Trying out Orthotics for Cycling & Running

An article by Debi Hazelden    2 Comments

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I had the opportunity to try out custom fitted orthotics, so I thought I would. I’ve been a bit iffy about trying them as I’ve never been injured (touch wood) so I wasn’t sure if I should change if I’m not broke.

But with the opportunity to try them for free I thought – why not! I know there are things about my running style and biking style that I can change.

Whitney, a friend I work with, and I went to Formthotics to get fitted. We sat down with podiatrist Rebecca Gilford and pulled out our shoes. My cycling shoes are very old – a bit embarrasing.

Whitney and Rebecca

The Heat Moulding Process

The moulding process was pretty easy. Rebecca slipped the orthotics into the shoes and put them upside down on a heater for a minute. I then put them on and stood with my knees pointing slightly outwards and knees bent for 1 minute. That was it!

My running shoes on the heater - heating up the orthotics

My cycling and running shoes with the new orthotic insoles

Cycling Orthotics

Rebecca said my cycling shoes were not right for me as they pushed my foot to roll the wrong way – which would mean my orthotics would push it one way and the shoes the other. This would be because I bought my cycling shoes off Trademe second hand and they had already been heat moulded to another person’s foot aha. Ok.  I need some new ones. I do love the ones I have though. They are the Shimano ladies tri shoe. The new version is the WT52 tri shoe so I will look at purchasing that one. I’ve seen it pretty cheap on Wiggle.co.uk.

WhenI had my bike setup with John Bull Cycles last year John said my right knee rolls inwards slightly. He said to get more power I should have some insoles to correct this. Now I have them I’ll go back and see John with my new orthotics and see if it has corrected the alignment.

These are the new cycling orthotics I have.

Running Orthotics

My KSwiss K-Ona shoes are a very neutral flexible shoe with not much support built in. Once we had moulded the orthotics to my running shoes Rebecca took me outside to look at me run in them. She was worried it might be too rigid after having such flexible shoes.

These are the running orthotics I have.

The Trial…

I had orders to only use the orthotics a little at first, rather than using them for a full session. So use them for 20mins to get used to them.

So what do  I do? Use them for a whole session. Yip I’m  bit dumb like that.

I couldn’t wait to use them, so I did in my spin class on Thurs night which was about 1.5 hours. Maybe I used them too long straight away? I got a slight sore foot – underneath close to the toe.

Then I used the running ones on Sat for a 1:45min run and I had no trouble. I was planning on just doing a bit of the run in them and swapping  to my other inner soles – but I used formthotics for the entire run.

Then on Sunday I did 70min bike and 10km run in them. Again I had that slight sore under the same foot, I don’t have it now though. I think it’s possibly just a matter of wearing them in.

I told Rebecca this and she said yes I used them too much too soon. Saying if it persists with the new shoes she’ll arrange for me to bring in my wind trainer and she’ll have a more thorough look at my feet and me on the bike and make some adjustments.

My feet feel fine today so I think it’s just getting use to them. I’ll be using them again at spin class tonight. I’ll keep you all posted with the progress!

If anyone else is looking at using orthotics for sport you can check out their orthotics products online.