I’m currently training for a 100 kilometer charity ride and two triathlons this year, and this series is me documenting the process.

This is Part 3.

If you want to follow the journey, stick around.

See Part 1 here. And Part 2 here.

Week 10: Clean Start

What’s the best way to prepare for an FTP test? I’ll tell you what isn’t: spending a couple of hours pressure washing your patio. That’s exactly what I did the day before my monthly test after getting home from a camping trip. By the time I climbed onto the bike the next morning, I already knew I wasn’t feeling as fresh as I wanted to. But my patio is looking clean. 

The timing was interesting because my previous FTP test had been a huge jump—from 182 watts to 208. Seeing that number pop up on the screen felt like validation that the training was working and that there was still plenty of room to grow. But after doing these tests for a few years, I’ve also learned that fitness rarely moves in a straight line.

The number is useful because it helps guide training, but it’s still just a snapshot of where you are on a particular day. It doesn’t define what you’re capable of when it comes time to perform.

When the test started, I felt the usual optimism. Those opening minutes always leave room for possibility. Maybe I’d surprise myself. Maybe there was another breakthrough waiting.

But as the effort built, the legs never quite came around. The power felt heavier than it should have. And when the test got hard, there was no faking it. All I could do was keep turning the pedals and empty whatever was left in the tank.

When it was over, the result was 198 watts. Not the 208 from last month. Not the 182 from before that. Right in the middle. And standing there afterward, that number felt surprisingly fair.

Sometimes when things are a little off, they settle back toward something more realistic. The more tests you do, the more you realize that fitness isn’t built on breakthroughs or setbacks. It’s built on averages. On showing up month after month and putting together enough good days that the trend slowly moves upward.

You rarely improve as quickly as one great test suggests. But you rarely lose fitness as quickly as one disappointing test makes you fear. Most of the time, it’s just a steady march forward.

Let’s talk about my kit. I’m not really a gear guy. I think it’s easy to get carried away and turn your hobby into shopping. Suddenly you spend more time researching apparel and equipment than actually doing the thing. I want to avoid falling into that trap, because let’s be honest, I’m not at the point where I’m getting any marginal gain from my gear.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of cool stuff out there, and I’d love to try all of it someday. But for the most part, I’ve always been happy keeping things simple.

That changed a little this week. It was Friday after work and I decided I was going shopping. So naturally, I headed to the place every 90s kid spent their Friday night: the mall.

The real reason I’m here was because I’d heard a new Decathlon had opened.  It would have been great if this store had existed when I first got into triathlon four years ago. \

For the upcoming 100-kilometre ride, I wanted to upgrade my cycling kit a little. The Amazon bike shorts I’ve been using have been great value for the money, and they’ve served me well, but spending several hours in the saddle is a different challenge. It felt like the right time to invest in something a little more comfortable.

I ended up picking up a pair of bib shorts and a jersey. Both seemed reasonably priced and, perhaps most importantly, they had plenty of pockets.

Saturday was another trip out to UBC. The weather was beautiful, and my goal was simple: ride the course and spend some time getting familiar with that hill. The thought of climbing it four times during the race is intimidating, but descending it four times might be worse. But what really gets me is knowing that after all of that, there’s still an 18-kilometre run waiting.

One of my favorite parts of these training now is this highway stretch on Marine Drive in UBC. While sometimes it’s windy, it’s also a good spot for me to practice being in the aerobars.

I stopped for a break near the Chan Centre and pulled out another Xact bar for another taste test. This time it was the orange flavour.

Unfortunately, orange-flavoured anything has never really been my thing. Candy, sports drinks, energy bars—unless it’s an actual orange, it always tastes a little artificial to me. I’ll save the full rankings for the end of this series.

What surprised me most about the ride was the distance. The kilometres just seem to add up quickly these days. This didn’t feel like the longest ride I’ve ever done. In fact, it felt pretty normal. But when I got home and looked at the numbers, it turned out to be a new personal best. A few months ago that distance would have felt like a huge achievement. Now it just felt like another training ride. 60km doesn’t seem like anything. 

Speaking of new normals, I’ve decided that long rides deserve a proper reward. My latest tradition is stopping at a brewery afterward for a beer. This time I ended up at Powell Brewing. I love this place. I used to work here, and every time I come back I’m reminded why I enjoyed it so much. After a long ride, sitting down with a beer felt like the perfect way to end the day. For a little while, there was nowhere else I needed to be.

Week 11: It’s Not a Sprint

I’m wearing my new pair of Outway socks this ride, hoping to make this ride a bit more special. This one’s called Night Time Bliss. 

My mind wasn’t in a great place this week. I’ve been struggling with my mental health for years now. Things have felt especially shaky over the last couple of years, and lately I’ve found myself waking up with this overwhelming sense of dread. The future feels uncertain. Every problem feels bigger than it probably is.

Riding my bike helps. It gets me out of the little room where I spend most of my day. It reminds me that there is a world beyond my own thoughts.

At the same time, I’ve noticed that my world has become smaller. I don’t like being around crowds for too long. Even when things are going well, part of me is always waiting for something to go wrong. But the bike gives me a way to escape.

This week I decided to combine the routes from both races I’m preparing for. A lap of Stanley Park and an out and back at UBC. A little taste of both the Vancouver Triathlon and the Vancouver T100. 

I’ve learned that when I’m struggling, it helps to have something on the calendar. Something to look forward to. When my thoughts spiral, the future can feel like a dark and empty place. But then I’ll look at my schedule and see a race, a bike ride, a camping trip, a concert. Suddenly there’s a destination ahead. Not unlike cycling, really. You don’t need to see the entire route. You just need the next landmark.

One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that excitement feels different now. When I was younger, I’d count down the days until something fun happened. These days I don’t get that same rush of anticipation. Instead, I look at an upcoming event and think, “That’ll be nice.”

Maybe that’s part of getting older. Either way, I’m trying to say yes to more little adventures. Even something as simple as exploring a familiar route can feel meaningful right now. It reminds me of the quote from Marcel Proust: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.”

I stopped at Spanish Banks for a break and pulled out my next Xact bar. This one was strawberry. And it’s pretty good. Not overly sweet. Just a solid flavour. Definitely one of the better ones so far.

As I sat there looking out at the water, I couldn’t help thinking about how great Vancouver is on a day like this. The city looked incredible. And for the first time all week, I felt lighter.

Even when a bird decided to poop directly on my aerobars during the ride home, it didn’t bother me that much. A few days ago that might have ruined my mood. This time I cleaned it off and kept going. After all, I knew there was a beer waiting for me at the end of the ride.

I stopped at Red Truck afterward. Sitting there with a cold drink was a reminder that there are still plenty of good moments ahead. And as it turned out, there was another one waiting the very next day.

Sharon was running the BMO Marathon. This was the day she’d been training toward for months, and somehow it had arrived already.

It was an unusually hot day. A tough day to be running a marathon, especially if you had a time goal in mind. But there’s something inspiring about being surrounded by people doing hard things. Thousands of people in discomfort. I love watching people endure something difficult and come out the other side. A real survival story.

Maybe that’s why endurance sports resonate with me so much. They’re a reminder that hard things end. Eventually. It’s not a sprint, but sometimes, if you stick with them long enough, they turn into something worth celebrating.

It was a great day. Great to see so many people out there. And most of all, I’m incredibly proud of Sharon.

Week 12: Rough Roads

I’m 12 weeks into training now, and lately it feels like I’ve been carrying an invisible weight everywhere I go. Because of that, I decided to do my long ride indoors this weekend. Normally I look forward to getting outside and exploring somewhere new, but this time I wanted to sleep in a little and spend more time walking Petey.

We’ve been talking about taking him on longer adventures this summer. In June, we’re heading up to Whistler and spending a night in Pemberton. While Sharon relaxes at the Scandinavian Spa, I’m planning to take Petey out on one of the nearby trails. So in a way, he’s training too.

As for me, I had a feeling that an indoor ride might actually be exactly what I needed. When I’m feeling overwhelmed, even things that I normally enjoy can start to feel like work. A long ride outside means planning a route, thinking about nutrition, checking the weather, deciding where to stop, and dealing with traffic. Usually those things are part of the fun, but this week I didn’t have much energy for any of it.

Instead, I spent three and a half hours on the trainer. There’s something strangely comforting about a ride that asks almost nothing of you except to keep pedaling. The first hour felt slow, but after that my brain gradually settled down. By the second hour I wasn’t really thinking about much at all. I was just watching the time pass and turning the pedals over.

It almost felt like exercising a different muscle completely: my ability to sit with boredom. When you can overcome boredom, you can overcome anything. By the time I got off the bike I felt calmer than I had in days. 

At this point, I’m not following any updated training plan. I’m mostly reusing workouts that have worked well for me in the past and adjusting things as needed. Right now, I’m less concerned about optimizing every session and more concerned about maintaining the routine. I’ve been feeling burnt out enough already, and I don’t want training to become another thing I overthink.

The next day we headed out to Maple Ridge. As much as part of me wanted to stay home and rest, I was also excited because I finally had a chance to test out my new bike rack.

I picked up a Saris Bones EX 2 recently because I’m hoping to do more adventures farther from home. Between bringing Petey along and carrying all of our gear, having the bike outside the car frees up a lot of space.

The only catch is that I don’t have a hitch, so this is one of those racks that straps directly onto the vehicle. I’ll admit I was a little nervous the first time I loaded my bike onto it. Driving around the block, I kept glancing in the mirror every few seconds just to make sure everything was still attached. Thankfully it survived its maiden voyage.

Once we arrived, I headed out for a ride through the farm roads around Maple Ridge. Ever since getting aerobars, I’ve wanted to ride somewhere with long uninterrupted stretches of road where I could settle into position and just lock in for a while. After spending most of my time riding through Vancouver, being surrounded by fields and open sky felt refreshing. At least for a little while.

The roads eventually became rougher than I expected. The pavement was cracked, uneven, and full of potholes. Instead of cruising along in the aero position, I found myself rattled, shaken up from the bumpy roads. It was not a smooth ride.

But I kept going because I had a destination in mind. At the end of the road was this boat launch at the edge of Pitt River. It’s funny how often cycling takes me to places that are technically close to home but that I probably never would have visited otherwise. This wasn’t some remote destination. It wasn’t even that far from where I went camping a few weeks ago. Yet standing there by the river, it still felt like I had travelled a great distance.

While I was there, I tried the lemon Xact bar. As I’ve mentioned before, citrus flavours generally aren’t my favourite, but this one was definitely better than the orange version. Still not near the top of my rankings, but I enjoyed it enough.

This week was difficult, and there were moments where I felt myself slipping into some dark places mentally. There were stretches where I felt numb, and where it was hard convincing myself that any of what I was doing really mattered.

But looking back at the week, I still did the things I said I would. I got my training in. I walked my dog. I tested the gear. I explored somewhere new. None of those things magically fixed how I was feeling permanently, but they reminded me that life keeps moving whether I feel motivated or not. The days pass either way.

I think that’s why I keep making plans and setting goals for myself. They give me something to move toward when things feel uncertain.

This week the roads were rougher than expected, both on and off the bike. But rough roads still go somewhere, and eventually they lead to a turn, a new direction, a fork. Sadly, I’m not there yet. So, I keep moving. 

Week 13: Friends

This week started out so bad that I ended up taking a mental health day from work. I spent most of that day reading and hanging out with Petey. No training. No productivity. It helped, at least temporarily. My eyes felt less tired and I finally got a chance to slow down for a moment. But a day off isn’t really a solution. It’s relief. Sometimes necessary relief, but just relief all the same. 

Without getting into too much detail, this was a week where I finally opened up about everything  that had been weighing on me. And while nothing changed overnight, I could feel something beginning to change. For the first time in a while, what had felt like a stampede toward a cliff started to look more like a tunnel with a light in the distance.

As it turned out, it was perfect timing. A few friends, Joel, Jacey, and Tianna  invited me out for a ride that weekend, and it was what I needed. 

We started later in the day, so I had some extra time to clean my bike. It was much needed. I want to make more time for this as well. The same way I’m trying to make some time for friends. 

It was one of those classic Vancouver summer days. Blue skies, a little windy, but too nice to stay indoors.

My friends in their casual outfits, me in my cycling attire rode out along the Arbutus Greenway before eventually stopping for lunch at a restaurant called Milltown tucked away in South Vancouver. More than anything, it was nice to spend time catching up.

A lot has been happening lately, and if I’m honest, cycling hasn’t been my biggest priority. I’ve been trying to navigate a period of transition in my life. Because of that, training has recently taken a back seat. But riding with friends reminded me why I started doing this in the first place. Because it’s fun. This week, fun was important.

The next day I met up with my buddy, Racman, for a ride. He had recently picked up a new bike. What a beaut! 

We decided to head out toward Deep Cove in North Vancouver. This was a destination I’d always wanted to reach on a bike.

On this ride, I was also testing out some Skratch energy chews. As I’m preparing for these longer rides, I’m thinking more about fueling, so I opened a pack before I left to make it easier to eat a few and keep my energy up along the journey.

We crossed the Second Narrows Bridge, worked our way across North Vancouver, and eventually rolled into Deep Cove where we were greeted by another amazing view. 

How lucky am I to get to experience this? I ask because there is usually this voice in my head that tells me, I don’t deserve nice days, I don’t deserve what I have, I should give it all back. Deep Cove really is one of the most beautiful corners of the city. We just took a moment to soak that all in. A stolen moment I’m keeping. 

From there we made our way across North Vancouver toward Lonsdale Quay. I hadn’t been there in years. I remember standing there looking back at downtown Vancouver and feeling completely mesmerized by the skyline.

Coming back now felt strange. The Lonsdale I remembered doesn’t really exist anymore. There are new towers everywhere. New businesses. New people. 

By the time Racman and I started thinking about lunch, we decided it made more sense to head back toward Vancouver. 

Another month of training had passed. Summer has officially arrived, and the rides are starting to get long enough that I still feel a little nervous every time I head out the door. 

At the same time, my indoor training has started to slip a little this month. Life has been busy, my focus has been elsewhere, and I can’t honestly say that my fitness has taken some huge leap forward.

Which brings me to the next FTP test. At this point, I don’t really view these monthly tests as a measure of success or failure. They’re more like a check-in. A chance to pause, see where I am, and adjust course if I need to.

An FTP test day definitely isn’t a rest day. But it is a chance to regroup. And after everything that’s happened lately, regrouping sounds like exactly what I need. So we’ll see where the numbers land.

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