Many things have happened since my last blog. I found a personal trainer at the YMCA in Warsaw, VA who helped me regain my core and improve my toning as well as being super supportive and rooting me on to better health.
Over time, I've lost 22 lbs and should have probably lost more, but I'm more concerned with my conditioning. I did very well up until the last month when one thing or another interrupted my routine. Of late, making final reservations for both air from Dulles to Madrid on United/Aer Lingus and transport by train from a Madrid rail station to Pamplona, have kept me on the computer for more than I care to admit. I've also been perusing albergues /refugios in Spain to stay our first and 2nd nights to make sure we have a place to stay when we are most tired. We don't want to arrive at St. Jean Pied de Port, France at 7 p.m. and start looking for a place to stay and eat. I think I have found the place and will soon know if it is confirmed.
Also, considering the first day is the toughest as it is in the Pyranees going over a pass, we opted to stay at a place perhaps 10 kms. from the first nights stay. I worry about the altitude adjustment and the steepness of that day. This will make it possible. We will stay at a place called the Orisson and arise 6 a.m. to start to Roncevalles, France, then once over that pass, the remainder of the trip will be in Spain.
I am getting excited, a bit nervous, feeling like I'm pressured for time to get all done I wish to get done before leaving. Hopefully it will all work out in the end.
We leave June 1, 2011.
Buen Camino!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
El Camino de Santiago de Compostela 2011
In January I began a walking/hiking program to get in shape to be able to walk the Way of St. James, from France to Spain on the El Camino de Santiago de Compostela with my cousin Barbs. I read about the Camino about 10 years ago and have been intrigued by it since then without committing to doing the walk. With the offer of having a companion to walk with me, I felt due to age and other things in my life that this was "the" time to do it.
I completed an Avon 3-Day walk from Frederick, Maryland to Washington, D.C. when I turned 53 in May of 2000. It was the hottest May I could recall especially for the beginning of the month. They almost canceled the walk on the 3rd day due to so many folks becoming dehydrated and being taken to local hospitals. I do NOT like heat and humidity and although I was in decent shape then, I still didn't like it.
Back then I trained with a wonderful group of women from February through May to get into shape to do 3 days. Fast forward 10 years and I won't say how many pounds, 2 breast cancers, 36 rounds of radiation, the loss of our son, and in the end a bilateral mastectomy and DIEP flap surgery this past July, and I'm thinking I can do this? I must be crazy. Then I think, why not? There are people who are 80 yrs. old with arthritis that can to this walk and millions who have gone before me with other ailments. Why can't I get into shape and do this at the age of 64 (I will turn that in May before the trip)? Now mind you, this July I had 11.5 hours of surgery and for a least a month, I did nothing physical. I lost all abdominal muscle control and just needed to heal. So I have a lot more than just weight loss and getting into shape to do.
So in January I took to hoofing it with my dog Lila around our very rural area over farm fields, in the woods, anywhere to get my ankles used to uneven terrain. We lack hills here, so Lila and I occasionally go to a beach and woods to walk up and down any incline we can find. Lila seems like all is a breeze to her. She is my 5 yr, old shiny black lab mix all of 60 lbs and fit as a fiddle. I have been more careful about her weight than mine in the past. Well, no longer!
Since I started, I have dropped 5 lbs. I've purchased my back pack and have used it on many walks with about 13 lbs of water and other things to mimick doing what I will have to do when I walk this summer.
My husband has been supportive and so have friends and family, although I'm sure they all think I'm loony. I guess I would too if I weren't the one doing it. I am using the Camino as a carrot to get me to where I need to be physically and mentally to proceed with life.
I will keep this blog going hopefully throughout the walk if I am able to do so.
For now, I'm happy with the results to date, but I still need to get on a regular schedule and add more workouts between the walks.
Signing off...
Feb. 15, 2011
I completed an Avon 3-Day walk from Frederick, Maryland to Washington, D.C. when I turned 53 in May of 2000. It was the hottest May I could recall especially for the beginning of the month. They almost canceled the walk on the 3rd day due to so many folks becoming dehydrated and being taken to local hospitals. I do NOT like heat and humidity and although I was in decent shape then, I still didn't like it.
Back then I trained with a wonderful group of women from February through May to get into shape to do 3 days. Fast forward 10 years and I won't say how many pounds, 2 breast cancers, 36 rounds of radiation, the loss of our son, and in the end a bilateral mastectomy and DIEP flap surgery this past July, and I'm thinking I can do this? I must be crazy. Then I think, why not? There are people who are 80 yrs. old with arthritis that can to this walk and millions who have gone before me with other ailments. Why can't I get into shape and do this at the age of 64 (I will turn that in May before the trip)? Now mind you, this July I had 11.5 hours of surgery and for a least a month, I did nothing physical. I lost all abdominal muscle control and just needed to heal. So I have a lot more than just weight loss and getting into shape to do.
So in January I took to hoofing it with my dog Lila around our very rural area over farm fields, in the woods, anywhere to get my ankles used to uneven terrain. We lack hills here, so Lila and I occasionally go to a beach and woods to walk up and down any incline we can find. Lila seems like all is a breeze to her. She is my 5 yr, old shiny black lab mix all of 60 lbs and fit as a fiddle. I have been more careful about her weight than mine in the past. Well, no longer!
Since I started, I have dropped 5 lbs. I've purchased my back pack and have used it on many walks with about 13 lbs of water and other things to mimick doing what I will have to do when I walk this summer.
My husband has been supportive and so have friends and family, although I'm sure they all think I'm loony. I guess I would too if I weren't the one doing it. I am using the Camino as a carrot to get me to where I need to be physically and mentally to proceed with life.
I will keep this blog going hopefully throughout the walk if I am able to do so.
For now, I'm happy with the results to date, but I still need to get on a regular schedule and add more workouts between the walks.
Signing off...
Feb. 15, 2011
Friday, December 17, 2010
Trees & things
Egg casing of insect
Tipularia discolor, Cranefly orchis
Head of the trail
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