UKC

One for the combined wisdom of UKC.

Following a half marathon on Sunday I am now the proud owner of a blood blister near the ball of my foot, slightly up the side of the big toe. In close proximity is a fairly hard callus (or callous or however you spell it).

I've had some soreness here when running, which I put down to my less than gazelle like gait and about a stone too much flab. I left the callous alone as it seemed to be doing a fairly good job of preventing blistering in the area.

I'm guessing the blood blister might be due to repeated impact on the callus, (the blood seems to be partially beneath it and maybe the callous is impacting when my foot strikes, or possibly is nipping the skin between callous and running shoe.

Apologies for the link, and my foot isn't normally this mucky, but it's still got the remains of zinc oxide tape on it.

http://instagram.com/p/tQq4OpQfpg/

So going forward, what's the best way to prevent this in future. Remove the callus or let the foot toughen naturally? Cotton socks or synthetic? Tape up or smear in lubricant? Change my running gait, (I do over probate but have orthotics to correct). Wear a more minimal or more cushioned shoe?

There's lots of conflicting advice, so what's the consensus on here?

Thanks in advance.

In reply to Ridge:
'going forward'? Argh! Nails down a black board. ()

I wouldn't wear cotton socks, I'd imagine the cotton would hold onto foot sweat and rub in a way neither wool or synthetic socks would do.

In reply to Timmd:

I humbly apologise. Bullshit-speak occasionally breaks through after work

In reply to Ridge:
I wouldn't apologise, it can happen to anybody.

If it's not bullshit-speak it's waffling about something, or bending the truth about what we've done.

A fully objective bullshit free person doesn't exist. ()

Back to your feet...

In reply to Timmd:
Very gracious of you Timmd, makes me a little less consumed with self loathing

Anyhow, back to feet. Did a steady 7 miles last night thanks to compeed, but still unsure whether to start sanding away and make my manky feet all soft, or to try and let them harden up where they need to.

In reply to Ridge:
It's might be gracious, and it's definitely true. ()

I suppose if you try and soften them up and that turns out to be a bad move, you'll know what to do to let them harden again?

It's not a one shot kind of situation.

In reply to Ridge:

I certainly wouldn't be sanding it. My partner gets very sweaty feet but insisted for a while on trying to keep nice soft skin on her feet, which resulted in lots of blisters. She's given up on the sanding, and doesn't get so many blisters.

Tim's suggestion of socks is worth a shot. Depending on all sorts of things, you may be more or less prone to blistering with different types of socks. For example, I've never got blisters with wool socks (Icebreaker or Smartwool Merino, usually with some kind of synthetic mix), even when my feet have got wet. Then again, I very rarely get any blisters anyway.

You can also use Compeed as a preventative, if you have areas which you know are prone to blistering.

But ultimately, I think you just need to toughen your feet up.

In reply to tony:

Now I'll know not to soften my feet.