Fast Tuesday isn\’t quite the same as Fat Tuesday, right? Today is Mardi Gras, for sure, but I\’m keeping away from all the parade craziness. It\’s not the most pleasant kind of weather to be standing around outdoors, anyhow; it isn\’t raining, but it\’s overcast and on the chilly side.

So I went out on the road bike this morning, with the idea of doing 18-20 miles. What I wound up doing was a much shorter ride, but I incorporated some 30-second intervals of pushing the pace hard. I touched a peak speed of well over 19 mph. For me, that\’s really good.

My legs didn\’t like it very much, but that just goes to show how weak they are! It wasn\’t the easiest thing on my CV system, either; but I need to work at pushing my heart rate into the max sometimes. Thus I need to include that kind of workout once or twice a week, especially if I\’ve got long rides in mind.

Tour de Cure, for example. This year\’s local version is scheduled for the third week of November. That\’s nine months away, but we all know how time flies! Last year I skipped TdC, largely because it\’s so hard for me to find enough donors. Now, with a recent diagnosis of pre-diabetes, I\’m considering riding this year. Let\’s hope I haven\’t actually reached Red Rider status by then.

Day before yesterday I extended my Sunday ride by a couple of miles. If I want to do TdC, I need to add an additional mile or two every two weeks. The longest TdC route on offer is 62 miles, or a metric century. I\’m quite confident of being able to work up to the distance; being fast enough to make the time cut is something else again.

Getting back to today\’s ride, I\’m lucky today was a holiday; and that I didn\’t need to go out at 5:15 am if I were to ride. There were some patches of pretty dense fog out there. Add darkness to fog, and I hardly dare push the pace — even if fast Tuesday is the name of the game.