You may have heard of David Goggins, a former US Navy SEAL and now ultra distance athlete, motivational speaker, and author. He initiated the 4x4x48 which involves running 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours. I had heard about this a while ago but with the Gloucester 24 hour track race coming up in August (4 weeks time), I needed to test myself and see how I could cope with running under severe fatigue and tiredness. So, I decided to double the 4x4x48 and attempt the 8x4x48 - running 8 miles (in 1 hour), every 4 hours for 48 hours. I had the idea to do this a few weeks ago as I thought it would be a great test of discipline and endurance to prepare me for 24 hours of continuous running. I finally had a window where I was able to do it, last weekend. I finished work early and was ready to start 48 (actually 49) hours of unknown torture on Friday 7th July 2023 at 12:00 pm. The reason it's 49 hours is because you finish with an 8 mile run on hour 48, making it 13 runs of 8 miles distance. How the 49 hours played outThe first two runs were comfortable and relatively easy. In the first, I covered 8.23 miles in 56:05, averaging 6:49/mile and the second was similar, 8.26 miles at 6:52/mile (56:43). The third was a similar story and then night fell. Run number 4, at midnight, was my first night run of the challenge. It was a bit more challenging as a headwind had started to develop and, despite wearing a decent headtorch, it was difficult to get my footing right in the dark - there aren't many streetlights where I was doing these runs! I was pleased to finish run 4 in under an hour again and all was going well into the night. Having been up since 5:00 am on Friday, the lack of sleep was starting to get to me during run number 4. My usual bedtime is 9:00 and run number 4 saw me take my accumulated distance to 32.75 miles! No surprise the tiredness was becoming a factor. However, after a power nap and some refuelling, run number 5 offered a psychological boost. The sun rose during this run. I was glad to have got through the night and was optimistic about the day ahead. My family would be awake soon and they would keep me busy between runs and keep my mind off the tiredness. On finishing run 5, I munched down a sweet potato, a date bar and some electrolytes and had another quick nap before run 6 at 8:00 am on Saturday morning. While run 5 felt slow and sluggish, run 6 felt steady and was actually faster. The sweet potato must have helped and I was pleased that my fuelling was going well. It was good to be running in daylight again, even if I had been up and down the same stretch of road 10 times already...and I was not quite halfway yet! On finishing run 6, I drunk a coffee to help overcome the tiredness and it definitely helped. I did run number 7 pushing my son in the pram down on the seafront. The coffee, change of scenery, and company definitely helped to kickstart the day. I think the psychological effect of knowing that I was over halfway after run 7 also contributed to this boost. I kept on ploughing through the miles, finishing runs 8 and 9 both under an hour with no real events to recall. Run number 10 was interesting. Midnight on Saturday 8th July 2023, and the local carnival was coming to a close. I found myself running between dozens of 'jolly' people stumbling home. They must have thought the Gower Gold was particularly strong this year as they saw me running towards them with my headtorch beaming. Most were too shocked to say anything and I'm sure some didn't even notice me. But there's always one...as I approached a group of around 10 people, I heard a voice say; "lets race this guy", like it was normal that someone was out running at gone midnight and they see it all the time. He left his companions and started to run alongside me; "why are you running this late at night?" he said, a slight aroma of alcohol on this breath. I didn't reply as I was sure anything I said would fall on deaf ears. I turned to look at him, full beaming him in the face with my headtorch. I thought this would stop him and I'd be able to carry on gruelling through my run in peace. To my surprise he kept running alongside me and offered again, "no, seriously, why are you running this late? Are you doing the triathlon next week?". I gave my usual response when faced with this question, "no, just a marathon". That seemed to appease him and I was allowed to continue the rest of my run in peace. I didn't think the truth would have landed quite as well, or sounded as believable! Again, seeing the sum come up during the 4:00 am run (run 11) was a big psychological boost but the tiredness was really starting to kick in. According to my Garmin, I'd had a total of 2 hours and 1 minute of sleep throughout the challenge. Coffee was definitely on the menu and I made sure to have one straight after finishing run 11. The muscle soreness was also starting to kick in towards the end of run 11. This was the first time things were starting to get hard, but only 2 more runs to go. All I had to do was stay positive, stay strong, and run 16 miles...easy. Except it's not quite that straight forwards. Completing the 8x4x48, or even the 4x4x48 requires a great amount of discipline and patience. It would have been easier to go out and run 16 miles and then rest for 6 hours, but that's not what it's all about. It's about pushing your body, dealing with pain and discomfort, and learning things about yourself. Run 12 was actually my slowest of the lot. The muscle soreness played a part, and the challenge of fuelling (discussed in more detail below) fully was starting to take its toll. Run 12 saw me cover 8.17 miles in 1:02:11, averaging 7:37/mile. Not too bad, but I was aiming for sub 7:30/mile for each run. Maybe this was a good thing as it fuelled me to run sub 1 hour for run 13, covering 8.18 miles in 59:25 (7:16/mile). The relief on finishing the final run was incredible. I thought I could do this before I started and I was relieved to find out that I actually could. In total I ran 106.23 miles at an average pace of 7:15/mile (12 hours 49 mins 24 second), burning 9,808 kcal, and climbing 1,152 m. My average heart rate was 131 bpm and I slept for 2 hours and 1 minute. What an adventure. After finishing, the main feeling was dehydration. I've felt like this before and the last thing I can face is food. However, I had burned a total of 9,808 calories, and likely taken in a lot less than that. I knew I needed to get some fuel in...whatever it was. I managed to force a microwave pizza and a banana smoothie down me, along with a date bar and lots of fluids. The recoverySurprisingly I didn't feel too bad the day after. I got up at 6:00 am and got ready for work as normal. No morning run just to make sure I had some time to recover, but I managed to get out for 5 miles after work. I even managed to put in a 10 mile commute to and from work on the Tuesday, although my body knew it had been through something epic a few days prior, especially for the afternoon commute home. Halfway through a 9 mile run on Wednesday morning I started to feel more like myself, but the biggest breakthrough came on Friday when I ran 15 miles in the morning, taking my weekly total to 69 miles. I had promised myself not to push it and run another 100 mile week, especially as the double Goggins had taken me to a 144 mile week, my biggest ever to date. 60 miles would be enough to keep my weekly average above 100 miles, so I was very pleased to have been able to run 69. Fuelling the double GogginsAs a predominantly plant-based eater, I practiced a very simple nutrition strategy to get me through the 8x4x48. I started the Friday with my usual breakfast, a coffee, and porridge with coconut oil, goji berries, seeds, cacao nibs, and dates. Lunch followed run 1 and this consisted of 4 oat cakes, a humous filled pitta bread, and a few dates. Then, things started to get challenging. With each run taking me 1 hour, I knew I would have 3 hours between runs to re-fuel. But, by the time I got in from each run and got into a state where I felt like eating, I had around 2.5 hours left until the next run. Then, as I was trying to get as much sleep as possible, especially overnight, I needed to eat something light so that I was able to relax and sleep. Also, my usual high fibre foods such as legumes, nuts, and green vegetables were out of the window as they would be sitting around in my stomach as I was attempting to run. I didn't want to opt for high sugar food either as I knew they would give me a quick boost followed by a crash at some point - the last thing I needed when I was planning on keeping going for 48 hours. Gels were also out of the question - I don't need them for an 8 mile run and I wasn't about to start getting into a bad habit. I had a selection of date bars and flapjacks as emergency fuel and I used these more than I anticipated. Out of 11 bars, I ate 8 of them over the 48 hours. They were a great easy source of energy and I'm sure I could even eat them on the go in future ultras. Dates were also a staple snack over the two day adventure. I think I went through a block of dates in total, which is 350g. On the second day, bread made its way onto the menu. I had toast with peanut butter and a bagel with olive spread at two separate points. I was pleased that I was able to eat sweet potato and even more pleased that, as discussed above, it helped to provide some energy when the going started to get tough. For fluids, I only had two cups of coffee over the 48 hours and the caffeine certainly gave me a boost when I needed it both times. I took on board a lot of electrolytes, probably 3 tablets over 48 hours. As it was hot, on the second day I carried a water bottle with me to stay hydrated while running. Another magic drink that helped was turmeric. I had a banana and turmeric smoothie on the first day but this made me feel slightly heavy for the next run so I opted for turmeric tea with honey, coconut and rice milk for the rest of the challenge. I had 3 of these in total, spread out after every 4th run. I think it helped to keep the muscle soreness at bay until the last 2 runs and it also helped with my recovery the week after. One experiment that didn't go so well was the noodles. When running the Dragon Coast 100 in 2022, I had a pot noodle at the halfway point and it served me very well on that occasion. This time, I made my own noodles, which is something I do on a regular basis for lunch. However, this time it was 9:30 pm and the only thing I can point to is that I used a vegetable stock cube for flavouring. Sure enough, it went down with no problem at all but I found during the next two runs that it wasn't the best idea. Some mild indigestion and that acid taste in my mouth taught me the valuable lesson to stick to proper pot noodles in future. What's next?Completing the Double Goggins 8x4x48 has given me a big confidence boost. I know that I can go without sleep and with minimal energy intake and still keep going. I've learned that I can dig deep and find a big mental toughness reserve when I need it. It's been great preparation for the Gloucester 24 hour race in August and I look forward to seeing how I do there on my 24 hour debut. Also, this challenge has ignited something and I want to find out how far I can push myself and what it feels like. I'll be looking for more endurance challenges soon. Watch this space.
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