Who needs new shoes?

It occurred to me the other day that the last pair of ‘ordinary’ trainers I bought was back in April 2008.
Although, since then, I have  had 3 new pairs of not so ordinary running shoes:

1. Inov-8 Roclite 315. These have been used for much of my running: 5k road races, half marathons, long (20 mile+) road runs, off-road marathons & mountain races. They are getting pretty worn now but still have plenty of miles left in them, I’ll replace them soon, probably with some 285s
2. Zoot Ultra Race 2. I tried these on in a local Triathlon shop out of curiosity. They looked very interesting: extremely lightweight, minimal cushioning & support, very low heel lift and amazingly comfortable. They’ve not had much use yet because I really want to be rid of my Achilles problem before I go blasting a 5k in them — they are even flatter than the Roclites.
3. Aqua shoes. At the other end of the price spectrum to the Zoots are these cheap and cheerful aqua shoes bought in Tescos for about £3. I’ve only run a few times in them including a 5 miler, but they’ve been very comfy. I will use them more in the winter when the roads carry too much debris for safe barefoot running.

The point is though, the marketing guys and the running magazines will have us replacing our shoes every 500 miles or risk certain injury — I’m not entirely sure this is the best strategy to employ.

As for my running, getting a few more miles in now and reintroducing the barefooting. Not quite up to my ‘ideal’ 10%, but getting back to it. Of course, I’ll keep a watchful eye on the Achilles; it’s feeling much better now.

Total miles for 2 weeks: 64
Barefoot miles: 4