Preparing for the Camino Frances

---

Preparing for the Camino

In three weeks I will be leaving for France to start my Camino Frances pilgrimage at St Jean Pied de Port.

I will admit to being a bit nervous right now about whether I am ready or not.

I checked my pack weight last night, and it was six or seven kilograms too heavy to be comfortable. Right now I cannot think what is not essential, but there's clearly a lot of it. If that is not enough, my personal weight reduction program plateaued for the last few weeks, and I wish now that I had been more disciplined.

I walked with the pack loaded up around Lake Tuggeranong (7.5km) this morning, and I only just managed 5kph and then wimped out on doing another lap. Each day on the Camino is three or more of these laps.
My walking partner, Wal Wolzac, is enthusiastic. That makes up a little for my current lack of enthusiasm, and does keep me going. He did the Camino in 2008, and assures me that each day's walk is readily broken into manageable stages with cafe con leche y churros and torte de Santiago, so perhaps it won't be that bad.

---

Comments

[Fiona Walthall]

Encouragement
I don't think you need to worry Doug. Doing the real thing is quite different to training as you know. Once you get to France and start on the trail with all its changing scenery from day to day, you will automatically be able to do more. You will probably be stiff from the initial mountain sections, but then, I am told, it becomes a lot easier. You will also get fitter each day.

[Lee Fitzgerald]

Yayy Doug!!!

[Polly the Travel Frog]

Walking the Camino
Doug~ I'm bitterly disappointed because I won't be able to walk the Camino this summer as planned. My walking partner has hurt her foot, and we are now pushing the trip back to Summer 2011! I hope you post about your adventure, as I will eagerly read every bit of it! I want to wish you the best of luck...but most of all, I hope that you enjoy your upcoming adventure! Candee P.S. To get ready for my adventure, I walk every single day. My husband jokes and says I will have to buy new hiking boots when my time to hike the Camino finally arrives, which really annoys me, because my boots are perfectly worn in! :o)

[dougfitz]

Well worn boots
Candee, for the past few years, I have had two pairs of walking boots 'on the go'. It started when I found the pair of Scarpa boots I was wearing in were giving me problems when I was walking locally on footpaths and roads, etc. They were brilliant in the bush on tracks, and I have used them around the world, but they just weren't good worn training in an urban area. I originally used a pair of relatively soft soled Columbia boots for most of my training, occasionally wearing the much harder soled Scarpa. The Columbia boots lasted about 4000 km, and were replaced by a similar pair which lasted a similar distance. The relatively soft 'rubber' sole material wore down on both boots. Last year I succumbed (at a sale) to purchasing a high end Columbia which I will probably use on the Camino now that they are properly bedded in. When walking with the friend who I will walk with on the Camino on the weekend, he found that his favourite boots, and the ones he had worn on his first Camino in 2008 and had been planning to use again this year, had cracked through where the toe flexes. He reckoned he had walked 3000-4000 km in that pair. Now he faces bedding in another pair of boots over the next three weeks before we start. Doug ps I hope your travelling partner recovers quickly, and that you both have a great Camino.

[Wal Wolzak]

The Camino is a Great Walk
Doug, I promise you that you'll absolutely enjoy every moment of the Camino as I did in 2008. We had 24 days of rain or changeable weather out of 29 walking days and it's still much better then sitting in the office. It's also a wonderful time for you as an individual and you will realize at the end how good it has been and how well you feel - the blisters along the way you soon forget about!! I've started bedding in my new Danish Ecco boots which are made from Yak leather and if I wear them every day they should be ready by our departure date - if not, you may have to carry my pack also.