How to Train for the Camino Portuguese Coastal

Who This Is For

This guide is for pilgrims planning the Coastal with a self-guided package- luggage transfer, private accommodation. It’s particularly useful if you have done the Frances before and think you know what to expect. The training demands are meaningfully different, and most internet plans do not make that distinction.

This guide is for: walkers who want to arrive in Porto ready for what the Coastal actually asks of you, not what the Frances asked.

This guide is not for: traditional full-pack, albergue-to-albergue pilgrims, or anyone already out on the trail right now.

(We’ve written about the practical side of trip logistics before too- see How to Spend a Hawaiian Inter-Island Travel Day and How To Book Awards with Lifemiles if that’s your kind of rabbit hole too.)

What You Will Need

• Footwear tested on hard surfaces- not just the nice groomed path at the local park
• Quality socks (Merino wool or Injinji toe socks- more below)
• Trekking poles- you need them; if you are 60+, this is not optional
• An 8kg day pack- self-guided with luggage transfer is what you are training for, not 20kg
• 12-16 weeks of actual calendar time- general fitness is not the same as walking-specific prep

How to Train for the Camino Portuguese Coastal: The Actual Program

My motto this time is train for what you will encounter- or, in this case, what the internet has told me to expect (and experience tells me whether I should trust the internet).

1. Understand what the Coastal actually demands. The Portugues Coastal does not have the steep climbs and descents of the Frances, but it is challenging in different ways- or similar, now that I am thinking about those dragon’s teeth on the way down into Zubiri. (If you have been there, you know exactly what I mean; if you have not, well, do not heed my words and you will learn for yourself just like I did.) Cobblestones are different. They work our American, trained-on-smooth-paved-sidewalks feet, ankles, knees, and hips in ways nobody warns you about adequately. That is the actual training problem: foot conditioning and joint tolerance for irregular surfaces.
2. Train for your actual load. If you have booked self-guided with luggage transfer, you are training for an 8kg day pack- water, rain gear, snacks, your phone. Build your training walks around that specific reality. Everything else is someone else’s program.
3. Build in back-to-back days from week four onward. Most plans have you walking every other day. The Coastal has you walking every day. Add consecutive days starting week four: two days back-to-back, then three, working toward a five-day stretch by week ten. That is the real test- not any single long day.
4. Do the joint work deliberately. Arch strengthening, ankle mobility, knee strength and mobility, hip flexibility- because cobblestones transfer force up the chain differently than flat pavement. High-arched feet are particularly vulnerable (ask me how I know). The cardiovascular fitness almost takes care of itself; the joint work requires deliberate attention.
5. Test your footwear on hard surfaces. Before committing to any shoe for 259 km, get it on a long day that includes pavement, gravel, and stone surfaces. Your local Old Town, a cobblestone pedestrian zone, a paved rail trail- anything harder than groomed dirt.
6. Do a shake-out hike. Your training plan should call for a mini-Camino weekend around week ten: two consecutive days, 15-20 km each. Do it. Pack exactly what you will carry on the Coastal. Wear the shoes. Use the poles. Sleep somewhere that is not home. You will find out things about your gear and your body that you absolutely want to find out in week ten in the U.S., not on day ten in Portugal.
7. Build rest days into the actual walk now, before you leave. There is no requirement for any Camino to be uncomfortable. The point is not to suffer; the point is to walk the experience. Set comfortable daily distance goals. Build in a rest day every five to seven stages; we have ours built into the booking at Baiona and Vigo. Pick an interesting town. (A rest day in a small town with one bar and a closed church is less restful than it sounds. Ask me how I know.)

What Works, and What Does Not

Footwear (This Is Personal)

I am not going to argue about footwear in the abstract. I will tell you what Shana and I wore, what our friends wore on the Frances, and how we all fared.

Lightweight matters: ankle weights were cool in the 80s, they are not cool after 100 km. Waterproof matters more: breathable and airflow is nice, but wet and soggy is trench foot, so Gore-Tex is non-negotiable. Footwear height is the personal part- I wore an ankle-support hiking boot (the Altra Timp GTX) on the Frances. By day seven my feet hated them; I laced them without the uppers and almost left them in Logrono. My new setup for the Coastal is a low-top trail shoe with gaiter attachment points, and it is much better for me. Everyone on our Frances trip who wore a traditional hiking boot (think classic Merrell MOAB style) ended up with heavy, tired feet and legs by the end of a long day. The ones in lighter trail runners (HOKA Speedgoats, Altra Lone Peak or Olympus) had happier feet. The ones without Gore-Tex were miserable and carried multiple spare sock changes for the day.

Once you decide on the shoe characteristics, you have done the easy part. This is where I value my REI membership- the one-year return window is the best footwear-testing safety net in the business. I buy all my walking and hiking shoes there for exactly this reason. As for breaking a shoe in: I believe in it, in moderation. I do not want to wear down the tread before the Camino, so I mix my Camino shoes with another good walking pair during training.

Trekking Poles (Just Get Them)

Trekking poles get skipped and then regretted on the Coastal. Late September in Galicia means rain, potentially daily. Wet boardwalks and slick cobblestones at the end of day twelve are a different animal than a dry trail at mile three. If you do not think you will need them, you will by Stage 5. Carbon fiber collapses small enough to pack. We paid 22 euros in Saint-Jean for ours at a local shop (make sure they come with the little rubber tip covers). Get them now, train with them now, so they feel natural later, and thank yourself in Galicia.

At home, Shana carries Black Diamond Pursuit Z poles. Mine are an old Leki rebrand from LL Bean I bought while stationed in Kodiak in 2002- I doubt they still sell them. A solid modern pair of carbon trekking poles: Amazon- carbon trekking poles

If You Are Walking This in Your 60s

Nobody writes the training guide for the healthy 60-something who wants to walk a Camino and not be miserable for the last four days. So here it is- our group includes Shana’s parents, which means this isn’t theoretical for us.

The triple threat for 60+ walkers on the Coastal: knees, cobblestone terrain coupled with sandy or slick surfaces, and the cumulative load of back-to-back days (pack weight is solved by the luggage transfer). Joints that have spent decades on flat American pavement respond differently to cobblestones- the irregular contact redistributes load across the ankle and knee in ways that compound over fourteen stages. High arches? Those cobblestones are going to get you. Only walking on nice paved paths in training? Your body will have opinions about that by day five.

It is a hard problem to solve, one we attempt to get after by hiking a variety of unpaved paths- Colorado has plenty of those. Find hikes that cover a variety of terrain: slopes, gravel, loose rock, roots, ruts, uneven rock you climb over and step down. Find paths that break up your gait, your rhythm, your pace, and your posture. Whatever it takes to make you walk, bend, and twist differently than you do around the neighborhood.

Pace is the other variable. The internet gives you average stage distances. Walk your own pace and set distance goals based on your comfortable walking speed- there is no prize for finishing before noon.

And take the bus when you need to. We mean it. The Camino is not a purity test. A pilgrim who buses two stages when their knee is sending clear signals, and finishes in Santiago, is doing the Camino. A pilgrim who walks through a stress injury and flies home from Vigo is not.

Our Recommendations

1. Injinji toe socks. They are weird, they take longer to put on, they cost a little more, and they prevent my blisters. They are the only socks I wear on long walks: Amazon- Injinji Trail Midweight
2. Insoles if you have high arches. Superfeet Green or Blue. Worth testing in training before you commit: Amazon- Superfeet insoles
3. The AI calendar tip. If you do not love carrying a paper training plan, ask your favorite AI assistant to convert it into your phone’s calendar format and upload it there. It is with you wherever you go. Add notes to each event, and leave the time zone blank so it stays in local time once you travel. I have not seen this tip written up anywhere else.
4. The post-walk recovery routine. After every long training day, take your shoes off and wear sandals- let those dogs breathe. Find a cold stream and soak your feet, ankles, and calves. Shana loves a hard spiky ball foot massager; I hate it. You do you. Then enjoy a glass of wine or beer. You can thank me from Baiona.