Getting blister-y feet after long evening walks

Question

Since the New Year, I've been doing 2-3 hours walk every night, while eating less. People remark that I look like I'm 30 lbs lighter now in April. I feel good but not that good ...

My question is: all this walking gives me painful feet, namely blisters, dead skin, dried blood.

I've switched shoes 3 times now and am currently wearing Adidas Superstars which are supposedly wider and more comfortable -- but the problems persist.

Should I get insoles? Which kind would be good to handle the long walks?

Answer 1

I experience a lot of various problems with distance walking. As far as I have seen, fancy shoes or insoles do not make much of a difference. In some cases, this aid can help, but in some cases, it just reduces the symptoms of deeper issues.

The first thing to check - have you build the walking volume gradually? Maybe you just need more time to adapt via smaller walking volumes.

Else the chances are, that you do not have a perfect walking technique (to much impact of friction). You can make research on this topic on google and/or youtube. However, the best would be to hire a professional who can investigate this and advise. If you start investigating this topic, you will find out that almost nobody walks with "good" walking mechanics. However, walking is the most fundamental and important movement, so it is really worth to invest time into learning it correctly.

Some things you can try:

1. if you walk barefoot in an office building, can you hear your steps? If you hear impact or "friction" you probably have space to improve.

2. if you walk barefoot on fine sharp gravel a few hundreds of meters (or few kilometers), does it pain? If yes, you probably can practice that (not to get used to it!, but to learn how to reduce the friction and/or impact).

3. the same like 2., but on a hard smooth surface (concrete).

4. quite a nice tool could be some walking/running treadmill (they should have it in every gym). The treadmills tend to make every hard step very loud (like a hallway in an empty office building), however, on a treadmill you can safely walk barefoot for a long time (that is not possible in the most of places).

A good related article is this one: https://www.strongfirst.com/how-to-ruck/ - it is about rucking, but there is a part about footwear and "rucking technique" that apply for this topic also. Walking can be considered as a special case of rucking (0 weight rucksack).

Answer 2

To prevent blisters and the feeling that your feet are damaged after few hours of walking, get some shoes with thick and hard to bend soles. More like light hiking shoes. Don't think to get some soft and "comfortable" but something robust. I'm speaking from the experience.

Blisters can occur do to shoes being too tight or too loose - which makes the feet move back and forth during walking.

I agree with putting some protection, like moleskin, on your feet before walking, as suggested in one comment.

Answer 3

As someone who has walked five marathons, I have the following advice:

1. Go to a running store where the staff will actually watch you walk and observe whether you are pronating, etc.

2. You should have a shoe that is about 1/2 size bigger than what you normally wear for everyday use because your feet swell during distance walking. You are supposed to have a thumbwidth between your pinky toe and the side of the shoe, your big toe and the front of the shoe, etc.

3. Make sure you are not wearing cotton socks. This can contribute to blistering. You should wear moisture-wicking socks.

4. Body Glide is something that can help with blisters. It is like a deodorant stick that you rub all over your feet.

Answer 4

Another simple thing you can try is to use thicker socks or running socks. I use to run in thin socks and I would almost always end up with blisters. There are running socks out there that are designed to prevent blistering.