Having stretched myself once, and recovered pretty quickly (aside from the necessary nap afterwards) almost every spare moment was now occupied with the question of where next to cycle and how far to go.

Having lived in this area since I was very young it's a part of the UK I know pretty well, and more importantly, it's an area I really love. By the power of google maps I took a little time to plan out a circular route from my home taking in a few minor roads of around 40 miles in total. A slight increase on my last cycle, with a little more elevation, this route looked to be one I could ride as soon as I had some time in between work and family commitments.

With a few days of leave booked during which I could spare a little time to exercise, my planning snowballed and before I knew it I'd pencilled in three rides in five days! Testing myself in terms of distance, recovery and with an emphasis on building up speed, I found myself looking to cycle over 100 miles in total.

My daily commute had quickly escalated into something more serious, and at the same time I was improving my fitness and stretching myself both physically and mentally. Reflecting back on this part of my cycling journey there was something else in the midst of things - it had slowly crept up on me, but I was really enjoying cycling and was benefitting from it as much as I was loving it.

My first longer cycle was really fun; another early start, another stunning sunrise and a lovely downhill section on the way home through villages and towns I grew up around. Cycling through my past is the best way I can describe the experience, not looking to do so as an escape, but seeing places I hadn't seen for well over 20 years was really rewarding.

I can't recall if I had or needed a post-cycle nap, but two days later I was back out again, this time having identified a loop through the New Forest of around 30 miles taking in Lymington, Brockenhurst and Burley. Two days later and I completed the New Forest loop again, this time knocking around ten minutes off my previous time.

Quicker, faster, easier......100 miles covered in five days with almost minimal effort, recovering easily......was I gaining some sense of fitness I hadn't seen since my teenage years? The snowballing of ideas continued; time in the saddle was leading to thoughts of longer routes taking in more of the Hampshire and Dorset countryside and in the midst of this came a slightly ridiculous idea - maybe I could cycle to Liverpool ?

I'm sure this is true of most people, but setting some sort of target or goal is really healthy. Its a focus and the thought of cycling to Liverpool was certainly one heck of a target to aim for. Again using my friend google maps the distance looked to be around 265 miles, but the more detail I looked at this as a potential route to cycle, the more National Cycle routes I saw I could use to get all the way up north using quiet roads, cycle routes on disused railway lines and a series of canal tow paths.

It might be possible to cycle all the way to Liverpool without much traffic, on relatively flat roads, and if I could break the journey up with a few stops maybe this   idea could be achieved? Whilst there were plenty of details to work through, the most important person to ask before I got too involved in planning was of course my lovely, and incredibly supportive wife.

Her reaction was lovely and supportive, once she had suggested that the idea was, er, a little ridiculous, and she was right. I'd only had the new bike a couple of months, only ridden a few times aside from the journey to and from work, was I really contemplating the leap from my initial baptism into the world of cycling to head all the way up to Liverpool ?

The idea evolved over the next few weeks. We have family in Liverpool so potentially people to stay with or catch up with if I ever managed to cycle there. Could I find a few days (how many would I need?) to take off work ? Where would I stay, and how many miles could I cycle per day?

All of the answers would in part be a leap of cycling faith. Breaking the journey into three parts could be around 90 miles per day, double the longest distance I'd cycled so far and to repeat this three days in a row!!! Even I was beginning to question the idea, but something about the challenge got under my skin.

Hours spent looking at the route online, adjusting the route, looking at potential places to stay showed that I was prepared to take on the challenge, was my body going to cope with my over ambition ?