Reddit reviews Fixing Your Feet: Prevention and Treatments for Athletes

You're likely to have your shoes or boots submerged at some point during any GORUCK event, but especially so as the events get longer. Blisters are pretty normal for long marches or hikes or whatever, but they become more likely if your feet are wet.

You want to try and reduce friction so blisters are less likely. This means having your shoes or boots appropriately tight, but not too tight. It might mean wearing a liner sock to help keep sand or dirt or whatever away from where it can cause problems. It might mean using Trail Toes or something like Body Glide that can help keep things moving smoothly.

During a 12ish-hour event, if it takes you 6 or 8 hours to get a blister, then you can just suffer through the last 4 or 6 hours or whatever. It might be painful and it might get worse but it's less likely to stop you completely. If you get the same blister at hour 6 or 8 of a 24ish-hour event, then you're looking at 16+ hours of trying to carry heavy loads with blisters on your feet. That's a lot more time for things to get a lot worse, and it may not be manageable by the end.

There are other considerations, too. Carrying a heavy load over long distances will put extra pressure on the soles of your feet and may cause some pain if you haven't trained properly and toughened up those muscles and tendons. If you haven't trimmed your toenails, you might end up with a very painful stabbing with each step, particularly when your feet swell. Being on your feet that long will make your feet swell at least a little, and if there's water hanging around your shoes/boots, that can make swelling worse.

To avoid this, you want to have a couple pairs of dry socks to change into (at appropriate times; don't do it right before cadre gets you wet again). During a break, you can take your shoes off to let them and your feet air out. You can lie down and elevate your feet (put them on your ruck or whatever) to help the swelling go down a bit. The goal should be to avoid all those problems before they occur. If your feet are wet but you don't have blisters yet, you should still dry your feet off.

GORUCK has a good primer on taking care of your feet. Mark Webb has a good one on his site. I haven't read it but have heard this book meant for ultrarunners has lots of good information.

If you want to see how ugly it can get you can Google "foot maceration."

This?
https://www.amazon.com/Fixing-Your-Feet-Prevention-Treatments/dp/0899976387

If you've lanced and are doing the salt bath to dry them out - dress them with abx cream in between. Especially since you have lanced to prevent infection.

KT tape on the heel site with zero stretch works great. (And less extreme than duct tape).

Toe - a well-sized bandage is probably best. For this I would lather up with abx cream to make the skin supple underneath the bandage.

Also check out Fix Your Feet Great book to read through and have on hand for reference.

My usual plan:

• Tuff Foot (Tuff Paw if you can still find it) - http://smile.amazon.com/Tuf-Foot-8-oz/dp/B0002XI6GU
  
• Leukotape to pretape any known dicey areas.
  
• Aquaphor - lightly grease up right before putting on socks.
  
• Injinji socks as a base layer with something more padded/insulated if terrain or weather dictates. I like Swiftwick Pursuits for an other sock if it's above 30ºF, or Smartwool hiking socks if it gets colder.
  
  
  Others:
  
  
• Fixing Your Feet - http://smile.amazon.com/Fixing-Your-Feet-Prevention-Treatments/dp/0899976387
  
• Mark Webb's big old post on the matter - http://overld.me/2014/03/30/feet-keeping-your-wheels-turning/
  
  If an event is under 12 hours, personally, I just lace up once and don't touch my feet until afterwards. I'll stretch this out to 18-20 hours if they feel good.
  
  For longer events, I do a full sock change and regrease every 10-14 hours, when I get some downtime. Shoes and socks come off, feet are left to air out/dry, tape stays in place. Only takes me about a minute per foot to be 100% ready to go, so I try to give them as much breathing time as possible.

Good advice. I can also recommend Fixing Your Feet, which is incredibly comprehensive.

Everyone's physiology is different and this will basically boil down to finding a footwear system that works for you. (And unfortunately figuring this out while already on the trail will be problematic)

John Vonhof's "Fixing Your Feet" does a great job of covering your available options:
https://www.amazon.com/Fixing-Your-Feet-Prevention-Treatments/dp/0899976387

But short term you are going to need to let your feet heal- and when you do get back on the trail you'll want to keep your mileage in check until you figure out your system.

Pick up or download a copy of Fixing Your Feet. There isn't a specific solution for everyone, but this book has a lot of great recommendations that your girlfriend can try out to find the solution for her.

You're welcome. It's more expensive and I only tried it because there was some in the house from my GF in her triathlon gear. But it worked well, especially on the heel, as it adds a layer of protection that is thinner than most tapes. The benzoin came into play as my feet sweat buckets.

final tip: I hear good things about this book for feet, but haven't bought it yet myself to see.

I recommend giving this book a read.

I've seen a lot of people swear by: https://www.amazon.com/Fixing-Your-Feet-Prevention-Treatments/dp/0899976387 but that is more for general care (and prevention). I just picked this book up and so far seems pretty good.

If you want more footcare knowledge than you even knew existed in the world, check out the book Fixing Your Feet. It's the resource for fixing foot problems. There is way more knowledge in that book than you can put to use intially...but, as you read it, bits and pieces will click(i.e. 'so, that's how I could have prevented losing my toenails!). you'll also be glad to have it as a resource when you run into new problems in the future

A lot of good advice here.

In summary:

Friction is the primary cause of blisters. Whether it's from too big/small shoes, sliding and rubbing are he primary cause. Do whatever you need to do to prevent / minimize the cause of the friction.

Wet feet, excessively dirty feet, improper shoe size are the main problems.

Tougher feet = endure more friction

But reducing friction is key as well.

Here are any number of methods to reduce friction. Here are a few:

• well-fitting shoes - not too big, not too small, just right
  
• Tie your shoes properly ever see that extra hole at the top of your shoes? This is what's for.
  
• keep your feet dry, they rub differently/more when wet
  
• can't keep your feet dry, try putting Vaseline or a similar lubricant (body glide) where you're getting blisters (Vaseline works wonders for me - no lie, not messy, easy to apply and has multiple uses).
  
  Also, trying giving the book Fix Your Feet a read. Good advice galore in there.

I'd add that over many years of hiking and adventure racing, including in remote parts of Australia and New Zealand, the only injury that has ever stopped someone hiking/ running has been blisters in my experience. (apart from one scary case of over hydration in our party) Hence I've spent a lot of time trying different solutions. I also have tried these special patches which you can attach to the inside of your shoes in hot spots which reduce friction (can't recall name) which worked well. This book is also good.https://www.amazon.com/Fixing-Your-Feet-Prevention-Treatments/dp/0899976387. Worth reading before you go.