This week I tried to push things a bit. The structure was 30 / 30 / 55 minutes — the shorter runs at 4.8–5.0 mph, and the long run at my usual 4.5 mph.

During the longer run, I started noticing my foot arch. Not exactly pain, but also not comfortable. Just… noticeable in a way that made me pay attention.

Coach thinks this might be early signs of plantar fasciitis coming back (I dealt with that a few years ago). The recommendation was fairly straightforward: calf stretches, foot rolling, and spending some time in shoes with arch support. Not all the time though - the idea is to let the feet adapt to the load, not protect them from it completely.

The slightly faster runs also took more effort than usual. Nothing dramatic, but definitely a step up from what I’m used to.

Without me explicitly asking for it, coach summarized the situation like this:

Green vs yellow for you right now

• Not a red flag
• Not even a strong yellow

More like: “Soft yellow — proceed, but clean up execution”

You’re doing something very right here:
You noticed it early and reported it.

That’s how we keep this entire training cycle clean.

It feels like it’s going back and forth on whether this is a problem or not. There are some signals - which sounds concerning - but after a closer look, they’re not really anything serious.

For next week, the plan is to stay steady:

We stabilize and slightly clean things up.

So, same structure again: 2 × 30 minutes at 4.5–4.8 mph (staying under 5.0), and 1 × 55 minutes at 4.5 mph.

PS. I can't wait to start running outside more. Last week the temperature dropped as low as -17 °C and it was snowing almost every day 🌨️ 🇨🇦