Today, I rode with John on a mission to clock up at least 36 miles to hit 500 miles ridden this month. This is not a target I set out to do, but during lockdown my ability to ride 30+ miles quite comfortably, means that my monthly totals have slowly been creeping up. 

Bottle Lane, Nr Moss End

Last Feb was 165 miles, by April 360, over 400 in May when I thought that was as much as I would EVER do! My miles dropped a bit over the summer probably because we were able to see family and friends (in the garden), so a bit more variety to our week, and we also went away twice for a couple of nights in Devon.

Now in lockdown 3, I have been riding 4 times a week pretty much every week, and whereas I used to think "It's too cold ", I now realise it's always worth going out .... unless it's icy. So here I am feeling pretty chuffed with 503 miles. (John has ridden 647 but has done 2 more rides than me and a couple of his rides were 50 miles +. Not bad for a 69 year old😄. We both now fall asleep watching TV.)

We had a lot of rain again yesterday, so with no particular route in mind, we set off to try to avoid the worst flooding around the area ie nowhere near the river Loddon, or Thames! Or any other streams that we could think of. First stop Carters Hill, Binfield and turning into Billingbear Road, a photo before we lost the sun completely. 

Billingbear Road

Bottle Lane (Ryehurst Lane closed with flooding)

Passing Moss End, not surpirsing to see that Wellers Lane is also closed, with huge flood, but we were turning right past Frost Folly car park, where the road was very wet, but no flooding. Turning  off the Ascot Road into Garsons Lane, John commented on how DRY the road was, at which point we rounded the corner to face this!  

Bishops Lane, Maidensgreen

We decided to turn around and rejoin the Ascot Road, then onto Winkfield Lane. Next Crouch Lane, and onto Drift Road to Fifield. At this point we decided to go a bit further and into Bray, in a effort to achieve enough miles for me. It was 18 miles when we reached Bray, so were confident in doing similar on the way back. A stop off for cake and tea in Holyport (to show John where the shop is), then back via Paley Street, with a loop down passing Waltham Place and back through Shurlock Row. 

Shurlock Row pond with no takers for the seats!

At this point, we were NOT going to get enough miles in coming straight back, so we detoured through Binfield, and did an extra loop down around the Stag and Hounds,and back again into Binfield. It felt really cold on the downhill section. The temperature today was between 1-2 degrees but it felt a lot colder. 

Finally home on yet another detoured loop just to make sure I had enough miles, and finished at 38.42. 

Can't believe I just rode 500 miles in a month! Can I keep it going with the shorter month to follow? Will I ever lose another pound? I feel very fortunate that atm I have the health and stamina to do this to keep me same whilst life is let's face it, a bit dull right now.