Training To Hike The Via Francigena : Interview With Chris

​In this episode, I interview Summit Strength client Chris about her recent adventure tackling her last section of the Via Francigena pilgrimage walk. Inside she shares some insights about her preparation, training and her experience on this amazing trail. 

How To Train For A 2000km Pilgrimage Walk

Episode Transcript:

[0:00] All right. Hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today's episode, I interview Summit Strength client, Chris, who's recently come off her last section of a 2,000-kilometer pilgrimage walk from Canterbury to Rome.

[0:16] Inside this episode, she shares a little bit about her inspiration around such a massive undertaking. She talks about her preparation and training leading up to this last section, and also some amazing insights around her experience on this trail. A really interesting episode for anyone who's interested in a long-distance walk, a pilgrimage walk, or anyone who's just got some amazing adventures they need a little bit of inspiration for. So, with that being said, let's get into today's episode. All right. Well, hello, hello, Chris, and a big welcome to the show. Thank you, Rowan. It's lovely to be on the show and to chat with you. I'm really, really, really excited to have you on board because, as I was saying, just before we started off, I think this is you've got an awesome, very interesting story, both from a preparation perspective and also a really cool trip that you've accomplished. So I'm really looking forward to dive into it all. So to kick things off, do you just want to give us a little bit of a background, and just let us know who you are, where you're from, what do you do and what is your background in hiking?

[1:26] Okay, so I'm from Melbourne in the sort of inner northeast suburbs. So that's, if you think about training, it's a very flat area. So I have to go out of my way to find hills. That's just part of the fun. I work full time. I work in IT as a data manager, data analyst. So I spend an awful lot of my time in front of a screen, sitting down all day. And constantly trying to.

[1:59] Balance it out with activities. In terms of hiking, so I was actually more a cyclist than a hiker for most of my life. Loved being on my bike, going out, doing trips with friends, you know, put your panties on, go and explore parts of the world and parts of your own state. Hiking has kind of happened more recently. My first multi-day walk was Ophersdyke, which is in England, back in 27, years ago. Yeah. And that's a lovely walk. Not many people know about it. It runs along the border of England and Wales. Then family life kicked in and we didn't do much then. But then as the kids grow older, Hiking kind of came back. I joined a bushwalking club and I've done quite a few trips. So I've done Larapinda, I've done the Overland.

[3:11] Three Capes. I've travelled to New Zealand, Tongarira Circuits, the Heafy Track. I've been to Bhutan. So, yeah, a mixture of different experiences in terms of groups and landscapes. It's been good.

[3:34] And then looking at recently, what was the most recent big goal that you set yourself for your hiking, and what was the instigator of this particular goal? Okay, so I'll try and make this a brief synopsis. the bushwalking club offered.

[3:53] To do a pilgrimage walk which was meant to happen in 2020 and we all know what happened in 2020 so that got, pushed back a year to 2021 and we still didn't travel in 2021 and then the group that I was meant to be doing it with weren't interested anymore so, So I was sort of left thinking, okay, what do I do? And I discovered during all that time we had during the COVID years that what they were planning to do was like part three of this big walk. And my brain immediately said, well, no, you don't do part three, you do part one first. So that started the whole journey of doing a 2,400-kilometre pilgrimage walk and because I'm working full-time I then have to split it into its parts, so I did three parts to make it manageable.

[4:56] And what was the specific name of this pilgrimage walk? Just a bit of a little bit curious. Yeah, it's called the Via Frantigina. Not many people know about it. It's hard to pronounce. It took me a few years to get my tongue around it. And it starts from Canterbury, UK, and it finishes in Rome. And it's a cultural route. It's a historical route. It's been a trading route from day dot. Yeah. So it's got a lot of history behind it. And it's nowhere near as popular and busy as the Camino de Santiago. So if you like, a more peaceful walk, this is the one for you. The flip side to that is sometimes it's a bit too peaceful for some people. You'll go days without seeing people. So that's the flip side of that.

[5:49] Then with this big goal, this big pilgrimage walk in your science, as you started your preparations and your training and building up to it, what did that all look like for yourself? So as I mentioned, I broke it into three parts. So the first year was probably the, even though I prepared, I didn't prepare enough, and I had, some foot issues predominantly um from that and to summarize i did 700k's the first year um that's over 28 days of walking so i was, uh pushing it in terms of pace but yeah um anyhow that's that's all good so second time round but okay i've learned from my first year of experience we'll do a bit more recovery work a bit more um, pre-trial uh, training and that went a lot better um i was starting to cross through the alps so there was more um elevation in that one, but there was still some feed foot issues towards the end and so this year was like okay um let's let's fine tune this and so.

[7:10] So that was in my mind, what sort of training do I need to do? And that's when I reached out to you, Rowan, yeah, to help me. And also this year's was the longest section. It's 1,000 Ks. So I'm just mindful that 1,000 Ks has its cumulative effect on the body. And I wanted to manage that as best as I could.

[7:33] Then before we get to the work we did together and before we get to that, prior to that, you were doing and during while we were training together, you were working with a physio for a little bit. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Like what work were you doing with them? What were you trying to accomplish through that? And what types of exercises and routines were you doing through the work with them? Certainly. So a physio I've been seeing for an awfully long time. So they know my body quite well. And we, you know, we have a good relationship. I typically walk in and say, okay, I've broken this now in terms of, you know, there's a sore muscle somewhere. And then we'll talk through it. And so what had come out of last year's hike from doing 650Ks and then a couple of months later did Kumana Kodou. And what I'd noticed out of the two was that my gate had changed and it was most obvious when I tried to run. I was thinking this is not quite right and so I went and spoke to them and they identified, yes, my gate has changed and so we spent a lot of time trying to.

[8:54] Retrain my feet to transfer the weight correctly because I was not quite there and part of that was tightness in calves and shins, and we all know everything's interconnected in the body and one thing goes out a little bit and other things try to compensate so there's a lot of that fine tuning trying to, release some of the tightness so that your body mechanics are doing what they're meant to be doing.

[9:24] A lot of calf raises. A lot of calf raises, yeah. The typical, and, you know, listening, though, I love a good calf raise. Yeah. On that front, can you remember when you said the gate changed and you were trying to, you know, correct it and change, can you remember specifically what had changed with the gate off the top of your head? So when you look at, when I was looking at my feet, i was noticing they weren't sitting, well you know you put them on the ground they weren't quite sitting correctly they were trying to sort of lifting a little and, when you look at where you're where you callus calluses are typically you get them in a certain area and that had shifted on my foot so i was getting calluses in a different spot and it was like, never had this before so So, yeah, so they identified, most of that was coming from tight shins and the shins were tight because my calves were tight. And so there was that whole conversation of I didn't think my calves had gone soft, but perhaps I have.

[10:31] Okay. And then tell us what made you, so you worked through the physio, you were working through your prep. The next kind of section was coming up on the final section. What made you decide to kind of reach out for a little bit of extra help beyond what we were doing? What were the types of things that you felt like you needed help with at that stage? Yeah, certainly. So the 1,000 Ks was sitting very much at the forefront of my mind in terms of how am I going to prepare for this?

[11:09] Distance and its cumulative effects but more importantly when you're walking on average 25 k's a day day in day out how do you go from being a desk jockey, five days a week to going to 25 k's a day and doing that without, causing immediate issues and so one of the approaches, is you just go out and do more walking um and last year i tried to do that um so i did more walking i did more running um, fitting in 40 50ks a week when you're working full time is a huge load and, i just didn't want to do it again this year it's like no i just cannot fit that much time in plus with your strength training i just need more structure here i need to be smarter about it not, you know just putting the hours in and i've listened to your podcast in the in the past so i knew you had strategies for that.

[12:14] And then tell us a little bit about the training that you did do through Summit Strength. Like what did your program look like? What went into your week? Talk us through that. Yep. So, we sort of agreed to how much time I could commit and we had some strength training. We had some cardio. So we had a pack, loaded pack walk or pack session, I should say, and then I had said that I can do, one day hike per week and that on top of my normal gym program felt like more than enough hours being dedicated to my fitness and strength. And so that was really interesting. The strength exercises were a mixture of, strength, core, carbs, glutes, all the usual offenders and all the muscle groups that we use. There's a bit of balance work, which I always find interesting because as we get older, our balance sucks. And here you are trying to address that.

[13:33] Problem um so that was good uh, the probably the most challenging that I found was the, the stairs that you gave me um and it's not because I've never done stairs before but it was just the sheer amount of time I was spending on stairs it was like wow this is next level.

[14:00] Yeah it's it's funny with the stairs when you go from okay you know when we go up and down them day-to-day life it's okay but then when we dedicate like 30 minutes or whatever may be just to going up and down and up and down it, can be an interesting experience so to say the least so yeah always good fun, so in amongst all that was there anything I guess a little bit different in there than maybe what you've done before or what you've considered doing in the past, um probably so i've done loaded pack walks before so you know put the weight in go and walk an hour in your neighborhood i'd not actually done a pack walk on, a treadmill with an incline so that was a different experience for me that was and, probably the other take-home message that, I had was about controlling my breath rate so I tend to just go out and, go at a fair pace and the whole.

[15:05] Logic behind don't go out so hard so quickly moderate your pace was new to me and I think it made a big difference yeah so that was my take-home message out of all that is like just moderate it.

[15:24] And then no preparation period and training period ever goes smoothly, as we always say. So as you went through, were there any roadblocks along the way? And if so, how did you go about overcoming it?

[15:38] So it went reasonably well. I think there were two little hiccups along the way. And again, it was a foot issue. So I'm always having feet issues, it appears. Um so I aggravated, a tendonitis sort of issue at one stage um so I just had to, take it easy and not wear those shoes that caused it and just you know ice and rest to get over that part and I think there was another stage when I was doing some lunges at the gym, and the and a pair of shoes that perhaps weren't conducive to lunges and my toes, I won't say got injured, but they certainly felt unhappy afterwards. So again, I had to just do some rest, have some rest and just let them recover. They were the two major roadblocks. I think I had a pretty good run with my training program actually.

[16:47] Okay, so now let's talk about the trip itself. Training's done, preparation's done, you pack your bags, you're flown over. Tell us how did the trail go? Give us a story, talk us through it, take us through the adventure. So this year was the.

[17:06] Last part, and what we're doing is basically travelling from the top of Italy, northern Italy. So last year I just cleared the Swiss Alps. and we're starting to come down into the valley um, and so this year I picked up where I left off so you can still see the Alps and the mountains but you're very much dropping elevation as you're coming into the valley and, after you've cleared that section you go into what's called the Po Valley, which is a really flat, it's flat as a tack, it lasts for 10 days and it's, essentially an agricultural area, this is where the rice and the risotto of the well comes from. So just imagine flat water and some crop and that's what you see wherever you turn. A lot of people don't like this section they consider it boring um i actually didn't mind it because it's, you see lots of water to support the rice crops and so you see the bird life, that's uh enjoying all this uh, water so that was actually okay um that's a nice way to transition into doing regular 25k days um.

[18:33] From there you move into what's called the Apennine Mountains which is, quite a significant mountain range so the elevation daily starts to get around the 1000 meter mark and, Unlike, say, the Swiss Alps, it's not as refined and curated a trail, so it's a little bit rough, to put it, or wild, use whatever word you want. So that was interesting, and the weather at that point also changed. It got quite cold and wet, so it had its own challenges. From there, we slowly come out of that range, and we get to Luca and you start to see the Mediterranean Sea. So this is like, yes, we'll finally see some water because it's all inland up to now. And from Luca you hit Tuscany and everyone's got images of Tuscany and how beautiful it is. And the towns along the way are just so beautiful. Or the medieval, they've got the history.

[19:55] Beautiful scenery, beautiful towns. But let me just say one thing. They're all on the top of the hill at the end of the day.

[20:07] And it's like, yep, yep, I have to get up there again. So that's like, and Tuscany's undulating, So there's a lot of upping and downing, going up and down hills. Tuscany also started to get that beginnings of the heat wave. So the temperature had gone from cold and wet to low 30s. So we're now doing undulating territory with very little shade in 30 degree weather. Yeah, yeah. That's just part of the challenge and the fun of the trip. You just have to manage that. Yeah. And then after that, you slowly leave that region and you're within 100km of Rome. Yeah. And for those that perhaps don't know, some of these Caminas and whatnot, you get a certificate or a testimonium when you're within 100km of destination. So the number of people walking this route suddenly jumps up in numbers because people want to do the last 100km.

[21:25] Then through this adventure, were there any, you've mentioned a couple, but were there any other, I guess, major challenges based on things you ran into along the way? And if so, what happened and how did you go about overcoming them? well, the major challenges, are road surfers.

[21:52] So you're doing a lot of walking on road bitumen and that's hard on your feet um, so you do need to take care of your feet when you're not walking on the roads you sometimes are walking through a field it's rutted your your foot rolls in its own you know you're trying to, walk you're trying to walk carefully but sometimes it just happens that you'll roll your foot a little bit to the side the roman roads uh bless their soul um, you know the romans with their chariots traveled along these uh routes and there, there's no potholes but the flip side to that is that these big round rocks that make the roman road are shocking to walk on like your feet to scream in agony, there's a lot of.

[22:42] This trail is really hard on your feet. People are surprised at how hard it is. It's a lot harder than the community of Santiago in that sense. So you just need to be mindful of your feet. And I think the last few years had certainly taught me some tricks about managing my feet. So there's that part. But the elevation wasn't so, much of a factor for me. It could be for others, but it's never been a problem for me. I like going up hills. I don't like going down hills, and that's more about building your strength in terms of bracing. You know, your quads get quite a hammering using your poles effectively. And then the last bit is probably the, issues with staying hydrated and especially when the, you know.

[23:45] That heat wave, it was dropping to about 20 during the night and by about 9am, 10am, it was, you know, high 20s. It'd get to 30 about 11, 12. And a lot of people were finding that they were getting heat exhaustion. So, you know, it's managing your hydration, your electrolytes, your recovery.

[24:14] And then obviously this is a massive undertaking and there's a lot of kilometres under your feet and, you know, a long, long, long hike. So when you got to the end of this and once you can finish the last day, like how did you feel and what was going through your head and was there anything you did to celebrate at all? So it was a sense of satisfaction and achievement to, you know, reach reach Vatican City um, thinking you know that's three years I've just devoted in its in in the three parts that I've done to get here so yeah it's actually a really great feeling to get there and think yes I've actually achieved it um, in terms of celebrating oh there's always a good lunch. I very much love my food. I'm a foodie, so good Italian food. And after all the different hostels and whatnot that I'd stayed at with the, pleasures of snorers and all the things that come with sharing accommodation, it was nice to have your own hotel room. That was my celebration.

[25:32] Yeah, how good. Yeah, I imagine that would be a nice meal and a nice private bed and a nice hot shower. I imagine that feels pretty good after all those kilometres. Yeah, absolutely.

[25:46] So talk us through then, like, you know, now this massive project is done and ticked off after you said after a few years. What's the plan of attack moving forward? Any more hiking adventures on the horizon? Anything you're kind of eyeing off? Talk us through that. Yep um so i'm planning uh another trip um going to scandinavia um in the next month, so i'm going to iceland um and doing a so it's a totally different experience i'll be in a group and it's a guided walk so it's just a day pack versus having carried my own gear for the last 2,400 k's, so I'm looking forward to the day pack, the Iceland trip I'm not sure if I've got the pronunciation correct the Lugaviga Trail or something like that, it's a mixture of hiking for some of the days and some touristy stuff just showing you some of the sights the geysers the lagoons so that I'm looking forward to that somewhere different, and then I.

[27:03] A little bit of touristy stuff and then I'm over to Norway to go up to the top to Buda and to do the Lufthansa Islands as we're doing a hike up there too. Yeah, so very different scenery. It's been a long time since I've been in that part of the world, so I look forward to revisiting.

[27:27] That was fantastic. A few great options there and a great thing to add. And yeah that trail we did a whole podcast on that previously and if anyone's listened they probably noticed i didn't once try to pronounce it after that trail because i would just butcher it so yeah, but yeah how good awesome awesome awesome so so i guess, for listeners like obviously we got a lot of people on this podcast who aspire to ventures like this and and i guess if anyone was considering this particular pilgrimage or this particular trail or something like of similar sorts, what advice would you give them? So look after your feet. That's probably the number one message because particularly this trail, they do get a hammering.

[28:19] Recovery is important. So probably my take-home message from last year and this year is, you know, focus on your recovery. Do those stretches. I know they're a bit boring sometimes, but just do them. So, you know, your body will thank you over the cumulative kilometres, that you do. This particular pilgrimage, you need to be comfortable with your own company because you will be.

[28:54] In your own company for quite a bit of the day. A lot of people do this particular pilgrimage because it doesn't have the sheer number of people that the Camino does. You can actually spot people. You ask them why they do this and they say, because I didn't want to do the Camino. It's too busy. So they value that time for self-discovery and reflection. What else would I say be prepared, be prepared, Or a pilgrimage that doesn't have the same infrastructure as the Camino. So, yes, the Camino has a lot of people, but it also has the infrastructure. This doesn't. And you could find yourself in a situation where food is not as abundant as you might think it should be.

[29:56] And anyone that starts from Canterbury and goes all the way through will speak to that experience. I got caught out where I'd rock up into a town. Oh, there's nothing open to get food. It's like, great, okay. Part of the pilgrimage experience, totally. Yeah, at the end of the day, if you've done a big day, you do value getting some food in your body. So, anyhow, it's all good. We survive. We learn from it. Definitely a few very valuable pieces. Yeah, but the food. Imagine by the time you get to the end of the day and you're ready for a good meal, there's nothing available. Yeah, that'd be a bit of a challenge, but I'm glad you got the right into that. So I think we covered some really, really good stuff today. And I really do

[30:45] appreciate you taking the time to kind of share your story and your journey here. Now, before we do wrap things up, was there anything else that we didn't kind of get a chance to cover so far that you want to touch on or wanted to share at all? Yeah.

[31:05] So I probably mentioned that in the past I've used some of your resources, I've listened to your podcasts, I've done a couple of things here, there and everywhere. And so this is my first time to actually sample your training program and I really love the fact that it put together all these, straight bits of information that I had floating around and gave me a complete package. And so, you know, I think it's a compliment to you, all the work you've put putting this together, the resources you have are astounding. One of the things that I did while I was on this year's trip early on, I was noticing my left foot was starting to swell a bit more than I expected. And so I went and had a look at your lacing section in the training material and, tried my left boot lacing in a different way, such as trying to alleviate the pressure my foot was feeling because I didn't want to aggravate.

[32:15] I didn't want to aggravate any more than it felt like it might be aggravated. And so that actually really helps. And it was only a few days, but just doing a different lacing technique was all it needed for a few days. And then it was like, yep, you're happy now. Thank you. But, you know, if I'd sort of pushed through it, you don't know what might have eventuated. So, yeah, thank you, Rowan.

[32:37] No, no, my pleasure. And that's so good to hear that, like, yeah, even that, like a simple change that you managed to dig into the resource It's made a bit of a difference for the couple of days. And, yeah, that's absolutely awesome here. So, yeah, fantastic. Well, thank you so much, Chris, for coming on. It's been really, really, really interesting hearing a little bit about your story and the journey that you went on on such a massive travel. And I know there's a lot of listeners that are really going to enjoy hearing about this and maybe potentially add this pilgrimage to their one-day list. So thank you so much for coming on. I really do appreciate it. And yeah, really looking forward to seeing all the adventures you have in the future. Thank you, Rob. So there you go, guys. I really do hope you've enjoyed today's episode. Last thing I will say, as I always say, is if you were interested in learning a little bit more about the online personal training that Chris used to prepare for this last section of her adventure, you can learn more at summitstrength.com.au online. Now, on that page, there's a big video, talks a lot about our program. And if it sounds like something you want to get involved with or at least learn a little bit more about there's a link on that page you can book a free call with our team and we can have a little bit of a chat from there so if you want to learn more go to summitstrength.com.au online and we can take it from there.

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