Two longish runs in two days have left my legs feeling quite tired and my shins feeling quite sore. A quick glance at my running log shows I have 367 miles on my Adidas Adistar Cushion 6’s and 359 miles on my Adidas Supernova Cushion 7’s – just 30 and 40 miles respectively short of their expected life.
It’s amazing really – if I average 50 miles a week, a decent pair of training shoes will *only* last me 8 weeks. Priced at $90 for the Supernova Cushion and $120 for the Adistar Cushion, I guess you could say running is quite an expensive sport, especially as I’ll probably get through 6 or 7 pairs every year.
Of course I haven’t even mentioned my racing flats, cross country spikes, trail shoes or marathon shoes, but at least I’m not wearing those on a daily basis and they tend to last a lot longer than my regular training shoes.
Hopefully, my aching muscles are nothing more than that – achy – and I haven’t pushed too hard to develop an injury. I think a new pair of shoes is just what the doctor ordered and maybe I’ll treat myself this weekend….
How long do your shoes last on average??
Hi Steve,
Thanks for your email! Just replied…..
So do you ever use RunAHEAD to track your sneaker mileage?
Sounds like you’re definitely due for new shoes! I’m sure you’ve probably already visited the Runner’s World sneaker page many times, but nonetheless, I thought of you when I saw it. 😉
Have fun sneaker shopping!
-C
On a related note, have you see this article on recycling old running shoes?
I use the same shoes I think. I just bought two pair from here:
http://www.runningwarehouse.com/descpageMRS-ASUCU7M.html
I can strongly recommend them. Great service and cheap.
Most of my shoes last in the 400-600 mile range, and as I rotate between 4-6 pairs of shoes at a time they usually last about a year or so per pair on the calendar. When I was in college, I usually only rotated between 2 pairs of shoes and they rarely lasted the season.
I have a few methods for acquiring shoes (most to least expensive) that help me control costs:
1. I’ll buy a pair now and again from my local running store at full retail minus a 15% discount offered by the store to support local running teams and clubs. The shoes I get are pretty neutral and at full retail rarely cost more than $80-$90 (My wife, unfortunately, uses shoes that cost $130 and her selection is limited due to plantar fascitis.) I had to pay just over $70 (post tax) for the Vibram KSOs last week.
2. I’ll buy last year’s model at expos. They are usually available for 15-20% off of retail, and you can often haggle the price down further since they don’t want to have to take them back after the expo is over. (This works best towards the end of the last day of the expo.) These shoes are usually in the $60-$80 range. I’ll admit that I haven’t bought shoes at an expo for a couple years though.
3. I’ll buy shoes online if I find a good deal on them and they are one of my “preferred” shoes – this can range from $30-$50 depending upon the deal. This also applies to brick & mortar stores, of course, but most deals I find out about are online (although I got a good buy on some North Face trail shoes in the store last year.) It’s been over a year since I’ve bought shoes online.
4. My team is sponsored by Nike, so 4 or 5 times per year we do a team order through Nike that allows us to get certain models at 25% off of wholesale plus a few bucks shipping. Shoes usually cost about $40 total this way, but I’m not a huge Nike fan and I’ve had other options lately so I haven’t ordered any shoes this way (again) for over a year.
5. I’ll win my shoes. This is the “cheapest” in that the shoes themselves don’t cost anything, but it’s tough to get myself into a situation where I am capable of winning a race or a series when there are free shoes on the line. Last Summer, I won an 18 week 5k series (top 6 races count) and got “free shoes for a year” from Mizuno. Translated, that meant 4 vouchers for free shoes, of which I’ve used 2 so far. There’s a 10k in July that offered a free pair of shoes to the first 500 registered, so I’ll get a free pair that way. I’ve also been making an effort to get to know the local shoe reps over the past year, so the Mizuno rep gave me a free pair of racing flats this past April (I’d expected to have to use one of my vouchers for them so it was a nice surprise.) He got his money’s worth with all the attention the shoes have gotten – they were Mizuno Wave Revolvers. So far I’ve run in them 4 times, 2 training runs to try them out, set a course record in a marathon in them, and placed 9th in a 5k in them.
I rarely buy at retail online; I might save $5 or $10 over purchasing them locally (although often not even that now that I can get a 15% discount off the top), but I’d rather keep the money at home than send it across the country.
There has to be a pretty significant savings for me to order online, if my local store carries the item or can special order them for me (which they are more than happy to do.)
I’ve had my current shoes (asics ds racers) since august, averaging about 30mpw so about 1200 miles. The mesh upper is starting to tear in a few places, otherwise they’d be good for another 3-4 more months.