Last week went according to plan - 30 / 30 / 55 minutes runs. Mostly.

During the long run (55 minutes), my right foot started complaining - arch and ankle area. Not exactly pain, but enough to make me pay attention. The real wake-up call came the next morning: those first few steps out of bed felt exactly like the plantar fasciitis I dealt with a few years ago. Pretty rough at first, then gradually better as I moved around.

Previous weeks, the foot stuff was mild, bilateral, came and went. This time it's one side, and it followed me into the next day. Coach says it's still not an injury, but it's a real yellow flag now. If not handled appropriately, this can turn ugly.

Here's the frustrating part. According to our original plan, this is when Phase 3 was supposed to start. Instead, we're holding. No progression. Long run stays at 50–55 minutes. Everything stays easy.

I pushed back a little. The race is end of May. It's end of March. That gap is starting to feel uncomfortably real.

Coach's response: This adjustment does NOT put your end-of-May race at risk. Ignoring it would. The logic being that one clean week now costs almost nothing, but a full plantar flare-up could take me out for three or four weeks. Apparently my cardio is actually ahead of where it needs to be and it's the tendons and tissue that haven't caught up yet.

And I think this is why it's useful to have a coach, even if it's AI. Honestly? I'd probably try to power through it hoping that it'd go away. Having a coach push back and tell me how to avoid injury really helps.

So: calf stretches after every run. Arch support slippers at home. No pace experiments. Prove the foot is calm, then we progress.

Not the most exciting week to write about. But this is the reality of training - struggles come, we adjust. 🦶