“I saw your balls turning blue and didn’t think that was hot water” – Aquatic Center patron to me, this afternoon.

Nothing like a 60+ year old man using my scrotum as a visual water thermometer… nothing like it. The Aquatic Center had a water outage and the hot water wasn’t back on… so we all had to shower in very cold water. Oh, I guess, I should say that the men’s shower consists of the old military (maybe they still have them) communal showers with 3 main stations and 6-8 shower heads around them. Okay, enough about showering… let’s get on to running!

Today, I ran a 2.90 mile out and back course. I thought for sure that I would do better than yesterday, but I was tired and a little sore from yesterday’s run. My hamstring was tight and that didn’t help much at all.

The first half was in 11:39 or a 8:03 pace. It felt like I could have kept this pace, especially if it was in race conditions… but I stopped took a little break, threw little seeds into the creek and watched them… Then on the way back, I tried to match the 8:03 pace, but had to stop to walk a few places and it really dropped my pace. The second leg was in 13:15 and that comes out to a 9:09 pace.

No word on the babysitting for Saturday morning. If it’s a go, and I should find out today, then I will take Thursday and Friday off as a mini taper (as I do with all my races). Wednesday is going to be a swim day, regardless. If I run the race, Thursday will be a swim day, if I don’t run, Thursday will be an easy 4 miles and Friday at total rest day. This is with the intention of running 6-8 on the weekend.

I have most of a post that talks about the Dreamer‘s nemesis, the Doubter. I hope to have that up during my next Tuna paper break.