Anticipation

The winter months have taken their toll - my wife and I are both anxiously waiting for warmer weather so we may resume our training outside in the fresh air.  Waking on a treadmill at the health club fulfills a part of the training but nothing compares to walking on real ground where the terrain changes and our bodies have to cope with slopes and hills.  If the weather continues as it has in the past week - spring cannot be too far behind.  In the meantime we continue to evaluate our gear - packing and re-packing to learn what is going to be best for us.

For those who are already walking their camino - coping with snow still on the Camino - we wish  them good luck and safety.  Walking in the fall will provide different challenges - but we would rather be hot than cold!

Buen Camino

Dale and Arlene 

A Mini Camino

As part of our training we will be making periodic training walks with and without our back packs.  We have selected routes that will take us across various terrains - not as hilly as we might like - we are still searching for some of those - most likely will have to drive a bit to find as our local area is fairly flat.  As it warns up - soon we hope - we will tackle specified routes that will provide increasingly longer sessions.  As it stands we have a simple route from our home to US Route 47 and back - continuing on to the local post office and returning home. That is a short walk of only 2.6 miles (4.2 Km) for approximately 45 minutes.  A second route takes us from our home to a friends home that will provide 5 miles (8 Km) for approximately just under 2 hours. Our current pace is between 3 mph and 3.5 mph.  With our back packs we are aiming at an average rate of 3 mph and averaging 18 miles (29 Km) a day.

Our goal is to be able to comfortably walk 20 miles (32 Km) in approximately 6 hours - with reserve to walk further as the need arises. As a part of our training we have decided to design a special "Mini Camino" and invite people from our church to walk to a new shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe recently built in a neighboring parish which is approximately 9 miles (14.4 Km) away. The round trip will be 18 miles (29 Km) and approximately the daily distance that we will be walking when on the Camino in Spain.

So if all goes as planned we will walk El Camino de los Santos to Plano, IL  in mid June of 2013.  Our intent is to walk this route or a slightly modified route for 4 days in a row as a way of testing our stamina and seeing how our bodies feel.  This should be a good indication of how well prepared we are.  Since we are not planning to walk until the end of August that will give us another 2 months to modify our training if needed. 

Buen Camino
Dale and Arlene