I’ve been a regular runner since high school, and with better mobile technologies, I’m getting into it even more. I enjoy few things as much as running around San Francisco listening to baseball games and podcasts, all the while tracking an incredible amount of data on my route and pace.
I use the incredibly comprehensive Runmeter Elite, which costs less than a latte and seems to work well even when I’m running it in the background during runs in excess of an hour (Disclaimer: I have an unlimited data plan on AT&T that I’ve continued to grandfather along through several new iPhone upgrades). One of the apps cool features is that it allows you to add shoe information to your runs, so you can easily track accumulated mileage, but also differential performance. Like most runners, I’ve always struggled with knowing when I should retire my runners and buy a new pair. It turns out there is very little consensus on this point, as pointed out in Gina Kolata’s 2013 article in the New York Times:
“So when should you retire those faithful running shoes, and what happens if you don’t? Despite the doomsday warnings, no one really knows. And with so many variables — type of shoe, runner’s weight, running surfaces, running style — there may never be a simple answer.”
For me, I’ve generally relied on early sensations of patellofemoral pain syndrome, also know as runner’s knee. If after my typical run of 8-9 miles I feel a bit of tenderness or pain, then I retire my shoes as soon as possible.
I don’t yet have a good sense of how many shoe miles it has taken to get to that point, but I’m curious to find out. Hence, the Sneaker Project.
Here I’ll track the make, model, purchase date and retirement dates for all my running shoes, complete with before and after photos. Truthfully, I’ve wanted to do this for years.
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