I ran long and slow today at a 9:49 average pace. This was very different for me to say the least, but necessary for me to heal. I believe I have overstressed my plantar fascia and thus have been dealing with minor arch pain in most of my runs over 7 miles for the past two weeks. I did not know until two nights ago that I technically have a high arch. I always thought I had an average to high arch. The test I used was to dip my foot in a shallow pan of water and then immediately place my foot on a flat paper bag. The foot print will determine your arch type depending on how much of your arch is visible in the print. There is a website, which I can't remember the name of now, that can be used to compare to see what type you have. Apparently high arches are more vulnerable to plantar fascia problems which is associated with arch pain. Every time your foot lands your arch flattens out a little bit stretching the plantar fascia tissue that runs from your heal to the ball of your foot. I have never managed to develop this problem before in seven years of running, but I think I now know what happened. This year I just took on a little too much. I began incorporating triathlon training into my life. I started out early in the year just biking once or twice, and never more than 10 to 12 miles on the bike. I did a couple of brick workouts, but never consistently from week to week until the first couple of weeks in April before my sprint distance race. After that race I quit the bike and the swims and focused solely on my running for five weeks to continue training for my half marathon. I got in really great running shape for the half. After the half I should have lightened up my training, but I did not. I immediately started biking three times a week, swimming three times a week, and I continued running an average 30 miles a week. After three weeks of this the workouts got very tough and I was sensing my body was asking me to back off. So I decided to take a full week off. All I did that week was a couple of strength training sessions and mostly took it easy. No running, biking, or swimming. I resumed the following week, but I gradually took my bike sessions down to two per week. The difference this time was that in order to begin increasing my running mileage I began to make every bike workout a brick. I ran at least three miles after having biked for 15 miles and sometime longer. These twice weekly bricks were scheduled on my easy run days so that I could fit them in to my life. The problem with this was that I ran the bricks hard coming off the bike instead of easy. I completely disregarded the rule to go easy on the easy days. I really did not have any "easy" days due to the rigorous multi-sport schedule I had made for myself. On top of all that I was occasionally taking Ty in the jogging stroller. I took him once or twice a week, sometimes on the bricks and sometimes on the tempo runs. The good thing here is that running with the jogging stroller was fun and challenging. I felt I was getting an enhanced workout and I enjoyed the father son bonding time I got with my child. The bad thing here is that pushing a jogging stroller changes your running form. There is no possible way that it won't. You are not able to run with both arms freely moving in their natural patterns to balance the body. So while I was steadily increasing my mileage at the recommended rule of no more than ten percent per week, I also had added two bricks per week at a hard run pace, and about one to two stroller runs per week sometimes as hard runs. This was just too much for my body to take. I have learned my limits. I'm now going to follow Sasha's injury prevention and treatment principles along with icing and stretching treatment to rehab. My workouts for the foreseeable future will not be looked upon as training for fitness, but as training for physical therapy. I will do slow easy runs so as not to aggravate my plantar fascia as it heels and strengthens with each day. When I can run the volume without having pain for soreness I will gradually add speed being careful not to add too much too soon. With a little caution I am hopeful I will not be too far behind on my marathon training that is supposed to start this Monday.
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