Port Perry – My Longest Ride in 3 years

What a difference a few days makes. After last week’s “fun with hyponatremia” experience I knew I needed to try again lest that taint my riding experience. The result was not only a week with the most kilometres this year (297) but also the longest ride of 2026 – or 2025 for that matter.

My first trip out was Friday to go downtown to my formerly local (but now far away but too good to leave) bike shop, Cycle Solutions. I had ordered a shorter stem, the part that connects handlebars to the steering post/wheels of the bike. Getting one shorter meant I wasn’t reaching so far as before, so I was putting less weight on my handlebars and as a result my hands would be much happier on long rides. They’re just under 25 km away from home so I got on my bike right after work. Friday the weather was lovely, sunny and breezy and I made excellent time down and back. The route was fantastic – all quiet streets, except for where I had fully separate bike paths. Friday I didn’t do anything special food/drink wise except to bring some water – it was hot and sunny.

Saturday promised to be one of the nicest days of the summer so far and so I cancelled Hindi class and planned a route for my biggest ride in almost three years: over 142 kilometres (88 miles) from here to a little town called Port Perry which I knew very little about except that it happened to be next to Lake Scugog which I also didn’t know a whole lot about. There is one thing I do know, though. Leaving Toronto except following the shore of Lake Ontario means hills. I also feel like there are a lot of hills and valleys when you go east – probably due to glacier activity in the last ice age. Here’s what the route looked like from that standpoint:

You can see it’s a steady climb most of the way – and a fair bit of up and down. So not only would this ride be almost 40 km (40%) longer than the last disastrous ride, there would be 1,264 metres of climbing compared to the 859 metres on last Sunday’s ride almost 50% more climbing. The temperature would be higher, and there was much more wind as well. You might think this was a foolish plan – especially since much of the way has no public transit. No safety net, in other words. However, this is how much faith I placed in how poor my last ride’s nutrition was.

The night before we went out for Vietnamese food and I got a dinner that included a large and very healthy mound of white rice with it to start to fill my tank. The next morning my dinner was more of my usual: 2 eggs and two big pieces of toast (basically 4 pieces) and was out the door by 8:30 AM.

The day was dazzlingly beautiful. I am not joking when I say we don’t get many Saturdays this good for cycling in the summer. Blue skies, just a few clouds and a mixed blessing: a very strong wind from the southwest – mostly behind me. This made the first bit, almost all the way up to the 70 km mark a breeze. (See what I did there?)

There were some nice views along the way:

There was a ton of traffic along the way – in the end I was passed by nearly 1,000 cars. However, for a surprising amount of the time there was either a bike lane or even separated lane. There were also lots of roads like the dirt one above that were so quiet that I was rarely passed at all. Are you curious about the details of who is passing me where? You can actually track all of that here. Or you can look at the map below. You can see the big gaps with few cars, the blue numbers showing few cars and the red ones showing heavier traffic – in most of those situations I had some form of infrastructure so it wasn’t bad.

I had originally planned to stop at Stouffville for some donuts but the route didn’t bring me near anywhere they were available so I ate a few more gummies and continued onwards, stopping again later to eat a Clif bar about 1/3 of the way in. I continued to snack on gummy bears while I kept an eye out or somewhere to get something more substantial. It wasn’t meant to be, so I had to wait until I got to Port Perry. There I ordered a big lunch.

There it is, friends. Salty fish sitting on top of a pile of salty french fries and two cans of Pepsi on the side. (It was nearly 29°C now). Now fully refueled, hydrated along with another 80 grams of sugar, some caffeine and water it was time to go. I sat and watched the world go by from the patio of the fish and chips shop:

Which reminds me about hydration – an important subject given my last experience. Last time I brought two bottles, one with an electrolyte tablet in it, one without. Because of my gear it was a bit of a pain to get the bottle out of the cage so I didn’t drink so much. This time I always put electrolytes in and kept one bottle in my jersey pocket at all times. Any time I’d stop, I’d sip. Any time I would go too long without stopping, I’d sip. Over the course of the trip I drank 6 x 750 ml bottles each with electrolytes. Unsurprising given my bike computer recorded a temperature of 39°C in the sun at the hottest point on the return trip.

Then it was time to head back, but first a quick swing by the lake itself.

Apparently there are all sorts of boats for rent. I did have a moment where I thought, what the heck? Why not rent something and go for a ride. But time was short.

After leaving the lake my route turned back the direction I came from – but on different roads for variety. The minute I turned the corner I felt the wind directly in my face. Apparently they were at around 25 km/hr with 50 km/hr gusts at times. Not fun but manageable. It probably made climbing back up the hills a little harder but the hardest part was pushing into the wind on the flats and even slight downhills. But wind on a bike can be like using a credit card. On the trip out there, I charged a whole bunch of energy to the card and had a fast and fun trip. Now it was time to pay off the balance. And just like with a credit card it’s all fun and you don’t think about the cost.

But I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t enjoy it on some level. Lael Wilcox (who right this very second is cycling across Canada trying to beat the ‘around the world’ cycling record by doing it in under 78 days. She talks about endurance sports not being suffering though many treat it like that. We are choosing to do this and, in my favourite part, she explains it as the fact that we are celebrating that we can do hard things. Have a listen:

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And follow along – I’m so excited to see how it goes. Right now as I write this she is closing in on Halifax. After that it’s off to Europe.

I would also add that I get something else from these trips. My biggest reason for doing these long rides is because I can see so many interesting things in one day at a human pace. Some things I saw that I would’ve missed in a car (or in my house!)

• So many classic cars, old Corvettes and a really lovely salmon 1950s era Chevrolet (I think) – you can see it in the video below)
• A man on a mobility scooter watching a US-style monster truck show through a fence. We got to chat a bit before it was time for me to continue on my way.
• As I was doing one of the hardest climbs of the trip, I heard big movement behind me. I stopped and turned back in time to see a large bird with a wingspan wider than my arms taking off into the woods.
• On a mostly empty road an old fashioned tractor was slowly headed my way. Driving it was a man in his 60s or 70s with a ~5 year old on his lap. They both waved.

I’m not a fast cyclist, but I’m even slower thanks to a propensity to stop and enjoy a view or a moment.

I was both taunted and encouraged by one thing on the way home. My bike computer keeps track of significant climbs and it told me that between Port Perry and home there were seven to do. One I didn’t count as it’s just a couple km from home and I figured worst case I could walk that. But seven seemed like a lot. And after the first couple I could really feel the effort and the heat. I knew that once I had one climb left, though, it would be mostly downhill. I could do this. But those six climbs were no small effort.

I could feel the energy leaving my legs with each climb and each minute pushing into a wall of wind. The temperature also kept increasing. When descending on the bike there is lovely air conditioning. When ascending, though, it can be rough. You’re generating heat like crazy but there’s not as much wind to cool you off. There was a bit of an art to managing my temperature and hydration. Stopping and resting was an option in most places (except that one where there were biting flies – eep!) but time kept passing, I kept metabolizing food and needing to drink. So as much as possible I kept on moving. Finally, just as my water bottles were nearing empty (and what was left was bathwater warm) I found a Tim Hortons. This was a godsend. They filled both my bottles (then I dropped tablets in both) and I got a muffin for calories – I probably could’ve used more but with the heat and effort it was hard to stomach). I also got my usual treatment for rides on days like this: frozen lemonade. How much more perfect could a sugar-filled slurry of ice and water be for quickly cooling off and hydrating at the same time.

And then it was time for the 20 km descent. There were, of course, small hills but I would make it home without a huge amount of drama. The breeze and the lemonade cooled me off. I know it’s obvious but it’s really great to see how much faster it is to descend than ascend. That last 25 km flew by.

On the last big climb before that descent I made a deal with myself. I would not walk up the last climb and would not stop. As the climb approached I started to feel more confident for some reason. I would do this. And while I did it significantly slower than I might do with fresh legs, I did it.

Once I got home it was noticeable how different I felt. My legs were tired but I had more mental clarity and a normal amount of post-ride nausea. After a shower I weighed myself as a check. After my last ride I’d lost over 2 lbs in water weight meaning I should have been drinking more. This time, despite the hot temperatures my weight was normal. I had done the right thing. This was further validated by Strava’s effort score which rated yesterdays longer and harder ride as only slightly more challenging than last Sunday’s.

The only negative thing was an incoming headache thanks to skipping my afternoon coffee. That was easily stopped with a strong coffee which, unsurprisingly, did not keep me from falling into a deep sleep.

I made two videos from this one for you to enjoy. The first are highlights from the ride itself, and the second is showing off my internal 13 year old who still enjoys a fast downhill run.

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