The Year I Got (Sorta) Fast

When I was a kid, I loved riding my Huffy around, doing little jumps in the grass, and riding to friend’s houses. As I got older I didn’t have a bike again until after college, when I moved to a fixed-gear, which I used to roam around Austin with pals. Later, I moved to Portland, and got a commuter 3-speed bike to ride to work across town. Through all of this, I didn’t really “exercise” or focus on performance in any way, but I always loved the feeling of speed.

Moving to road bikes

After I moved to Oakland in 2018, I got a new Surly Straggler and began riding longer distances to explore my new home, but I really struggled on hills. I’d never had a good aerobic system or much endurance, and had most-recently done a lot of powerlifting and was over 250lbs. I didn’t mind much, even though it meant I couldn’t keep up with my friends on rides—they waited for me at the top and it was only a little frustrating.

During COVID I rode indoors on Zwift, which was my first encounter with power meters and heart rate monitors. I put in a lot of hours, raced weird short online criteriums, and generally fell more in love with suffering on a bicycle. As the world opened-up a bit, I took my bike outside, then upgraded to a new bike and kept riding. I built up endurance and did my first metric, then imperial century (100 and 160km), and in 2023 completed a brevet with my friend Nicole for her birthday. I quickly learned that while I could ride for ten hours to complete events like that, I didn’t really enjoy it, so I got back to intervals and performance-focused training.

Bring on the pain

Training on a bike is all about consistency, and the ebb-and-flow of build and recovery. When I first started riding in earnest, the build part was pretty easy. Similar to my powerlifting there are a lot of early gains that come from acclimating your system to the new activity and getting your body used to the movements and saddle friction.

I focused on a lot of zone two riding—55–75% of my FTP, and added intensity once or twice a week. I tested my fitness every few months with a ramp test or trying to keep a steady power for 20m or more to make sure my zones kept pace with my work. A lot of people I know find training like this boring, and somewhat challenging to do outside, but I found roads I knew I could safely do my work on, and relatively traffic-free times to do them in. Ramp tests I kept for an indoor trainer, but due to the sheer mind-numbing hell of indoor riding (especially after all the COVID Zwifting), I tried to do everything else in the hills or next to the ocean. If you keep training, it works.

From 2021 to 2022 I went from a 220W to 290W FTP then stagnated a bit and gained more weight. By 2024 I was closer to 300lbs and my FTP was around 250W. When cyclists calculate performance, there are a lot of factors, but one number used for climbing is “watts-per-kilogram (w/kg)” at this point I was just below 2.0w/kg. A decent amateur cyclist is often somewhere between 2.5 - 3w/kg and pro women start around 5w/kg. I wasn’t doing any real racing outside of a little cyclocross and gravel, but it continued to gall that I couldn’t easily ride with friends despite very consistent weekly training of around 8-10hrs. If you’ve ever spent a lot of time practicing something without feeling progress, you’ll understand my frustration.

Enter doctor’s orders

Talking to my doctor about my health, my performance goals, and various lab test results revealed that my estrogen levels were hovering around “very pregnant”, which wasn’t possible, and despite cooking most meals at home and not snacking, my weight was stagnant. He suggested some hormonal changes, as well as a new GLP-1 drug called Zepbound. I heard a few comedians I like discussing their experiences with these weight loss drugs, and they mostly seemed positive, so I took my doctor’s advice. After a few months I was steadily losing ~6lbs a month, but still had ample energy to keep training 10hrs a week. I focused on matching my protein intake with recommendations from my doctor and trainers I spoke to, and took rest days 1-2 times a week.

I started 2025 at 2 w/kg, and by December I was over 3.3 w/kg at 182lbs/83kg. I was sleeping better, not drinking, cooking at home most meals, and had gotten my training up to 12hrs a week. In December I also took a break from working for a couple months to recharge and start training even more; raising my hours to 14-16 and making friends with the massage gun and even more recovery shakes.

Speed

My results kept pace with my work, and I was getting better and better times on my regular climbs. I set a goal to get to an 18min time on Tunnel Road in Oakland (down from my best 23min in 2023) and checked that off in a thrilling ride one afternoon. The best women’s times on this climb were 12-13min, and since it wasn’t particularly steep, I didn’t think it would be too impossible to get that time even lower. My other measure was my annual Mount Diablo climb, which I brought down from my best 1:58 to 1:24 in October of 2025—which got me 2nd in my age category. My results weren’t much to write home about but I wasn’t getting left for dead by my friends on climbs, and enjoyed my training repeats just as much.

Now

2026 is only halfway over, and in June I brought my Tunnel time below 15m (14:50) for the first time, and started creeping onto leaderboards for certain climbing segments. My FTP was around 300, and my w/kg was 4.something. I could join group rides on easy or hard days, and even do quick jaunts to the market in the hills for smoothie supplies without getting wiped-out from the 800m of climbing. I’m still pushing hard, and resting often, but at this point my only goals are to see what I’m capable of, and hit a sub one hour time climbing Mount Diablo. I also have a trip to Japan coming this year again, and if I’m able to make some of the faster guys I know on that trip break a sweat, I’ll be chuffed.

Next

There are times when I’m riding up a climb, or finding the apex on a twisty road that I feel legitimately fast, but the best thing about riding all the time is that every minute I spend on the bike is joyful. I love seeing the wild animals, trees, and changing conditions. I love meeting random riders on the hills, and testing myself against some of the fast youth of the Bay Area on a regular ride. When I started cycling as a kid I didn’t give a thought to this being a lifetime hobby, but I’ve met so many riders in their 70s and 80s that I look forward to keeping this going as long as I’m able to enjoy it. I know I won’t always feel as fast as I do right now, but I want to enjoy the fruits of my training and maybe win a few races to boot while I still can.