When I run longer than @ 10 miles, I get blisters on my feet. I use Injinji socks–individual toe sleeves to separate the toes and reduce friction. I get the blisters in the same place on each foot—on the ball of my foot where it meets the side of my foot. I also get irritation on the outside of my big toe, just up from the blister spot. This happens on both feet. It happens with various brands and models of shoes—New Balance, Asics, Brooks, Hoka. I have been using a Band-Aid product that is a thick, second skin adhesive. It used to work well. But I have been upping my mileage in preparation for IronMan and they no longer do the job. All ideas, experience, and suggestions appreciated.
I have had great luck with double layer socks- which are designed with two thin layers of coolmax-type fabric to prevent blisters. I know Baysix and WrightSock make two versions. Also, a very small dab of vaseline before your run might help.
+1 for double layer socks. Try it out. I have some ‘1000 mile’ socks ‘fusion’ and I love them.
Electric tape
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Vaseline?
I love the injini socks for long runs, but they won’t help with those side blisters. As mentioned, try WrightSocks double layer. It’s probably not going to be enough, but in concert with the other remedies it should help.
FWIW, some pros use duct tape to cover blister-prone areas.
Also check if there’s a rubbing issue with a seam inside the shoe. I’ve had that, and taping over that seam helped.
I have used leuko tape a lot when I used to do ultra marathons. Worked really well for me. You could also consider trying a
shoe with a wider toe box, to help with the irritation on the outer toe.
There is a book called “Fixing Your Feet”.
Buy that and read it.
As for socks, you could also try Smartwool’s brand of running sock. I use them exclusively now for all training. They are a bit pricey (as are most good running socks) but work well for me.
Something else you might try is experimenting with a wider toe box shoe. Instead of going with a medium or regular width shoe you could try a wide. My feet aren’t necessarily wide, but I switched from medium to wide 2 pairs of shoes ago and it was a good move. Good luck figuring it out. For me it was switching to Smartwool socks initially, and then later on it was wider toe box shoes.
2Toms
http://www.2toms.com/blistershield/
Worth every penny, and although expensive, is by far the best.
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Chamois cream on your feet does wonders for me
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I’ve tried 2toms and its junk. It clumps up, doesn’t last long and the packaging is cheap. Trail Toes is 10x better.
Perhaps a wider toe box, maybe altra shoes?
I had blister issues in big toe with hokas
I’ve had some blisters with about every shoe I’ve owned. Usually around the arch, sometimes ball of my foot. The material in my Switchwicks Aspire is a little more slick and seems to help a lot.
Liberal application of Body Glide has always worked for me. Really smear it on, don’t be delicate about it.
Bodyglide directly on blister prone area, then socks too?
You do this in T2 also?
This stuff is great…kept me pretty much blister free for 8 hour runs and even over that…
Also try their tape as well too…it works pretty well for prevention.
Good luck!
Finger-tape designed for rock-climbers is great to put on hot-spots I find.
Cheers, Rich
I use Aquaphor for any run over 6 miles.
For something less than 70.3, I just do it before I walk down to the water… I don’t bother to re-apply later. For 70.3, I did another liberal application in T2. Also, I don’t know if you wear socks on the bike (I don’t), but use fresh socks for the run so they’re not all sweaty before you even start.