Hello everyone,

My name is Radek. I am a 33 year old male living in Poland. I weigh 77kg and am generally healthy, although I haven't done any physical exercises for more than a year.

I am planning a trip to Japan this year in August if all goes well with the virus. I stumbled across a hiking trail called the Michinoku Coastal Trail which is over 1000km long. Here is a map of the trail:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?hl=ja&ll=39.142883629811,141.4530535&z=7&mid=1gUdWx_hNctNunDhX2Ft1zS7Mxgs1tdVf

As you can see the trail follows the ocean, so it is very flat. There are some mountains here and there where the elevation reaches 500m, but they are far and in between, and you can probably hike around them. The temperature in August is between 20 and 25 degrees celsius.

I am seriously considering hiking the trail with a backpack and a tent. Given that I have no previous backpacking experience (other than your usual 2-3 day trip to the mountains with a very light backpack), I am very unsure about my abilities to hike long distances every day. Let's assume that the backpack will weigh around 20kg. (is this even a reasonable assumption?)

The way I would like to approach this hike is to walk about 20km each day, with some rest days if necessary. My initial plan is to hike for around 20 days in total, which would probably amount to 300km with change.

Our country is currently in lockdown due to the virus, so I will assume that I can start preparing for the trip in May, which would give me three months. My idea is to go on hikes 2 times a week to build strength/stamina. I will start with 10-15km with a 10kg backpack, see how that feels and increase the distance and/or backpack weight if I don't experience any issues. This would amount to a total of about 25 hikes in 3 months (more realistically about 20 because I have some other plans for the summer). I also plan on running 2 times a week and take the rest of the week off. In addition to that, I plan to go on a 5 day hiking trip with a tent and a "proper" backpack weight somewhere in June or early July. This might be a bit too much for me at that time, but it could be a good indication if I am ready for Japan.

My main question here is what can I realistically hope to achieve given the circumstances. I would really appreciate honest answers about my idea. I am OK with the fact that 20 days might be too much for me. If I get tired too badly I can always call it quits, catch a train and go to Tokio earlier than planned.

Thank you,
Radek