King Cake Mania

Saturday 7 mile run / 75 minutes
Monday 3 mile run / 27:36 minutes

Happy Mardi Gras season! If you don’t live in Louisiana, you might not know it, but you are smack dab in the best time of year. Yesterday was the Epiphany (aka 12th Night aka King’s Day aka youarenowencouragedtostuffyourface day)

The Epiphany is the start of the Mardi Gas season which will culminate in Mardi Gras day (aka Fat Tuesday aka youarenowencouragedtodrinktillyoupassout day) before the somber season of Lent (ha, does Louisiana really have a somber season?) It’s the traditional day to start eating King Cakes.

by my friend Amy

What does all this really mean?

About a hundred reasons to work out.

Seriously, between all of the King Cake, Abita Beer, crawfish, Raising Cane’s, Popeye’s, daiquiris, late nights and early mornings, any athlete’s resolve is tested during Mardi Gas. Last year I fell off the bandwagon and skipped some critical runs right before the RnR NOLA half.

All the more reason to have a plan.

First off, I’m taking a break from racing. I won’t race until the Disney Princess Half at the end of February. My next race after that won’t be until the Girl Power Tri at the end of March.

I did 21 races last year. That tripled my combined race total from the previous two years. I need a break. Not from training, just from racing. I am prioritizing my races this year and only running the most fun or special races, plus any triathlon I can fit in.

I am using the buddy system. Prepaying for boot camp and having a group of people counting on seeing me is a good thing. I am hopefully getting a swim coach soon (fingers crossed all works out) which should keep me accountable for my most challenging and easiest to skip sessions.

So during the Mardi Gras season, you will see me out in the parade route. I’ll be eating a tiny bite of king cake and sipping a light beer maybe. I’ll save the Popeye’s for Mardi Gras day and skip a few parades in order to get more sleep. If you see me, ask me if I worked out.

Because it takes a krewe to train through Mardi Gras.

my krewe would be called Mystic Krewe of Crazy Cat Ladies