My post title’s rather grim sorry but I thought I’d give a good warning that I wasn’t going to have any actual blister photos.. I hate it when people upload war wounds on Facebook or social media without warnings.I’m quite squeamish.
Anyway before the blister talk…this weekend started off with some fun shenanigans with a bunch of friends for one of their birthdays. We started off in Pizza Express and despite my very best intentions the pudding menu lured me in…chocolate fudge cake again. Not nearly as good as Zippers I must say but I persevered. Tough times 😉
One of the guys that came out had just had DOUBLE knee surgery a couple of days ago and was walking on crutches (though he said he had been told to be in a wheelchair!) and our table was downstairs which was just ridiculous. But like a soldier he got down (and later, up) those stairs! Incredible. I couldn’t even imagine getting off the sofa let alone going on a night out.
Lots of drinking (well, a little bit of drinking for me being the biggest lightweight in the world) and dancing and I was ready for bed. It’s been quite a while since I last saw 2am! Having been up since 5.20am I was absolutely pooped.
The 5.20am wake-ups have been due to getting in my runs before work. I don’t actually mind it – I much prefer waking up early and getting it done than having it hanging over me all day. But all this running is making me tired! I was supposed to run parkrun on Saturday but that was never going to happen after a 2am night out and feeling slightly delicate meant running was totally off the agenda. Wise decision I think!
So I’ve been acquiring some rather horrendous blisters due to buying slightly more firm insoles for my trainers. They’ve absolutely savaged my feet. The problem is I keep running on them which doesn’t really help heal them…Compeed blister plasters have been a lifesaver (though ridiculously expensive!!) and I’ve even gone so far as to tape my feet up using zinc oxide tape (which I got from Amazon if you’re interested).
Lifesavers
The problem is I really need those insoles because I’m so flat footed, but getting used to them is just hell. But they are getting better thankfully.
Compeed plaster on the right, and taped up on the left
Tape does help, but honest to God it is an absolute bitch to remove afterwards, as you can imagine.
I had planned to do a local 10 mile race on the Sunday and was all but raring to go on Saturday but with my blisters still not feeling amazing and having not run further than 6 miles since the marathon I thought it would be best to give it a miss (incidentally my coach had said this to me but I had chosen to ignore him…whoops). Sensibly instead I ran 7 miles at home, knowing that if I had any issues I could get Ben to pick me up rather than embarrassingly DNFing in a race with the lame excuse of bad blisters.
The 7 miles went well, nice and relaxed running and no blister issues, but it was tough. My endurance has just plummeted. I think it was a good shout about not doing the 10 miler but I did miss the fun.
Later in the afternoon we went to Nando’s and ate lots of chicken which is always good. After getting home and walking Alfie, I was absolutely pooped. Really makes me concerned about a half marathon I’m meant to be running (not racing) in a couple of weeks. Not really sure about that anymore! If 7 miles is tough 13.1 miles isn’t going to be a walk in the park. Need to mull this over…
How was your weekend?
Have you ever had issues with blisters? What are you failsafe ways to recover from them?
Is it silly for me to do the half marathon? It’s usually a distance I’m OK with and I could get a 10 miler in this weekend…