And nerves they are. I had a bit of a "restless night" after foolishly looking up Blake Street on Google Maps. It looks unbelievably steep, and much longer than I had imagined. I suspect that lack of sleep may not have helped me feel right for this morning!!
Do you see what I mean?! Note those railings on the left to help people walking up!!
Anyway, since there will be a bit of a wait for any actual hill action - I thought you might like a map. My in-laws will certainly enjoy it; the whole family loves a good map. This one is of the hills that I plan to climb (they are listed on the right in the order of difficulty as suggested by my spreadsheet), and it is a great map in that it makes the whole planning process a bit easier.
What the map makes clear is that the hills appear to be arranged in groups:
- Group 1 is around Rivelin Valley and includes Hagg Hill
- Group 2 is Walkley (including Blake Street)
- Group 3 is NE of the city and includes Jenkin Road
- Group 4 is Broomhill area, including the second hardest hill on my calculations, Highcliffe Road
- Group 5 is the Heeley area with Myrtle Road as the feature road
- Group 6 is Woodseats/Bradway and is my local area - this also includes Cobnar Road which has the highest maximum gradient on the list at 30%.
Since I cannot imagine being able to do all of these in one trip, but hope that I can manage a few each time, this map has pretty much set my initial plan. Six groups, six weekends.
The plan is fluid, as I have no idea if I can get up more than one of these in any single trip. Six would be great, but if it takes 26 weekends, then so be it!
I have also decided on how I will measure and assess the climbs.
- Toughest: I have bought a Heart Rate Monitor, and will record the average heart rate for each climb. The hill with the highest average will be the hardest hill to climb.
- Steepest: I will also record the average speed, and the hill with the slowest average speed will be the steepest.
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