Battered Shoes

For the first time ever that I can remember, I've done a really good job with my latest New Balance shoes in reserving them for "formal" walks and runs - where I go out to do specific miles rather than just taking a walk.  I used my older and worn pair of New Balance shoes for the latter.  I got the newer shoes in late June, and used them to finish my training for the Crawlin' Crab Half Marathon.  I carefully kept track of the miles on them in a spreadsheet.  And since the half marathon, I have pretty slack about "formal" walks.  I still do plenty of walking, mostly on breaks at work and short walks around my neighborhood, and for all of those, I used my older and increasingly battered shoes.

Until recently, that is!  About a month after the race, I realized that the old shoes were actually hurting my feet, they were so worn out.  So I stopped wearing the old shoes and I stopped keeping track of the miles on the new ones at the 211 mile point.  To show you how worn the old ones were, the newer ones with over 200 miles on them felt brand new by comparison!  But now, they have many more miles on them from all of the incidental walking, and I will have to replace them soon.

Buying shoes is a major purchase, costing about $150 with inserts.  It is money I don't want to spend right now.  But I also know that I need to walk more, not less, than I have recently.  For the next five weeks, I am back on 8 hour days at work, which means I will have a hour for lunch.  In the cooler weather, that is a perfect time to get in a 3 or 4 mile walk right in the middle of the day.

So I guess my strategy is something like this: buy a new pair of New Balance shoes as soon as I set $150 aside.  Wear them only for walks where I go out for a predetermined distance.  Use my current shoes for all incidental walking, including walks at lunch.  They will wear out quickly with all of that use.  At that point, I will look for a less expensive pair of just walking shoes, and try them without inserts.  I'll use those shoes for any incidental walking, of which I do a lot.  In a given day, I probably average 8,000 - 10,000 steps a day between the time I get up and come home from work, and more than that if I have an hour for lunch and it is not really hot or pouring rain.

I have been walking about 5 million steps a year, which translates to over 2,000 miles in a year.  That is a lot for anyone who is working full time (which is how I can afford shoes).  But it also means that I wear out shoes.  A good pair of walking / running shoes should last about 400 miles, but I wear mine longer.

So that is my latest shoe saga.  For any serious runner or walker, there is always something going on with shoes.  And it usually involves money!

Do I Need Some New Balance in My Life?

I got a comment on Thursday’s post about how much they like New Balance shoes. That makes two of us! I used their walking shoes for years, but when I decided to train for a marathon, I went with another brand’s running shoe. It just didn’t work out, and I was getting metatarsalgia, a very painful swelling in the metatarsal area of my left foot. I went to a podiatrist, and after an exam and X-rays, he told me to go with a shoe with the widest possible toe box. I went back to look at New Balance and found a shoe that seems to work, and I’ve stuck with it.

Here are my New Balance shoes that I wore in the 2005 Midnight Sun Marathon in Anchorage. Can you see that it was a wet and muddy race? I wanted to bronze these shoes afterwards! :)


Even with the New Balance shoes, what saved my feet was putting in a pair of orthotic inserts which provide support to the arch. This spreads the weight around and takes some of the pressure off the forefoot. Without these inserts, I was still having some issues when I would start going up around 8-10 miles of training. I’ve taken to using the inserts with hiking boots too, because I have the same pain with my left metatarsal region on hikes as well. I think as my feet swell, there is pressure put across the forefoot and the bones compress in on a nerve. It feels like getting an electric shock, especially while hiking a rough trail and the side of my foot presses into a rock.

I started out with a New Balance running shoe, even though I was training to walk the Anchorage Marathon. At the speed and distances we walk, it puts about as much stress on one’s feet as runners get. Now that I also run some of the marathon, it is even more important to have running shoes. These shoes have worked out very well – with athletics, when you find something that works, you tend to stick with it. I go through two pairs, and sometimes three, to train for and do a marathon. The goal is that at marathon time, I’ll be running and walking in shoes with about 100 miles on them, so my marathon shoes always have good life left afterwards and I use them for a while. In fact I am still using my Arizona Marathon pair from January, but they are pretty well shot and should be replaced. I was feeling it on the 12 miler a week ago. Replacement is expensive – we are talking nearly 200 bucks for the shoes and the inserts.

When I get a new pair, I use the old pair for just general use, short walks, that kind of thing. My current old pair is practically junk right now. I don’t even want to guess how many miles are on them! Even though I don’t want to spend the money right now, I think I will have to soon, because I want to gear up my miles – both walking and running. Then my Arizona pair will become my general use pair, and I will have some new New Balance in my life!