4x4x48 Challenge – What Is It About?
If you’re reading this blog I guess running for you isn’t a life-fighting thing.
What about running less but with long breaks? Does it sound easy? 100 km with long breaks?
Easy!
I knew you’ll agree with me:)
In 2020, David Goggins shared an interesting challenge, 4x4x48, it’s all about running.
Run 4 miles…
every 4 hours…
for 48 hours.
Fast calculation and you find out that there are only 48 miles in two days. What could be hard in this?
You’ll find it when you did it.
This year, there was the second edition of it. Officially it was on the 5th of March but if you missed it you can do it on your own every time you want
So where is the challenge thing?
Notice, you need to run during the night, you need to wake up in the middle of the night, go run, and then go sleep again, and then again, wake up, go run and go sleep.
If you have the experience of falling asleep during the race that’s great but wakeup and getup from the warm bed is much more difficult than during the race from a bench in the middle of nowhere. Especially, in the race, you have some scoreboard, and at home, you’re alone with your head.
In my case, it was the most challenging thing but in your case something else could be.
Is it worth doing?
For me it is but I don’t know about you. I like doing tough things and this challenge is one of them. Physically it’s not that hard but mentally it is.
I’m sure you’ll notice a difference in thinking before and after it, like after accomplishing hard things.
Since this year and this running insane challenge, I started talking many times:
To be tough you need to do tough things.
I can’t tell you here more because you need to experience it.
If you finished it or you’re going to do it and you want to share how it was, let me know in a comment or via email: kornel@toughestsport.com
What is worth knowing before it?
Tiredness
In the beginning, you won’t feel any tiredness because your body is used to running such distances. It’ll show up during the second night when you will go again to dress up and warm up. Dressing up at 4 am is much longer than doing the same thing at 4 pm. Be ready for that!
Don’t plan to do any creative
I had ambitious plans to do my stuff during breaks, especially during the day. I found it takes some much time to focus, so I think it’s better just to do mechanical things during this time.
That’s why it’s better to do it during weekends when you don’t need to go to work.
Reuse clothes
I have many running t-shirts but I reused many times the same trousers or hoodie. Instead of washing them after each run, it’s better to use them a few times, especially during the night, you don’t want to spend time at 1 am to make laundry.
Sleep
Sleep as much as you can. I found that it’s better for me to go to sleep for an hour from 11 pm to midnight because even this one hour can recharge my body.
Prepare route
I prepare some route that has exactly 4 miles because thinking about route during running it’s not a wise thing. You can use different routes if can but I did many times the same.
This year, I did a little bit of an extended version and I did 4x4x64 but it was me, you don’t need to do the same, 48 is challenging enough 🙂