Exactly Colin! Do what makes you happy and relax!
Mind you, it's taken me a while to learn, you'll get there in your own time 😉😂

YEP, what they said.
Obviously, much depends on your route and how tough it is.
So lots of big hills means a better base fitness is needed.
The key thing is just being comfortable (as best you can), carrying the weight.
As long as a decent base fitness is there, you will get fit in days 1 to 3.
In these days it's critical to listen to and care for feet.
Many DNF's are feet and blister issues, so make sure you have done some practice in the footwear you are taking.
Then, come the big day ... Go and enjoy it. It is so much easier when you enjoy it, even the bad days...
Remember, it is a challenge, but most importantly, it's a holiday.
Holidays are to have fun.
Put that worrying to one side sir! :relaxed:

I agree with Andrew that feet are at least as important as overall fitness. I always buy new socks before a long walk as I've found this makes a big difference. Alan Sloman's advice to me was to wash out socks and shoes every night irrespective of how bad the weather and this has always worked for me. Never had a blister on 3 Challenges or on any other walk in the past 6 years.

One longish walk (10-15 miles) in the 5/6 weeks prior to the Challenge (with a day sack) to get muscles familiar with distance is all I've ever done and I've been fine.

Wise words from Challengers. The only thing I’d add is ensure your aerobic fitness is up to scratch if you are doing big hill days. A bit of judicious running or biking will go a long way to boosting your hill fitness if you can’t get out in the hills regularly.

It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that the only time you will feel fit enough to complete the Challenge is at the end. :upside_down_face:

Ditto all of the above, though perhaps I should listen to that advise myself.

Last year I set myself a tough high level route and put in plenty of miles of training in the months before. A 5 mile run a few evenings a week, a good 20+ mile walk over rough ground every weekend, and at least one night out each month.

Then with two weeks to go I went down with a chest infection which floored me, and left me completely exhausted and struggling to do anything physical.

So when I set out from Oban I simply adjusted my route day by day depending on how I felt, and got across without too much of a problem. And I think that's probably as, if not more, important than absolute fitness. Listen to how you feel each day and don't be a slave to your plans if you don't feel up to it. There's generally an easier route, or a short cut even if it means adjusting several days of your route.