What if ????? And the questions go on and on!

Can you imagine yourself walking down this road?  Can you feel what it would be like to have a backpack on and walk everyday for 5 or 6 weeks?  How about meeting new people and making friends every single day?  What would you feel like if you didn't know where you were going to sleep tonight?  And furthermore if you could even get to a place where there is a bed?

These and many more things haunt my mind as I think that next year at this time I will be walking the Camino.  When I am out walking alone I try to think myself there and imagine what I am seeing and how I am feeling.  Most of the time it feels good but every so often fear and I mean real fear edges it's way in.  What if no one understands English.   I have never been that good at languages, maybe it is really the having to remember all those new words.  OOOOOOO! so scary.  I try to use a foreign language now and then and find myself whispering because I am so unsure of my self and fear no one will understand me or they will tell me I have it all wrong.  And it took me so long to just get what I managed to remember.

I have allowed myself to free flow with my thoughts in hopes that I will be able to move them along and discover a whole new set of thoughts.  Preferable happier more confident ones.  :)  This practice of letting go of all my negative thoughts and judgments has been very enlightening.  It is amazing how we learn to be judgmental or critical even when we are trying not to be.  It is like there is a little devil, you know like the one you used to see in movies on your left shoulder when you are about to get into trouble, in me that is hell bent to keep me from being and expressing from my heart only.  Hummmm! maybe he is real after all.  :)

Then there is the thought of this happening, since I am walking in September and October.  I have spent time thinking on when to walk, what time of year would be best for me?  How will I fair being out in the world day in and day out?  What does it feel like to walk in the rain for hours?  What if it snows?  Am I prepared for both heat and cold?  How good am I at suffering in the elements?  Do I even know how to survive?

Each picture brings up more and more questions.  Each picture has stopped the energy of preparation from moving forward while I try to solve all these thoughts.  Sometimes I laugh at myself and remind myself that millions have walked this path just fine and I will too, that is if I can keep my mind out of it.  :))))))))

WOW Walking and Lungs working

Amazing how quickly the lungs can repair after a heavy chest cold.  I went out this week (last 5 days) to try and build my lungs back up.  It happened faster than I would have thought.  By Thursday I went hill walking with my 6 year old grand daughter and I am happy to say I did not lose my breath.  No running or fast walking but I made it to the top of 3 hills without any stress.  Yeaaaaa

The hills were kinda like this one, only this one is in Spain.  I look at the pics various people put on the net and then try to find something like them locally so I can practice.  OOOOOOOOOO to be in my 20s again and just be able to go without all this work.  After 30 years behind a desk it has taken it's toll.

This is a nice pic tho isn't it.  Stop and just imagine what it would be like to just saunter up this hill, looking around at this great earth and taking in all the wonderfulness. And not have anything you have to do but arrive at your destination for the day.  I am excited and scared, and it is all bringing great  anticipation to me.
My grand daughter asked if she could go with me.  I explained that she is not quite ready for this big a trip but when she gets older if she still wants to do it then I will go again with her.  :)))

I have been diligently recording my exercise, food consumption and weight on an excel sheet.  This is not something that I am usually good at but this time I believe I must do this to stay focused and make my trip happen.

Tomorrow I am supposed to attend a Camino group's Shell Ceremony but it is threatening to snow up to 7 inches.  Crumb!  I have been looking for a group within a reasonable distance from me for several years.  I finally find one and now snow is threatening my chance to meet them all.  Maybe I will get lucky.  :))))

I will try to get a good pic if I make it and share it with all of you along with a full explanation of what a Shell Ceremony is.

Buren Camino
b

And The Training has Begun - D-Day Sept 2015

Today I finally put together my training for the next 18 months.   That does sound like a lot doesn't it.  Well, I take care of 4 kids and have discovered that they  tend to take over my whole life.  I get up at 5:30am and return back home about 6:30 pm.  In the winter it gets dark so early I don't get to go out much.  But wonder of wonders, the time changed, and the sun is out past 6pm.  Yea!

So today I headed out for a good long walk.  I am getting over a chest cold that has left me still coughing up goo .  Yup that favorite part of a chest cold.  The walk was designed to clean me out as much as possible.  I discovered that I really got behind being in-door bound for 3 months.

I walked for 4.7 miles with a backpack.  The trip home was a push.  I just put one foot in front of the other till I reached my apartment.  The trip out was a bit easier and I was thinking about starting my new routine, getting the old excel sheet going to keep track of my walks and my food.  I use Strava to keep track of my hikes/walks.  It is great.  I am thinking of using it when I walk across Spain, if they have it in their files.

Half way out I stopped and had coffee, bagel and read from one of my current books.  I am reading everything I find about hiking.  Those books written by the hikers about their experiences.  Right now I am reading a book on the PCT (Pacific Coast Trail).  This is my second book about the trail.  Neither has swayed me to have any interest in walking it.  Interesting but definitely a trail for a masochist.  At least in my opinion.

I  first read about the Appalachian Trail (AT) a couple years ago.  It was the story of two sisters that walked it barefoot.  Yes I did say barefoot.  The books were called "Northbound" and "Southbound"  The Barefoot Walkers.  Both good reads and actually started a slight desire to walk it, if I had a very knowledgeable hiker with me to show me the ropes.

I find these books informational and intriguing.  I feel like this reading is preparing me for my walk.  Not that they are at all the same but in the fact that I read about their preps and daily activities and how they deal with difficulties.  Of course, they all take place in a country where they speak the language.  Nothing yet about what it is like to be in a country where I don't speak the language.  I must learn Spanish.

So, I now have my excel sheet started.  I have my training schedule typed in and started the details with today's food and today's exercise.  I found a training schedule on line.  It was designed for a 3 month train but I worked it out for the 18 months.  The first four weeks I will be doing until July of this year.  Then the next month will be for the rest of this year.  The last month will take me through to summer of 2015.  The summer of 2015 will be doing the last two weeks of the schedule.  By then I should be in great shape and much smaller.

Therefore, I am  back writing here.  I will find more pics to share and tell you all about the wonderful aches and pains of working out.

Thanks for reading.  It gives me a sense of friends that are sharing this with me as all the people I know think I am crazy and do not care to talk about this.  Hummmmm

Next Saturday 3/22 I will get to meet my first pilgrinos.   I am going to a special meeting of a Denver chapter of Camino Walkers.  The ones walking this year will go through a ceremony and receive their first Pilgrims Passport.  Just think, next year I will be one of the ones getting the Passport.  Yea!

Buen Camino
b