Ok. So, a couple questions.
Question 1. If I run in shoes with fairly high arches (NOT orthotics), will my arches become stronger than if I don't run at all. In other words, if a shoe keeps my arch from flexing in its entirety, will it actually do more harm than good, or will it just not strengthen it as much as if I was running in shoes without much arch support. Would a mix of arch support and racing flats be fine, or should I stick to one or the other?
Question 2. My feet are flatter than normal. They aren't horrible, but definitely considered flat. However, in a shoe that is considered to have a very high arch (ex: Brooks Ghost 2) I notice the arch, but not that much. In fact, I was surprised to hear comments that it had a really high arch after I had been running in them for a while. And yet, other shoes which have medium arches seem very high and bothersome for me. For example, Kinvara's arches are terribly annoying. Is this a matter of shoes having arches in different places. Is this because of Morton's Toe? Like if my toes weren't so long, I could probably fit at least a half size shorter, and therefore the arch would be in a different spot.
I would like to get to a point where I can run a lot (not all) of my mileage in racing flats, something I was getting very close to doing last year before getting injured (non-running related).
Will wearing shoes with arch support for about 95% of my mileage for a couple months make me rely on them, or if I slowly bring that 85% down to about 50%, would I notice any trouble?