How Long Will I Need To Break My New Shoes In Before Race Day

Audio Transcript

Today, we have a question from Pat and his question is very simple. He asks, “How long will I need to break in my new shoes before race day?” That’s a very simple questionbut it also has a couple of different caveats and tangents that we could go down about shoes and breaking shoes in general. Pat, to answer your question quickly and to simplify it for anybody who’s curious about that, typically you’re going to want about a week or two of breaking in your shoes before the race. That’s going to give you enough time to make sure that they’re comfortable and fit. It’ll give them a little bit of additional flexibility, but it’s not going to be so much that you’re breaking down any of the support or the cushioning in that particular shoe.

Let’s go into a couple of different tangents. The first tangent we’re going to go through is, how often should you be replacing your shoes. Typically, shoes are going to have a lifespan of between 300 and 600 miles. There’s a couple of different factors. One is your form or your particular mechanics. Some people are going to have mechanics that are generallyharder on shoes. The heavier you are, the more you’re going to wear out your shoes a little bit quicker. Third is going to be the type of shoe. Some shoes, in general, just wear out quicker than others. I don’t think companies necessarily do it on purpose, but sometimes the way they’re designed leads to a shorter shoe life. Those are going to be your three factors.

Generally, you’re going to get between 300 and 600. I would say that if you’re getting less than 300, you’ll want to check out some things on your own, like your form. If your form is really off, then you want to probably work on that. That’s a good indication that you probably have something wrong with your form that needs to be tweaked and improved. It could also be an indication that the shoe you’re wearing isn’t a great fit for you.I don’t want to say that it’s the quality of the shoe,but there’s something with the shoe itself that probably isn’t fitting you very well. I would try a different brand or a different model and see if you can get some additional life out of them.

There are some people that have a really great running form. Their shoes hold up really well and they can get 600 plus miles out of them; that’s great too. In terms of when you need to replace them, typically you’re going to look for a couple of different things. One, you just feel it sometimes. Due to my experience, I can always feel it in my ankles. The inside of my ankles startto get a little sore, and that’s when I know the shoes are starting to wear down on me. It’s either the support or the cushioning. When it starts to feel that way, I know that I need to start switching them out.

Most running logs, these days, keep track of your shoe mileage, so if you keep track of your mileage, you can know generally when a shoe is starting to wear out for you. You’ll know your shoe mileage and when exactly you need to trade it out. You can look at them as well. If you look at the bottom of your shoes and they are really, really worn out, the tread is pretty much all gone, especially in a specific area, then you know that’s it’s time to switch them out. Sometimes you can tell just by the feel of it.

In terms of race day, one of the biggest mistakes that you could make before any type of race and especially a marathon, is changing your shoein the days prior. Even if it’s the same model, there could be something with the stitching inside it, or the way it was made, that could irritate you and ruin your race. It’s very difficult to run through a blister sometimes, even though it may seemvery simple. If you’ve ever had a blister, especially if it starts developing at 10 or 12 miles into a marathon, running the next 13 miles or so is very, very painful. It can knock you off your game. The last thing you want to do is try a new pair of shoes, two or three days before the race. I recommend you give it two weeks, because that’ll gives you enough time to break them in, in the sense of making sure that there’s no stitch that’s out of place or nothing that’s weird with the shoe. That is especially important if they’re a new model or a new brand.

At the same time, you’re also not going to be putting a lot of mileage on your shoes in the last two weeks before a marathon or half marathon; 5k, 10k. You’re not going to be anywhere near losing the stability or performance of the particular shoe.

Thank you very much, Patfor the question. Once again, if you want to ask your own questions, you can head to runnersconnect.net/daily and ask your question there with the voicemail prompt. Also, if you have a chance, help us spread the word of the podcast and help us rank a little bit better in the podcast directory, you can head to your favorite podcast directory and either leave us a review or give us a rating. Those help boost the signal to the podcast directory that you like us and can help us grow and reach more people, so it would be really appreciated.

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