Hi everyone, My husband and I live in France, and this summer we're planning to take our first walking trip. We'll be following the "el camino de Santiago", a famous medieval pilgrim's path from France to the West coast of Spain that's become increasingly popular in recent years. We're aiming to walk about 30-35 km a day for four weeks to reach our destination. We're in mildly decent shape, average weight, etc. but I still think the trip will be a big challenge. We're really into hiking, but we've never walked so many days continually. The most I've walked is to hike in the Alps for two days in a row (averaging about six or seven hours of walking per day). Does anyone have any preperation advice? We're getting serious now, so we can build up our endurance by July, out start date. We currently walk about an hour a day and take longer hikes on the weekend. We'd like to gradually increase our daily walking time, but it's pretty difficult time-wise for my husband who works full time. Besides our daily walks, I usually do between 30-60 minutes of cardio here on the demand site, plus daily yoga and some weekly strength training (but I've got to get better about this, strength training is probably my worst weakness...it's always the first thing to go when I'm in a crunch for time). For those of you who are into marathons, challenges, or walking trips/long hikes, do you have any advice or experience to share? The good thing is, while we're going to prep as best we can, it WILL be vacation, so if we need to go slower than our anticipated daily 35 km, we won't hesitate to rest. We're flexible. That being said, any ideas about intervals? Do you think it's reasonable to aim for walking five days, then take a day to rest and then continue again? Thanks for any input! :-)

Wow! Talk about a challenge! Good for you - I can't wait to hear about it. 30+km a  day is a lot! You are wise to prepare now but be realistic. You may want research marathon distances and view some training plans to get an idea of what you are trying to achieve. You are correct in realizing that you need to start increasing your weekly walk times. You should probably plan on taking several hour long walks during the week and then shooting for a long walk or hike on the weekends. Ideally, you would want to have completed your goal distance at least several times before your trip. Are you going with a group? Are your goals realistic? Be open to adjustments! Of course you need to prepare with the proper gear and footwear and make sure it is all "broken in" before you set out. Training is sport specific so if it is walking that you are training for, you need to walk. Try to get in at least 2 strength segments during the week, and keep the flexibility and yoga going! Does this help?

I really don't have any advice, but I wanted to say that sounds fantastic!  I would love to see pictures after you go!  How many days are you giving yourself to complete this walk?  Good luck!!  You can do it!

Hi again everyone, Thanks for the advice and words of encouragement! I'm thinking I"ll definitely need to make a blog or photo page about the trip, so I'll keep everyone posted after we complete the walk. Thanks for your advice Joanne, that does help. We're all set with gear that is tried and tested and true, and that's half the battle right there, having good gear that's dependable and broken in. I'm also in the process of breaking in some alternative gear, just so we have a few extras along the way, just in case! We've set aside four weeks for walking from the South of France (along the Spanish border) to the West Coast of Spain. In order to qualify for the certificate (received at the end of the trip in the city of Santiago de Compostella) you have to walk the final 100 km of the path. We're going to do our best to walk the whole way, but it is a vacation, so even though we like the physical challenge of it, we plan on enjoying ourselves in other ways too by visiting along the way, stopping off in little villages for breaks etc. Our plan is to start off walking and then if we see that timewise we won't be able to comfortably complete the whole trail in 4 weeks, we'll take the train to make up for lost time and then finish the final 100 km. to enter Santiago on foot. We're going with a small group of friends, so together there will be four or five of us. During the summer there are hundreds of tourists doing this walk though, so safety-wise we'll never be far from other people or villages with local resources. That's reassuring! I'm so excited because there are actually three trails to choose from that all lead to the Santiago and count as part of this historic path. We've selected the Spanish Northern coast trail because we'll be following the ocean along the way, that means we can take a relaxing swim on the beach every evening and get cooled off! (instead of walking through the middle of Spain or the South of Spain--much hotter there too!). In July, we figure walking along the coast will be the best choice for the breeze and relaxing water vibe. In the meantime, I'm still keeping up my cardio here on Demand and trying to walk as much as possible!! Thanks again you guys! :)

Oh! I just realized the distance I discussed above might've sounded confusing. What I meant was, anyone interested in receiving the certificate must walk a minimum of 100 km. arriving in the city on foot or by bicycyle. The trail itself, however, is much much longer, and most people walk all or parts of the trail for much more than 100 km (which isn't really very much--especially since you can take as long as you need to to complete it--no regulations about that). I know one couple in England that's taking an entire year to walk from England, through France, through Spain and back...all on foot! I wish I had a year to do that!

Marisa -

How's the training going?

Hi Tennis Chick, Thanks for asking! I just got back from a two week vacation that we used to help prepare ourselves for the big walking trip later this summer. Up until vacation time, we'd been walking about an hour a day, plus yoga and cross training. On the weekends, we tried to hike different terrain for 2-3 hours a day. This recent trip really stepped things up! First we spent a week in the Alps. That was amazing for getting some good walking training in!!! Really steep hills, the steepest I've ever climbed. The first few days we walked about five hours a day and then increased the time gradually. Then we went on to the South for swimming on the sea, but there were also cliffs there so we walked A LOT. Now I feel great!!! I'm only worried that now that I'm back to work, I'll only be doing one-two hours of prep every day instead of the amazing walking we just did. But, I do feel encouraged for the walking trip because we really easily shifted into walking 6 hours in the mountains no problem. It felt good and I can't wait to do it for a month!

So, Marisa, how did it go? I live in France myself near Mougins and it's so hot here right now. I hope you did your walking before this heat wave.

We can't wait to hear all about it!