There are less than 7 weeks before Marta and I leave for our Camino de Santiago adventure. What remains are these 5 short term (2 month), final preparation activities that I thought might be fun to share with you.
1. Detailed planning of the route and sight-seeing activities. Marta and I will each plan half the trip. I have created a spreadsheet which includes:
- Preferred route each day
- Preparations for that day’s hike
- Key points of interest (historical, cultural, geographical)
- Where we will be staying
- Recommendations for breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Journaling area to capture the days insights and adventures
In 9 weeks (May 16) Marta and I will be leaving for our 40 day pilgrims walking adventure on the Camino de Santiago. As we finalize our preparation I am taking the time to be good to my feet. It has been a long winter in heavy boots and socks and my feet need dedicated exercise and massage to remove the tension, strain and tenderness that has accumulated. Yoga is a great way to take care of your feet. Your feet will get a healthy workout in many yoga postures. Being barefoot and focusing on balancing weight distribution and body alignment is just the start.
For the next few blogs I am going to discuss how to get happy, strong and healthy feet for the Camino (Felices, sanos y fuertes pies en el Camino). It’s very important to get your feet strong, stretched and ready to walk the long distances along the Way of St James to Santiago de Compostella.
I have been a program / project manager most of my working career which means an obsessive focus on planning. This of course runs over into my personal life and I have a Microsoft Project plan, as well as several “To Do” and outfitting lists that I am tracking. Below is my final 14 week Master “To Do” list for my Camino trail planning with Completion dates. All this planning has helped reduce my level of Camino Readiness anxiety.
It has been a solid 2 months of walking in nasty winter conditions of varying cold arctic winds, heavy snow, ice storms, and slippery, dangerous surfaces. Last week I had an “I hate winter meltdown’ caused by feeling like an arctic vampire; living without sunlight and warmth and considered moving south. It was time to recalibrate, get perspective and put a positive spin on the winter blues. After all I am Canadian, and there are still 2 months until spring so I better “get a grip” and remember why I am training in these harsh conditions in the first place – to prepare me for the endurance required on the Camino!
I have been training and walking in the snow using trekking poles for the last few weeks to prepare for the Camino de Santiago next year. It is not formally winter yet here in Canada, but the cold and snowy conditions are definitely here, and are early. I think that winter training will prepare me for any harsh weather conditions on the Camino trail. Mental toughness and conditioning are required to deal with:
In this blog post I was planning to write about my shopping search for Trekking poles. However the last 2 weekends have been a snow fest and I have not been out shopping. This is unfortunate since the more it snows, the more I need those walking poles. During my last walk I found a tree branch and used that as a walking pole to help me trudge through the snow on the Trans Canada Trail. Instead I will write about my other major exercise commitment for my Camino Santiago de Compostella training in the form of Yoga warm up and cool down poses for long distance walking.
Now that I am training with my backpack and hiking boots on longer distances and varied terrain trails, it is time to add trekking poles to my training gear. I was debating when to start training with the trekking poles, but the first winter snow, and the additional weight of my backpack convinced me to start shopping for new poles. When I sat down and evaluated the benefits of using walking poles it was a “no-brainer” decision. The 5 benefits of Trekking poles are:
I recently had a comment submitted asking questions about blisters and shoes for walking the Camino de Santiago. And so Vicky, in answering your questions, I decided to include my guidelines for evaluating, planning for and maintaining foot health in the following 4 tips:
At the beginning of June when I made my decision to walk 800 km on the Camino de Santiago in 2014, I had to take an honest look at the fitness and training involved to complete the walk. Things like:
