C.J. Miles was going through his usual pre-game routine when all of a sudden, it hit him.
He felt spasms in his feet, and had to run back to the locker room for treatment.
Since Miles’ availability was delayed Sunday night because he was on the training table to rub out the spasms in his feet, coach Frank Vogel had to make a late change to his starting lineup against the Philadelphia 76ers. In turn, Rookie Damjan Rudež got his first career start.
Miles discusses his latest issue: Working in new orthotics.
“It was bad timing,” Miles said after the win.
It’s not an injury, Miles, who scored seven points in more than 29 minutes off the bench, wanted to make clear. It’s an issue he’s dealing with as he works to correct another issue.
I’ll let him explain.
“So, basically, the thing is, I have flat feet,” Miles said after the game, with ice bags on both knees and his feet freshly removed from an ice bucket.
“Like flatter than the floor and I’ve been transitioning orthotics. Part of the reasons why I was having calf strains was because my feet are so flat, the way your feet naturally are with the arc, it keeps your ankles from sinking in this way (towards each other). So I had to get orthotics to support my ankles from doing that.
“I’m just transition from going from a soft (orthotics) to a hard one — like I have to get even harder. You can’t just put the hard one in right away. You have to go through steps. So every time I go to a harder one, it kind of like makes your feet spasm up or things like that. So sometimes I’m running and my feet is like catching a charley horse. My foot will kind of locked up, and then it’ll take a few seconds to come out.
“That’s why I come back, he [Pacers trainer Josh Corbeil] does whatever, we do the maintenance and then I go ahead and play. It’s not an injury, it’s just the transition.”
[Miles pops the question over All-Star break]
Over the last few weeks, Miles has worn different shoes in the games. Partially because he is waiting on an order to arrive from China, and also because he says it’s better for his flat feet and the orthotics to play in newer, harder shoes. His latest, most comfortable choice are a pair that come the locker to his right, George Hill, and his black PEAK G3 Monsters.
“The newer shoes, because it’s harder, it’s stiffer (and) helps,” Miles explained. “So once I start to sweat and they start to get soft, it allows the orthotics to move and my feet to sink. So I’ve just been making sure I stay in newer shoes so it’ll stay.”
The issue kept Miles out of practice on Thursday.
“(Saturday) I felt perfectly fine, not one thing happened,” said Miles. “And then, got in warmups (Sunday) and went to jump, I cramped up, and came back and fixed it.”
Miles said the unpredictable pain in his feet bounces around. One day it may be on the side of his foot, another day it might be at the top. Or, there will be no pain at all. Corbeil works to find the spot, and then Miles described the fix as to popping your knuckles and the relief that follows.
He’s hoping the transition in orthotics will be complete in the next week or two — and that it does indeed help to prevent future calf strains.