We all know the reluctant feeling – you have an old pair of shoes that have moulded to your feet and taken you on so many happy memories. They are hanging on for dear life and you are not ready to admit it is time to move on to a new pair. With trail running shoes, it is important to read the signs to avoid injury. In a tough sport, when your body is under strain, the last thing you need is worn out shoes. Listen to your body If you are picking up aches and pains but cannot identify the source, it may be your old shoes. Nothing else has changed – your volume, your style, your routes. Even dialling back the volume does not seem to rid you of the niggly knee or tight hips. Shoes that are compressed down means they are not absorbing as much shock, or if one area is more worn than the other, it might change your gait ever so slightly, but with bad consequences like plantar fasciitis. New shoes might quickly solve these problems. It is sometimes amazing how quickly your body returns to normal. How runners can prevent and cure IT band injuries If you constantly suffer from knee pain, it might be time to explore a new style of shoe altogether – perhaps you would benefit from a big soft Hoka One One. Or maybe, counter-intuitively, you need the opposite and a hard sole shoe will correct your gait. Ask the shop assistant and consult running experts. Ultimately, it is personal choice and experience. Maybe you do not need a shoe at all. There is a growing community of ultra runners who swear by the benefits of running barefoot or with minimalist shoes, trusting your body’s natural gait to look after you joints. After all, we evolved to run . Worn down tread The groves and bumps on the bottom of your shoe, designed for grip, are called tread. When this wears down, it is time to change. Firstly, a shoe with no tread is slippy and may cause an accident and injury. Even if it does not, it will still effect your performance as you lose energy on a slippery shoe. The tread is also a good red flag for an compressed sole that may soon start causing the kind of overuse injuries mentioned above. Tread can tell a story too. Take the old shoe to the shop and show them the soles. If the tread is worn in one area or another, it may reveal a problem in your running style, like pronation, which is an inward roll of the foot as your run. They can advise on shoes or coaches to help you fix the issue before it becomes serious. Manufacturers instructions Shoe makers typically have guidelines on their sites suggesting how long a shoe will last. These are very broad guidelines as one person may run on rugged trails and another on a pavement, or they may have different running styles. How runners can prevent and heal Achilles injuries Do not throw out a perfectly good pair of shoes just because the box says so. Even if you are over the suggested mileage do not worry if you shoes are OK. However, if you are having injuries with no obvious source, and are way over the recommended usage, it can be a helpful jigsaw piece in the puzzle of the pain. Keep track of your mileage through a running app or training programme. Even if you do not know specifically, a round about guess of how many kilometres you run a week will help guide your decision. In short, it’s not an exact science. The manufactures guidelines may help but they are not gospel.