Actually, no panties, and they’re running shoes, and nothing to do with Ian Dury.  But apart from that…

I’ve previously owned and used and abused a number of pairs of running shoes and in fact I’ve tracked their lives on Garmin Connect, so I can work out when they need to be renewed.  Decent running shoes should be replaced around 300 – 500 miles of use, so 500 – 800 kilometres.

I’ve tracked:

• Nike Flyknit Lunar 3 ID
  Since 24 Apr 2015
  Retired on 4 Nov 2016
  460.6 of 483 km
• Nike Flyknit Lunar 3 ID
  Since 8 Mar 2016
  Retired on 26 Oct 2020
  500 of 500 km
• Nike Free RN (for walking to and from work)
  Since 26 Oct 2016
  Retired on 20 Dec 2017
  802.7 of 800 km
• Nike Free RN Commuter 2017 Premium (ditto)
  Since 20 Dec 2017
  Retired on 20 Oct 2020
  800.5 of 800 km
• Nike Air Zoom Pegasus 37 By You (bought for running, but only now used in the gym on the Schwinn)
  532 Activities Since 3 Nov 2020
  9,802.3 of 10,000 km
• adidas Adizero Boston 9
  Since 8 Jan 2021
  Retired on 4 Nov 2023
  543.9 of 650 km
• Adidas Adizero Boston 12
  164 Activities Since 6 Aug 2023 (not yet “retired”…)
  861.6 of 800 km
• Adidas Alphatorsion (bought for CrossFit and used for a multitude of sins including mountain biking)
  224 Activities Since 22 Jan 2022
  2,431 of 3,000 km
• The North Face Vectiv Exploris Futurelight™ Boots (bought for hiking)
  51 Activities Since 5 Mar 2021
  223.8 of 800 km

Having loved – and run marathons in – Nike shoes, especially the Flyknit Lunar 3s, I was disappointed when they were dropped in favour of the latest design of super shoes that then fed down to the ‘everyday’ running shoes with big chunky and extended soles.

I gave the Air Zoom Pegasus 37s a really good chance, but as they were always getting caught or making me trip, I ‘binned’ them and moved over to Adidas and the glorious Adizero Boston 9s which I was using on the road and on the dusty/sandy paths around Corralejo. I then bought another pair – the Adizero Boston 12s – in blue that still look like new, because they’ve done very few outside miles, mainly being used on the treadmill in the garage.  I will now use these for the very occasional holiday outdoor runs, I reckon.

Adidas seem to be out of stock of the Adizero Boston 12 in the colourway I wanted, but my wife was trying to decide on a birthday present for me and I was overdue a replacement pair, so…

Here they are:

• Adidas Adizero Boston 12
  1 Activities Since 1 May 2025
  6 of 800 km

And as a bonus(!) here’s me earlier this week in the Pain Cave wearing the Nike Air Zoom Pegasus 37s:

Of course the ironic thing is that some time before the crash, I’d already seen a consultant who’d told me to stop running and cycle and/or swim instead because of my worn out, cartilage-free knees. That was before I ran the Berlin Marathon.

I got some great physio from Adam Goode a while back and have built on it since.  Running still is an extremely painful thing for me to do, but I’m balancing that with my perceived need (at 63) to do a lot of cardio to try to live forever (the second time around)…