Mardi Rapide

That's right. Fast Tuesday.

Mardi Gras has a following, to be sure, but I've never really been a part of it. It's one of those days, along with St. Patrick's Day and Cinco de Mayo, where an absurd number of people celebrate a culture they know little about by drinking their faces off. In short, it's awesome.

But for me, I've never gotten into it. Sure, I'll eat the cake, but I'm more than a little concerned about accidentally chomping down on a plastic baby Jesus. The beads are fun, but I'm not going to pay for them, and I'm quite sure wearing them would say some bad things about me that are, honestly, not representative of my personality. Most days, anyway.

Finally, I can't say that I agree with the general idea of Fat Tuesday. Being raised Catholic, I've had many an Ash Wednesday and given up many a treat in Lent. Still, the idea of gorging myself on something I won't have for the next forty-plus days doesn't sound appealing. If anything, I felt it was a better choice to slowly ween myself off of soft drinks or chocolate or whatever in order to curb desire for it during the forbidden time.

And really, I don't get the idea of partying on a Tuesday. Wednesday is still a work day, people.

So, I decided not to change anything in my routine. I overslept (and took $5 out of my reward jar), but I still got out for my nice, easy eight miles. Except that it wasn't easy at all. After yesterday's veritable sprint, any pace was going to feel slow by comparison. I kept an eye on my watch, making sure not to run too fast, but I inevitably would speed up a bit. As I made my last turn toward home and finally let my legs do what they wanted, I started flying. Today was my fastest Tuesday in five weeks, and combined with yesterday's speed, I'm off to an incredibly fast week.

Tomorrow, it is vital that I not push my speed. At all. SLOW. I need to recover, because I want to do some regular speed work on Thursday. Rest is the most important part of a workout routine, so tomorrow is all about that.

Still, it feels great to be moving quickly again. I've got much less pain than in the past, and I think it's due to the slower increase in my workout intensity this time around. These speed days give me a great deal of hope and excitement for the future, but now I've got to refocus myself on the goal, and the goal is hundreds of miles down the road. In a way, this training time is my Running Lent.

My Easter is in South Bend.

Tuesday's Run:
72 Degrees / Yep.
7.93 Miles