It recently dawned on me that I hadn’t posted an update about the tour since June 20th when I hit my fundraising goal. Yet, despite the radio silence, it’s not as though nothing has been happening! Certainly life has been happening, with a trip to Regina to visit family during that period. But the biggest thing that’s been happening is training. So. Much. Training.

Of course, everyone on the tour, from the riders to the volunteers to the event organizers will tell you the Tour is not a race. And it absolutely isn’t! The event is first and foremost a drive to raise funds for the Alberta Cancer Foundation. As for the riders, the primary goal is to finish while enjoying the event for the reward that it is. As I’ve said before, the event itself is an absolute joy to participate in; the large group ride, surrounded by fellow fundraisers and cyclists, is an experience that’s difficult to describe unless you’ve done it or something similar1.

But let’s admit it, for a lot of us, we want to not just finish the ride but perform well, and to do that requires training.

And so I’ve been riding. A lot.

So what is “a lot”? Well, here’s my July stats so far:

  • 7 activities
  • 19 hours
  • 469 kilometers
  • 67 km average ride length

This compares to the entire month of June:

  • 7 activities
  • 18 hours
  • 448 kilometers
  • 64 km average ride length

But those stats don’t quite tell the whole story. Because of that aforementioned road trip to Regina, my July training actually started on the 5th, and it’s only the 16th as of this writing, so those 469 kilometers and 19 hours were done over the course of just 11 days.

Now, as for my actual speed and power output, not a lot changed between June and July. Average speed is right around 25 kph and average estimated power output (according to Strava; I don’t have a power meter on my bike) is 98 w. I suspect if I had another couple of weeks I would’ve seen those numbers move a bit, as I’ve definitely been increasing intensity over the last week or so2. But the main goal up to this point has been building endurance and reducing perceived exertion, and while I don’t have good data to track it, the increase in average ride length is a decent indicator3.

To be clear, I don’t mention all of this just to brag (though, you know, it’s a little bit to brag). It’s really to illustrate just how much effort goes into not just raising funds for the event, but preparing for it as well. After all, in the last 11 days, including rest days, I’ve averaged 1.75 hours and 42 km per day on the bike. It’s a genuine commitment.

Fortunately, beyond the simple desire to perform well on the Tour and demonstrate to all my donors how much their support means to me, three additional things have worked in my favour.

First, the career break. While this period in my life is necessarily winding to a close–I plan to start seriously job hunting in September–right now, it’s a true blessing to be able to commit so much time to riding.

Second, simply put: I absolutely love being on my bike. The only thing that compares for me is skiing (and no, don’t ask me to pick a favourite).

Third, I discovered the Tour de France Unchained series on Netflix, right as the 2024 Tour was happening, and now I’m kinda obsessed!4 And as a side effect, every time I watched an episode I found myself itching to ride. It truly is inspirational and reminds me why I love the sport so much.

Of course, I also have another commitment related to the ride, and that is the knitting of socks! As a reminder: Tomorrow is the last big draw for the ride, so if you want a chance to win some hand knitted socks, there’s still a little time left to get into the raffle!

To be clear: I have not started knitting yet! But once the ride is done I’ll be picking up the sticks. So soon you can all look forward to knitting-related updates.

Alright, so that’s it, my last planned pre-ride update (excluding the announcement of the final raffle winner, of course)! I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: thank you so so much to everyone who’s supported my ride this year. A lot of people don’t realize how much road cycling is a team sport, and in that respect the Tour Alberta for Cancer is no different.

See you all on the other side!

  1. A mass start in a marathon has a very similar vibe. ↩

  2. My last four training rides (there was one recovery ride in there which I’m ignoring) saw my average speed increase to 25.7 and average estimated power output increase to 100 w. ↩

  3. In fact, the data is a little skewed as in June I had two big rides toward the end of the month (90 and 100 km respectively) with the rest around 60 or shorter, while in July all but two rides were 70 km or longer. ↩

  4. Seriously, if you haven’t watched that series, watch it. It’s truly fantastic! ↩