Two-Heel Drive

It’s been so long since I had a blister that I keep forgetting they’re the bane of hikers everywhere.

What I do to prevent them:

Wear the right socks: soft synthetic hiking socks like Wigwam’s Coolmax work great for me. Heat and friction are a like a blister factory — wearing socks that help regulate foot temperature goes a long way toward preventing blisters.

Wear the right shoes: If they rub you the wrong way at the store, don’t buy them. If your feet get hot, get shoes that have lots of ventilation. Don’t obsess over how waterproof your shoes are — the more waterproof they are, the more heat buildup you’ll get inside and your feet’ll get wet anyway. GoreTex and other so-called breathable waterproof fabrics are nice for short, damp hikes but if you’re putting in over five miles, they’re pretty much irrelevant because the act of walking will keep your feet warm and will dry out your shoes as you go.

Rest when your feet start screaming. Especially true if you have a long hike planned. Give yourself a foot massage (and if you’re out there with the one you love, offer to share.)

What I do if I’ve got one: I’ve noticed that on backpacking trips, the extra weight and pressure will produce blisters much sooner than if I were hiking unloaded. If fluid is gathering, I take a needle from my first aid kit and poke through the skin to let it drain. This does raise the chance of infection, so you’ll want to disinfect the area and cover it to keep it clean. (One PCT through-hiker almost died last year because her blisters got infected — so the risk is there).

After I’ve got one: Like most injuries, rest is the key to healing. Not always a choice when you’re out in the woods for several days, which makes prevention all that much more important.

As always, your tips are welcome. I’ve heard some long-distance hikers have had good luck with duct tape.

Here’s a nice overview of what to do about blisters once you’ve got ‘em.

I happened upon this site today called active.com, which bills itself as a gathering spot for people with active lifestyles. I figured heck, there must be a lot of hikers around there. I was right, though there wasn’t much actual content for hikers.

The site’s main navigation rail lists these main categories — baseball, basketball, cycling, football, golf, outdoors, running, soccer, softball tennis, triathlon — so, presumably, it intends to serve folks who do this stuff. I got curious and searched on the site’s member profiles to see what folks are into. The count:

• Running: 1,726
• Triathlon: 739
• Cycling: 604
• Mountain biking: 335
• Hiking: 331
• Walking: 303
• Soccer: 217
• Baseball: 198
• Basketball:193
• Golf: 218
• Football: 177
• Tennis: 173
• Softball: 144
• Snowboarding: 140
• Climbing: 127
• Surfing: 83
• Skiing: 80
• Fishing: 29
• Snowshoeing: 22
• Backpacking: 3
• Hunting: 1

Main categories in bold. Turns out the site’s all about serving active people, but its prime categories leave out the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-most popular activities. Hmm.

The site says it’s in beta and who knows where it’ll end up; I  just found it interesting that the site wants to serve all these people who play team sports, but the folks who actually sign up are heavily into individual activities (also intriguing to see soccer ahead of baseball, football and basketball).

This story got some press last week: People who walk with a pedometer go farther and get healthier, according to a Stanford researcher:

Bravata and colleagues explain that although there has been a surge in popularity for pedometers as a tool to motivate and monitor physical activity, there is a lack of detailed evidence of their effectiveness.

They looked at 26 studies with a total of 2767 participants (eight randomized controlled trials and 18 observation studies); 85% of participants were women, and the mean age was 49 years. The mean duration of pedometer use in the studies was 18 weeks.

They found that, on average, pedometer users significantly increased their physical activity by 2183 steps a day over baseline (p<0.0001), or by 26.9%.

I bought a pedometer once but ended up exchanging it for something more useful because I thought its main purpose was measuring distance –  I knew from hiking that I never spent more than five minutes at the same pace, so telling a pedometer your pace is 2.5 feet or whatever results in  little more than a wild guess, distancewise.

Didn’t occur to me that the more fundamental business of counting steps could prove beneficial.  A wristwatch with a stopwatch function does pretty much the same thing, seems to me, but deprives you of the opportunity to buy an activity-specific toy.

More on buying a pedometer here.

The New York Times ran an interesting piece the other day about staying in shape, getting out of shape, and matching your workout with what you do for fun. The story opens with the experience of a competition rower who lost and regained fitness.

It shows, exercise physiologists say, training is exquisitely specific: you can acquire and maintain cardiovascular fitness with many activities, but if you want to keep your ability to row, or run, or swim, you have to do that exact activity.

It also shows, they say, that people who work out sporadically, running on weekends, for instance, will never reach their potential.

I realized this on the first hill Sunday at Mount Diablo (which has lots of hills) … I hadn’t been on a serious hike in nearly a month, and my heart rate was way up there after maybe five uphill minutes.

The story mentions that if you’re pressed for time, it’s better to crank out a short, high-intensity workout.

For hikers, it’s not really practical to hike five days a week — best I’ve been able to come up with is stair laps (we live on the fourth floor) for leg strength and jogging for cardio capacity.

How about the rest of y’all? Any tips on finding time to work out, especially at the holidays, are welcome.

Link via sportsgeezer.