Brettster said:Hi,
So, I needed to exercise, lose some weight. I decided to do some
neighborhood walking. I started walking a mile. Then upped it to 2
miles. Then 4. Although I have walked as many as 7 miles in one day,
the average is 4-5.
It's working out very well, with one slight exception: Long walks
result in blisters. Are these an inevitability? I've got two sore
spots on my right foot, and my fear is that they're not going to heal
with continued relentless walking. How do I prevent blisters? How can
I get these to heal? Somebody suggested "moleskin." What's that?
I wear these (very comfortable) New Balance shoes, if that's
applicable:
http://tinyurl.com/2xmu7f
These shoes don't look as if you can really anchor your feet in place,
as they have no rise at the ankle. But this might not be a problem if
you are walking on the flat.
As this is a walking group (by which it is usually presumed to mean
hill-walking), I can only refer to my experience with walking boots.
I have not had anything approaching a blister for years. This may be
down to:
a) Hardening of the skin, both through increased walking activity and
my age. The latter is more likely, as there are still times when I
don't get out on the hills for months and in the meantime I wear soft
comfortable shoes which are not exactly allowing my skin to toughen.
I am also definitely not getting any younger.
b) Decent socks. Having experimented with thick woolly varieties (in
days of old), and two pairs (one thin, one thick), I now buy decent
(ie. not cheap) socks made for the job. Check out brands like
Thorlo. They have in-built pads to provide extra cushioning, and
heavier ones (seem to) have a two-layer knit, allowing some relative
movement without directly rubbing your skin. Do not worry if the ones
you see have no wool at all.
c) Keeping my feet dry. Sweat, I am convinced, is the biggest
problem. It promotes stickiness and softens the skin. Decent socks
help (for me, a single sock leaves my feet much cooler than any two-
pair system I tried), and I also liberally sprinkle talcum powder over
my feet just before I put socks and boots on. I never travel before a
walk in the socks I will wear later.
d) Keeping my boots tight, but not too tight. I don't hold with the
tight-enough-to-cut-off-circulation notion - pain in the bones in my
feet, I can do without. I start with my boots reasonably tight (tight
at the bottom, then looser over the arches, then much tighter around
the ankle to stop movement there). I will then re-tighten them after
a couple of hours as they always slacken off, and usually again before
finally descending.
HTH.
