The plan is to walk across Norway (or at least 300+ miles of it) this August.
I will be traveling with full pack, camping gear, and three days of food at all time.
The goal is to make it a pilgrimage, not an unbearable physical chore. I want to enjoy the scenery, the people, and the quiet retreat of pilgrimage.
To this end I am getting in shape. I have changed my diet and build an exercise plan.
But because I started 7 months out I am able to ease into this slowly.
Every morning I go for a walk. Every few days I am adding a little weight to get use to walking with a full pack. To begin with I started with 3lb leg weights, then moved to 4lb and 5lb. I have since added wrist weights. The next step is a backpack which will get fuller and fuller (up to the 70 or 80 lbs I am going to be carrying).
As I have moved up in weight, it has been no chore. I don’t feel winded. It is just my normal pre dawn walk.
Two nights ago I took a walk with out any weight. Just an after dinner stroll. I felt like I was flying. My let we so use to being restricted by the weight that they moved in a fashion that was pulling me into a jog.
All I had done over the previous 15 days was a few lbs at a time.
Little by little, getting stronger, and I am not killing myself to do it.