How many shoes to the pros actually rotate?

confusingscenes wrote:

I was listening to a podcast today with 2 of our national olympic marathon runners (both 2.10 runners) When asked what shoes they rotated, one said he has 2 pairs of Nike pegasus and does everything from long run to track in them. The other does the same with Boston/Ultra boost. Similarly, I recall Rupp stating he almost exclusively uses Structures for everything. The 2 a solid guys so would believe them

However, sometimes I see some pros on instagram etc doing long runs in Vaporfly and so on. And if every youtuber is to be listened too, you need a different pair of shoes to do Tempo, Threshold, long run, take a dump and so on!

Anyone have any insight into the general pro rotation?

Are multiple sets of shoes actually a necessity or have we all being suckers to advertising?

Don't know about their exact rotation, but what I do know is that most pros train in more cushioned shoes than recreational runners. Lots of Ultraboost/Pegasus/Zoom Structure etc. type of shoes on easy days and long run days, for moderate days and even some light tempos. They usually found shoes that work well for him and keep them injury free, but still rotate them earlier than recreational runners, on average around 300-400 miles instead of 500-600 miles like recs.

Even though they have better running form, there are two main reasons for that:

1) They run a lot more mileage, a lot more pounding and stress on the feet

2) It's much more important to stay injury-free as pro. If a rec gets injured due to wearing too light shoes on their easy runs and is out for 2-3 months, who cares. It's just a hobby anyways and there are more important things in life. If a pro gets injured due to training in too light shoes, or shoes he is not used to that turned out to cause problems, and misses 2-3 months maybe even in racing season, it could mean half his income of a year is gone. His whole career is on the line if he gets injured frequently due to trying new shoes all the time.

So while you innately may think that pros rotate a lot of shoes, since they get them for free anyway, it seems more like they have a few shoes that they know from past history worked very well for them and stick with them over and over again.

Mo farah has a video up with him packing for a stint in Kenya. Or Ethiopia. I can’t remember. It was 4-6 weeks and I believe Nike sent him 7 pairs. I’d look it up for exact numbers but I’m sure this thread will be buried behind covid threads to make it worth my while.

Ah ha, very insightful! This makes alot of sense alright!

@Eric - yes, think I may have also seen that. Recall another video where he was saying he doesnt rotate 2 pairs of Pegs, just wears one pair straight through for 3 weeks the a new pair

I'm a 2:12 marathon, 28:30 10k type of guy. I wear my main pair of trainers pretty much every easy run. Sometimes I'll wear them for an easier workout. For most workouts I'll split between two types of flats/racing shoes depending on the workout.

So in a month I'll wear at most 3 or 4 different pairs.

You only need a couple shoes but remember they are burring through shoes pretty quick... prob close 2 pair per month which means they will always have a few other rando shoes that they aren’t totally burnt and I also through into the rotation.

The pros that I knew back in the day that were still training at their now former university generally were using 2-3 pairs of shoes at a time. One pair were just their morning run shoe. The other two were for the afternoons. They usually were wearing the same model as their morning run shoe but sometimes a different one. They also used a slightly lighter shoe for doing speedwork on the track.

The only pro I’ve seen on Strava who seems to update his shoes every run is Tyler McCandless. He seems to use the Torin Plush a lot, sometimes the Escalante. For workouts he seems to like the Escalante, sometimes the Escalante Racer. Every once in a blue moon he’ll spike up at the track.

Of course he uses a trail shoe for his trail runs (the Superior).

I get the impression that the NAZ Elite folks use either the Clifton or Rincon for most stuff and workouts in either the Rocket X or Carbon X

Bump

I heard 365 or 366, depending on whether it is a leap year or not.

Tugboat1980 wrote:

The only pro I’ve seen on Strava who seems to update his shoes every run is Tyler McCandless. He seems to use the Torin Plush a lot, sometimes the Escalante. For workouts he seems to like the Escalante, sometimes the Escalante Racer. Every once in a blue moon he’ll spike up at the track.

Of course he uses a trail shoe for his trail runs (the Superior).

I get the impression that the NAZ Elite folks use either the Clifton or Rincon for most stuff and workouts in either the Rocket X or Carbon X

Walmsley is another. Seems to use Bondi/Clifton on regular days and Rocket X for speed stuff.

It sounds like some of you have seen videos or interviews with some of these guys. I've been interested in this question too, and I remember Ryan Hall packing to go to a race, so much less time than a training stint somewhere. I think he brought 4 pair. It was at least that, but I don't know where to find it since this was obviously a while ago.

I also (much more recently) watched a guy from TinMan, I think, and he lined up all the shoes that would get used in a year. Of course, more than one pair and several pair of some will get worn, but it was like 6 or 7 different models. Both of these examples suggest a lot more than the ones mentioned already. I tend toward trusting the ones I've seen since I'll bring 4 pair with me going somewhere long-term. Often one of those will be little used and somewhat expendable but still, in any given week I'll always use 3.

Me too. I usually will use one of my 2 pairs of flats for fast days on Tue & Thur (different models, one 90% of the time, the other faster one for special sessions), and use my daily Trainers, or rarely recovery shoe for the rest. So average 3 different shoes pairs/models per week. That's why I was so perplexed when 2 pros said they only use 1 or 2 models max.