Crawling Along the Virtual Camino

Well, I started the Virtual Camino on January 25... and I have made some progress.

Progress Report from January 28, 2023

So far, in the first three days I have walked 31.87 km. Which isn't bad. That's about 10 km per day. At this rate, I'll be done the Camino in about 80 days. Soo... fairly decent... I just have to double my km/day! 

Overall... I would say I am doing it in fits and starts. A 30 minute walk here, a 30 minute walk there, a 40 minute walk... maybe a 60 minute walk... and they do add up over the course of the day. Eventually, the walks will start getting longer, but for now, I am fitting the walking into my day, particularly as the mornings and evenings are still dark and gloomy.

Street/Trail View

I've also discovered a few features of the Conqueror app that I really like. I can get a Google Street View (or Trail View) of where I am on the Camino! Which is quite nifty. I imagine that if I was walking on a treadmill or on a stationary bike, I could actually see the landscape flow by me as I walked or pedalled furiously. But, as it is... I don't know that me staring at the screen as I walk through the local forests is a good idea. Better to stay connected to the terrain that I am actually walking in! Still... a neat feature.

Walking vs. Steps

 The other thing I noticed was that the app would include both my walking activities (where I record an actual walk) AND the extra steps that I do around the house. I'm not 100% sure about including those extra steps. Because it's hard to know how much distance that actually involves. I think the app did a calibration session when I first started but... if I recall... I was doing a fair clip walk outside so I don't think it's going to give me an accurate distance for me puttering around the house. So, for now, I'm not including the "steps", just the walks that I do. This might slow me down, but I think that's more accurate.

Because the truth is... when I do the Camino, I'll be doing some serious walking for 5 or 6 hours a day and then puttering around the local village or city, and those steps don't count towards the Camino, so why should my "puttering around the house" steps count? So... I shut off the steps tracking feature... and am just using the distances that my Garmin tracks when I tell it I am doing a "walk". That seems fairer to me!

Frame of Mind

I am not a fan of dark, cold, rainy days, and do find it a bit of a struggle to get out the door on those days. We went on a getaway to a nearby city for a few days and I would get up at 5 am to go to the local Starbucks (about 2 km away). And it was dark... and an industrial area... and lots of traffic. I walked to Starbucks the first day but the second day was a bit of a challenge. I thought about driving but then decided... no... I would walk. 

In some ways, it's similar to my writing. I need to sit down for an hour or so every morning and do some conscious writing. If I am a writer... then writing is what I do. There is no negotiation about "I don't feel like it". It's what I do... so sit and write.

Same with getting out to walk. As a pilgrim on the Camino, walking is what I will do... I will be a walker or pilgrim. I will need to get out the door, regardless of the weather, and start walking. So that is the conversation I am having with myself on those mornings where I am less than eager to get out the door. Because really... from what I've read, the Camino is as much as mental challenge as a physical one. So let the challenge begin now! 

Pamplona (no bulls)

Progress Report from February 12, 2023

Alright... a bit farther along on the journey. I crawled my way through Pamplona and managed not to get gored by a bull (running of the bulls happens there in September). I scampered over Punta de La Reina and passed through Estella. There aren't always Google Streetview images but when there are, the countryside looks very pretty.

Some days are better than others for my progress. Sometimes I manage 10 km a day... other times, I'm only managing 5 km a day. I am trying to do some longer walks each day, like an hour long. My plan is to slowly gear up to longer and longer walks, rather than just doing chunks of 30 minutes or whatever.

And eventually, I will have to weave a backpack into the plan, but for now... managing to crawl along the Camino!

Progress Report on Feb 24, 2023

Well, my progress this past week has slowed to a crawl!! This past week was full of a workshop and I've been lucky if I've hit 8000 steps a day. I still have managed a 3 km walk each day but that's nothing compared to the Camino which is usually 20 km a day.

Right now... I'm just on the outskirts of a small town named Viana. I have done 164.12 km in 30 days, which isn't bad. At least it's something! And I've passed the 20% mark. I'm hoping that now that the workshop is over... life can get back to normal and I can get my morning walk in. It is on that walk, that I can do 5-6 km which adds up quickly!

On the whole, I am enjoying the virtual Camino. There aren't always screenshots of the route but the ones that are there make me feel more connected to the experience.

Do You Want to Play the 30 Day Minimalism Game with Me?

Stuff, Stuff and More Stuff!! Sometimes it seems like we're drowning in stuff! Do we really need all of this stuff? We don't have a garage or a basement or a storage locker... so we probably have less stuff than the average household. But I will tell you this... we have maxed out our closet space with extra shelves! And every shelf and corner seems jam-packed with stuff.

There are times where I just want to let it all go. Pack up the absolute essentials and head out on the open road with what I can carry in a backpack.

We actually did that for 4 months in 2013 and by the end of it... all I wanted to do was to settle down in a house and surround myself with the comforts of home. Sooo... selling everything and hitting the road probably isn't the answer.

Hiking a Virtual Camino

Did you see those ads on Facebook during Covid? Or was it just me? We were all locked away at home and going stir crazy and I would continuously see these ads for The Conqueror Challenge.

From what I could gather... you'd walk around your neighbourhood (or on your treadmill) and earn these flashy medals once you completed a "challenge". 

I have to admit, it seemed kind of hokey to me. What do you do with all of these medals anyhow?? Hang them on a wall? Parade them around in front of your friends? And how do they account for the vertical elevation? There's more to the Inca Trail than just horizontal distance!

So I let the ads flash by while I scrolled my Facebook feed and rolled my eyes. Nope, not for me.

Ahem... well... now it would appear that they are! I was looking for some Virtual Camino options and came up with a grand total of two.

8 Life Lessons I Learn from Jigsaw Puzzles

My Mom calls me the "mad puzzler". When I get started on a jigsaw puzzle, I go totally into the zone and I'm moving fast. Other people puzzling with me often get frustrated because my hands are flying in front of their faces as I'm grabbing pieces to fit into place. It's always a good idea to split up the areas of the puzzle to minimize that! You work on that section... I'll work on this section... and later we can combine our sections!

The last few years, as the pandemic has kept a lot of us cooped inside, I've done a TONNE of puzzles, hundreds. I usually buy them for cheap in thrift stores and then, if they are complete, I'll sell them for a profit on Marketplace. Some are easy. Some are darn hard! In the process, I continually learn, or am reminded of, key life lessons.

One Hour a Day - 3 Days a Week

So, my first steps on this journey to (eventually) trek the Camino...are to walk an hour a day, 3 days a week. That sounds pretty easy. And with everything else that's going on in my life, the walk finds itself squeezed to either end of the day, either early morning or late afternoon/evening. When it's dark... and wet... and cold. But... onwards!

First Walk

I came out of Starbucks one morning at 8:10 am and decided to do a hike along the parkway trail. It stretches a total of 18 km from one end of the city to the other. One day... one day... I will walk that trail from one end to the other! But... for now... I just timed myself... 30 minutes out and 30 minutes back.

Six Alternatives to the Six Pack Rings of Death

Peanut, a turtle in Missouri, who was rescued
from a 6 pack ring of death in 1993.

In five years time, I hope that young children will never meet a plastic 6-pack ring. I hope that those rings of death will be relegated to the past, never to appear again.

That might be a forlorn hope. There are already millions of 6-pack rings floating around in the oceans and waterways of our beautiful planet. But... new ones are on their way out. Soon enough plastic 6 pack rings will be a thing of the past.

I Have a Dream...

Well, that's not true. I actually have many dreams. But there's this one dream that I've had for... over 10 years now... probably more like 15!

I want to hike the Camino de Santiago de Compostella. What a mouthful. The Camino for short. The Way of St. James. Jakobsweg in German. It is a 1000 year old pilgrimage route that leads to the city of Santiago in northern Spain. There are dozens of other pilgrimage routes all across Europe, all leading towards Santiago.

Getting Back into the Habit of BYO

Over three years of Covid-19 has really done a number on my habit of bringing reusable cups, cutlery, containers, etc when I go out in to the world. I was just developing that habit when Covid hit and... well... all of my good habits, just in their infancy, got tossed out with the bathwater.

And now... I'm back to square one and trying to get myself back into the habit of remembering to bring things!