Newtons, retired

I finally retired my first pair of Newton Gravities.  Well, at least semi-retired.  I got two replies from the @sirisaac twitter feed on my query about when to retire them, and they were a bit different.  (I assume more than one person does the job, but I didn't ask.)  The first said that they have a number of runners get more than 600 miles out of them, and the second expressed concern that I was keeping them past 500.  I asked about what the limiting feature was, as long as the lugs were still in decent shape, and they replied that there is a membrane beneath them that wears out over time.

So, at 557 miles, I have put my first pair on reserve, to serve as backup shoes in case of emergency need or need to go out in yucchy conditions.  Here are a few key photos (click to enlarge):

   

As you can see, there's more wear on the right forefoot and a bit more on the left rear. However, they still appear more than usable.  When I switched to a new pair, I really can't say that they felt dramatically different as is often the case when you go to a new pair of shoes  from an old one of the same model.  Thus, although I will leave them retired, I believe there is still a bit of life left in them.

And thus I come to my n=1 conclusion.  Newtons are a big change in the type of shoe for most people.  (You read of some people who love them from day one, but I believe that's a rarity.  See the Slowtwitch reviews, for example.  I think this is a good example of how they grow on you, or you grow into them.)  As most people know there is this investment in trying a new philosophy of shoes that they may or may not like, there is a hesitance to buy them and try them because of the relative high cost:  $175 list.

Although I still think this price is excessive, at least for me, the Newtons certainly performed on a dollar-per-mile basis comparably to another pair of shoes that would cost a bit more than half of that, but only be good for about 300 miles.  This is the range that I have most recently experienced with other shoes, regardless of whether the outsole has worn out.

[An interesting point:  At 300 miles of wear and $100 cost, you get 3 miles/dollar.  If you run 7-8 miles per hour, that's pretty close to $2.50 per hour of running just in shoe cost!]

Another caveat I have to consider is that these shoes had a majority of their miles run indoors, where I presume the wear on the lugs is lower than it would be outdoors.  Come spring, we will find out if this high mileage holds up.

In any case, I am pleased with the Newtons on these points:

• The high initial investment on the shoes was accompanied by a high wear factor, so they didn't end up costing more per mile than I've been paying already.
• The upper is just super comfortable, especially for someone like me whose toe joints stick out a bit and can get dug into by some shoes.
• After a long, slow adaptation, they really are supporting a new forefoot/midfoot style of running for me.  I am not one who gets a lot of injuries anyway, and I will not yet claim that it makes me a lot faster.  However, at 10K-marathon pace ranges, I now feel more efficient.  Next season will see!

More Newtons. More running.

Today (a Thursday) I had a great tempo run.  Tuesday and Wednesday had put a total of 24 mi of moderate pace work in, so I was a bit slow to warm up.  It took me a couple miles to get to my ~8:15 pace.  After 4 mi came the tempo part.  I was kind of looking forward to this because over the last couple of weeks, I've finally felt like I REALLY had a good-feeling stride down with the Newtons, particularly when running faster.  Faster turnover, lighter touch, etc.

It turned out that the tempo section wasn't exceptionally FAST (averaging a few seconds slower than 7:00/mi), but my HR was very low for that pace.  The average for 5 mi was 149 bpm.  Pretty cool.  Must be doing something a little more efficiently these days.  Possibly a bit of fatigue from the previous two days kept the pace a little slower than it might have been.  Hard to say.

This also gets me back to the Newtons.  As you read about them on line, a common (and reasonable) complaint about them is the very high cost.  They list for $175, which is about $50 more than other "high end" shoes usually go for.  (Obviously if you shop around enough, you can get a 10-20% discount, but that brand hardly ever goes on sale - it's usually a store-wide sale.)

As of today, I have 476 miles on my first pair of Newtons, and I took the following photos a few days ago, when the total was 440.  You can click to enlarge.

 

The left image shows the wear pattern on the more-worn shoe.  The inner lugs are more worn than the outer ones, but 1.0-1.5 mm of rubber remains on the front of the more worn lugs.  The red/orange coating on the toe area is starting to bleed through to the yellow beneath.  I haven't detailed the photo, but there is some visible wear on the far outside of both heels, but it's the kind of wear you'd see for <50 miles on a normal pair of shoes.  (This is kind of a funny place near the break of the black area - further to the outside than the typical heel-striking spot...can't figure out exactly what it's from.)

Supposedly, there's not much on the "inside" of these shoes to wear out, like a normal foam midsole on a typical running shoe, i.e., they "wear from the outside in".  If that is really the case, I could easily get 600 miles out of these before the front lugs wear down to the ground.  Granted, a large fraction of this running has been indoors, but that kind of total is double what I've been getting for other shoes.  If i can get 600 mi on a $175-list shoe - all other issues of stride/technique/etc aside - it's a bargain.

Do you wear these shoes?  If so, what kind of mileage do you get out of them?  When do you replace them?  How does the wear compare to your previous shoes?