Today is Day 3 of my armchair pilgrimage/sponsored walk. This was the day I was dreading, as the stage from Palas de Rei to Arzúa is 28km and is the longest of the five stages I am doing. However, although it is the longest stage, it’s pretty flat, and so there’s not the added challenge of going up hill. Doing it at home meant that today was just going to be a slog until it was done.

My alarm went off at 6am again, and although I didn’t feel like getting up, I was out of bed by ten past six, and pedalling by 6:35am. That was a pretty good start. Like yesterday, I felt like I was really making progress, and did it in blocks of an hour to an hour and a half until I had completed 29.1km at 1:30pm. Again, I was much better than I was on Day 1, and this gives me a bit of confidence for doing it for real in the future.

Day 3 is “hump day” so from now on it’s all down hill. I’ve completed two thirds of the length of the journey, and I have two days to do. One thing I have noticed is that when I started on Day 1, it felt like it was an enormous challenge. After today, I have less than 40km to go.

I’ve been watching telly as I pedal and today I watched The Way, which is what planted the idea of the walk in my mind. Emilio Estavez has a lot to answer for.

Join me again tomorrow, for the next stage from Arzúa to O Pedrouzo.