100-Day Milestones Toward the Camino

In 100 days I’ll begin a 3-week pil­grim­age, hik­ing cen­turies-old trails in south­west­ern France. I started train­ing for this jour­ney in Feb­ru­ary, test­ing boots and equip­ment, and embark­ing on some nec­es­sary con­di­tion­ing.

At the halfway point for prepa­ra­tions, I note con­sid­er­able progress made, as well as unex­pected con­se­quences:

• 10+ pounds lost since Feb­ru­ary
• Feet stronger, but a half size larger

Los­ing weight was not an explicit goal, but it’s a pleas­ing out­come… Except for the fact that my pants no longer fit, and much of my wardrobe is now too baggy.

The First 100 Days

Wood­land trails near Seat­tle help with con­di­tion­ing for the trek

I’ve been train­ing with a hik­ing buddy in the Cas­cade foothills. We walk together 4–5 times a week, solo oth­er­wise.

We’ve pro­gressed to hik­ing 8 miles with ease, with 10 or so pounds in our day­packs. We pre­fer hilly wood­land trails, and will tackle some moun­tains later this sum­mer.

Fit­Bit reports that we’ve already hiked hun­dreds of miles in the Cas­cade foothills.

The North­west foothills offer a good train­ing ground. The ter­rain is var­ied, often muddy, with fre­quent ascents or descents — sim­i­lar to what I’ll encounter in France. I’ll have to look fur­ther afield to find analogs to France’s lime­stone cliffs and loose scree.

45 Days on Cape Cod

Now I’m vis­it­ing Cape Cod until we return to Seat­tle in early July. Con­di­tion­ing here requires cross-train­ing to com­pen­sate for flat­ter and less chal­leng­ing ter­rain. So bik­ing, kayak­ing and yoga get added to the mix.

Enjoy­ing ocean views while train­ing for the Camino

Get­ting back on my yoga mat will help rebuild core and upper body strength — which have declined dur­ing the intense 100-day focus on hik­ing the North­west trails. Bik­ing will help with car­dio. Kayak­ing with upper body strength and bal­ance.

Sur­pris­ingly, I find myself miss­ing the North­west: the cooler misty weather, the softer wood­land trails, the ver­dant hill­sides and for­est glades. Here on Cape Cod I face uneven paved roads, heat and humid­ity, and tick-infested wood­lands that dis­cour­age off-road walk­ing. For­tu­nately it’s easy to find unpaved roads in the vil­lage where we’re stay­ing, so not all my train­ing will be pound­ing on pave­ment.…

My walks are often blessed with ocean or bay views and con­stant bird­song, but there’s a chal­lenge to walk­ing solo. Mostly men­tal…

Stay­ing dis­ci­plined, despite dis­trac­tions

Sus­tain­ing the dis­ci­pline of daily train­ing walks is harder than expected when stay­ing in a vaca­tion spot with­out a hik­ing buddy. There are mul­ti­ple dis­trac­tions, like overnight guests, and con­ve­nient excuses to avoid walk­ing, like heavy down­pours or time con­flicts. I have to drag myself away from inter­est­ing con­ver­sa­tions to find time to walk for two hours.

Walk­ing solo, the miles pass more slowly beneath my feet. Rain is more of a has­sle. I’m eas­ily annoyed by bit­ing flies or the heat that rises from the asphalt roads. I miss the wood­land trails, the for­giv­ing feel of packed dirt or organic mate­r­ial beneath my boots.

It rains harder here. Yes­ter­day I expe­ri­enced the down­side of breath­able sneak­ers: it takes them no time at all to get water­logged dur­ing heavy rains. So today I learned how to dehy­drate sneak­ers in a low oven when they didn’t dry enough overnight…

On a pos­i­tive note we’ve launched our kayaks and have already pad­dled for a cou­ple of hours in windy con­di­tions, so arm/shoulder con­di­tion­ing is well under­way. I’ve also returned to my yoga prac­tice, through classes and at-home asanas, so the cross-train­ing has become real­ity rather than an abstract con­cept…

And it’s a good thing, too.

Every time I read the blog posts from pil­grims now trekking the Célé Vari­ant of the Via Podi­en­sis, my com­mit­ment to con­di­tion­ing gets rein­forced. This will not be “a walk in the park” next Sep­tem­ber…