Tracking Shoe Wear & Replacement

Runners of Icrontic, how do you keep track of the wear on your running shoes? How often do you replace your running shoes? Anyone have tips for keeping your shoes in good condition for longer?

Comments

  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    @_k_ is going to have some of the best advice for this, his mileage is nuts. I think the best advice I had was to get fitted by someone at a running store, rather than trying to do it yourself at academy or whatever. The fit helps you land in the shoe better, which makes it last longer. Don't go with super air bubble 9000s either, as they are bad for your body. Flattish shoes with little to no rise from toe to heel is best for "natural" running posture. Stride/striking is super important as well, though I'm not sure it'll reduce your wear much.
  • _k_k P-Town, Texas Icrontian
    I don't run that much right now, trying to be lazy about my training and just walk it in.

    The standard thing to do is find an actual running store in your area. Wear your normal every day shoes in because they should ask to see the bottom of them, if they don't ask them if they want to see them. They do this to check the wear pattern on the shoes you wear a lot, because it tells them how your foot moves as you strike the ground with each step. Striking is a term used to describe your foot making contact with the ground. People normally talk in terms of striking as in: mid, heel, front, mid-front. Mid refers to the arch of your foot and front is the ball of your foot; the mid-front is a reference to someone who lands forward from the center of their arch a little and slightly on the ball of their foot. By looking to see how you strike normally and if there is pronation/supplination(rolling your foot right/left as it moves) they should give you a recommendation on what kind of shoe to start trying on that will help correct your movements to a neutral state.

    Any one form of striking is not right or wrong or leads to more or less injury, there is no science that actually proves there is a single best way to use your feet when they make contact to the ground. The slower people go the more they tend to heel strike because walking causes you to normally heel strike, thus, as you speed up there is a natural tendency for people to move towards a mid or mid-front strike. Also as the terrain you are covering changes you will change how you strike. That all should give you enough to be prepared to go look at and try on shoes, a real running store will let you bring back a pair of shoes that you have worn a little and don't like. Use a running store to find a good shoe for you that works long term, then you can buy them from a slightly cheaper online store later. You need a shoe that fits well and allows you to run in some comfort!! You need a good shoe! Shoes good on feet!! Understand? Cheap shoes that fit and support you will are still good shoes, don't be afraid to spend money to get the right shoe.

    Regarding wear on your shoes. If there is rubber on the bottom that part is fine, uneven wear should be expected because you might not use the entire sole. The place that normally wears out on running shoes is the foam core. The foam is full of a substance that has a structure to it and when that structure starts to fail it doesn't work right. One test on a shoe is to bend the toe back to the tongue and see if it snaps forward, if so then there is still good structure present. The other test is simply to run in them and if it feels like you are running on a really hard shoe with no give and striking the ground gives a kind of shudder of force into your foot then they might be shot or you are running crappy. You can still run on a dead pair of shoes as long as they don't injure you and they don't slow you down, had a pair I ran in until both the soles came unglued. People might tell you every 6 months or 500-600 miles but that doesn't hold true in a lot of cases. I have run in shoes for 9 months and put some where around 800 miles on them and others barely hit 400 miles, the same model of shoe too. This is really a feel thing which requires you to know the shoe and know yourself, it makes more sense for when a shoe is dead the more time you spend running.

    Running shoes are for running.

    Your shoes are like tiny people you put on your feet then beat into the ground. They need to be kept out of the heat and in a climate controlled area normally. If its to hot for a person to safely spend all day locked in your car then don't leave your shoes in there. The extra heat works at breaking down the foam in the shoes. Leaving them muddy is fine.
    TushonBobbyDigiJBoogalooardichoke
  • Yeah, I got fitted at a running store last year, when I started running seriously. They hooked me up with some Brooks Adrenaline GTS shoes which felt wicked good to run in (and gave me the support I needed so I'm not collapsing in). Even had a pair that was the previous years style so I got a good price on them :D I'm just wondering when I should be looking into replacing them, and if anyone has a good way of tracking the number of miles they've put on their shoes. @_k_?
  • _k_k P-Town, Texas Icrontian
    If those are the only shoe you run in then using something like runkeeper works. It will help you track your overall miles, when you get new shoes you can write on the heel the number of the month you switched to them so you can track how many miles out of your total that you put on them. Seems like you want a number so after 500 miles replace them.
    Tushon
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited December 2013
    And that's why I tagged you.
  • _k_ said:

    If those are the only shoe you run in then using something like runkeeper works. It will help you track your overall miles, when you get new shoes you can write on the heel the number of the month you switched to them so you can track how many miles out of your total that you put on them. Seems like you want a number so after 500 miles replace them.

    Thanks, seems like a reasonable way to keep track of it. I was hoping there was something that specifically allowed you to track which shoes you were running in thus allowing to track how many miles you've put on them, but it seems there isn't.

    I wasn't necessarily looking for a specific number, more an idea of how long running shoes typically last. I know that's like asking "how long do a set of tires typically last" in that it varies greatly by how they are used and cared for... but I just wanted an idea of what point I should expect them to start wearing out. Your previous post about bending the toe back to see if they still spring back into shape is a good tip that I'm going to keep in mind going forward.
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