The goal for today's long run was to run 3 x 3 miles at 5:40 pace with a 1.5 mile recovery between repeats. I had a feeling before we started that it would end up being faster, because 5:40 pace is a little slow for me. Anyhow, after a warm-up of just over 4 miles we started and ran the first repeat in 16:44 (5:38, 5:33, 5:33). The next repeat was finished in 16:41 (5:34, 5:35, 5:32). Between the first two repeats the plantar fascia on my left foot started to hurt just a little, but it did not bother me too much so I just continued on. After the second repeat the plantar fascia was hurting a lot more. I rubbed it a little bit before starting the third repeat hoping that it would not bother me during the last 3 miles. I finished the last repeat in 16:16 (5:35, 5:35, 5:06). During the last repeat we took it pretty easy for the first 2 miles, but then ran the last mile faster with quarter splits of 79, 81, 78, 68 (38, 30). I was happy with the 30 second last 200 because it felt like a 32 and I thought I could have coaxed an extra second out of my legs if it were a race. My plantar fascia did not bother me too much during the repeat, but afterwards it started hurting a lot, and I was limping. I stopped and massaged it for about 5 minutes, and was then able to finish the run without too much discomfort. Total of 20.1 miles in 2:19:31. After getting home I iced the plantar fascia and then rubbed some stuff on it. I kept my shoes off as much as possible because it bothers me more when I have shoes on. By the time I left for work just before 3:00pm it was feeling a lot better. | 