Running Sores Halts my Training

A week and a half ago after a long run I came back home and noticed that I had a few running sores (blisters) on my right foot. I didn’t take much notice of them as I get them from time to time but they seem to heal pretty quickly. One of the sores was on the side of my foot and the other was right on the center of my right foot’s heal. A few days later I found it hard to wear my shoes as I set off to work and realized that I had to ‘pop’ them to release the fluid, this worked and I was able to put on my running shoes once more that night and get on with my training. But each time I finished a run or a swim I noticed the fluid build up again and as a result I got into a nasty habit of using a disinfected pin (I heat it using a match) to pop it and release the fluid.

A week back all the sores on my right foot got infected! I could not walk properly and immediately saw a doctor as I didn’t want it to get serious. I was put on a 6 day antibiotics course and have not been able to keep to my run/swim/bike training session for the last week. I did however put in 3 gym session to improve my upper body strength for my swimming.

Today, my leg feels much better but the hot Sydney summer (was close to 40c today) is not assisting in the complete healing of my sores. I’ll have to admit that being sidelined for just a week is pretty distressing mentally as I am eager everyday to get back to training. But I now have come to the understanding that the best thing to do with a injury (minor or major) is to just stay positive, rest and eat healthy and mentally be strong.

I’m confident that I’ll be back to training later this week, and what am I going to do to prevent the new running sores? Well, I’m going to be applying Vaseline to my feet before I put on socks from now on to prevent friction on long runs (another lesson learned :)


Update (10 Feb 2009): Unfortunately the running sores have still not completely healed and I have been unable to run or swim. This has been difficult to deal with but I've been hitting the gym to remain fit. Hopefully I'll be back to normal soon and can get back to full training.