A few weeks ago I was out for a run with my long run training partner, and he mentioned something that I've never once considered during my ~5 years of running: foot care.
He'd been having issues with his foot that week and hadn't run during the work week in order to let things heal. While talking about the injury, he was expressing frustration at the perceived random nature of the injury (it was some mid-foot pain, if I recall correctly). He talked about being cognizant of his feet and taking care of them: including regularly using a pumice stone on the soles of his feet.
That got me to thinking: how the hell are we supposed to take care of our feet?
There's only really one thing that I do in particular: keep my toenails trimmed so that they're not digging in to the piggy next door during long runs. Beyond that, I don't do a whole lot to treat my feet specially (I certainly don't neglect them, per se, but they're not always on my mind).
I wear dress shoes at work most of the week and desert boots on other days.
I have some calluses, and get a blister every six weeks or so.
Mostly, I'm not sure if there's anything in particular to do for foot care, even though feet are an incredibly important part of a runner's anatomy. It's not even something that had crossed my mind until a few weeks ago, and now I'm oddly fixated on the idea.
I've been fine to this point, but now that I'm pseudo-obsessing, what the hell am I supposed to do to take care of my feet beyond giving them a good one-over every now and again?
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