Reading through all the walking journals/adventures from all the walkers before me on the c2c I noticed one thing almost all of them needed some training.

At first i thought i just go there with my old army gear and walk the walk i am a fit person. But how more i thought about it the more i became aware that that is just talking the talk. :)

So with no idea what to really expect i started my personal training program.
well not a very tide program just very heavy at some parts and to relaxing on other parts.

So i started a year in advance April 2011 First some walks with no pack and just my old Bata army boots and my dad
(63) as companion.
We walked around several lakes with distances that vary between 10 to 15km Later we walked the dunes with distances between 15 and 25km but those where a bit to demanding on my dads legs so he dropped out of the longer distances.

me and my dad end of 11km walk

I kept walking over the weekends usually just early Sunday morning and slowly getting myself some new gear in the process. I used a day-pack with 7kg on those days.
Then i finally decided on which backpack i would take on my c2C trip ( a Osprey pack Aether 70 ) I loaded the pack with some heavy stuff and got to a heavy 20.3kg

I wanted to train heavy because in Holland we have no high hills i got to about 38 meters above sealeve,l so not much climbing. As training for the descend i used the beach entrances those are very steep 23meterelevation sandy entrances from the beach to the dunes. with a 20 kg pack those are quit demanding. so i just about 10 of those for my 17 to 25km training-walks from Katwijk aan Zee to Zandvoort aan Zee every Sunday

Me and my hills in Noordwijkerhout

And for extra stamina building i got myself into 6 weeks of some very early walking.
Just before i got to work. 05:00 in the morning 6Kg pack head torch and sticks.
I walked round from Katwijk aan Zee to Wassenaarseslag true dunes and beach using all the heavy sand-paths on the way. about 10Km at a high pace took me 1 hour 40min average to complete the section.

Finally got my new Boots and rain gear tested in January 2011.
Standing 15 min in the water to see if i get my feet wet. Boots where excellent A snow walk 20km and boots where still excellent and no cold feet.
I really love these Lowa Army Pro boots. My walking was suddenly much better for the feet. I never got a blister in my life so there is not much to improve. but the sore feet at the end of the walk! that was some improvement if i only had those boots sooner.

me having a break at the reservoir Wassenaar

Little video of a day-pack test that i used as a training day