Twice a week I do hill workouts. Typically I do Ladera Norte on Thursdays. Today I got all dressed up in my new hiking outfit: hat, shirt, and convertible pants/shorts. I even wore my new plaid gaiters and buff that I made myself. I looked like I just walked off the set of some Australian movie. Ha!

Since my running days I’ve known about this steep road which gains about 400 feet in 1/2 mile. I thought it would be good to hike it with my ever-increasing-weight pack (now at 28 pounds). I wish it were more of a hill, but it’s the best that I’ve got in Austin which is an easy drive from my home. So I park my car and start on Far West Blvd which steeply descends down for 1/2 mile to the start of Ladera Norte.

It goes up then flattens out a little and ends with a short up. By the time I get to the top I’m huffing and puffing. Yet over time it seems to be getting easier, but I could just be fooling myself.

From the top is a nice view of the Austin hills.

Once past the steep Ladera Norte portion it is flat for 1 1/2 miles to loop back to Far West Blvd (for a total of about 2.7 miles) and I’m ready to do it again. Today I did three loops for just over 8 miles in 160 minutes or 20 minutes a mile. A tad slow for me. But I ate my breakfast as I hiked and I stopped a few times to take these pictures.