Organize the stages

Nowadays there are many guides that mark the stages, but each pilgrim must adapt them to his or her characteristics. Although it is very advisable to take a previous planning and in many cases even the reservations of the places of rest, it is well known that there are many factors that can destroy all the forecasts, so we have to be prepared and be flexible to adapt to the circumstances that we are considering. The Way of Saint James is not a competition to see who arrives first or who does more kilometers a day, dosing the effort is vital especially if you do not have guaranteed the place of rest because you can get to meet with all the places occupied and have no choice but to do a few extra kilometers if you do not want to spend the night outdoors.

Getting up early and making the most of the first hours of the day is a good policy, especially on hot days, although we will have to adapt the starting time to the stage we have ahead of us. It is not the same to walk at 6 in the morning on a comfortable path as it is to get into a leafy forest or a stretch of mountain where the Way is not so well defined. The average mileage per stage is between 25 and 30 kilometers per day on foot, this average allows us to enjoy the essence of the Way, such as the people and places where it passes. As everything, our preparation and particularities, make us have to adapt these parameters to our needs. Taking into account that a person with a normal physical condition and loaded with a backpack of about 8 kg travels about 4 km / h on foot through favorable terrain, we can get an idea of the time we will spend on each stage (note that this figure is reduced considerably if we face sections of ascent or unfavorable weather situations).

Having faced long walks before will help us to know how we respond and to organize the tour beforehand. If, on the other hand, we face the Way without previous preparation, it is advisable to take the first stages with a certain calm and to increase the distance gradually. It is also a good idea to insert short stages of about 20 km that allow us to have a day of relative rest. It is more difficult for the bikers to calculate an average since they are affected by different factors, such as the type of terrain where the route runs that may force them to make a detour. It is normal to calculate twice the usual mileage of a stage on foot.