Monday December 21

I took the entire week off to rehab my knee. It's doing much better and I will begin anew this week.
Wish me luck.

Monday December 14

Last week was a real downer. After upping my game to 10 miles a day and walking 60 miles the previous week my left knee was a knot and I was only able to walk once duing the past week for a distance of 5 miles. Doubt raises it's ugly head!

This past week I upped the miles to 10 per day and paid the price on my day of rest with knee cramps and some fair amount of pain. I may slow a bit this coming week. It is now just 21 weeks until I begin My Caminio starting at St Jean Pied de Port in France. I've attached a video of the first part of the Pilgrimage for your viewing pleasure. This leg will require 2 to 3 days to complete.

St. Jean Pied de Port to Pampolona

Nov 30, 2015

Last week I upped my pace to a 15 min/mile only to learn that it was most difficult on my knees. I backed off to a slower pace and did much better.
I'm attaching a video made by a fellow Pilgrim, Leroi Dejesa, and I hope you enjoy it.

Camino de Santiago Fall 2014 - YouTube

Monday Nov 23
Today I begin my sixth week of preparation for the Camino. In the past five weeks I have lost ten pounds and become comfortable with a daily walk of five miles. My pace has dropped to nearly fifteen minutes to a mile, my goal. It seems that I will be able to meet my preparation goals of losing forty pounds and getting comfortable with walking twenty miles a day before I begin my Pilgrimage on May 2nd, 2016, the start of my seventy third year. It will be a shortened week this week with an extra day of rest to celebrate Thanksgiving. Next week the schedule calls on me to up the daily walk to two sets of five miles or ten miles a day. I hope the old knees hold together.

It is now twenty four weeks until I begin my Pilgrimage. I am comfortably walking five miles a day and soon will begin to do two five mile sessions a day. My diet is good and I have lost ten of an expected forty pounds. This week I begin writing once a week instead of daily. When I start the Pilgrimage I will report daily.

Day 17 Nov 7
5.14 miles very warm but good pace and good diet. This will be my last daily post as I will be switching to Weekly Posts on Sundays. Sunday is my day of rest and I plan on a day off every 7th day as I walk the Camino as well.

Day 16 Nov 6
Golf instead of walking today and Pizza tonight with wine. Slipped off the wagon and gained
2 Lbs. Also recieved my Health and Fitness appraisal from Health-Fit our new gym.
Not a pretty picture but it's why I'm doing this. Wish me luck

Day 15 Nov 5
Great early morning walk of 5 miles at less than 17 mins per mile. Good diet day now down 10# after 2 weeks. On track to maet my goals.

Day 14  Nov 4
Good walk and diet recieved my Osprey Back pack today

Day 13 Nov 3
5.01 miles early at 16.35 min/mile. Diet is going well now down 8#s with 32 to go.

Day 12 Nov 2
Good walk in the morning Hot but dry 5.03 miles less than 17 min/mile. Managed to buy my Back pack on ebay today its an Osprey and highly recomended.
Diet went well and I've dropped another two pounds for 7 pounds total. Only 33 pounds to go.

Day 11 Oct 31 Holloween
Great workout walk today 5.03 miles at under 17 min/mile. Done midmorning with temp still below 80 degrees. Charlotte took the iniative today to join the Hospital Gym. The membership will include me. It is a very nice gym and we will start going tomorrow. One thing I need to do is walk on the treadmill set at an angle as Spain has way more hills (read Mountains) than  Florida.

Day 10 Oct 30
A Rest day with the a good diet.

Day 9 Oct 29
18 holes of golf and a 5 mile walk and I'm paying the price. Finished my walk in the dark tonight and I don't want to do that in the future. As you know our cities are designed for driving not walking. I'm loooking forward to the Spanish countryside. My diet was very moderate today.
closing in on my goal of 30 miles this week.

Day 8 Oct 28

Very overcast and very humid made the walk dificult today but I managed 5.03 miles in 85.04 min.
Have been spending a fair amount of time ploting my route however
 I don't believe maps and other's experience will allow me to completely plan this journey.
As a friend told me "expect change and be ready to accomdate it". I believe that will be a big part of the journey and I embrace it.
Meanwhile my diet suffered a small reversal today in the shape one fine Cheeseburger, (no Fries) and a beer. Still my total was below 2000 calories. prior to this I have stayed below 1500. And yes I've now shed 2 Lbs.

Day 7 Oct 27
Walked 5.08 miles yesterday under overcast and sometimes sprinkling conditions. I developed my first small blister and the usual sore muscles not enough to slow my pace of a sub 17 min/mile. Began to realize the enormity of the Camino some 500 miles with several mountain ranges to traverse but ended up excited rather than discouraged. I was recently asked why I want to do this and that is a question I am going to ponder as I train. Stay tuned for the answer, as they said in the news business years ago. "Film at eleven".

Day 7, Oct 26
Walked 5.03 miles today at a pace of 17min/mi and felt pretty good although I have some sore muscles in my legs and lower back. I also did a bit of research into back packs and hiking shoes.
My plan is to walk 5 miles a day thru November and in December to begin walking 10 miles a day.
The diet went well today and I managed to abstain from wine.

Day 6, Oct 25
Sunday, a day of rest. I have begun planning my Camino with the help of many who have gone before me and I plan a day of rest on every Sunday both as I prepare and as I walk. Sundays will be a good time to think of the "inner meaning" to the Pilgrimage.

Day 5 Oct 24
Today I walked 4.8 miles @ 17.27 min/mile. I also stayed with my diet which is surprising me at how easy it is, having said that I must confess that I an still drinking wine every day and know I will have to do better than that to meet my goal. "even writing it down has not served as a deterrent" !
Just maybe that's why I have no weight loss to report.

Day 4 Oct 23
 Have switched to a new app to track my walks: " Map my walk" if you want to follow me register @ "Map my Fitness" and friend me. You will be able to see where and how far I walked.
The app is free and pretty impressive. Some 40 years ago when I first really was trying to lose weight and thought it impossible Charlotte's uncle Dr Rudy Mcculloch told me when I sought his advice that he could promise me that I would lose all the weight I wanted to if I would promise to do one small thing. I of course responed that I would do anything and at that point he reached in his desk grabbed a small spiral note pad threw it across the desk and instructed me to write down everything that went into my mouth. I promised to do so and left. At That time I felt I wasn't responsible for my weight and that I didn't eat any more than anyone else. The first week was a real revelation as I found that I did indeed eat more than most and by the second week I was being more selective about what I ate as I didn't want to write yet another bag of potato chips. By the third week I was actually deciding not to eat certain things because I just didn't want to see it in the book. Some 9 to 12 months later  I had gone from 280# to 190# waist from 44-46 to 34-36. Right now I'm at 250# with a 41 inch waist. I expect to be in the 210 to 220 range when I start my pilgrimage. All of this to let you know that "Map My Fitness.com" also has a spot to log in your food consumption and subtracts what's eaten from your budget + exercise. Quite an App. Today I walked 4.3 miles @ 17.51 min/mile check it out on Map my fitness.com. I also stuck to my diet.

Day 3 of my Pilgrimage

my walk went very well today as the temperature was moderate and I was able to walk 8 miles acccording to the iphone health app. Upon checking I found that the app is not accurate and has been reporting 50% more distance than actually covered.
Tomorrow I will be using "Map my Run" an app that should do a better job and will even show my route as well as distance. I'm excited to try it out.
Managed my diet well again today no weight loss to report after 3 days but I'm sure it will happen.

Day 2 of my pilgrimage

This morning about 10 AM I set out to walk arround a big loop going north 1.5 miles then west 1.5 miles and then closing the loop for a total of 6 miles. I want to thank Noel and Allison for their early morning call of encouragement and for my iphone 6+ which keeps track of the distance walked. For those of you who are familiar with my neighborhood. I went north on the Trail being extra careful of the heavy traffic (and it's not even "season") here in Florida yet. I turned west at Central Sarasota Parkway and walked to McIntosh where I turned south and walked the 2 miles back to the trail then north to home. All in All,  I was pleasantly surprised by the relative ease of this walk which should be about one forth of what I will need to do each day on the Camino. It is wonderful how one's mind clears as you settle in to the rhythm of the walk.
For a second day I did very well with the diet but I expect my body will soon protest.

Day one of my journey went very well. I walked 4.5 miles and stuck to my diet even tho my stomach growled.
I've attached a link that describes the route I plan to take beginning in May of next year:

http://mapofeurope.com/the-way-of-st-james/

Arrived in Santiago June 1st after 31 days on the Camino. I'm working on updating this blog
so check back later for my story. In short it was a wonderful experience!

I have decided to make the Camino pilgrimage starting on my 72nd birthday, May 2, 2016.
you are invited to follow my progress on this Blog.

Tomorrow will mark the beginning of my training. The plan calls for a modest start of walking one
mile each day for the first 30 days and begining a more modest diet designed to reduce my weight
in preparation for the 500 plus mile walk.

wish me luck

Let Rick Steves tell you about the Camino

https://youtu.be/4YvtQyYzuBI