The worst shoes I’ve owned got me to 400 miles. I can routinely get 700-800 miles (up to 1,280km) out of Brooks Ghosts. And even then, nothing hurts, the tread isn’t totally worn smooth, I’m usually just retiring them because for every pair ready to retire I’ve bought 2 or 3 more pairs
I totally agree. I just took my marathon PR from 3:06 to 2:58 using a modified Pfitz 18/70 with about 5 extra miles each week. Based on a 6:50/mi target MP, my MLRs and LRs were in the 7:20-7:40 range. Only the recovery runs were slower than 8:00, and even then it was usually right around 8:00. The whole 80% easy, 20% hard is way too oversimplified. There’s more than 2 speeds. I attribute a lot of my success to high mileage at that moderately difficult MLR/LR pace.