Comillas to San Vincente de la Barquera
Distance: 8.1miles (13.3 kilometers)
Total Ascent: 140 meters
Difficulty: 3
Calories Burned: 1,533
Our dear friend, Julie, asked me to post some shorter blog posts, so here you go, sister!
We are in a physical rut.
We’ve been keeping a decent clip of 25-35 kilometers per day, and we’ve set aside Sundays as our day of rest, allowing ourselves a lesser hike to recuperate on these days, but I’m not sure if that’s enough.
We walked eight miles today, and it was so very difficult. It could have been the grey and rainy weather, or the smell of rotting grass, or walking along major roadways, but it took everything we had to arrive in one piece to our rural hostel today.
The backs of my heels are killing me, and Andrew’s knees don’t seem to be getting better. So in true Candace fashion, I reached out to some friends (well, one friend) to ask for advice.
Kim Forsyth, our resident expert on the Camino, suggested the following:
- The biggest, most common mistake is not listening to your body. If your body is hurting, stop more, rest 2-3 days if you need to and keep going. Man people who don’t finish the Camino have to stop because they pushed through when their body was asking for rest;
- Spain’s ibuprofen is 600 mg, pop those pills;
- Get massages where you can (no luck in that department so far….fingers crossed for finding these along the way);
- Drop those miles! Get to a comfortable 20 km per day. You’ll arrive earlier, have the afternoon time to rest, still make progress, and feel like a superstar!
Okay, Kim, thanks for the great advice. We will start pill-popping and mile-dropping tomorrow. Stay tuned…
