MARTIN L

Tag: Walking

  • My Amazing Experience Walking Line 6

    If you read my award-winning blog post Walking into 2026, one of my walking challenges for this year was to walk the entirety of the TTC’s Line 6 Finch West. Back in 2023, I walked the entirety of the TTC Subway System (excluding Line 3 Scarborough, which had already closed by the time I got to it). Unfortunately for me, I didn’t put any of it online, which in 2025 got a bunch of college students famous on social media. If you have any tips on what would get me internet famous for a day, do let me know.

    Back to the main point – this note will be very short and sweet. This is because there really wasn’t anything of interest along the entire route, unless you’re really into strip malls and suburban housing. I will say that it’s crazy that the bike lanes aren’t open yet. The line opened half a year ago! The bike lanes should be open and useable now.

    All of the stations are also exactly the same design and layout, which is absolutely great from an accessibility perspective. The experience for someone boarding the train is relatively similar wherever you board, which makes it easy for people to learn how to navigate the train. However, I will repeat for the hundredth time that they should be making the visual design of these stations more unique to reflect the actual communities it passes through!

    At the end of the day… would I recommend this walk to anyone else? No. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day!

  • Walking into 2026

    It’s time to review my 2026 walking goals! Every single year I do a major walking challenge. My main reasons are:

    1 . Fill up my Strava map. I religiously look at my Strava map often and I like the new orange lines that pop up after each workout.

    2. Explore new or familiar places by foot. I find that you don’t notice the small details about your local neighborhoods by car or bus. Bikes are a bit slower but still suffer from the same perception issue, and running for me is just focusing on keeping a low heart rate, so not perceptive at all.

    3. Add novelty to an otherwise plain activity. Walking can be pretty boring, and adding a challenge aspect motivates me to walk more.

    My 2025 Walking Challenge

    To be quite transparent, I just made this walking challenge thing up this year. But in some way, I’ve always had an athletic goal linked to my motivations above. The walking challenges are an rebrand of sorts to those goals.

    Last year, my main goal was to complete two main tasks.

    • Walk at least two miles each day (720 miles). Technically, I did not “walk” 720 miles last year. However, if you include my “hiking” workouts, I greatly exceed this number. If we’re being frank, hiking is just walking in more rugged places. So did I complete the challenge? No, but also yes.
    • Complete the San Francisco Crosstown Trail. I still have six miles left of the trail before I can claim (buy) my commemorative item. Alas, I only went back to San Francisco once last year, and unfortunately I made no progress with this trail.

    My Strava Year in Sport.

    Although I didn’t complete either of these challenges, I am glad I put them in the back of my brain, because it made me realize how inconsistent I can be with walking.

    My 2026 Walking Challenges

    You may be wondering: what’s coming up in 2026? Here are my challenges for the upcoming year.

    1. Walk at least two miles each day (720 miles). Yes, the same goal is coming back! Two miles for me is around 35 minutes of walking per day, which is totally doable. Any remaining mileage I fail to accrue will be donated to Girls on the Run Bay Area, my 2026 partner charity.
    2. Complete the Long Branch to Hamilton Link. The Long Branch to Hamilton Link is a line that will link my Hamilton Strava activities with my Toronto activities, completing a continuous line through the Greater Toronto Area. This will involve me walking from Long Branch all the way to Downtown Hamilton. A progress tracker will be updated on my website! This is a part of a greater goal to have connecting activities from Hamilton to Oshawa.
    3. Line 6 Finch West. In 2023, I successfully walked all of the TTC system in operation (Lines 1,2, and 4), completing the still un-opened Line 5 in 2024 as well. Since Line 6 is now open, I will also be completing this line very soon!
    4. Line 3 Scarborough. It may have closed two years ago, but the line is still incomplete in my heart. I will also be completing this line this year, although I do have Kennedy – Lawrence East already done.
    5. Finish the Crosstown Trail. The Crosstown Trail will finally be mine this year. I’ve never been to the Bayview (driven through it) and this trail is my one chance to see a new part of the city that I love so much.

    An example of a Line Walk. Each photo corresponds to a station on the Eglinton Crosstown.

    What is Girls on the Run Bay Area?

    Girls on the Run Bay Area is a charity dedicated to providing opportunities to young girls to get outdoors and embrace the impact of physical activity for a healthy, well-rounded lifestyle. I’m excited to partner with them this year as a part of my commitment to support Bay Area youth. You can learn more about Girls on the Run Bay Area here.

    I will be providing a monthly update on my goals on the Discussions page.