Highgate Hill Thursdays

Yeah it was a good evening.... good 2 meet u all too. Next time i wont give up half way up the hill tho ;)

Feck... I missed it because I finally looked up from my desk and asked what time it was, just to be told 6.05pm and I was still on a conference call.

Why can't America just take a freaking holiday for a day and appreciate that we brits knock off early before a long weekend. Sods!

This Thurs ?

Probably not for me. Exams looming LARGE now... and council builders, and clinical placement, and end of my wife's maternity leave, and tenants' association meeting, and ex-pat family visiiting, and bottle of Laphroaig Quarter Cask :-)

i had a lot of fun on thursday, and hopefully will be at the next one. it was cool to meet everyone.

hell yeah

Check it out :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=2735

i think 'll be there today, seeing as it's my fault we even did in the first place...

My legs felt leaden on the way to work this morning, pre-occupied and stressed I guess.

If you can't tell, this is me making excuses in advance for any failure to get up the hill.

What pub do we all finally collapse at?

I am gonna take a couple ibuprofen and see if that helps with my sore achilles tendon, so hopefully ill be there.

martyr for the cause.

don't forget the EPO

just getting my excuses sorted out now ;)

Not gunna make it today :( Hey at least that will give everyone else a chance :p

Maybe it's worth mentioning that the hook-up spot is actually IN the park, by Gloucester Gate, just in case anyone's thinking of loitering with intent on the Outer Circle.

I'm going to see if I can get special (masochistic) dispensation to make a dash up to the foot of Highgate West, join the bunch for the climb, and then dash home again to put the baby to bed.

Hope to see you all later, albeit briefly.

Hi all - quite fancy this, although I've been only fixed for under a week! I'll try and make it by 6, and if not I'll follow the route anyway in the hope of seeing some others.

bollocks, cant make it, too many errands to do after work.

Highgate West Hill is nothing compared to Swains Lane which dissects the cemetry....try that on a fixed....I've done it on 74.....slowly. maybe you should try that one Thursday as an alternative route?

Does it have a pub at the top? That's where we spent a good few hours this evening.

hmmm.... ahoy!

Join us... it just so happens we hit Highgate hill tomorrow too. See http://www.fridaynightride.com

Similar theme, generally bollocking about with as much pub action as possible while still classing ourselves a 'ride'. Meet 6:30 for 7pm at the Spread Eagle.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=845799

Paul.

winston:Highgate West Hill is nothing compared to Swains Lane which dissects the cemetry....try that on a fixed....I've done it on 74.....slowly. maybe you should try that one Thursday as an alternative route?

No-one showed up at the foot of Highgate West by 6.30pm, so I had to head home. Went up Swains Lane instead - used to be one of my hillclimb training routes. There's still an annoying pile of builder/roadworks stuff just where the road narrows on the steep one-way section that was there at the end of last summer. What gives?

Agreed though - definitely N. London's steepest paved section, but quite short.

Muswell Hill's tougher than Highgate West - bit shorter, but steeper average grade. Plus it's got a bus lane all the way up and no speed bumps, so great for hassle-free training.

Three of us were there last night, I think perhaps we got to the foot of Highgate Hill West a little after 6.30pm as we had sat around in Regents Park not keeping track of time before hand.

There's always next week ;)

So, I finally got around to trying our Highgate West on Saturday - seemed like a good idea as I had just switched to 48x19 from my usual 48x17.

All was going pretty well, with the lungs heaving but definite progress being made, when disaster struck. The bloody road works half way up have temporary traffic lights and they went red just on the corner before the steep bit. Big cars coming t'other way so no way of snicking through.

I couldn't get my momentum up again after stopping and had to throw in the towel about 50 yards from the top.

I am a bit embarrassed to be honest. :-(
Has anyone else been humbled by it?

Me! Last Thursday.

I blame not knowing when the hill ended, I turned off 3/4 of the way up to relax my legs, did a spin in the side road, re-joined and found I couldn't make it.

I walked 10m, hopped back on and realised how close I was. If I'd known I would've pushed it, but I thought I was way off the top still (couldn't see it around that last corner).

I'm blaming not knowing the hill, my silly gearing (47x16) and squirrels.

I was starting to feel better, reading your post velocity boy, until you mentioned 47x16. Dammit!