FIXING YOUR FEET E-zine
Volume 7, Issue 5, May 2007
John Vonhof, Footwork Publications
Copyright, May 2007, All rights reserved
THIS ISSUE IN SUMMARY
This issue has an editorial on Foot Care 101, a review of the new foot
book: Great Feet for Life, two
products to check out, two foot care tips, and some really bad feet in a picture you won’t believe. I also review an
interesting non-feet product, the new Trackstick.
PURPOSE
The Fixing Your Feet E-zine is published monthly to inform and educate
athletes and non-athletes about proper foot care skills and techniques,
provide tips on foot care, review foot care products, and highlight
problems people have with their feet.
EDITORIAL: FOOT CARE 101
Sometimes, it is helpful to go back to the basics. Billy Troland, an emergency room MD and adventure race medical advisor, wrote the forward to the first edition of Fixing Your Feet. He was amazed that so many adventure racers. “… spend vast amounts of money, time, and thought on training, equipment, and travel, but little or no preparation on their feet.” This statement is true for adventure racers, ultrarunners, and other extreme athletes, who when their feet go bad, find all their work has been ruined because their primary mode of transportation has broken down." This basic premise of foot care can also be applied to those who are casual athletes or walkers.
Foot Care Basics
Every athlete, from the first-timer to the experienced, must make the choice to be either reactive or proactive. Being reactive means taping hot spots and fixing blisters when they develop. It can mean making fixes under less than idea conditions, with less than adequate materials and in a manner does not work for your particular foot problem. Being proactive, on the other hand, means discovering before an event, what works for your feet and knowing how to treat any potential problems before they develop. This means knowing what resources are available to use, trying out blister fixes before an event, and pre-race taping of your feet where hot spots and blisters typically develop.
It is essential for extreme athletes to have shoes that fit properly, are broken in, and are appropriate for the terrain and weather you will encounter. Find the best socks for your feet, preferably that wick moisture away from the skin. Some athletes prefer single-layer socks, others like double-layer, and still others use a two-sock combination. Gaiters can be important to prevent grit and debris from getting into your shoes and causing irritations that cause blisters.
Your training should be done in the gear you typically use in your sport, even down to the weight of the fannypack or backpack. This avoids subjecting your feet to new stress on race day. Whenever possible, during training or an event, take off your shoes and socks and air out your feet.
Prevention
Preventing hot spots and blisters requires knowledge of what is best for your feet. Some feet respond well to lubricants while others are best when powders keep them dry. Back in 1993, 10 hours into a 72-hour run, with bad blisters and skin softened by too much lubricant, I wiped off all the lubricant and learned how to duct tape my feet. I completed the run with any additional problems. I learned that my feet respond best to powder and a small dab of lubricant between a few problem toes. There are several types of tape to use on the feet and there are several combinations of products that make the feet more resistant to blisters. These must be tried before a race. I learned a valuable lesson at that race – I always want to be proactive in foot care.
Fixing blisters can be an art. Anyone can slap on a piece of moleskin and slather on the Vaseline and hope for the best. But knowing how to really fix a blister so you can continue running for another day or even a few more days takes practice. You want to know how to fix your blisters and not be forced to rely on someone else’s treatments.
Bad feet can quickly ruin a race. By educating yourself about foot care options and methods; you increase your likelihood of finishing an event successfully. Spend the same amount of time on learning about foot care as you spend on learning the disciplines of the sport and you will enjoy your event more.
Proactive
I believe strongly in being proactive. That’s my editorial comment this month. Be proactive. In a month I will be working at the Raid the North Extreme, a six-day adventure race in Prince Rupert, BC, 
Canada. It is my hope that the teams will be well versed on the finer points of foot care. As well as making my life easier, it makes their race more fun and usually more successful. If they are not proactive, I will spend time patching their feet to get them to the finish line. The longest time I have spent on one racer’s feet is 1½ hours. A few of those cases and I run out of time. In a race, that stretches me too thin. I need people to be proactive.
I like to think that since Fixing Your Feet first came out, 10 years ago next month, athletes are better prepared. I feel pretty confident they are. I am also thankful that friends like Denise Jones and Gillian Robinson, and many others I have not met, have stepped up to learn how to patch feet. Together we have made a difference. Thanks.
I welcome your opinion on this editorial. Send me an email.
FIXING YOUR FEET, 4th EDITION
The 4th edition of Fixing Your Feet can be ordered through my FixingYourFeet.com web site, ZombieRunner.com, or Amazon.com. Completely updated, it has three new chapters and lots of new sections. The new retail price is $18.95 but these days no one pays full price! So, whichever of the sites below you choose, the price is comparable.
WRITE AN AMAZON REVIEW FOR A FREE COPY OF HAPPY FEET
Those of you with the 4th edition can get a free copy of my booklet, Happy Feet: Foot Care Advice for Walkers and Travelers. Click on Amazon or Barnes & Noble to go to the book’s page—and write a review of the 4th edition. Then send me an email telling me which site the review is on and your snail mail address. I will mail you a free copy of this 36-page booklet. Use it yourself, or give it to someone else. The booklet is described below and has a $5.00 value. Sorry, but because of postage, this offer is good only in the U.S and Canada.
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FOOT CARE TIPS
Lambs Wool
Dory Bixler passed on the following tip: "I’m 50 now but when I was a kid I danced in toe shoes and discovered lambs wool. I once put a piece of lambs wool in the tip of my sock to keep the pressure of the sock off an ingrown toenail that was healing. I keep a piece of it now in my first aid kit."
Stinky Feet
Since our feet have so many sweat glands, a quarter million give or take one or two, it is no surprise they generate about a half a liter of sweat per foot in a day. But, lets be straightforward, the sweat on your feet is not the cause of the stink. Sweat is actually sterile. The stink comes from the fungus or bacteria—such as athlete’s foot. The warm environment inside a sock (or nylon), inside a shoe, is a great place for bacteria to start.
To get rid of the bacteria, make a pot of some mild iced tea and put your feet in it for about 30 minutes a day for a week. The tea’s tannic acid will actually tan your foot a little bit, which will dry it out. That will be helpful in reducing the amount of sweat and the odor.
GREAT FEET FOR LIFE – A NEW BOOK ABOUT FEET
Many readers of this ezine are athletes. Some are extreme athletes while others are casual, weekend warriors. Most of us take pretty good care of our feet. How we care for our feet today can reward us in the future.
I recently had the pleasure to review the book, Great Feet for Life, written by podiatrist Paul Langer. Dr. Langer wrote Great Feet for Life: Footcare and Footwear for Healthy Aging to fill a need for expert footcare as we age. 
This is a great book to read in order to understand how our feet change as we age. It is important to realize that the changes to our feet: from toenails to skin, bunions to hammertoes, heel pain, arthritis, and more conditions and ailments, affect how they fit into our choices of footwear.
Last weekend I helped at the Ohlone Wilderness 50KM Trail Run in the San Francisco bay area. I was encouraged to see several runners in their 70s and 80s running this tough trail race. These are athletes who have made it a point to know their feet as they age. Otherwise, they would not be running. Ignoring our feet as we age a bad idea. We need to know how our feet change, and specifically, we need to know OUR feet. Do we need to get larger shoes, better support, repair toenails, care for drying skin, etc?
In the book, we are encouraged to appreciate the uniqueness and complexity of our amazing feet. Chapter focus on skin care, nail care, foot conditions and injuries, hammertoes and bunions, blood flow conditions, nerve conditions, shoes, insoles and orthotics, and staying active.
Dr. Langer stresses that to lead an active lifestyle it helps to have healthy feet. We can see evidence of this all round us. Aging adults can usually stay more active as long as they have healthy feet. Walking is a great way to stay healthy, control weight, and keep one’s heart healthy too. This is much easier to do with healthy feet. Get a copy of Great Feet for Life for yourself and another copy for an older adult in your life. Your feet will be happy and so will you.
GREAT FOOT CARE PRODUCTS
LaceStick
Several weeks ago I received an email from Lisa Tremain of LaceStick. She sent me two dispensers to 
try. This is an easy to use product that works. LaceStick is shaped like a tube of chapstick. At one end is a small hole where you insert your shoelace. First though, twist the bottom of the tube until the clear coating comes into view in the small hole. Insert your lace and slide it through the hole in the tube to coat the lace. Then do the other lace, and finally, repeat for the other shoe. I have a pair of casual shoes that whenever I wear them, I have to contend with laces that come untied. Always. The laces have never failed me—they won’t stay tied. I used the LaceStick on both shoes two weeks ago and they have NOT come untied since.
Lace Stick is great for any shoes with laces: kids, seniors, sports, and work—you name it. It is non-toxic and safe for all ages. I highly recommend LaceStick for your shoelace problems. At an inexpensive $4.00, buy a few for yourself, and a few for friends or moms with kids. This is a great product that fills a need. Check them out at LaceStick.
Two Toms
Those who read my Happy Feet blog may recall I wrote about my recent vacation in New England where I made a special point to stop by the Two Toms office in the very small town of Dublin, New Hampshire. 
Two Toms is the company that makes Blister Shield and Sports Shield. If you have problems with blisters or chafing, these are two products you should investigate.
Blister Shield Powder is applied directly to your feet or put inside your socks. Take my word for it, this stuff is slippery. Get the small packets to try or the larger sizes to keep at home.
Sports Shield liquid roll-on is a lubricant that can be applied to any body part receiving friction. Also offered in towelettes, Sports Shield is a must have for any athlete.
The Two Toms staff was very helpful. I left with samples of both products which I will test extensively when I go to Canada next month to provide foot care at the Raid the North Extreme six-day adventure race. I will report back on how the products faired.
REALLY BAD FEET
Are you ready for some really bad feet? These may be the worst you have ever seen. I first saw these and thought they were gangrene following having one’s feet frozen. I was wrong. Maybe gangrene from a horrific case of bad frostbite. No. Ok, give up? These are feet from a mummy. Gottcha! If your feet look like these, you are in deep trouble.
NON-FEET GOOD STUFF
The Trackstick II is the perfect fit for personal GPS tracking. Bring it on vacation to keep a satellite scrapbook of all your travels and record your explorations. You can carry it along on all your regular outings from home to get a better sense of your daily surroundings through Google Earth’s cohesive 3D maps of your community. 
With Trackstick II a computer screen can guide you on a virtual tour of your vacation. Find a good camping spot and leave it to Trackstick to remember where it is and the path you took to get there. It’s a fun and immersive way to show others where you’ve been. You’ll even enjoy seeing the normal routes of your day breathe new life as you view them like never before with Google Earth’s 3D model of the planet. The possibilities are endless and our users are always finding new and interesting uses for the Trackstick.
This device is powered by just two AAA batteries. Proprietary low power GPS technology will keep the Trackstick II running for up to a full week and the 1Mb flash memory ensures that it will log weeks or even months of travel histories.
The Trackstick II will work anywhere on the planet. Using the latest in GPS mapping technologies from Google Earth, your exact location can be shown on satellite-based maps and 3D geographical terrain.
With the detachable belt clip, Trackstick II can be carried on a belt, in a bag or purse, or covertly installed and placed on anything that moves. Trackstick’s technology enables a continuously updated record of the exact route, stop times, speed and direction, among other valuable information. User selectable features allow the record time to be changed from an interval of every 5 seconds, or from 1 minute to every 15 minutes.
MY HAPPY FEET BLOG
If you like to stay informed about foot care issues and information – on a more regular basis than this monthly newsletter, check out my blog, Happy Feet: Expert Foot Care Advice for People Who Love Their Feet. This is different from this ezine. The Happy Feet blog will have a new short topic every other day. You can find the Happy Feet blog here.
READER FEEDBACK AND COMMENTS
Dory Bixler wrote: “I wrote to you around late February and you recommended the ENGO pads for my heels, etc. I was going day hiking in Hawaii and every pair of shoes I have rubbed on my heals, except for Crocks. I found a pair of hiking shoes – Solomon seems to have a larger toe box in case you know people with big big toes. They worked great! I also tried the Blister Shield powder and it also helps. I just bought Fixing Your Feet as I’m going on another trip up to Glacier Park in Montana in late June. Maybe I’ll have advice or can help out traveling companions. My main objective is that I want my pretty feet back. I’m healing an ingrown toenail after the doctor trimmed it vertically about two months ago. It still is tender but not red. Anyway – enough about my feet. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
Reader feedback to this E-zine and its articles is welcome and encouraged. Please email any foot care ideas or tips that you have tried and would like to share with others, or ideas for an article for the e-zine.
HAPPY FEET BOOKLET
My booklet, Happy Feet! Foot Care Advice for Walkers and Travelers is in stock and ready for the walkers in your life. This booklet is 3.75 x 8.5 and 36 pages in length. In an easy read format, it gives advice on biomechanics and gait, buying footwear, fit, lacing, insole and toenail tips, skin care, powders and lubricants, blister care, sprains, foot care kits, and more. It’s on sale at 20% off for $4.00. Click here to read more.
GOT A STORY TO SHARE?
I am always on the look out for stories to share about their adventures with some type of connection to feet. If you have something to share, please send me an email.
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