Everyone trains the legs. Fewer pilgrims train the part that actually decides whether they finish: the interior.
The Camino will bore you, frustrate you, and humble you — sometimes before lunch on the same day. There will be a morning when the rain starts at kilometer two and does not stop, a dormitory that snores in six languages, a hill that looks modest on the profile and is not. Your fitness will not save you in those moments. Your expectations will decide everything.
So train the heart the way you train the body: with repetition. Practice being uncomfortable in small doses — walk in the rain on purpose, sleep somewhere unfamiliar, eat what is put in front of you. Practice letting a plan change without letting it ruin the day. Each small surrender is a rehearsal for the larger ones the road will ask of you.
The pilgrims who glow at Santiago are not always the strongest. They are the most flexible — the ones who learned, somewhere around Burgos, to hold the journey loosely and let it shape them.
A PRACTICE FOR THE WEEKS BEFORE
Once a week, deliberately disrupt your routine — a different route, a skipped plan, a small discomfort welcomed. Notice how quickly you adapt. That is the muscle the Camino uses most.