Ruiz’s Pilgrimage 2017. Preparation, part II

  During the Christmas season, our preparation has been put aside for a little while, it’s natural.We have indulged a little as well: we’ve eaten too much turrón (nougat candy), too much chocolate, too much roast lamb; we’ve had too much wine and too much Three Kings’ Cake.

   It doesn’t matter, Christmas season is over and now it’s time to face the penultimate part of the preparation for the Ruiz’s Pilgrimage 2017.

  This last period of preparation begins today and will finish just before Easter, less than one month before the date of departure.   Up to now, in the first part of our preparation, we have achieved many goals.

  We have got used to walking quite fast during at least two hours in a row. We feel dependence towards our morning walk; we know well and have used some of the clothes we will take with us, we have also established what our challenge is and we know the difficulties we will have to cope with. The logistics of our Pilgrimage are also ready and we know how we should face our little adventure.

  During this second part of our preparation, we will finish up all the details. This month we will walk three hours a day on weekdays and four hours a day at weekends, keeping a good pace. En este segundo tramo, vamos a ultimar la preparación y la organización. 
   Little by little, we will include ascents and descents in our walks so our body gets used to pace changes.

   When we are running errands, we will try to walk faster, so we get used to different all types of paces.  We will walk 120 Km weekly in order to get fit and know how our body reacts to a long effort. 
    Don’t forget to train your mind in all your walks. Separating our thoughts from our body will be very useful during the Pilgrimage. We need to learn to cope with suffering. 
      In addition, we will start booking the hostels, purchasing our train tickets and coordinating our transportation, as well as preparing our paper guides.

  Our Pilgrimage will begin sooner than it seems.In the blink of an eye we will be on a train bound to Irún.

   

        Cheer up! Buen camino! 

Traductora: Virginia Ruiz

Ruiz’s Pilgrimage 2017. Organisation and stages.

  Our physical preparation continues. The cold, the rain and the wind are nothing but gym machines that make us stronger for our big goal: Santander.

  Meanwhile, organizational tasks can’t stop, so when May 27^th gets nearer, the only worry on our minds and bodies is enjoying the Ruiz’s Pilgrimage 2017.

  You can read below a list of the stages, including the point of departure and arrival each day, as well as the length of the routes. It is important to get acquainted with the names and the daily challenges we are going to face.

  Further on, we will analyse each stage, its difficulties, the things to see and visit, where to eat and where we will sleep: absolutely everything.

   Problem solving methods explain that “a perfectly analised problem is in fact a solved problem”. Well, on 27^th May we will only have to think about walking, and that is not a hard thing for a Ruiz. 

   Joking aside, if someone is worried about the kilometers of the stages, I can assure you that they can be accomplished easily. In future posts I will explain how a long stage, a medium stage and a short stage are.

   You’ll see it’s not such a big deal and that we are going to make it –and make it well. We keep on with our preparation, just like we had planned.  We just need to add a little bit of speed to our usual walks. For example, if we go out to buy some bread or the newspaper, we’ll try to speed up our pace for a while in order to get used to changes in pace.

                             ¡Buen camino! 

         

Irun - San Sebastián             27.6 Km

San Sebastián - Zarautz       20.3 km

Zarautz - Deba                         22     Km

Deba - Markina                       24.3 Km

Markina - Gernika                 25     Km

Sorpresa                                    18     Km

Gernika - Bilbao                      33    Km

Bilbao - Pobeña                       32     Km

Pobeña - Castro Urdiales    23.5  Km

Castro Urdiales - Laredo    30.6  Km

Laredo - Güemes                    29.5  Km

Güemes - Santander             20.5  Km

                     Total                    306.3  Km.

Traductora: Virginia Ruiz

Ruiz’s Pilgrimage 2017 – First contact.

  Last Monday, three of the members of the team who will do the Ruiz’s Pilgrimage 2017, plus a fourth person who has not yet completely decided about coming, met and went for a walk, had lunch talked thought about the routes and the dates and also solved all kinds of doubts regarding equipment, clothing, preparation, stages, etc.

   The experience was very pleasant, the day was sunny and walking around Navaluenga and its beautiful surroundings was great. In addition, the beans we had for lunch were delicious and the company was extraordinary.

   Could we ask for more? Well, actually yes, but very little more.

   I know you’re really looking forward to know that we decide. I know. I’m not telling you just so you suffer a bit. I’m joking! Here I go: 

     1.-  The final route will be Irun – Santander, which we will do in 11 stages of the North Way plus a surprise stage which is not part of the usual pilgrimage route but whose beauty will be unforgettable for all of us.
     2.-  We will depart on 27th June and we will come back to Madrid on 9th June.

      3.-  Any of the stages will be longer tan 35 km.

    4.-  The total length of the twelve days walking will be 306, with an average of 25,5 km per day.

 What do you think? Some of you may say it’s a bit too easy, that there are not stages of 40 kilometers and things like that.

    Don’t worry. We are going to suffer, that’s for sure. There are steep slopes everywhere, crazy descents, and rain and mud are guaranteed.
  On the other hand, we will find lonely forests, amazing cliffs, beaches of fine sand, emblematic cities, lovely villages, boat journeys, remote chapels, mysterious churches and succulent gastronomy.  
     All of these things, good and bad, are part of the Ruiz’s Pilgrimage 2017.

Traductora: Virginia Ruiz

Ruiz's Pilgrimage 2017 - PREPARATION II

  How is it going, pilgrims? It's a new month, so we are going to change our training plan. If you agree, of course.

  I propose increasing a little the level of difficulty, just a little bit. To the 2 hour daily walks, let's add some fun in the shape of a moderate ascent and a moderate descent, preferably at the end of the walk.

  We will try to keep up the pace at all times, in flat paths, when going uphill or when descending.
  At weekends we will go for 3-hour-walk at a constant pace of around six kilometers per hour. The number of kilometers per week and per month will not increase a lot, but at weekends we will make more intense trainings to try to simulate a regular stage of the Pilgrimage to Santiago.
 Be careful with the descents, they make you more tired than you think and they are very hard on your legs. There are usually more injuries in descents than in ascents. 

  In any challenging route to Santiago there are dangerous descents due to loose stones or wet ground, wet grass, puddles or mud. You must always use a walking stick to help you.

Don't forget your mental preparation: talk to your body if you feel pain of if you're injured; if you're OK, let the body walk and fly with your mind to fantastic worlds.

   And if you have time, add another complementary exercise to walking. It can be a bit of cycling, swimming, squats or any other sport you like. It is essential to exercise the upper trunk and the heart.

   Regarding the equipment, don't go mad: use comfortable waterproof shoes and cotton-made breathable clothes.

 That's all for today, my pilgrim friends! See you next week. May Santiago and the Force be with you.

 Buen camino!

Traductora: Virginia Ruiz

Ruiz's Pilgrimage 2017 - to err is human

   We had decided that we would try the route from S. Jean de Pied de Port and Burgos.

The challenge of crossing the Pyrenees like Anibal or following the steps of Roland through the forests, perhaps walking the same paths and visiting the same villages Zalacain the adventurer walked and visited seduced us. 

   But fiction and facts are not the same thing and after carrying out some of the last stages of the route by car, we have realised that those stages are very flat, have almost no vegetation and the path is very close to a road. 

   To err is human, as they say, and we are going to rethink the route. The one we choose will the that combining the following elements: 

  - Beautiful nature: forests, fields, sea, cliffs, gorges, precipices. 

  - Beautiful human constructions, such as churches, convents, Paleolithic burials, sculptures, villages and cities.

      - Solitude, tranquility, silence, peace.

      - A pinch of toughness to try our body and soul. 

     - Good services to top up our energy levels after each stage.

   Will we find any route combining all these elements? I am sure we will. We already have two possible options on our mind which may well meet all our expectations. I will tell you that one of them is the North Way, from Irún to Santander with some extra stages to make the route even more interesting. The other option would be a mixture of the French Way and the North Way.
  

   Please forgive that I do not give you more details just yet, but I haven't said anything to my travel companions and this has to be a collegiate decision.

     In the meanwhile, our preparation, which is the most important thing, must continue, slowly but surely. Each day we accumulate more kilometers in our legs and we are a step closer to begin the Pilgrimage.           

        Buen camino! 

Traductora: Virginia Ruiz     

Ruiz's pilgrimage 2017 - PREPARATION - Distance and time

 The Pilgrimage is an adventure you can experience in many ways. Depending on the fashion people face it, their suffering is bigger or smaller. 

  With this series of posts we will try to prepare for the Pilgrimage so we can live it as a pleasant experience, as far as can be expected.
    Today we will speak about distance and time in the Pilgrimage.
 Nowadays, the perceptions we have regarding distance and time are closely determined by motor vehicles, which are the most common means of transportation we use daily.
   For most people, 100 km  mean an hour, or viceversa: in one hour, we can travel 100 km. When we are going over a flatland, we have the idea that we can reach the horizon line in less than an hour and so on.
 We should translate all these measurements and perceptions to the language of the Pilgrimage and the 'on foot transportation'. If we have all this figured out, we will avoid a lot of anguish and nervousness, especially at the end of the stages, when we are running out of energy. The long-awaited finish line doesn't seem to be far away even though only 5 insignificant kilometers separate us from it.
   Let's see how 4 km are in the Pilgrimage. One hour is a good mark for our age (more than 55) and our physical condition. I know that when we train in the city we walk faster, but in the Pilgrimage we have to take into account the pauses for having breakfast, drinking water, talking to other pilgrims, getting fascinated by the trees, the clouds, the animals, the plants, the rivers, the wind and thousands of other things. On top of everything, the Pilgrimage is an endurance and determination test, not a speed one.    Therefore, we must bear in mind that 5 km correspond to an hour approximately and that we will complete a 25-kilometer stage in no less than 6 hours.
 Based on those premises and my own experience, you can find below a little chart of equivalences:

 A 20-kilometer stage finishes at 13:00. 

A 25-kilometer stage finishes at 14:00. 

A 30-kilometer stage finishes at 15:00. 

A 35-kilometer stage finishes at 16:30. 

A 40-kilometer stage finishes at 18:00.
       When we are walking the last kilometers and our feet are sore, the clothes are chafing us and our body needs a hot shower and a bed to rest for a while, we must not forget those equivalences. In addition, as we walk and walk, the willingness to reach the finish line will not make our path any shorter.
       Knowing the number of kilometers left and the time left will give us the necessary tranquility to face bad moments in a more positive way.           

 

                          Buen camino! Good training!

Traductora: Virginia Ruiz