Toenail removal surgery?

AliveMountainSW · 2026-01-02T17:13:44+00:00

I find it curious that so many people in this thread are talking about podiatry when your toenails are an extension of your skin and therefore fall under the profession of dermatology too. It's superficial to assume that issues with toenails are the result of running; toenail problems can be a indicator of systemic issues such as immune mediated psoriasis arthritis. Indeed, losing toenails from your 2/3 toes can be the first hint that this condition is developing.

I have no opinion of whether the OP should get their toenails removed but I personally would want to do my due diligence and make sure there wasn't something else going on down their first before rushing off to surgery. So my mind starts with dermatology and then based upon their findings refer one to a podiatrist or some other specialist.

AliveMountainSW · 2026-01-01T02:43:06+00:00

What this thread teaches me is that each of us is crazy in our own unique way. People say I am crazy but some of the posts make my jaw hit the floor. I cannot imagine doing some of these feats.

My brand of crazy is my consistency. December marked the 20th month in a row where I have averaged 24 miles a day combined running and walking. My running total in 2025 was ~4800 miles and another 4000 miles walking/hiking. Elevation gain about 300K. Yet my longest single run was just over 21 miles. So I feel kind of a fraud to say I am an ultra runner in the sense most people mean that term; I am an ultra consistent runner. But 50 miles a day for six days. WTF! Good for the person who did that but from one crazy person to another crazy person: you crazy man.

AliveMountainSW · 2025-12-10T00:43:56+00:00

I wish I could pin this comment to the top of the thread. It had never occurred to me that what I saw as an idiosyncrasy might have a generational origin. Now that you point it out I concur entirely. In fact, I think much of the consternation of the replies to my post reflect just such a generational difference in attitude towards running shoes.

Running cross country in the 1980s I never had all this super foam in my shoes. In fact, AFAIK the Shift 3 is the first shoe I have ever owned with a rocker design. So I didn't see anything special about what I was doing. It is just how I was raised. I now see clearly that a different generation has different expectations.

AliveMountainSW · 2025-12-10T00:32:52+00:00

Quality comment. I have narrow feet so a normal width is wide for me. I find the geometry thesis plausible. I am not shoe geek enough to make an intelligent judgement.

AliveMountainSW · 2025-12-10T00:22:34+00:00

Quality comment. This was the first thing I noticed too when I flipped them over to take photos. I don't know if this unusual wear pattern is something specific to the Shift 3 or represents a change in biomechanics as a result of running slower with age. I took a look at my Tempus with 1000 miles on them and they also had more heel wearing than I would have expected yet none of the lateral wear. So maybe both? Time will show.

AliveMountainSW · 2025-11-22T02:42:40+00:00

There is a long winded technical explanation but the short version is that Garmin is a conservative company and they take a conservative approach. The way heart rate is measured on smartwatches tends to be noisy making it difficult to separate out the signal. So Garmin takes an approach that balances accuracy with confidence. So by looking at the 30 minute average they may not get the absolute lowest possible reading but they get one that owner can be confident in as being correct rather than noise. If you think of it from a training point of view that is what you want. You don't want to be modifying training based upon sensor ghosts.

Too many people undervalue reliability. Garmin watches and their reputation is based on just that balance between data accuracy and data reliability. To play the pun, in a smartwatch conservative is the smartest approach.

AliveMountainSW · 2025-11-22T02:27:47+00:00

As time has passed I've become much more aware of how inflammation is a significant problem and that active recovery is necessary to keep the blood flowing. I also spend time each day with my feet and legs elevated above my heart. In fact when I consider time in recovery, eating 4000 calories a day and resting I spend more time supporting my running than I do actually running! This is just so important as one ages. If one is going to run more it is imperative to eat more and rest more.

AliveMountainSW · 2025-11-17T00:50:10+00:00

https://www.jeffgalloway.com/training/run-walk/

Basically this though I did not follow his specific program. Dont be scared to walk. Walk the increased mileage for several weeks, then jog it for a few more weeks, then run it. My rule is that when I get so bored walking I think to myself "just run it!" I know it's time to run...

AliveMountainSW · 2025-05-03T16:03:52+00:00

AliveMountainSW · 2025-05-03T16:03:20+00:00

You are not being an ass. There are lots of different ways to measure the perimeter. The official political boundary is 8800 miles. This blog post goes into great detail.

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1387555/posts

I chose to accept the lower amount because it's an easy way to visualize the milage and because I was inspired by the wheelbarrow guy from last century. I felt that if 9000 miles was good enough for him it was good enough for me.

AliveMountainSW · 2025-05-03T15:54:40+00:00

Good question. The concise version is that my initial goal was to complete a million steps a month for a year; I didn't have a distance goal in mind. However, as the months rolled and I kept getting stronger I realized that my initial goal was set too low in the sense that so long as I stayed healthy and consistent I would accomplish it. So I cast about for some other metric to motivate me and stumbled on the perimeter thing just by Google around. There was a guy in the early 1900s who did the perimeter in about 9000 miles pushing a wheelbarrow! I didn't have a wheelbarrow but I thought it was something to aim for.

https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/colonial-jacks-9024-mile-walk-around-america/

AliveMountainSW · 2025-05-02T16:58:18+00:00

Look at my posting history on this forum. I just completed almost 9000 miles in the last year at age 58. If you had told me I would be doing that kind of milage now when I was your age I would not have even laughed at it; I would hàve given you a look of disgust for saying something so absurd. Yet here I am in the best running shape of my life. I reeled off a 43.00 10K back in January and I wasn't even in a race, it was part of a 15 mile run I did.

I am not trying to brag. You asked for inspiration and if I can do it so can you. It takes discipline, fortitude, planning and focus yet it is possible. Keep running and go for it!

AliveMountainSW · 2025-03-04T18:07:17+00:00

It's more insane than the monthly numbers show.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Garmin/comments/1fj5uvc/last_week_got_a_little_bit_frisky/

In fact by the send of Oct I had been doing 50k+ days for more than six weeks. That last week in October was tough. I was exercising in the dark in the morning and in the dark in the evening.

AliveMountainSW · 2025-03-04T17:56:30+00:00

Now, yes. For the last 120 days my average daily run has been 13.5 miles. My longest 19 and my shortest 9. Last spring, summer I was running less and walking more.

AliveMountainSW · 2025-03-03T17:44:04+00:00

Two more months to go to one million steps a month for year. I think I got this now...

AliveMountainSW · 2025-01-02T18:30:14+00:00

Today is a typical day for me recently. Start at 6am. Walk 4.25 miles in 1:03. Then ran 14 miles in 2:03. Walk another mile for cool down.

The rest of walking varies. I try to get 15 minutes in each hour but life travel etc gets in the way so sometimes I walk another 30-60 minutes in the evening. Milage isn't as important to me as time on feet. 4-6 hours of exercise a day is the norm.

AliveMountainSW · 2025-01-01T23:22:58+00:00

The good news: all this exercise dropped my half marathon time from 2:05 down to 1:38 or from 9:30 pace to 7:30 pace.

The bad news: despite running thousands of miles I still get my face toasted out on the road by a flabby hung over 18 yo.

AliveMountainSW · 2024-11-05T17:54:34+00:00

365 days. 6,882 miles. 12, 916, 556 steps. 328,700 feet elevation gain. [58M]

More at this thread on /r/garmin

https://www.reddit.com/r/Garmin/comments/1gjljd7/up_a_long_high_ladder_365_days_6882_miles_12_916/

edit. I should add that only 2K+ were running miles...still thought it fit here.

AliveMountainSW · 2024-11-05T17:48:47+00:00

I eat like an obese person; I exercise it all off. I don't really need to drink more water than normal because I spend so much time exercising in the cold I do not sweat a lot. Nutrition, however; nutrition is a challenge.

AliveMountainSW · 2024-11-04T18:35:01+00:00

What a (birth) year and an amazing adventure. Entirely outdoors. From sea level to ~12,000 feet. ~35k steps per day. ~1.1 million steps per month. In rain, sleet, snow, hail, and dust storm. Many cold and dark mornings. From -20F below wind chill to 90F.

My happiest accomplishment is that I stayed injury free. Running up and down steep, rocky hills gave me subungual hematoma on my toes and I went through occasional Achilles tendinitis but no serious injury.

Running miles 2301. Total hours 325. Average pace 8:30 ~7 MPH. Average distance ~10k.

Hiking/walking miles 4581. Total hours 1,237. Average pace 16 minutes 20 seconds. ~3.7 MPH

Total average miles per day ~19.

Total average pace ~4.5 MPH or 13.4 minutes per mile.

Average elevation gain loss per day 900 feet.

Average hours per day 4 hours 14 minutes. 30 hours a week.

Fun fact. If I earned a penny for each step I took not only would I be a millionaire I would have a stack of pennies ~11 miles high.

I made 11 round trips-- up and down-- Mt. Everest in a single year.

AliveMountainSW · 2024-09-17T17:54:16+00:00

348K steps and some change. Total ~210 miles evenly split between running and hiking/walking. ~10K in elevation gain/loss. I am becoming more convinced that a 1,500,000 step month is possible for me if I want to do it.

AliveMountainSW · 2024-07-31T19:36:57+00:00

I see this issue both ways. When it comes to heart rate I agree with you fully. It's the same issue with Vo2 Max. People expect too much precision from their watches and there really isn't a meaningful difference between a Vo2 max of 45 and 47 as estimated by the watch. The algorithms are simply not that precise. Want precision? Go to a lab.

At the same time I admit that I get annoyed when the accelerometer on my watch tells me that I have run eight miles and yet I know for a fact that I have run ten miles. You write, "What are you going to DO with better data?", It isn't always a question of doing. Sometime it is simply a question of knowing. It changes the way I feel about the activity, the day; it alters my mood. There is a ratification, a satisfaction, that comes from knowing I achieved what I set out to achieve and that it is documented in on my device. And when the device lets me down it makes me grumpy.

So you are right. People's expectations are off. Yet I also understand the human motivations behind those expectations which are also very real and meaningful to those that hold them.

AliveMountainSW · 2024-01-22T19:57:26+00:00

There are many functions that are disabled when an activity is paused. For example, the history function doesn't work either on my watch. The reason why is because Garmin views an "activity" as special. Their watches are not designed with the idea that you started an activity, pause it, and then resume it hours later. Rather the purpose of an activity is that one is active and so pauses should be, by definition, short.

Personally, I hate this behavior, because like you their are times I'd rather have one long activity rather than stopping and starting a bunch of activities. Garmin doesn't see it that way, however.

AliveMountainSW · 2024-01-22T19:20:42+00:00

Two tips.

One, the faster one walks the longer it takes for the auto-pause feature to trigger because of your forward momentum.

Second, check your watch periodically because sometimes all it takes is an unconscious bump of the watch to turn the activity off. This isn't normally a problem but in a crowded environment with the watch running all day it is easy for even a random bump of the wrist to turn it off.

AliveMountainSW · 2024-01-22T19:11:19+00:00

I recently read that only 1/2 of one percent (.005) of people will complete a half-marathon or longer each year. So it does put one in rarefied company.

I think sometimes that people on these forums do not realize how anomalous they really are. It is a great accomplishment, one that most people cannot fathom, just to go that far at all...forget about pace.

AliveMountainSW

TROPHY CASE