Shocking as this might sound (and sorry blog readers.....its time to fess up) with the exception of the daily commute I had not undertaken any additional cycle rides since I returned from Liverpool at the end of June! And I call myself a cyclist / cycling blogger....

I could inset a few excuses here (*work was very busy / life was also very busy....etc etc) but in all honesty I just didn't have the spark of motivation to get myself back on the bike and just simply ride for all the enjoyment cycling provides me.

Come the end of the school summer holidays, the really busy season for my job, I took some time off work and travelled to Malta for a restful week away with no mention of cycling, then straight back to work for another couple of really (really) full on weeks of work leading into a further bit of time off work on holiday.

Whilst I had been steadily adding miles to the total for the year to date, and had an eye on the rolling total with a sense that the daily commutes would push me beyond both my total mileage for 2022 and the target I had given myself for 2023 of achieving 3500 miles I was crawling towards these totals at around 16 miles a day.

After the week away with my wife Jan in Malta the first week of this additional time off work was just me on my lonesome and in a moment of mathematical realisation I saw that a 40 mile cycle would allow me to break through the 2022 mileage total with almost 3 months of the year still to go.

The 40 mile target got my brain alive thinking that I could simply get on the bike and complete this with just one ride, and also got my brain thinking of any 40 mile or so rides I had previously undertaken / enjoyed / could repeat whilst off work.

30 miles would take me to an old favourite route from my house towards Lymington, then up to Brockenhurst and Burley before heading home taking in the south west corner of the New Forest national park..... a really lovely ride. I also reflected on a few longer rides (longer than 40 miles) around East Dorset, another beautiful part of the world I have ridden around lots over the past couple of years......and finally my brain recalled a 2020 pandemic / covid ride I had undertaken, which I had forgotten and not mentioned in any previous blogs......a ride in the time when we were "allowed" to undertake one form of exercise per day in the early stages of UK covid lockdown.

This ride had taken me to Lymington and then on to Beaulieu , home of the National Motor Museum and a really lovely ride through the New Forest. It was also around 40 miles, maybe slightly more, and would allow me the immediate mission of one ride to break last years mileage total. The plan was forming.

So with a clear afternoon (no chores or any other reasons not to get on the bike) I got dressed into suitable cycling attire and headed out on the bike. As I left the house at about 2pm I was relaxed about the 40 mile plus cycle and a real sense that I could even pick up a coffee and cake in Beaulieu itself.......making the ride as positive an experience as possible, and making sure I was back before it got dark, and in plenty of time to walk Archie our dog with Jan at the end of the afternoon.

A large number of young people leaving our local secondary school therefore came as a complete shock, with the associated large number of cars on the road for the first couple of miles of the ride. Had I got my timings all wrong ? If so then maybe the coffee / cake stop might have to be dropped......after a quick check of the time I was fine and for some reason the school had finished early! No harm done, and once out of the vicinity of the school I stretched my legs and headed onwards to Lymington encountering very little traffic.

Before I even left the urban sprawl between Christchurch and New Milton I had a slightly unusual encounter with a deer. I stopped at one of many temporary traffic lights (everywhere is being dug up for some reason) and realised that there was an adult deer at the side of the road nibbling something tasty on the verge. The deer stopped, looked at me , nibbled a bit more and then gently gambled through the hedge and into the adjacent field - a magical short moment for me (and possibly the deer too).

The ride on the back roads to Lymington was amazing, warm air, not much wind to speak of and I soon got into a good cycling rhythm (think middle aged me not racing, no ....slower than that!) and I soon found myself cycling through Lymington heading further east into the New Forest.

Having crossed the Lymington river I took a right hand turn towards the Isle of Wight ferry terminal, another familiar location from earlier cycles, and took even more minor roads through towards Bucklers Hard. I'd hardly seen any traffic on the first 11 miles of my journey, and encountered even less as I made my way further east and in what felt like no time at all I was looping around the village of Beaulieu and was locking my bike up to locate a coffee and slice of cake.

I realise I've just written that this cycle so far was effortless, I thought this was the case as I was riding, but when faced with the garden centre coffee shop I did struggle a bit with the concept of table service as I was at the counter picking out my cake.

However the staff in the coffee shop guided me through the process, order taken, table found and I was very soon enjoying a reasonably well deserved black coffee and bakewell cake thingy. However the afternoon was drawing on and even refreshed I was only at the halfway point.

On a previous ride to Beaulieu I managed to virtually run out of any energy on the way back (not very fit / into a headwind etc) so this time I decided to cycle back the route I had used to get there, a loop of road close to the Solent. This was the perfect choice; the only traffic were New Forest ponies until I got back to Lymington to meet a combination of the train crossing being closed to allow a train to pull into Lymington station at the same time as Lymington rush hour had begun!

In fairness to Lymingtons rush hour was not on the scale of the M25 or some central pre-ULEZ London road congested with huge numbers of vehicles, and within a couple of miles I had escaped back onto more country roads heading back home.

A little over 41 miles completed by the time I arrived home, in time for a dog walk in good daylight with Jan and Archie, but one minor cycling achievement had been accomplished. I had beaten my 2022 total mileage for the year; even with a few months of only commuting to and from work, and I'd completed this on the 3rd October leaving almost 3 months for bonus mileage to be achieved.

As I signed off the ride on Strava my mathematical brain also noted that I had another 62 miles and I would be able to complete my challenge I'd set myself for the year of 3500 miles of cycling.......might I be able to add another long cycle in this week off work to beat both milestones in one week ?

Time I would have, but what route would I use to ensure I broke this 3500 mile barrier ?