After a long harsh winter, spring has arrived. Have you been out enjoying the beautiful sunshine and fresh air? In our neighborhood, we are seeing runners flock to the multi-use paths. Spring is a great time of year to start increasing your running/walking distance.
With increased running/ walking distance, however, comes the increased likelihood of blisters. Here are a few tips to prevent your running from being derailed by blisters.
- Healthy Skin
- Invest in Socks
- Shoes – Fit & Function
Healthy Skin
Healthy foot skin includes a few callouses. These callouses have built up over time to protect your foot from blisters. It’s OK to have callouses, but many people head for a pedicure as flip-flop and sandal season approaches. Great. Tell your pedicurist that you are a runner. Advise him or her that the callouses have been hard-earned. A good pedicurist will recognize the tell-tale signs of an active lifestyle and clean up your feet nicely while leaving the callouses intact. Yes, they can soak, soften and file the rough edges.
Ramp your mileage slowly. Yes, this is primarily to protect your knees, back and build support muscles and tendons while preventing injury, however, your skin needs time to adjust as well. A slight rub can send the signal to the skin to thicken in order to protect itself from blistering. Skin thickening is a slow process. By carefully ramping your distance, you give your skin a chance to heal between runs.
Keep your skin dry during the run as much as possible. After the run, wash, dry and moisturize your feet with a product like our ReCycleMint Shea Butter Whip. Not only will the menthol in the peppermint rejuvenate, but the tea tree oil will aid in preventing foot fungi, while the shea butter will moisturie and nourish the skin.
Invest in Socks
Thanks to a better understanding of wicking properties of materials and newer manufacturing techniques, some great socks are now available on the market. Find the sock that fits well on your foot. I recommend finding that perfect sock BEFORE finding the shoe. Different socks offer different advantages. If you have particularly hot feet, select a light weight sock – perhaps consider a high quality bicycling sock. They are thin, lightweight, versatile. If you prefer trail running or walking, perhaps a thicker sock is more your style. Years of hiking and wearing steel-toed shoes has personally left me a huge fan of toed-socks. Toed-socks help prevent blisters from forming between toes. Compared to shoes, socks are cheap. Try a variety early in the season while your distances are a little shorter. After each run/walk, look at the skin on your feet. Take note of how your feet feel, how the socks performed for you. The next time you head to the store for athletic shoes, take those favorite socks with you.
Shoes – Fit & Function
A glance at the shoes on the wall of a running store will tell you that every foot is different. Your body’s needs are different – and the sport that you choose has different requirements as well. When buying your shoes, consider the following:
Toebox – is there enough room for the toes to wiggle, but not too loose that you’re sliding around on the ball of the foot?
Heel anchor – is your heel sliding around, giving the chance to develop blisters?
Seams – check the internal stitching of the shoe, a seam that is misplaced relative to your foot can lead to disasterous blisters.
The terrain for your sport – are you running hills? just flats or walking? off-road or road running. Do you love to run through puddles and water?
The fit of your shoe and your sock will combine to help you combat blisters. Although there is no one answer to avoiding blisters, taking all these items into consideration will certainly help reduce the likelihood of getting blisters. See our next post when we discuss what to do if those nasty blisters happen to sneak up on you.
