T -4 Days to go. Training

Okay, this one’s got me scared.

Last time I created a conditioning program commencing 3 months before launching to Spain to walk cross country. This 2009 walk has two weeks of prep supporting it. My body is not gonna be happy…

My brother-in-law Michael, Mikee, once told me my body would protest more each year after 50, with aches and pains, especially in my joints. I blew through 50 without a whimper, but by the time 52 arrived, I had to admit Mikee was right. I now hear creaking within and worry about bits falling off. Seriously though, my body needs more time and delicate handling to kick start each day. I’m not decrepit, but the years have become present in my bones.

I walk train 4 hours a day, have been for 11 days now, and will get in a few more sessions before Friday’s plane ride. I’m getting up at 5:00 AM to build them into my day. Each walk covers about 15-18 kilometers/9-11 miles. I feelin’ good, there no missing or bleeding parts and endurance is building reasonably well. I’ve logged about 160 KM/100 miles in the last 10 days. Problem is the first 10 days in Spain will cover almost twice that much distance, and include significant mountains and foothills. I’ll also be shouldering an 11 kilo/25 pound backpack with whatever worldly possessions I think I need to survive a month in deepest, darkest Spain.

I’m not sure I’m physically ready. I’m worried about shin splints or another ailment forcing a layup by the time I’ve walked the several days back to Pamplona. It’s not that sitting still concerns me, or any pain that might accompany it. It’s the time I’ll lose farther along the trail. A couple of weeks from now, standing on a mountaintop in the Sierras, I’ll feel inspired. Or in Santiago, contemplating the cobblestones where a million pilgrims from a thousand years have walked as I, heart, and soul will know the spirituality and peace I seek. These inner things I want most from my trip. A problem on the front end means less time farther along, when I hope I’ve been moved. I can always take a bus to make up lost time, and that’s a fall back strategy. However it too is something to be avoided. I want to walk the whole country, carry a pack across every step, experience all that might find its way onto my path.

This is part of my pilgrimage definition. I have to trust my journey will unfold the way it should, not necessarily the way I foresee it; lack of preparation, delays or other issues notwithstanding. Camino forums speak widely of this; of being open to the letting experience be, and not carry expectations. It’s easy to say, but psychologically, I'm finding it hard to accomplish. A week or so from now I hope is to have this behind me. But at the moment, along with my sleeping bag, I seem to be loading expectations into my backpack, accompanying other paraphernalia truely needed for the road.

I hope when I see the Pyrenees under my feet, I won’t have further use for this particular item.