How Many Miles Are On Your Running Shoes?

odometer You have been rolling along through your spring and early summer run training without much drama. Now all of a sudden you are starting to feel a few minor tweaks on your legs and joints.

Why now?

One of those reasons could be your shoe odometer may be getting a bit high. It may be time for some new wheels!

Recently I felt a couple extra tweaks and I knew I was heading up in overall mileage on the trusty shoes. I normally replace my runners around the 300 mile mark. How did I pick this number? Well, through the years I have observed when little running tweaks started to pop up. Typically this would occur around 300 miles and when I put on a new pair, the tweaks went away.

There is no hard and fast rule to this. Some runners can go 100-200+ more miles before they change out shoes. You have to find out where your threshold lies.

I decided to perform an mileage audit in my little log book and sure enough I was sitting at 288 miles.

Since I didn’t want to risk further tweaks in the middle of my half marathon block of training, I retired my current pair and am now lacing up a new shiny pair of Brooks Adrenaline’s.

Since I am more of a mid-foot striker, I really break down that portion of the sole and it was apparent. The inside of my shoe was like a canyon in the mid-foot area. This probably wasn’t helping with shock absorption.

Running in the new shoes yesterday felt nice! Even more importantly, I felt very little of the tweak sensations I had been feeling. I think this was a good decision.

How do you determine when to swap out your shoes? Mileage? Time? When things start to hurt? Phase of the moon?

If you are looking for a new set of tread, check out Running Warehouse which offers an extra 15% for EnduranceBuzz visitors on their already discounted prices for most road and trail shoes. Great service and free two day shipping as well! I have been really happy with them through the years.

Be active – Feel the buzz!

David – EnduranceBuzz .com