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January 19, 2022January 17, 2022

How to Train for the Camino de Santiago in 12 Weeks

We had this great idea, winter in Washington so that we can work, save $$, and train for the Camino. Enter atmospheric rivers and snow.

The last two months here have felt like the least productive two months. Maybe it’s because we spent the year prior to it planning and buying a van, building it out into a camper van, and then traveling for 4 1/2 months, so doing a lot less feels unproductive. When we began our winter in Washington, we knew we had things to get done, but we also imagined we’d have time and money for some really fun things too. Snow adventures, weekend getaways, and visit Canada maybe? We haven’t done much of that (although we did go snowshoeing). So far the first 2 months have included health things, catching up on bills (some of that because of health things), visiting kids, and weather. When we first arrived, the weather included major flooding of the area and road closures. Then it snowed and snowed. Our kids came to visit for the holidays, but because of the snowpocalypse and Omicron, one kid was stuck for an extra week and a half due to PCR testing difficulties preventing them from getting back to Canada. Also, the snow led to some very cold days and a lot of days mostly inside. But it was good to see our kids.

Now that everyone is home and the snow has melted, we are ready to start our Camino training. Will’s knee has improved but he does have a lot of tightness in his joints. So our training for the Camino is a 12-week plan that is really meant to slowly ramp up and include strength training. We don’t want to end up on the Camino and injure ourselves in the first week. We are basically using this Camino training plan created by a physical therapist in the UK. Will has added on doing daily yoga to add stretching and strength to his training. I’ve just been doing yoga Mondays. Additionally, we plan to add on our packs at the end, to get used to walking with them.

Bellingham Bay

Having a training plan is great, we can keep ourselves focused on the training and not put it off until later. Also, it’s good to have a plan to slowly build up strength. But now we have to actually get it done. We are currently on week 3, and so far it’s gone really smooth. We are pretty used to this kind of walking. So far, Will’s knee has been doing ok. But we are starting to think about how the 5 and 6 hour days are going to feel. Hopefully, the yoga and strength training will get us there!

Views from our walks

Yesterday was our week 2-2 hour walk and Teddy was pretty tired at the end of the walk. Seems like he needs the training too. We walked along Lake Whatcom but ran into a little difficulty because there had been rock/tree slides onto the trail limiting how far we could go. We ended up having to double back to keep it at the 2 hour time. It’s different for us to walk with a time frame in mind instead of a distance. I’ve been looking up hikes on all trails trying to estimate how long they will take to reach the 3 hour and 4 hour walk times.

Lake Whatcom

Have you ever trained for a big event? A marathon maybe? What kept you focused and motivated when it hit the hard moments?

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