shoes tied tight!

I have a gross problem.  I have had it for years now...get excited.  I get black toes.  WHAT?!  I know you are shocked, disgusted...confused.  Well during that lovely running of mine, mainly LONG runs, my feet slide in my shoes and hit the front of my shoe.  SO painful for about a week.  Thankfully the pain goes away quickly but results in some black toenails for months...until the nail falls off!  WHAT?!?!  I know, I know, super gross right?!  So is there a solution to the problem?  Glad you asked!  One school of thought is to buy shoes one size too big.  This will give you more room in the toe box (you know where your toes are).  This works great for many people.  I, unfortunately, have VERY narrow feet and a too big shoe means lots of sliding.  This worked pretty well for shorter runs but during anything over 5 miles I would have sore toes and then a half marathon BLACK TOENAILS!  So I got on my trusty laptop and started doing research (please don't judge that it took losing 5 toenails to do more research).  It was a lovely discovery though...

Runners World has a great article.  In the article it has a video and explanation for how to lace your shoes to prevent this problem.  Do you have issues with your shoes?  Check the article out, solutions for:

• shoes too tight
• heal moving up and down
• rubbing on the top of your foot
• toes feel cramped

Simple solutions to try that won't cost you a new pair of shoes!  I did have issues getting the videos to play, but the explanation and picture allows you to figure out what you need to do.  Changing the way you lace the shoes adds extra room in the toe box (remember we just learned that term) and helps prevent the bruising.

So far this has worked for me, I know it looks strange but who cares?!  Not this girl!  Hope this helps you:)
xoxo