Socks are pretty important for sports and it wasn't until I started getting a bit more into distance running that I started to realize that it makes a lot of difference which kind of socks you wear when you go for a run.
I sweat a lot and it is the hottest time of year where I live. I made a bad mistake and chose the incorrect socks before departing on a run the other day and unfortunately, by the time I figured out what I had done I was already 4k away from relief.
In this pic we have two of my pairs of socks. They look pretty similar wouldn't you say? Well that was the problem. I was more focused on whether or not my headphones had enough charge in them for the duration of the run so I just picked up the "grey ones" not realizing that I had put on the wrong ones.
The top pair of socks are a wool blend that has moisture wicking technology in them. The bottom pair are your stock standard cotton ones that you get for almost zero money at a department store. I had unknowingly put on the cotton ones when I left on my run.
It wasn't long before I was sweating like mad and this is completely normal for me but rather than keep the sweat out of my socks the cotton actually encourages more of it and next thing I know I can feel the abrasion on my feet. Had I been running around a track I simply would have stopped but I was already 4km away from my house and decided to just "man up" and Goggins my way through it.
This was a mistake
I had set out to do a 10k with a 7 and a half minute per km pace but you can see that this all fell apart in km 5 when my feet seriously started to hurt. By the time I got home I had the beginning stages of horrible blisters in the arch of both feet. One of them had already ruptured and was very painful. It still is today a few days later.
I don't know if this chart means anything to you but you can see the big dips after 4km because that is when I stopped, tried to adjust my laces a bit and had to walk rather than run in order to attempt to reduce the amount of pain and damage I was inflicting.
Despite much more walking than I would have preferred, my heart rate stayed elevated probably because of some sort of psychological something or other from the pain.
Anyway, I made it back home, assessed the damage and will never make this mistake again in the future. I never was a big believer in the power of socks but this was a very real lesson in how much of a difference there really is. Those cheap socks really hurt my feet and this mistake will not be made again.
If you are out there trying to do some real runs I highly recommend getting some wool moisture wicking socks. They aren't necessarily expensive but of course the name brand ones like Nike and Adidas or whatever else are going to cost a lot and I believe you are just paying for the name when that happens.
you can get a decent pair of durable and comfortable wicking socks for $5-$10. I know I will be wearing the correct socks from this day forward!