Yes, I seem to be walking in all sorts of circumstances this year, though I thought my prep for the Camino would only be on trails near my Colorado home. But I just returned from leading a women’s trip to Italy, and as I did in France, I brought my pedometer.

My exceptional roommate, Anne, loves to walk. She came with me on every errand, no matter how irrelevant to her. Every day she’d say, “Do you have your walk-a-thing on? We have to get to five miles . . . eight miles . . . ten miles . . . ” And we did. On this trip, we walked over one hundred miles, despite the fact that at least part of four days were spent traveling. So am I training? Yes! Does it look the same as my spring starts, with boots, 1000 Mile Fusion socks, pack, water? No. The water, yes, a pack, sometimes, but the scenery was stimulating, exciting, my Italia.

The Spanish Steps – Roma

As in France, when things got harder, either because of the incline of the walk or the number of stairs, I just told myself, “You are staying strong for the Camino.” And that would be right and true. I think every day about the journey on which I will embark in less than a year. More on that later. But walking can be done anywhere, anytime, and the physical/emotional pleasures of a walk accompany me, with or without my “walk-a-thing”.

Thanks, Anne, for inadvertently Camino-training with me, and for being the best roommate I could have had on this trip!

Now it’s time to get back to the trails in my home arena.  For awhile . . .