Oh dear blisters!

Neil_D

Neil_D

Chapter Presidents
Aug 30, 2010
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Adelaide, South Australia
minimalistrunning.blogspot.com.au
#1
Maybe I'm a slow learner or something, you would think that after 3+years of barefoot running I would have all bases covered by now, sadly no.
I went out for a run on Thursday, it was 30C and bright sun at around 4.30pm. I got out of the car and tested the ground temperature and decided that the concrete was run-able, so off I go.
After 1km the concrete turns to brick paving, this was I noted, umm warmer. After another few km and now on larger flat brick paving my feet are saying, hey buddy, I'm starting to feel like a rare steak down here. I persevered until I hit concrete again. I got to my 5km turn point and my feet felt like I'd walked on hot coals. I headed to the beach and ran back along the sand and waterline to cool them off. I didn't think I had done any damage but later than night I noticed that I had a 1cm blister on each pad, bugger.
After a days rest I went for a 13km run along the beach and was ok up until the blisters started complaining at 10km. Do blisters normally go down on their own if you leave them alone? I can't remember the protocol for dealing with them it's been that long since I've had any.

Neil
 
#2
As a relatively new barefoot runner (and therefore, a blister factory), I say leave 'em alone. It's a pain, literally, but you won't do yourself any good by popping them and opening the skin up to infection. Just my two cents worth, and it's strategy that has worked well for me. I haven't gotten blisters for a while now, but you never forget your first one.
 
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#3
My skin is really sensitive to hot pavement, so I got them this summer a few times. Sympathies.
A day or two and they'll be gone if they aren't horrible. The bad part is when they deflate, and the flap of skin comes off, now you are left with a very thin skinned area that is not ready for any kind of heat or abrasion at all. Taping or putting a band aid on for the duration of a bf run has helped keep the newly raw areas from getting worse.

What drove me nuts was when the hot pavement wouldn't blister me, but instead all the skin on the bottom of my foot would feel raw and thinned, like a full layer of skin had fried off. Got that a few times from hot sand.

In general though, putting on shoes a few days while you wait for the blisters to heal and the skin to start growing back may be the quickest way.
 
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#4
I just got ablood blister on the ball of my right foot from running on cold wet pavement with a screwed up back making hash out of my usually pristine form. I bent around to look at it after showering and was amazed to see that it was in the form of a near perfect star of david, maybe .5 cm across. Cool! I should have taken a pic.

I just did my next couple of runs in my VFFs and am waiting for my back to straighten out.
 
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#6
Mine are about 1.5cm long by about 1cm across in exactly the same spot on each foot, you can't say I'm not consistent. It's obviously heat related and not friction as I think my form is about as good as it's going to get. Does anyone know at what temperature your skin begins to blister?
I was hoping the quick foot turn-over would be cooling enough to stop this, obviously not.

Neil
 
#7
On my almost four years of BFR I've gotten only one boold blister during a Marathon.
I pocked several holes around the blister to drained it and the next day the blister was completely gone.
And the best part? there was no pain!!!
 
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