Training for the Camino

I start my Camino de Santiago on Wednesday the 8th of May 2013.

I know a lot about walking, having done several guided walking holidays in the Kingdom of UK and Europe. Notwithstanding, the Camino is going to be different in several ways, foremost of which are the 24 kilometres that I'm going to have to cover on average each day and the fact that I won't be coming back to a nice family-run hotel for a 5 course meal every evening.

To prepare for this, I've started to do some local training walks of 15, 20, and 25K with a 50 litre rucksack. Try as I might, I have not succeeded in getting its weight below 30 pounds (13.6 kilos with 1.5 litres of water). My luxuries are my IPad mini, some laundry soap (in sheets), my beloved Flex-O-Line travel clothes line (with a wide mouth carabiner on one end), and a very small bottle of shampoo. Most everything else is lightweight, quick dry, and kept to a minimum. Ah well, 13.6 kilos it is. As the army is fond of saying, any damn fool can be uncomfortable. I'll probably be questioning the wisdom of that after walking through the Pyrenees on day one.

The training walks are going well, primarily because:

1. I have good, high-end walking boots that are broken in;

2. I use an inner polypropylene sock and an outer smart wool sock; and

3. I lubricate the pressure points on my feet before donning the socks. A body lube stick from Running Room or Mountain Equipment Co-Op works well. So does Vaseline, it's just a bit messier to apply.

 

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