SEVERAL folk have asked me recently if I’ve given up the hills for cycling? I’ve certainly been enjoying my bike a lot more in the past five years than in the previous fifty and it’s true to say that for me bikepacking has certainly taken over from backpacking.
Over the past few years I’ve cycled Land’s End to John O’Groats; toured through France from the Channel to the Med and cycled Ireland end to end. Last autumn I spent a couple of weeks cycling in the Picos de Europa of north Spain, an area that had some of the longest hills I’ve ever pedalled a bike on.
In between I’ve cycled the new Hebridean Way from Vatersay to the Butt of Lewis and last summer I rode the brand new Caledonia Way, 195 miles from Campbeltown to Inverness, camping wild at night.
In between I ride a road bike 12 to 15 times a month just to keep bike-fit for the longer trips, journeys that have taken on all the exploratory thrills and satisfaction of my previous backpacking trips.
I still climb hills as often as I can but now that I’ve reached the giddy heights of pensioner status the simple fact is that cycling hurts less than walking. If I climb a Munro or two I feel wrecked at the end of the day. If I put on my lycra shorts and jump on the bike I feel as though I’m in my twenties again. It’s all about the bike being kinder to worn and overused hips, knees and feet, offering less direct impact than walking. Until recently I thought my hill days were all but over.
Or at least that is what I was led to believe.
Until last summer I had been sidelined from the hills for almost two years because of a torn medial knee ligament. I could climb OK but descending was tortuous. My doctor kept telling me to be patient but at the age of 66 and with the years shooting past my patience isn’t what it once was.
But the doc was right. Last summer, while holidaying in the Alps my knee suddenly felt better and by the end of the holiday it was only slightly sore at the end of a hill day. Nine months later it had completely recovered. I wished I’d taken my doctor’s advice earlier. Instead of resting the injury (I could still cycle)I kept trying to climb or run and simply kept the problem recurring.
And then I have a nerve damage problem. About thirty years I slipped a disc in my back. One of the side effects was that the outside of my left leg went numb and today, as a legacy of that injury if I walk any distance at all my foot becomes tingly then sore then numb. However, if I stop for a few moments I get some feeling back in my foot and I can continue. Between Cairn Gorm car park and Beinn Macdhui I generally have to stop half a dozen times, so for the moment I can cope with that. I’ve been advised to lose some weight and work on my posture and that seems to be helping. I’m learning to listen to doctors’ advice.
But it was the arches in my feet that were giving me the biggest problem. Over the years they have gradually become more and more painful when I walk any distance, particularly when I walk on tarmac roads or smooth tracks. After just a few minutes walking they begin to chronically ache and I find myself guzzling ibobrufin and naproxen like sweeties, just to keep the pain at bay.
Eventually I managed to get an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon. He x-rayed my feet, commented that I had very high arches but other than that couldn’t see anything obviously wrong with my feet. Indeed, he reckoned they were in pretty good condition for someone who has battered the hell out of them for nigh on half a century.
He explained that the foot joints weaken over the years and thought that my high arches contributed to this. He suggested I think about trying some orthotic inserts to see if I could relieve the pressure on my arches.
I knew exactly who to speak to. When I was editing TGO Magazine I organised some boot-fitting clinics with an American called Phil Oren who had developed a boot-fitting system for outdoor retailers using Superfeet insoles. Andy Blair worked for Superfeet at the time and has since trained as a podiatrist specialising in the kind of foot problems we outdoor folk often suffer from.
I arranged to meet Andy at Rob Edmonds’ excellent Mountain Spirit store in Aviemore where there is a machine that would allow him to custom-fit Superfeet insoles for me. Andy spent some time looking at my plates, did a few tests and then explained a bit to me about high arches.
Essentially the bone structure of the foot is like a tripod and when you stand on the foot, you are actually standing on the bony prominences of the bottom of the foot. If you have a high arch, there tends to be considerable pressure on the bony prominences at the heel bone and at the five metatarsal bones in the forefoot area. One of the arch’s many functions is to transmit energy from the rearfoot to the forefoot. It is also designed to have some movement for shock absorption.
Andy then described how a custom-fitted insole might help relieve the pain I was experiencing – the orthotic is specifically made to size to accommodate the height and the depth of the arch, filling some of the gaps on the bottom of the foot to offer support.
Apparently it isn’t necessary to completely fill or lift the arch, an error I had previously made when I bought some cheap off-the-shelf orthotics. They were horrendous things to wear, like some medieval instrument of torture, and almost put me off the idea of wearing any type of orthotics.
Andy explained that it’s best to accommodate to the foot shape in the arch area. What this means is that you don’t want a high arch support in the centre of the foot creating a bridge. This detracts from proper support in the rearfoot, or the proper support in the toe area of the foot.
Ideally, the goal is to support the biggest bone in the foot first, which is the heel bone, then accommodate and support the remaining structure of the foot.
Superfeet’s new carbon-fibre insoles were then warmed up in the machine and Andy fitted them exactly to the shape and profile of my feet. Since Andy also advised me to wear stiffer boots than I’ve worn for years I bought a pair of Hanwag Nazcats from Rob, slipped in the insoles and set off for a walk.
I didn’t want to push it so I took a stroll around Newtonmore’s Wildcat Trail, a seven-mile route over easy mixed terrain. It was the first pain-free walk I had enjoyed in years. For the first ten minutes or so the orthotics felt uncomfortable and I stopped and took the weight off my feet for a few minutes. The rest of the walk was a delight.
A few days later I climbed Schiehallion and once again my arches were fine – the orthotics were doing their job! Since then I’ve fitted orthotics to all my shoes and boots and I still can’t quite believe the difference. I wish I’d had them fitted years ago. Indeed, I’ve even fitted Superfeet orthotics to my cycle shoes and the solid, firm base has improved my cycling style as well.
The moral of the story is simple. If you have an injury that threatens your jaunts to the hills seek advice and do something about it. I believed my feet were completely knackered and I really thought my hill days were over. The day I climbed Schiehallion was wet, cloudy and cold and there was no view to speak of but it was like coming home. It was like rediscovering the hills all over again and there was an immense delight in knowing I still had many great hill days ahead of me.
I’ll still cycle as often as I can – I bought a fat bike this winter to tackle the snowy trails – but I’ll get to the hills as often as I can too. There’s life in the old dog yet, and it’s all thanks to some expertly fitted carbon insoles. Who’d have believed it?