PRE – PREPARATION

Feel like being ready for the trip? Any physical exercises recently? You better do! It’s worthbeing truly active before the trip, not the get trapped merely by the vague vision of how fit we are. Pilgrimsbasically decide to conquer Camino with their bikes or on foot – walking. Two months before the trip is a high time to start preparing your physical condition. Certainly, there is no universal truth as well as there’s no specific amount of exercises that you should take up to do your job well on the route. It all depends on the weather, terrain which you are going to pass through, duration and so on.Focus on basics first, provideyourself with some training shoes, read sporty stuff, and let’s continue to meet the actual preparation stage.

PREPARATION – WALKING

So, here we are. Decided on our excursion, willing to be active and mentally ready to do our best during and before the trip. When packing your shoes, make sure you have given them a good run test before. No one is happy with blisters, it takes away all the pleasures of your dreamed-of trip. Your ability to walk many hours depends on this stage. The better you got prepared, the more hours of walking you are going to bear. It’s a good idea to actually practice ‘a day on Santiago’, before Santiago. Which means, imagine yourself being on the route, put on your trainers and head in chosen direction. Then come back home and decide if you are ready. There was a joke that a young men on the street asked the famous violin player – Excuse me Sir, do you know how to get to the Carnegie Hall? – Practice son, practice – Responded a wise man. It refers to every aspect of our lives. To be well prepared, you better practice son. And also, just in case, take your blister plasters with you.

PREPARATION – CYCLING

When cycling, whereas it’s a different story, you still need a training. Try with hills. It’s important, because Camino de Santiago is amountainous terrain, so flat area has a completely different quality for riding a bike. Do some spinning classes, but seriously this time, because what you will meet on the route is not a joke. You will get badly tired on the road if not prepared. As mentionedabove, not onlytraining but also: a paddedpair of shorts for a bike, comfortableshoes, a waterbottle and pilgrims’ certificate.

FREQUENCY This one is important. You know what to take, you know how to train, the last thing you need to know is how much time you need to be physically ready for the final journey. Going for a walk or a hike every weekend is fine, but with such frequency you will need to start your training about six months before departure. A good idea is to use a ‘small steps’ method. It means you start lightly and then increase the distance. Plan it in a way that brings you to 15 kilometers walk, for two weeks before the start. If it comes to kilometers, let’s mention kilograms as well. Put some on your back and try walking with it. At the end, you will most probably have a quite heavy bag with you on the route.

 A SUMMARY Give a try to mixing all kinds of speeds of your walk, run a little, then go slowly, built your resistance. After exercising – stretch as much as you can. This way you are getting even better conditioned. Remember that it’s not a race, as well as getting extremely active for a year before embarking, you can also not practice at all. Just smile and get most of what you will go through.