Geez, those are flippers! I tend to retire my shoes quite early these days out of paranoia (often at just around 500km instead of the average 800km) and mostly send them down to my dad in KZN who gets a conveyor belt of my used shoes, especially during Comrades buildup. If you were a 10,5 I'd have been able to send you some Saucony Rides to test drive for 300km. As for returning from injury; as everyone says, the 10% rule is pretty golden. When coming back from my ITB recently I erred on the side of caution by starting with 900m runs followed by 100m walks for 4km total. It sounds frustratingly small but it's a bit like compounding interest and before you know it your mileage has grown back to its old levels or higher. In terms of shoe research, I highly recommend runrepeat.com and The Ginger Runner on Youtube for some great quality, unbiased reviews.
