The alarm goes off at 3:40 am.
I lay in a one minute haze of half sleep / half awake. Eyes hesitantly creak open….
I toss my legs over the side of the bed and pause for one minute and sit in subtle denial.
I need convincing that I’m doing the right thing.
But, no one is here for that. My inner dialogue is self-consciousness bargaining with ego.
Standing up is chore.
Lower back is all stiff and seized.
A brief image of the Dorothy’s first encounter with the Tin Man flashes through my mind.
In an attempt to bend forward reaching for a sock, my hamstrings send a direct, uninterrupted message to my brain…
…No Fucking Way!
But, I have to find a way.
A 4 mile run around my Boston Neighborhood is the must do of the moment.
3:45 am…
I have 15 minutes to get myself together and be outside. No late starts.
Clothes on. Sneakers on. ½ a glass of water and 2 bites of a Clif Bar. Some hopeless stretching in my living room and I’m out the door.
3:57 am…
Standing at the entrance to my condo parking lot in the autumn darkness, it’s a 3 minute wait to the top of the hour.
This feels long. I hurried myself… And now just wait. Trying to savor it. The moments of quiet and stillness sooth a (very) little.
I look up at tree branches rustle against each other in the light breeze, check out an illuminated window in my building, and then notice that it’s STILL really humid out.
WTF am I doing?
4:00 am…
RUN (Dummy).
Body parts between my torso and feet grind into motion like a rusty old truck that hasn’t moved in years suddenly brought back to service.
My blood pressure rises along with my doubt.
There are 9 more 4 mile runs every 4 hours to get done after this one.
UGH!
Yeah, that sounds strange, disjointed, and kinda hard.
It is.
And that’s the point.
You’ve read my review of the David Googins’ book in the last post.
Now it’s time to take on his signature challenge.
Time to Go Goggins in your own life. Accomplish this hard trial and feel proud.
What is the 4x4x48?
Here’s the man himself to explain…
So yeah there ya go. I completed this last October– It ain’t easy.
The physical is hard.
The mental is hard.
At Run #5 you’ll be thinking, THIS SUCKS…And want to quit.
But you won’t.
Because those 5 runs don’t stand on their own. The challenge is to get all 12.
48 miles in 2 days.
Failure circling above your head. All your friends and family were right – You’ll never be able to do this.
Nobody does this.
But, people do. And Covid living has forced us to distract ourselves. With races canceled and some sudden extra time at home, why the hell not.
For me, I just wanted to experience an extended effort of more than a day.
It was more curiosity after following Goggins on YouTube and reading the book.
Inspiration for pain…Pain-spiration maybe.
Am I tough?…Can I continue when it sucks?
And I think that’s the case for lots of other people. Plenty of runners (and non-runners) are doing this. Voluntarily signing up to put some armor around their minds.
Well Goggins himself has the armor since he’s been at this most of his life. For the rest of us mortals – maybe a vinyl top or epoxy coating on our fragile egos is more apt.
This challenge will get you 2% toward where he is. This is a warm up for a strong mind muscles.
Okay, enough of the fluff.
Here’s how it went down for me and a couple tips.
The first run at 8pm went off really smooth. I was kind of excited. Pacing around my living room readying to start a night run instead of plopped on the couch, TV droning the time away before bed.
The newness of it all had the dimmer switch of my mind turned all the way up. Bright and awake.
I chose the 8pm start thinking that my sleep would follow as close as possible to my normal cycle (It did – though much less of it).
The novelty all wore off at Mile 1. I settled in for the long haul.
Yes, it felt strange to get all sweated up at an odd hour, but I liked it – ‘cause I’m a little odd too 🙂
Back home, settled down, water drunken, mild stretching gotten – in bed and asleep by 9:30pm….
…11:45pm alarm…
…I’m not too upset to have a placid REM sleep interrupted. The novelty has returned…Until I try to get my sneakers on…
…Tightness…Stiffness…Oldness.
Need to stretch more dummy – rolls through my mind.
I get this run in the books and now, for sure, regular life is totally convoluted. My routines are like a t-shirt put on inside out and backwards – All wrong.
Sitting on my living room floor failingly trying to loosen up, all I can think about is getting back to bed.
After that 4am run (#3) you read above, the reality of what this is doing to my body is in clear focus.
I’m 50 years old.
A long car ride debilitates my muscles. I can’t hike a mile without those rogue hamstrings and stubborn lower back tendons ratcheting down
The only thing that keeps me in the game these days…The thing that allows me to run, bike, and be on my feet for the long days…Is yoga.
Bikram yoga is the medicine.
But, guess what? Yoga last week is not helping today or tomorrow. I need it now – RIGHT NOW – And after every run.
This is an unplanned reality. Goggins’ voice is rattling around in my head.
I’ll never meet the man. But, feel like I can’t fail him on this.
I think about all the poses I know. I think about all the body parts that are compromised.
Then make a 20 minute routine to do after every run.
Lower Back, hamstrings, hip flexors. Lower Back, hamstrings, hip flexors. Lower Back, hamstrings, hip flexors. Back, strings, hips. Back, strings, hips. Back, strings, hips.
If I don’t dial this in, 9 more runs ain’t happening. My body will grind itself to failure like an engine with an oil leak.
So now the remaining formula is:
(4 miles of running + 20 minutes of Yoga) X (9 more runs) = Challenge Success
I usually struggle with patience when I do yoga alone.
That’s why I go to a studio.
I need the accountability of showing up in the hot room. I need the energy from others around me. I need the dialogue from the teacher overwrite my fidgeting mind.
There’s none of that here in my 3rd floor condo.
Just my restless conscious and banged up body.
But, there’s no choice.
Well, there is.
There are.
We all have choices.
- Do no yoga and fully, excruciatingly suffer the remaining 9 runs.
- Quit
- Calm your fucking mind down and do the damn poses.
5:05am…
The sun is just breaking the horizon while I fully lengthen and round my spine in Rabbit pose.
I briefly note the relief and smirk at myself.
This is always here. This medicine. This yoga.
Yeah, whatever. Get your stupid self to bed. Less than 2-1/2 hours and we’re back out there.
8am…12pm…4pm. I get through all these runs.
They are ugly 9 minute per mile trots.
They are not easy.
I don’t enjoy them.
It’s soooo humid out. Why? It’s September 30th?
The two running outfits I’m rotating never dry out completely.
Damp clothes. Damp air. Damp attitude.
But, I do it. I do them – The runs.
Logging each one as I go is motivating. Seeing the list get longer, the count get higher…
8pm…12am…4am. Getting through the 2nd night is a high point.
Those solo, dark night runs are pure Type II fun:
Miserable while they happened. Rewarding in retrospect.
Alone.
Achy.
Mind in neutral.
Just running like it’s a minimum wage job.
I avoid even the smallest of hills. These 2nd night miles must be flat terrain.
Each run ends with equal parts relief and satisfaction. I’m an odd ball out there plodding the streets of Dorchester while most of the city is asleep. I smirk at that thought. I kinda like it.
The post run yoga routine is automatic. No self-persuasions are needed. It’s healing me and my body knows it. Flexibility has actually improved through the night. I’m deeper into all the poses.
Sleep is a non-issue. The runs, the yoga, and the futzing in between all add up to an hour and a half. I need 15 minutes when I wake up to get ready. That leaves 2 hours and 15 minutes of sleep. I devour all of it.
8am…
The daylight is a reward. I manage this run carefully because I’m so very close to completing this. 2 more runs after this one.
Over to Tech Boston High School for some laps with other joggers and walkers getting their fitness in.
The 12pm run and I’m numb. It happens on auto pilot – no thought. This has all become the new normal.
Just in time for the last run.
4pm…
This should be a victory lap. I should float on air for this run.
But, I don’t. The humidity just stayed in place. Always there – Every run.
My mind let the secret out to my leg muscles that this is the last run and they drag even more.
The sun beats down as I slog into my building’s parking lot…AND…
After Thoughts:
I gotta say, I’m pretty proud of this one.
Started all the runs right on time. Never late. Stuck to the schedule and gutted it out.
I even added an extra 2/10ths of a mile or so at the end of each run to get just over 50 miles for the two days – cuz I’m 50 and all.
This challenge was not easy, but just like Goggins says in the intro, I’ve got this in my cookie jar now. I did a hard thing.
And that’s why you might want to take this on. It’s a test. Can you hand over your life for two days and get it done?
I think the format is perfect.
3 miles each run would have been easier. 5 miles each – Too hard. Fast runners finish the 4 miles in around 30 minutes. Slower runners and walkers can move at 4 miles / hour. Good distance for all.
Timewise, 4 hours between runs is the right amount. Less time would make it too much of a scramble. More time between would lead to flow of routine break down. Plus I think Goggins wants you feel a little sleep deprivation (I did – not too much though).
Tips for You:
Clear the two days for this. You want nothing else interfering with the regiment of run, stretch, eat a little, sleep a little…Repeat.
Get all your food and clothes ready. Going to the grocery store between runs to get Clif Bars is precious sleep / rest time down the drain.
Know how to fuel yourself. What do you personally need to eat to power the running, but not cramp? This is personal. Do some testing on some runs before hand. You don’t want to start learning that certain foods race right through your digestion at 4:23am.
Stretch after each run – A lot!
If you’re a regular, average runner like me – Go slow. No need to set PRs on this. The goal is to just finish all 12 runs. Leave hammering the miles to the Type A people out there.
Make a chart or a log to show progress. This helps. Look at what others did online. Some made poster boards to X out each run after it was done. Very helpful to your mind.
For motivation, watch this VIDEO about Bigs Backyard Ultra – Good Stuff.
That’s it Readers…
FIVE BAG FIT 
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