Treating your legs and feet with care and consideration is of utmost importance when you are using them every day. Whether you are casually walking around, or like me, I'm out most days training for my upcoming 4 day hike of the Heaphy Track. I don't like to undervalue how important it is to look after ourselves, but more importantly our legs and feet.
During one of my recent training walks, through a nearby park, I was admiring at how trees stand up. The way their amazing root systems hold up these wonderful trees, their trunks, branches and leaves. Each tree is fabulous in its own right. Those mighty root systems spreading and grappling the trunk of the tree and making their way into the ground where they receive sustenance from the earth.
I have found that I have got to have great footwear, and for the multi-day hikes I wear my boots. My boots have got to fit, apart from my feet, my thick woolen socks, so they are slightly larger than my usual shoe size. I tried on several pairs of boots before I decided on the boots I have now. When I did my multi-day hike through the Canadian Rockies in 2017, one of the guys didn't have any boots when he arrived, so brought a pair and wore them straight away - no breaking in. Luckily for him the boots were a perfect fit. For me, I need to get the boots that are the best fit for me, test them out and wear them in prior to any hike.
Apart from good boots, I need to keep my toenails really short. I find that if I forget to cut my nails, the nail bangs into the boot and by the end of the walk is very painful and ends up bruised and goes black. At some time in the future, I lose my toenail, its not a pleasant process to go through. As I mentioned good boot socks, I wear thick woolen socks, I have tried wearing two socks on each foot, but had a big problem with blisters, so have gone back to my one woolen sock. If you have a problem with blisters, investigate blister plasters, tapes and powders to keep your feet dry. You will need to work out what works best for you.
My legs and feet are my foundation and I need to nurture them.
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