Over the weekend I was walking up and down lots of slopes, and my poor toeses felt extremely hard done by. By the end of the day I felt almost as if I'd been on pointes all day - and darned painful it was too. I've already got footbeds in my boots; however I find now that I need some sort of protection in the toebox for my poor aching tootsies. Any relatively cheap suggestions? Boots are Meindl, and on the flat they're as comfy as a very comfy thing.
Console yourself that you are in the company of giants like Beckham and Rooney (Wayne), whose metal tarsals have also suffered.
Do you keep your toenails short?
Where possible, yes.
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Can you REACH your toenails?
<D & R>
No need to run - I'd never catch you. My days of long distance running are long gone :-( The answer is that I can reach most of my toenails with difficulty and I have a husband who's handy with the nail scissors.
I wasn't being flippant, I suffer badly if I do any hill walking without close-cropping my big toe nails. My dread is not being able to cut my own, and at 72 it is getting difficult . . . 8-( -- Gordon Harris
But you hinted that maybe that's not it. So how about the simple option of jamming a block of foam in the toe end before you go downhill?
I can't see that as being any fun at all. Unless the toes are stationary then there would probably be lots of rubbing and accordingly more than a few blisters.
I'd say it depends on the nature and quantity of the foam, but Fran's original point was that her toes are hitting the end of her boots. If that can't be solved by tighter laces or such, then I reckon a bit of foam packed around the toes will be more 'fun' than continual pressure against the toe end of the boots.
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The idea of a toe box is plenty of room so you don't hit the sides and end. Toes don't do rubbing well IME, even against foam.
But, if it's one or the other, they should do better rubbing against foam than leather.
Over the weekend I was walking up and down lots of slopes, and my poor toeses felt extremely hard done by. By the end of the day I felt almost as if I'd been on pointes all day - and darned painful it was too. I've already got footbeds in my boots; however I find now that I need some sort of protection in the toebox for my poor aching tootsies. Any relatively cheap suggestions? Boots are Meindl, and on the flat they're as comfy as a very comfy thing.
Do your boots have laces that go around the ankles? If they have, use them when going downhill. If you are already doing so than are you *sure* that your boots aren't half a size too small - particularly with those footbeds? Your toes shouldn't be able to reach the end of the boots at all, no matter what you are doing.
When my toeses hurt it's because I've been walking down hill in boots that are too small. Could you do with a half or full size bigger?
No, because the boots are actually rather a good fit. I have an idea it's the feet that are the problem, but what to do about it...?
Get a smaller pair of feet? :-)
Seriously, I'd go with the suggestion made by others, tying the laces tighter and kicking your heels into the back of the boot before doing so. On my Meindls this can make a significant difference, and they are still comfortable. Also try retightening them after you've had them on a little while, especially just before going down a steep slope.
That might be worth a try - thanks Tim. -- To reply see 'from' in headers; lose the domain, and insert dots and @ where common sense dictates.
In article <[email hidden]>, Tim Jackson <[email hidden]> writes
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On Tue, 2 May 2006 18:56:25 +0100, Fran wrote...
Quoted message said:
pleasegivegenerously@warmmail*_turn_up_the_heat_to_reply*.com said... > > When my toeses hurt it's because I've been walking down hill in boots that > are too small. Could you do with a half or full size bigger? > No, because the boots are actually rather a good fit. I have an idea it's the feet that are the problem, but what to do about it...?
Get a smaller pair of feet? :-)
Wear Charlie's boots :-)
You're kidding - his feet are wide and mine are narrow. It'd be like wearing wellies! -- To reply see 'from' in headers; lose the domain, and insert dots and @ where common sense dictates.
But anyway, if it does get nicer, don't wear solid boots becasue then they can't bruise your toes. If you must wear them, tighten the laces before descents to stop you sliding forward so far.
Thanks - another method to try.
I've also found that with a good footbed in the shoe/boot I slide less, I suppose you sort of are stopped by the arch support. And I have seen socks with an anti-slip pattern on the soles, but I can't remember where... sort of thin rubber shapes.
Thanks Roos - food for thought. What's really annoying is that the boots are generally a good fit, but the nature of field archery is that there tend to be lots of short but steep ups and downs, and often rather unstable places to stand whilst shooting. I shall have to persuade Himself to cut my toenails for me because I can see that having the nails too long (and it's true that I can't easily reach them myself these days) would cause problems. Also, there isn't time to make adjustments whilst out on the course, because it holds everything up if one person has to stop to sort out footwear or similar. Remind me again why I took field archery up as a sport?
-- To reply see 'from' in headers; lose the domain, and insert dots and @ where common sense dictates.
I suffer badly if I do any hill walking without close-cropping my big toe nails. My dread is not being able to cut my own, and at 72 it is getting difficult . . . 8-(
Yikes, there's no hope for me then is there. I'm only 47 and I can't reach my toenails easily :-( -- To reply see 'from' in headers; lose the domain, and insert dots and @ where common sense dictates.
Over the weekend I was walking up and down lots of slopes, and my poor toeses felt extremely hard done by. By the end of the day I felt almost as if I'd been on pointes all day - and darned painful it was too. I've already got footbeds in my boots; however I find now that I need some sort of protection in the toebox for my poor aching tootsies. Any relatively cheap suggestions? Boots are Meindl, and on the flat they're as comfy as a very comfy thing.
Do your boots have laces that go around the ankles? If they have, use them when going downhill. If you are already doing so than are you *sure* that your boots aren't half a size too small - particularly with those footbeds? Your toes shouldn't be able to reach the end of the boots at all, no matter what you are doing.
I'm going to investigate the idea that it could be that my nails are a bit too long. Since I've been unable to reach them myself easily things have gone a bit ('scuse the pun) downhill in that direction. -- To reply see 'from' in headers; lose the domain, and insert dots and @ where common sense dictates.
"Fran" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
Over the weekend I was walking up and down lots of slopes, and my poor toeses felt extremely hard done by. By the end of the day I felt almost as if I'd been on pointes all day - and darned painful it was too. I've already got footbeds in my boots; however I find now that I need some sort of protection in the toebox for my poor aching tootsies. Any relatively cheap suggestions? Boots are Meindl, and on the flat they're as comfy as a very comfy thing. -- To reply see 'from' in headers; lose the domain, and insert dots and @ where common sense dictates.
You might want to have a look at this site. It shows various lacing techniques.
"Fran" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
Over the weekend I was walking up and down lots of slopes, and my poor toeses felt extremely hard done by. By the end of the day I felt almost as if I'd been on pointes all day - and darned painful it was too. I've already got footbeds in my boots; however I find now that I need some sort of protection in the toebox for my poor aching tootsies. Any relatively cheap suggestions? Boots are Meindl, and on the flat they're as comfy as a very comfy thing.
You might want to have a look at this site. It shows various lacing techniques.
"Fran" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
[email hidden] said...
Quoted message said:
"Fran" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
Over the weekend I was walking up and down lots of slopes, and my poor toeses felt extremely hard done by. By the end of the day I felt almost as if I'd been on pointes all day - and darned painful it was too. I've already got footbeds in my boots; however I find now that I need some sort of protection in the toebox for my poor aching tootsies. Any relatively cheap suggestions? Boots are Meindl, and on the flat they're as comfy as a very comfy thing.
You might want to have a look at this site. It shows various lacing techniques.
Rather than the boots being too small (they're not) it's
more likely that my rather low instep (almost flat) and flat bones (i.e. not arched) are resulting in there being too much room for my feet to move forward in
Fran, sounds similar to my situation. When I got Meindls I found that the undersides of my big toes were getting sore and feeling bruised after not a great deal of walking. Found out, on getting a diabetic foot-check-up, that I was slightly flat-footed and this was causing rotation and pressure on to the big toes. I was given arch supports by the podiatrist and this has just about eliminated the problem; now I feel very uncomfortable if I don't wear the supports in a pair of shoes, but more especially the boots. A long way of saying; have a chat with a podiatrist if you haven't already.
Fran, I don't think your problem is the same as mine and Pat's mention of a podiatrist gives me an excuse to add my penny-worth and it might be helpful to someone.
When I was a yoof I always used stiff boots. Somewhere a bit less than 20 years ago the last of these started to leak and I opted to get something a bit more comfortable - remarkable at the time was a pair of boots not requiring breaking in ! But after several years of comfort I noticed that towards the end of the day I got what seemed to be cramp in my toes - all of them ! Hill activity then became sparse due to knee troubles but when that subsided briefly, these 'BO' classification boots (used quite successfully with crampons I might add), always gave me this cramp in the last hour of the day. Those boots are now also passing away, knees are in remission at the moment and I went back to a stiff pair of boots on the grounds that the B0 boots were not supporting my feet properly - and I wasn't allowed to buy anything less as I mentioned an interest in using crampons. Mercy me - these new ones are killing me after an hour's walking; severe cramp sensation in the toes of both feet; boots off for 10 minutes and then a repeat every 30 minutes thereafter.
I''ve booked a session with the podiatrist in Tiso's shop in Edinburgh. But what I have discovered is that modern stiff boots have a curl in the soul to aid walking, and it seems this is the problem. I spent a day messing around doing some building work with the old stiff boots ( yes, I've got sufficient storage space I can keep boots rejected 20 year ago !) without any discomfort at all. Repeat that with these new ones - much more comfortable at the put-on stage but after 2 hours just poodling around the garden, the cramp sensation was beginning to appear.
I suspect there is a blood flow problem but what and how to resolve it needs the podiatrist.
