I think I am a terrible example in this area. I walked once for about 3 hours with a rucksack to see how I would be walking before going to Spain. However I did have some hill walking experience, though not a lot. I would have walked in the Wicklow hills about twice per month in the two years previous to my first Camino, that was it in total.
Additionally in the year before my first Camino I was very ill. I had been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and was taking medication that I later found out I was allergic to. I went on the Camino two months after I had stopped taking that medication and really had no idea how I would be; would I be able to walk every day or would I have to abandon the Camino at some point? I had no idea. But, hey – I was bloody wonderful – I was never so fit or healthy for a long time. Even though my feet suffered a great deal initially.
The first week on the Camino passed in a haze of agony. I was over-weight when I started, and had no walking fitness, I paid the price for both of these. My first day from St Jean Pied de Port was tough, it is all uphill – and I stopped at the Orison on the top of the Pyrenees; thereby splitting the one day from St Jean to Roncesvalles into two. The days from Roncesvalles to Pamplona disappeared with little memory of the small villages – only the pain remains in my mind, I concentrated every moment in putting one foot in front of the other. My body was not used to this exercise, my boots were crap (cheap – give me a break I was a student), and I was paying the price.
My boots went into the bin just before Pamplona. They were killing my feet – they were fine for a one day walk in the hills of Wicklow, but not for all day every day use on the Camino. I walked in my sandals into Pamplona and went and bought the best walking shoes I could find, aah – now that was a good decision. However I suffered the rest of the Camino with my feet – the blisters that had developed during the first week had to be cut off with scissors and bandaged every morning – but the pain was little while walking and I learned how to look after my feet very well.
After the first week I was good, I found a good walking pace for me. I walked every day and felt great at the end of each day. I lost about 7 – 8kg in weight and I learned that I did not need all the stuff I brought in my rucksack, I left books in albergues for other people to read and gave away everything I did not want.
After I got home from the Camino I went jogging. I was amazed at how easy it was and how fit, (it’s all relative), I had become. I walked the Camino again the next year and I had no problems with my feet – I had the same good walking shoes from the year before (they have now went to walking shoe heaven).
Perhaps this is a short description on how not to do it. I would have better if I had invested in good walking boots or shoes the first year, and – or have been a bit fitter before I went; it wasn’t what happened, the above is.
Buen Camino.