Comments on: Shoes ‘n Stuff

By: Ela

Ela — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 04:39:46 +0000

My mileage on the Elixir 2 was 313 when I retired them. Current Elixir 2 has 180ish and Elixir 3 has 220ish. Interestingly the Asics 21xy with thicker soles and heavier and what not only last like 230-250 miles and I think I am running in dead shoes. I have 3 shoes in active rotation right now, plus one pair of Asics 2140 that I will rotate in once the 2130 retires and an Asics DS Trainer for races. Cannot really stand the 21xy anymore.

Really like the idea of having one foot with the old and one with the new shoe! If that would not show a difference I recommend running a couple of miles in the new ones and then switching on the fly into the old ones. Sometimes that is like running into a wall.

By: Christi

Christi — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:00:33 +0000

Good Luck tomorrow!! I hope you don’t get in a pickle with your time!

By: Flo

Flo — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:13:28 +0000

Mir, thanks for the Inspire review. I can't wait for 'em now! I skipped the Red, white and blue "Yes I can" ones for the blue/yellow "I think I can" model. Christi, don't know about Bodyglide on your strap, never tried it. Glad that you find out stuff from reading here, that's a wonderful thing. Progman, I can relate to the excess shoe situation. Now that I've figured out my mileage limit, I hope to have no more than 3 Inspires for rotation (oh, and my Elixirs, which I still need to figure out how many miles I can put on before discarding). Dave, cool on the water bottle. Yeah, I was the same about thinking it was the manufacturers making us change them, because it's hard to tell when they're on their way out. That, and I was trying to save some dough, too. It's worth comparing if you have a fresher pair, you might be surprised either way. Bruce, good for rotating your shoes. Glover says it makes them last longer, though some folks on the forums say that's a load of crap. I think it can't hurt, so I rotate, too. Julie, your new shoes sound really cool. Spikes! You're so hardcore, I love it. I'm getting closer to buying a real pair of racing flats (Elixirs are my stand-in). I'm waiting for a significant 5K result, maybe around 21:15ish to feel worthy of buying a pair. Jim, definitely worth trying some lightweights again, you look like a pretty light guy and could benefit from them. So, kids...I went to the Pickle site and some people showed up last week so they went ahead and raced. The times were pretty slow (granted it was 7 degrees) but the fastest guy came in at 22:17, most of the times were around 25:xx (there's a mention of hills on the page, too), so I'm going to expect something completely non PR-related, like 24:xx. I'll let you know tomorrow how it went.

By: Jim E

Jim E — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:48:49 +0000

Happy pickling tomorrow Flo! (Why am I feeling a slight deja vu?),
Good idea on the shoe test. My last venture into lightweight shoes for racing ended painfully, but it might have just been the particular shoes. Never worn actual flats (yet). Now I just wear my Brooks Defyance all the time. They’re past 300 miles, and seem OK, but I wonder how they would fare if I test them like you did?

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:28:04 +0000

I’m lucky if I can get 300 miles out of my daily duty training shoes before they feel like I’m running on cardboard. Racing flats, forget it: They start to feel stale at 200 miles.

I also just dropped a load of cash at both Running Warehouse and Holabird since it was That Time. Since I was spending loads of money anyway, and it’s up to all of us to save the economy, I added a pair of Asics spikes to the cart. They have nifty interchangeable spikes: rubber nubs for cross-country and carbon spikes for track work. I have a promise to myself that I will not wear them to the track until I am doing intervals at 5:45 pace, lest I look like a poseur. So I’ll crack open that box in mid-March if all goes according to plan (*evil laughter*).

With the insane number of shoes I have to buy, running isn’t cheap. But it’s still cheaper than heroin or psychoanalysis.

Good luck in the PIckle tomorrow! With your new Speedy Gonzalez ways, you should be smoking your nemeses. Or perhaps finding completely new, faster nemeses…

By: Bruce

Bruce — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:19:22 +0000

I probably wear my shoes too long but I always rotate shoes and thats supposed to make them last longer. Right now I got a 3 shoe rotation going, usually only 2.

Ill be carefull if I ever get a HR monitor.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:59:12 +0000

I always love borrowing(stealing) your running knowledge. I bought my 20 oz handheld amphipod because you recomended it long ago, but its a bit bit too big when sometimes all I need is say 10 oz or so. Beautiful, I will now buy the 12 oz’er!
I’ve been weary about changing out my shoes because I’ve thought that the whole mileage thing was “hogwash” thought up by the manufactuers, but now I just may change out those shoes.. or could it be because I am cheap?….
I probably should’ve been changing em anyway due to my poundage. I beat the snot out of my shoes!