Just 4 weeks before we leave for Ottawa, en route to England to begin our trek! We have had to modify our training program, as Lois had a flareup of hip tendinitis (?)  following a 20 km walk. She was hoping her GP would give her a steroid injection, as this has worked in the past, but the presence of sciatic nerve involvement has the doctor concerned that the cause may be  degenerative disc disease. As an X-ray was inconclusive, Lois is relying on a combination of physiotherapy,  massage therapy, accupuncture and a regime of strengthening and stretching exercises to get her “hike ready”. Deciding that part of the problem might have been that we increased the distance on our long walk too quickly, we started over, now walking longer distances several times a week, increasing the distance by a kilometre each longer walk.  Tomorrow, we will do 13 km. It is frustrating that we were not able to train in the way we had planned, but we are hopeful that by the time we leave, we will have had enough kms under our belts that we can begin the trek with some level of endurance and fitness (and no pain!)