Ask Sugar Runs: Why It's Important To Rotate Your Running Shoes
This topic about rotating running shoes has come up countless times among my running friends the last few weeks and I wanted to share it with everyone. Its very important to rotate your running shoes! If you are doing any long distance training, speed work, or if you run more than 20 miles a week, your shoes are going to wear down quickly.
Most folks use one pair of running shoes in their training, and don't keep track of their mileage with those shoes. I was one of them! My first year and a half of running, I wore the same shoe through 3 races. I lost a toenail on the last race and figured it was finally time to switch up the shoes. I bought 1 new pair.
It wasn't until about 2 years ago when I came across this really good article, that I figured out why my feet were hurting in shoes that were only a month old. You have to switch out your shoes! It also takes about 48 hours for the cushioning in your shoes to fully recover from a run and provide the support it should for your precious feet.
The other reason why my feet would start hurting is because I had too many miles on my shoes. A good running shoe should last about 400 miles. I was wearing the same shoe for a year and a half and ran 3 half marathons in them. It's hard to keep track, but I make sure to log my miles, noting which pair of shoes I wore and how many miles that shoe has in total.
Get Fitted:
My first recommendation before you purchase a ton of shoes is to go get fitted. Running stores will fit you at no additional cost. You don't even have to buy anything. I spent a few years not knowing what type of shoe to wear and usually just bought what felt good or looked cool. Once I got fitted and found out I was a neutral runner, it was easier to know right away what shoes I couldn't buy.
How To Not Break The Bank:
It can get pretty expensive buying tons of shoes. I rotate between 3 pairs. Since I got fitted a few years ago, I've been running in Nike Lunarglides or Pegasus. It makes it easy to go to an outlet and find last season's model for a decent price, or find them online. While we all like sweet running gear, the shoes are the most important part of your outfit, so if you're going to invest in anything, make it the shoes.
Do you rotate your shoes? What's your go-to shoe/model?
J
