The 3,664.52 mile challenge

It seems like a bit of an arbitrary figure, but stay with me here.

At the start of the year I got annoyed with myself. Last October, at the first sign of cold weather and the onset of long, dark nights, I put my bike away and started getting the train to work.

Then, December rolled around and Christmas came and went and feeling sluggish I kicked myself into action, got my wheels serviced and acquired some nifty rubberised clip on lights called Knogs, which are funky (but have terrible battery life ... bah humbug).

I reasoned there was nothing to stop me from cycling to work throughout the winter, and not taking the train to work would save me up to £27.40 a week in Travelcard costs, and that's two bottles of wine! Eleven if you shop in Lidl. How could I resist?

But I needed something to motivate me, especially during January. Especially during the winter that we've just had.

With this in mind I decided to cycle from London to Washington DC, although not literally, I would get wet.

Specifically, I decided to ride from my doorstep in Battersea to my in-laws' house in Silver Spring, which is a suburb of Washington. Think Surbiton but with Americans.

Using Google Earth, I plotted a course and drew a straight line between the two points. It takes me across Ireland, then over the Atlantic to Newfoundland, down the coast of Canada and Maine and then on through the northeastern US to my destination. And then on January 9th 2011, I set off.

To date, five months later, a steady diet of commutes (10 miles each way) and longer weekend rides has got me to just under 1,254 miles, with just over 2,410 remaining. This puts me somewhere in the mid-Atlantic.

Some mornings, particularly in January and February, it's been hard to feel motivated to pull on base layers, fleecy gloves and thermal tights and know that you'll be frozen solid by the time you get to the bottom of the road.

But having a target in mind has made things just a little bit easier.

Of course, with the glorious weather we had in April that, touch wood, seems to be hanging around, I've gone probably a bit further than I otherwise would, and now that summer is just around the corner I won't need any encouraging to get moving. In fact, just lately I've been bounding out of bed at 7am on weekends and heading out while the roads are still calm. It's reprehensible behaviour but God it's a hell of a lot of fun.

The real test, I think, will start in mid-September or thereabouts, when autumn begins to set in. I have to wonder how far will I manage to get before the nights draw in and I have to start thinking about lights and leg-warmers again. Only time will tell.