How to train for a walking holiday

To get the most out of your holiday, it pays to put in some pre-trip training. Someone who’s done the hard yards is Jaclyn Lofts, UTracks’ expert on the Camino de Santiago walk in Spain. She’s walked the full route – all 830km – and covered ground in France’s Mont Blanc region, Italy’s Dolomites, the UK and Greece. Here are Jaclyn’s tips: Make your training part of your everyday routine. Walk to work, or take a 40-minute walk around the city at lunchtime. It may seem small, but it’s still very relevant, rather than hoping to do a big walk on Sunday and never getting around to it. Any amount is better than none.

But don’t overtrain. Overtraining can lead to strained muscles because you’ve been busting a gut doing three or four full-day walks in a row. And don’t train right before your hike: allow your body time for recovery. Train for the type of trip you’re going to undertake. If you’re going to be walking in hot weather, go out on a hot day to see how your body feels, and how to keep hydrated. If you’ve got mountainous sections in the trip, put some stairs into your walk.

Know that your gear works.

When Jaclyn undertook England’s 192-mile Coast to Coast Walk, notorious for its poor weather, she trained on rainy days in her rain jacket, with her pack on.

Build up the kilometres. On the Camino, it’s not the terrain but the distance that is challenging, with days of up to 25km. Doing the full Camino, you’re talking about 40-plus days of everyday walking. It requires mental toughness to get up and go every day.