Since the pandemic began, I had been working from home (yes, I was one of the lucky ones). My daily routine included walking about 30 minutes in the neighorhood which is mostly flat, with gradual ups and downs, but I knew it wasn't enough. Having a chronic lower back pain, I tried physical therapy (again) in an attempt to manage my pain better, beginning in early February. It seemed to work better this time, with new exercises that seemed to help not only alleviate back pain, but also strenghen other muscles.
I had been doing exercises given by the physical therapist for about 50 minutes every morning. However, one Saturday morning (March 12, 2022), I felt a little pain on the back side of my right knee when I woke up. I never had a problem in that area, and it was just odd that I'd have what it looked like a muscle pain, however minor. Well, it had been a beautiful week, and I had been thinking about walking more than a couple of miles on an actual 'trail.' On that day, I decided to take a 6-mile walk, including stiff ups and downs, not far from my home. A big mistake. My right leg became stiff in the afternoon, and next morning, it had gotten so bad that I couldn't even get out of the bed. My right knee had been bothering me ever since, on top of the ever-present lower back pain. I not only stopped going to the therapy, but also stopped walking altogether. All I was doing was to do some stretches to alleviate pains.
It's now mid-June, barely 2 months before I start walking the Camino, and I know I am in no physical shape to do the 500+ mile walk. Enter my wife's advice: Stretch your legs in the water. So, my preparation really began with some leg exercises at the YMCA pool in the mornings. I would gradually increase my time in the pool, from 20 minutes to almost 1 hour, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. On other days, I would walk. At the beginning, it was 3~4 miles at a time, and by the time I was to leave for Spain, I'd walk 8~10 miles at a time, with a daypack with 8 bottles of water. More importantly, even though I still had this funny uncomfortableness on my right knee, I was able to walk on different trails with some stiff uphills and downhills.
I tried a couple of different shoes, and decided on a pair of shoes that felt the most comfortable. This means that it was slightly bigger (and wider) than what I would normally wear. A couple of weeks before leaving for the Camino, I decided to bring 2 idential pairs, in case there is a rainy day and a pair gets soaked. Also, I wasn't sure if just 1 pair of shoes would last 500+ miles. As it turned out, it was one of the best decisions.
