Saturday: 11mi scheduled. 6mi completed.

I’m pretty sure my legs hate long runs, especially since they haven’t been properly prepared for them (i.e., lack of midweek training). I went into this run all gung-ho and uber-motivated to succeed. I had a plan, too and based my pace off of the McMillan Running Calculator: Warm up at 13:30 pace for 3mi, do 6mi in or around 12:30 pace then cool down at an easy 14 min/mile pace. No walk breaks, even.

Well, I felt fine the first 3 miles, even briefly walked to take a sip of Nuun(-enhanced) water but around 4.5 miles, I began to feel some slight pain on my right (read: right!) leg — its along the outer side of the leg, just below the knee. I think it was a pinched nerve and try-as-I-might to shake it off, it just got worse as I continued. So I stopped, stretched out my IT band, quads and calf muscles and walked for a few yards. It felt somewhat better so I began to jog again. The pain was still there, but it wasn’t as bad as when I began to feel it so I decided (and upon my sister’s insistence!) to end the run early. 6 miles in the books, but with some right-leg scare.

I have to add that my left leg felt left-out (and it might’ve been psychosomatic) but there was some slight tingling there, too.

Later that evening, I rolled the right leg w/ The Stick, kneaded IT band on the foam roller, applied some KT Tape, iced, then elevated it. I also kept my compression socks on as long as I could from the morning that I began my run ’til mid-afternoon.

Neither pain felt wasn’t sharp (just tingling), so if I were to self-diagnose (too late), I’d say it’s probably a pinched nerve or something along the lines of going too much too soon. LOL. Lesson learned: gotta do midweek runs.

Sunday: Cross-Training. Cardio X completed.

I did my cardio later in the day, rather than in the morning and felt so much better. I was wary of how my right leg would do but it held up nicely, even during plyometrics routines (though, I was on the side of caution and didn’t overdo it). Max HR went to 175bpm, so I got a nice sweat going.