Four weeks to go!!!

Just four weeks from the start of the adventure!

We are departing on April second, arriving in Madrid on the third, and taking the train to Burgos on the fourth. Come April fifth, we start walking the Camino.

At this stage of preparations, we are almost done acquiring the equipment that we'll be carrying with us throughout the walk. We have also increased the amount of walking we are doing daily so as to improve our conditioning. While still overweight, I'm probably in the best shape I've been during the last fifteen years.

Speaking of conditioning, I have a wonderful application in my iPhone called Striiv  that keeps track of my daily activity. The application keeps track of steps taken, elapsed time while walking, distance covered, and calories burnt. All of us going on the walk have it installed on our iPhones (yes, we all have iPhones) and use it daily to monitor our activity. I really recommend this App.

As an example of the data Striiv provides, yesterday I walked 20,025 steps in 208 minutes, covered 9.2 miles, and burned 1440 calories. Over the last month the numbers are: 375,700 steps in 3,969 minutes (66.15 hours), covered 174 miles, and burned 28,507 calories. One beneficial side-effect from all this walking besides the obvious conditioning is that I lost 7 pounds! There are plenty more where these pounds came from...

Equipment wise, we all have our trail backpacks and have been purchasing so-called "performance" wear which is relatively light and keeps you warm or cool depending on conditions. One can expect to deal with a fair amount of rain at this time of year in the region of Spain where we'll be doing most of the walking so we all have rain jackets and waterproof hiking shoes. I'm also taking a poncho.

My plan is to blog everyday during our trek to keep family and friends informed and make everyone feel that they are part of our journey. This, of course, implies that we will have internet access. I'll be carrying a fair amount of "technology" to help me blog and publish with relative ease. I'll provide details on a separate post before the departure date. This is the first time I blog so any feedback is greatly appreciated.

In a forthcoming post I'll provide details on the set of characters that constitute the "Gilroy Amigos." You will want to be a bit familiar with the five of us...


Hasta pronto.