Throughout the 4x4x48 Challenge last weekend, I made sure to take as many notes and track as much of my activity as I could so that I could reflect on all of the aspects of this challenge. One thing that is for sure, this was a lot more than just a physical challenge, I was arguably tested more mentally and emotionally then physically. Looking back through my plan for the challenge, there were several things that I got right and other that I got wrong:
- Running
- My original plan was to do these runs at around a 9:30 pace, which is typically a good zone 2 pace for my long distance runs - turns out that I underestimated what I was capable of, I felt good from the beginning and pushed the pace to average an 8:50 pace across all 12 runs
- I planned to run every other round with my minimalist shoes, though my calf was bothering me after run two so I abandoned the shoes for rest of the challenge. Those shoes work your calves a lot more than traditional shoes, so I didn’t want to risk further aggravating it
- Nutrition (the totals and timing is below – each line item is what I ate/drank after that run)
- Food wise, I nailed what I needed for nutrition. My original plan was to eat somewhere around 10-11,000 calories through the challenge and I ended just under 10,000
- I underestimated how many electrolyes I would need by about 25% – I planned on having ~1,000 mg of sodium every other run, though I could tell early on that was not enough so I added another ~2,500 over the course of the last half of the challenge – this was an easy adjustment to make
- I basically just drank as much water as I could for both days and didn’t have much issue with that
- Sleep
- I also nailed my sleep plan – I got about 9 hours in over the course of the challenge, which is about what I expected. Unfortunately, I am not a big napper so I was only able to get one short nap in outside of the nighttime runs. I didn’t think that the shortness of sleep was as big a factor as expected
- Luckily, weather ended up being a non-factor – couldn’t have asked for much better weather for most of the 48 hours
Overall, I had a great time spending a weekend doing this challenge and am better for it. I’ve certainly learned a lot from it that I will take to future training and races – the spread out nature of the challenge forces you to learn some things about your body and nutrition that you can’t learn from a single workout or race. A lot of those lessons are peppered throughout my run by run notes below – I took these throughout the challenge as I was completing each run to note how I was feeling and thinking about at the time. I did minimal editing through these, so read through my thoughts as the challenge went on! I’ll be following up with another blog about some of the less sport related thoughts I had over the course of what makes for a strange weekend.
- Friday 6pm
I had a lot of nervous energy all day prepping food for the weekend and getting everything in order so that I could relax between runs. My initial goal was to do the early runs at a comfortable, Zone 2 pace – something around 9:30 min/mile. I accidentally came out with a ton of energy and ran this one a bit fast – ending at 9:15, but running the first couple miles at ~9:00. Legs are feeling great after a light week of training.
I ate a normal dinner after this run, about 1,150 calories in total.
- Friday 10pm
Started to feel a little tired in the hour leading up to this run since I am usually going to bed at 9:30-10pm. My plan going into this run was to drink a little extra water and electrolytes before starting in order to maximize the amount of sleep I can get over the next 8 hours, which means I won’t be spending much time hydrating during that time. Run was nice and quiet. After finishing, I tried to get to sleep as quickly as possible, and only ate a banana and drank a bit of water between getting home and going to bed.
- Saturday 2am
Surprisingly, I didn’t feel all that tired getting up for this run – I got a solid ~2 hours of sleep before this one. Though during this run, I could tell that I was a little bit under fueled as I felt slow and hungry, so I was not going to be able to get away with the same strategy that I used after the 10pm run (quick snack and straight to bed). This time I had a full bottle mixed with electrolytes, 2 bananas, a protein shake, and some almond butter. It should be easier to stay fueled during the day.
- Saturday 6am
After another ~2 hours of sleep, I felt tired getting up for this one. Though I’ve definitely learned that, if challenged, my timeline from waking up to getting my workout started could be as little as 20 minutes without issue, which is good to know for the future.
To stay on top of hydration, I drank a full water bottle before starting this run but no food. Pepper was excited when I got up so I brought him with for the first mile to get him to run around for a bit. I was starving after getting back and went straight for the tacos, no breakfast food this time!
- Saturday 10am
Ate a huge breakfast right after my 6am run and just chilled before this one – thrilled to do the next couple runs in much warmer and sunnier weather. I’m feeling much better fueled after that breakfast so I expect the rest of the day to be much more normal. My calf is feeling very tight so I am trying to do as much foam rolling as possible before starting.
This was my best run so far – first run listening to music and spirits were high so I picked up the pace a little bit and ended up running the fastest pace so far. I had a new oatmeal bowl that I’ve been eating lately – adding protein powder and almond butter to the bowl makes it almost like a chocolate peanut butter desert that I am obsessed with at the moment. Still gets 900 calories with all the add-ins!
- Saturday 2pm
I wasn’t quite as pumped up for this run as I was for the 10am run – I think I was starting to get a little tired. I ended up running just fine but could feel my calf a little more, so I needed to do something about that to make sure it will make it through the second half of the challenge – it is starting to look like the rest of the challenge will be all about managing my calf. I switched up my meal after this one and went for some spaghetti and meatballs instead of the tacos.
- Saturday 6pm
The lead up to this run was my lowest point of the challenge so far – starting to feel tired and had a headache for a couple hours. Thinking that it might be that I haven’t had enough salt, I added an extra LMNT that I wasn’t planning on having at this point. That helped a little, but I went into this run not feeling all that great, and there was some surprise rain at the time! The run ended up going great and my calf felt the best its felt since 6am (I tried to keep my legs elevated and increase how much foam rolling I was doing and that seemed to help). I had some chipotle waiting for me when I got back – I think this got me back in the game!
Went straight into foam rolling when I got back – calf felt great during the run, but DAMN it was painful to foam roll.
- Saturday 10pm
I tried to get a little bit of sleep before this one, but only managed ~30 minutes. Pretty rough wakeup call but I was feeling better for this run than I was for the last couple after getting some chipotle in. I used the same strategy as last night after – 2 bananas and a spoon of almond butter to do something a little easier to digest so I can get right to sleep. I got ~2 hours of sleep after this one.
- Sunday 2am
Waking up for this wasn’t that bad, like last night. Run was definitely a grind as my legs are starting to get heavier and I am more tired than last night. Same nutrition strategy as after the 10pm, though I was tired enough that I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow and got at least 2.5 hours after this one.
- Sunday 6am
This was by far the hardest run so far. I did my usual stretching routine before and couldn’t get my legs to loosen up even a little bit. I ended up just slogging through this one with heavy and tired legs – though my calf is feeling a lot better than it was yesterday afternoon, so that is a huge victory. I’m really happy to be done with the nighttime runs – the daytime legs are much easier since I can sit around and drink coffee but also keep my legs moving, which seems to help a lot. Getting as much sleep as possible was definitely necessary, but I think I paid for it a little bit in how my legs felt after waking up.
- Sunday 10am
Best run so far – lets felt significantly better after walking Pepper and generally waking up more. I at an oatmeal bowl and had some more electrolytes beforehand and was feeling much closer to normal. Ran my fastest pace of the challenge yet. Morale is high going into the final run, excited to finish it up.
- Sunday 2pm
Had a big lunch before this run, legs are feeling good, calves don’t hurt anymore – I am ready to close this out, planning on having a few beers and being largely immobile afterwards. Planning to go at this run hard and end with this as the fastest pace!
Dominated – fastest pace of the challenge, ran into Z3 for most of the run, legs felt great, no problems finishing strong.