.
Have you been hopping a lot? Because if you are hopping to much on the front of your foot, like towards your toes, there can be a lot of bending and stress in the heel/ankle region of your foot, exactly where you are describing. If you try and hop more towards your heel, as in almost put your heel on the pedal but not actually right on the heel, it should give you a lot less bending.
I experienced this pain, and I realized it was because of the way I was hopping, but once I moved my foot back on the pedal the pain immediately subsided.
i had a heel issue last year, Frank A. suggested Tulis heel cups…i havent had the pain again since.
here is the post?
I had my first experience with that about 15 years ago. After all sorts of unsuccessful advice from podiatrists, I have been wearing Tulis heel cups in my shoes ever since. That recommendation came from an orthopaedic Doc. They cost about $10 and I don’t wear shoes without them, did the job for me. Give that foot time to heal up 'cause that can linger for a long time and sometimes can result in a heel spur.
U-turn,
Sorry to hear the news. Will things heal up without surgery?
When I first saw this thread title I thought it was going to be about actual “falls” as in “ouch”.
Yeah, I had something like this too and the doctor reckoned it was to
do with too much unicycling (I think too much landing quite heavily on
my feet when I was learning to ww). On his recommendation I got
‘sorbothane’ insoles and it went away almost immediately when I started
wearing them.
Wow, I thought this thread was dead and buried after the third response. I found this by accident on a search with more responses. Never got but one reminder in my email. Thanks for the responses!
Everyone’s thoughts about the hopping are probably correct. Yeah, I have been doing a lot of that, when I do get to ride. And yes, I have been placing the ball of my foot over the pedal spindle.
It may also be from my shoes that I use for work. They are some Rocksports shoes I bought a year ago. Best supportive shoes I ever owned, until, maybe now. They are shot. I got some similar ones on order. After they arrive, that should help. If that doesn’t help, I will try Jagur’s suggestion about the heal cups.
I do suffer from heal spurs from time to time. It’s from shoes with too soft of a heal that are the worst.
I will also start working on hopping with the foot farther forward after the discomfort hopefully disappears.
BTW, it’s me teachndad. I somehow locked myself out of using my own screenname again… I will get it worked out.
I’d just like to point out that if the pain is in your achilles tendon, be careful! doing anything strenuous where your tendon hurts creates microtears in it, and will weaken the tendon. And the achilles tendon is something you don’t want to break.
This is all stuff I’ve read here on the forum, but I believe it since people here tend to give good advice.
I had this problem this past summer when trying to do the Alps Tour Training. It basically stopped me for about 3 months. After healing up, I’ve found that drawing the alphabet in big flourishy letters with my feet and ankles every morning helps a huge amount. So I’ll be doing that for the rest of my life…