After a couple rounds of toe numbness and pain on longer rides with my new Specialized Pro MTB shoes (3+ hours, and on 4+ hour hard rides with my older shoes) I stopped by Fraser Bicycle and Fitness intending to pick up a set of higher arch support footbeds. Chris Goddard happened to be there and he checked me over, gave me a bunch of great advise about things to try, and set me up with 2x 1.5mm varus shims for each foot, blue/moderate support footbeds, and the suggestion that I move my cleats back. While I only had my old shoes with me, these were enough to get a good feel for what I should try.
Upon arriving home I immediately put the footbeds and shims in my new shoes, moved the cleats back a bit (maybe 7mm) and hopped on the trainer to try it out. While I only got in ~10 minutes of spinning, the shoes felt like they fit much better to my feet than they had before. I’m looking forward to a longer ride, but I now feel more like my feet are solidly planted in the shoes when I begin applying force, not that they press into place as I pedal. I hope this translates into even more comfort while riding.
I’m pretty happy on all of my bikes, but these new shoes had me a bit worried. Then with a bit of foot pain during a six-hour endurance race on Saturday using my old shoes, I got a bit more concerned… This seems like a good way forward.