I have 48K on my P5 5-speed and they will need to be replace soon; probably right at 50K. I would consider my self moderate on the brakes. Not easy for sure, but not quite hard on them either since I've never heated them to the point of fading and certainly never to the point where the pads were smoking. I'm going to replace them with Brembo blanks and Hawk HPS pads so I'll definitely leave open the possibility of abuse in the future.
A note about pad wear: its not only about your driving habits (i.e. do you stop hard, do you autocross) but also the type of driving you do. In my last car I got very good service from the brakes when I did mostly suburban stop-and-go driving. When I moved further out into the boonies I traveled on a 6-lane highway that had traffic lights. You could easily get to 70mph between lights and I often caught every light at rush hour (it seemed). I did a ton of 70-0 stops and immediatly began to notice a greater amount of brake dust, tire wear, and even some caliper warping.
The moral of the story: don't worry about pad wear and change them when they need it.