My goal this season is bike between 1500 to 2000 miles, which will definitely be tough. But I intend to really step it up on weekends and try to do a century in September.

Walmart really needs to step it up and offer their workers a better health package.

The organization's fundraisers really need to step it in order to meet their goals for the year.

John really needs to step it up if he's ever going to have a chance of clinching the gold.

I've stumped two natives on this one already. It doesn't mean "steigern" in the sense of "ich habe vor, mich an den Wochenenden wirklich zu steigern" (see first example above). It's more like putting in more effort, getting down to business, etc. Anyone have any ideas for the first example?

Aber ich habe vor, [it] an den Wochenenden wirklich [up]zu[step] und ich werde auch versuchen bei einem Century (Rennen von 100 Meilen) im September mitzufahren. (Sorry for the grammar mistakes.)