Toe nails (Read 2346 times)

Dude, that is nasty.  Looks like the nail root got blown away.  Time to start running barefoot.

Haha, well played.

 Podiatrist ripped it out yesterday.  He said there was probably an infection, because the toe was red. 

In my annoyance, I actually got on the mill today and started running with the surgical boot on one foot and a sneaker on the other. It started to feel like a bad idea, so I stopped.

I don't think running barefoot in the gym is polite.  Socks? 

Just the copay.

So a couple of weeks ago I got a new pair of shoes and I started running more hills. All the while Iam also increasing my mileage. Once I started running the hills/got thenew shoes all of a sudden my toenails HURT! It feel like after my run that the corners of my second toe (right by the nail) is ingrown. this is not the case. I went to a running store and had them measure my foot and make sure I was in the right type of shoe. He said that yes I am in the right type of shoe, but I should not be in a narrow. I asked if that would cause my toenails to hurt and he said no that I am curling my toes. He also said that I should lok into getting a normal width shoe at some point. He didn't pressure me to buy shoes at all, which was nice. I went home and ordered the same shoes in a different width. I got the a couple of days ago, but I am wondering if maybe I should be in a bigger shoe?

 

Is the purple/black toenail caused by my foot hitting the frontof my shoe. I have had my foot measured by three different running shoe store employees (Three different locations) My running shoes are almost a size bigger than my street shoes. I typically wear a 7.5-8 in regular shoes, my running shoes are an 8.5

 

Do I go back and take my new new shoes withme and ask if a 9 is way to big or is this just how running is? I have  read a hundred times that runners get black toenails, but do we HAVE to? I mean my toes HURT after a long run.

At first I thought that my toenail was catching or rubbing on the top of my shoe so I started taping that one toe, and that seemed to help, until I ran the HH course (LOTS of hills) and now my other toe is hurting too.

 

I am also getting fluid blisters on the tips of my toes. They don't hurt at all, and they haven't popped.

 

I need advice.

 

Thanks in advance!

No, you don't need to lose your toe nails at all.  I haven't run a marathon for quite some time but I've run many halvs as well as training and running up to 3-hours with people who trained for marathon.  In the past 3 years, I think I might have lost one toe nail.  My second toe on my right foot is longer than the big toe and sometimes it causes a problem but, unless I be careless about it, I rarely get any black toe nail.  It's not the bigger shoe you need; you need the right shoe--not the right shoe a shoe sales person tells you but your foot tells you.

A problem with getting a bigger shoe is now you'll face an issue of your foot too loose and start to move around.  You might have a bigger problem with your tip of your toes banging into the shoe more this way particularly if you run a hilly courses because your foot will slide forward going downhill.

Sometimes a shoe is "over-sprung", or in other words, the toe box is not correctly built and the tip of it collapses.  If this happens, regardless of the size of the shoe, it presses your toes, particularly big toe, down and creates a black toe nail.  Ingrown toe nail, as I think you have already pointed out, is completely different and the pain associated with it is completely different.  It's a sharp pain on the edge or the toe nail.  It's actually surprisingly easily taken care of as long as you hadn't left it for too long.  But that shouldn't give you black toe nail and it's not caused by incorrect shoe sizing.  As you have guessed, getting wide or narrow shoe most likely won't correct this issue.  It's not a matter of bigger or smaller shoes; nor narrower or wider shoes.  It's a matter of getting the right shoe for your foot.

I don't know who told you a hundred times that getting black toe nail is a feather in a hat for a distance runner but that's a bunch of bull.  If your shoe fits your foot correctly and if you're careful about it, it should never even have to happen. 

I would go back to the store and shoe them your toenail.  Our local store would definitely give you new shoes if there was a problem like that.

well shit how do I know what shoe is right for me? I am not in a position to try lots of different shoes. I have already spent way more than I can really afford. I started running in an old pair of Nike shoes and when I realized that I really liked running and wanted to take it further than just running a 5k I decided to buy  new pair. zmy old shoes I had for 10 years. I had these new mizuno's for a week and black toenail.

So now I am $200 into this and I am afraid to try the new mizuno's cause I don't want my toes to hurt.

The running store has a return policy but only if you wore them INSIDE and up to 30 days. 

Like I said, the best thing is "listen to your feet".  Of course, as you had pointed out, often shoes may feel just fine or even great until you run for a while. 

First of all, do know that a lot of things that are being said may not necessarily be true.  I don't believe in that thing about having to have a thumb width at the end of the shoe crap.  Sure, your foot expand a little but that "rule of thumb" came from the days when the shoe construction was poor and the toe box wasn't as 3-dimentional as they are today.  Again, having over-sized shoe is not a solution for blisters or black toe nails--in fact, it MAY enhanse that situation.  First of all, the shoe has to have the right "shape" as your foot.  It's not just narrow or wide; but also the right "curve".  If you flip the shoe over, you can see a certain "curve" to it.  Some are quite a bit curved and some are very straight.  Some has a weird "S" shape which, to me, wouldn't resemble the shape of the foot at all.  Any of those that don't "resemble" your own foot is going to cause some problem.  Suppose, for example, if you put a banana-shaped foot in something "S" shaped shoe; what do you think is going to happen?  Most likely, your heel is going to be pushed inward (medially) off to the side and over the sole of the shoe.  What would this situation be called?  Over-pronation!!!  So now you're over-pronating with no fault to what your own body structure is. 

The shoe should not have any pressure point.  It's not just when you wear it.  You need to stand up; put your weight in it; and one thing you really need to check is lift your heel up and position your foot as if you are just before toe-off with your toes bent inside the shoe but toes are still touching the floor.  This is the position when your foot (toes) are being pushed forward.  If your toes are being pushed up against the inside the shoe, you'll have a problem when you run--may not so much when you're just walking around.  This is also when, if there are too much extra material on the upper, those extra materials are being bunched up and wrinkled up and dig into your foot and cause a problem.  If you absolutely love that shoes (color?), etc., you CAN fix this problem but it requires some skills.  Either way, best to stay away from those shoes with pressure points.

In your case, with the second toe longer than the big toe, if everything else fits perfectly and, obviously, you don't want to throw away expensive brand new shoes, you CAN just cut away the tip of the shoe.  I've done that a couple of times before--these particularly shoes fit my feet perfectly (heel, arch and the widest part of the foot) except for the tip of my toes.  So I just made a hole about 2cm wide.  There once was shoes called "Laser" from New Zealand; they were "open-toe" shoes.  They were like one of those Roman sandles and they were quite popular particularly among ultra runners beacuse they were so very comfortable and you will not have any of those black toe nail problems. 

I'm sorry but I don't necessarily buy into what those so-called "professional" people might say at running speciality stores.  They may be a professional for selling stuff; but how much professional are they to talk about running?  So don't just buy what they tell you; think about it and see if they make sense or not first.