Hi ho, it's off to work I go

The evening before I cycled into work for the first, I sat down with a couple of the cycle maps from the TFL site and worked out a rough route.

It didn't all go quite according to plan.

The way in was fine(ish.) Chiswick to Hammersmith, Hammersmith via Baron's Court and Kensington High Street to Hyde Park. I went (what I now know to be) the long way around the park, then exited somewhere on the Eastern side and got a bit lost trying to weave my way through the streets behind Oxford Circus. Had to stop and consult the map a couple of times. Had to backtrack a couple of times but all in all, not bad. It took me an hour an 20 minutes which was slightly longer than I expected but hey ho.

It was the route back that flummoxed me. I naively thought I could simply take the same route back that I'd taken in, but of course, the one-way systems put paid to that. Instead, I became increasingly frustrated trying to find a safe way over Oxford Street then finding a way to turn West back to Hyde Park. It's a lot easier to plot on a map than it is to negotiate your way through taxis and buses - while also keeping track of street names, other cyclists, pedestrians and cars - when to be honest, you don't really know where you're going.

I arrived home after about an hour and a half. Hot, sweaty, tired and grumpy.

But also a bit relieved - at least I'd proved to myself I could actually cycle the distance. 9 miles each way. My legs didn't fall off. And I didn't get run over.