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03/27/2003: "The Hills are Alive in South Austin"

Ever since mid-January, Mel and I have been walking at least five mornings per week in an effort to get into shape. Whatever shape that ends up being.

Unfortunately, we live on the top of a fucking hill. No matter how you slice it or dice it, you have to walk uphill at least a portion of any trip around the neighborhood.

While it doesn’t appear to be that hilly in my South Austin neighborhood, those hills are alive and laughing. Cars toot around with the greatest of ease, but once you’re down at street level, those subtle rises take on new heights. They loom in front of you and grow taller with each step. Downhill is a rare occurrence.

I finally realized how why I wasn’t able to plot a flat route when I happened upon the City of Austin’s GIS site. I loaded up a topo map of my neighborhood and, lo and behold, we’re near the top of a hill that runs perpendicular to and bisects all the streets we want to walk on. To walk through our neighborhood from our house, you have to walk uphill both going out and coming home.

Don’t get me wrong, the elevation really isn’t that bad. But to someone who has arthritis of the kneecaps, it isn’t just a molehill. Contrary to what everyone has said, the daily morning trek isn’t getting any easier for me. We’ve tried lengthening our outing, but every time we do, something happens -- my knees give out, one of us gets sick, stuff like that. So we’re pretty much stuck on 0.6 mile distance for the moment.

I guess it could be worse. I took a coworker home the other day because his car was in the shop. After twisting and turning my way through a steep Oak Hill neighborhood, I was wondering how I was going to find my way out without stopping to dig out a map.

Catching my puzzled look, he said, “On your way out, when you reach an intersection, think which way a basketball would roll and go that direction.” I found my way out with no problem at all. I guess that’s why the area is called Oak “Hill”.

Posted by jeremy @ 03/27/2003 12:53 AM CST

Or get a Segway? :-)

http://aprendizdetodo.com/toys/?item=20030326

Posted by Prentiss Riddle @ 03/27/2003 12:35 PM CST

A Segway would be cool, but would defeat the purpose of this exercise in torture. ;-)

The point of walking in our neighborhood is that it is an activity Mel and I can do together. The idea is to roll out of bed right when the alarm goes off, throw on sweats, and walk. Don't think about it, don't worry about what to wear, just get out of bed and walk. If one of us is reluctant to go, a little prodding by the other usually does the trick.

If we had to get in the car and go someplace, it would last a week, maybe two. As it is, we're both astonished that we've kept it up for so long. We figured that we would cave in to the snooze button after a month. But we haven't.

I do ride a stationary bike separately from our daily walk, but it's a fairly solitary activity and Mel doesn't like it as much as I do. I suspect that as we grow stronger, the mountains will shrink and one day I'll re-read this post and wonder what the heck I was complaining about. I hope that day comes soon, but I'm not holding my breath. It's hard enough to catch it when I reach the top of the hill. ;-)

Posted by margaret @ 03/27/2003 11:21 PM CST