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When Maxim, one of our brand champions, created "100.000 Steps Challenge" on inKin, we didn't know how it would turn out. And even though as of today he is still the only stepper who was able to reach this super goal, it was nice to see the community members supporting and cheering for each other around the challenge.
Maxim is kindly sharing the story of his 100K journey with the rest of inKin community. And from what we can tell, reaching this ultimate goal requires serious power will and determination!
This post is in no way a call to perform this experiment and is the author's subjective story of how he managed to make 100.000 steps in one day. The author strongly recommends not to repeat his actions and always to consult with your medical advisors. Walking 100K steps a day can be harmful to your health and hence all actions are at the expense of your own risk.
I am 38.5 years old. For the past 1.5 years, I've been practicing CrossFit and living an active lifestyle. Before that, however, I had never done any sports besides the obligatory gym classes at high school and college. My longest run distance used to be 10 km (6.2 mi) 20 years ago, and I took my longest walk last year while on vacation.
Unfortunately, I didn't have proper time to prepare myself for this challenge - all I had were 2 days to do the following:
1) First things first: I tried to find out how did people reach 100.000 steps in one day? To my surprise there was not much information on the Interner about other peoples' experience, - all I got was start and end time of the challenge. Bummer.
2) Then I decided to dig into reviews on half-marathons, marathons, and ultramarathons. Believe it or not, my 100K steps task was nearly an ultramarathon even though I wasn't running all the time. Luckily, I stumbled upon Marathon Basics blog and decided to go with the 5- hour marathon runner race strategy and stuck to it until the end.
So, after I was done with my "homework" I had these options laid on the table in front of me:
Start - 6 a.m.
A walk to the stadium.
A marathon run on the stadium.
A walk back home from the stadium.
By noon, I would be supposed to reach at least 50% of my goal or over 50.000 steps. Then a shower, lunch and walking the rest of my goal in 3 stages - 11 - 13 km (6.8 - 8 mi) each with 20-30 mins breaks in between.
The anticipated finish time - 8 p.m.
Start - 6 a.m.
A walk to the stadium.
A 3 hour run on the stadium.
A walk back home from the stadium via longer routes.
By noon, I would probably reach something around 50% of my goal. Then a shower, lunch and walking the rest of my goal in various stages - 12 - 14 km (7.5 - 8.7 mi) each with 20-30 mins breaks in between.
The anticipated finish time - 10 p.m.
Start - 6 a.m.
A walk to the stadium.
I run as much as I am capable of on the stadium.
A walk back home from the stadium via long routes.
If by 12 p.m. I can reach at least 37 - 40K steps, then a shower, lunch and walking the rest of my goal in various stages - 13 - 15 km (8 - 9 mi) each with breaks in between.
The anticipated finish time - midnight.
Start - 6 a.m.
A walk to the stadium. Then I realize I can't run at all. A walk home, back to my warm, cozy bed.
The next step was to identify my walking routes which should have been:
I ended up spending 2 hours with the "ruler" on Google Maps. Luckily, I'm familiar with the area, so I came up with an excellent plan that had everything I needed, including a place to have a bite at on my way.
Once done with the theory, I charged my devices, got some sports nutrition and my outfit ready and off I go!
Thanks to modern technologies and various devices and apps monitoring our daily activity has become much easier. And this is what I had with me that day:
Pro Tip: well, as you've probably noticed by now, I am a tech geek:) But if I wasn't, I would be more than satisfied with only Garmin Vivoactive HR and wouldn't carry an extra kilo of tech weight with me.
All food and drinks I had that day were:
Pro Tip: eat and drink more! Otherwise, you would be paying for it later when your body takes the toll by punishing you big time and showing its "the very best hits", including thermoregulation "tricks". And yes, thanks to dehydration, get ready to feel hangover-ish the morning after.
Pro Tip: my favorite part - clothes...Pardon my French, but make sure to take your "under-matter" seriously - nothing should make you feel uncomfortable and tight. Unless you want to get a few blisters where they certainly do not belong. Pay attention to seams, take extra caution (!!!) when cutting off the labels. You have no idea how abusive can one little label on your tee collar be. Socks can give you hell, too. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. As per shoes, my advice - try to change shoes and socks several times if you can. Or only socks at least. Your sneakers must be comfortable and dry because if you do get wet, you'll be saying hi to those nasty feet blisters. And yes, a side bag is a bad-bad idea - a backpack would be much more practical.
Off we go!
My goal is to stick to plan A for as long as possible.
Fast walk to the stadium. 5000 steps were covered.
As you can see, I had to stop at the traffic light around the ninth minute.
Time for a run... I had never run for so long before, so if there are any experts reading my post right now, I would appreciate your comments and thoughts on my performance.
The hardest part was to deal with my pride - how long and how fast would I be able to run? At first, the goal was to stick to comfortable 6:30 mins per 1 km (0.62 mi). But it's not as easy at it sounds. Later, when more morning runners were coming to the stadium, I caught myself on competing with them and, hence, automatically increasing my speed. So I had to control it by constantly monitoring my metrics on the tracker. People were coming and going, but I was till there running one circle after another. Every 5000 steps I would stop to snap my tracker's display and to have some water and supplements. It had come as a surprise that I managed to run for over 30 km.
Control points:
7:24 a.m. - 10.000 steps, BCAA.
7:56 a.m. - 15.000, gel + BCAA.
8:27 a.m. - 20.000 steps, BCAA.
8:56 a.m. - 25.000 steps, a gel + BCAA.
9:26 a.m. - 30.000 steps, Coca-Cola.
9:59 a.m. - 35.000 steps, Coca-Cola.
10:30 a.m. - 40.000 steps, the rest of BCAA.
I popped into my office to get some water and kill a banana and a protein shake kept there from Friday. Started walking back home via the longer route. Right at my building the fitness device finally indicated the desired 50.000 steps and a massive dark gray cloud popped up on the sky, hardly promising anything good - perfect timing for being back home.
The second I got home I knew I would never repeat this run ever again! So I had no other choice as to reach 100K that day.
According to my plan I was supposed to take just a quick shower. But it started raining heavily outside so not only I ended up enjoying my pelmeni, but I also had a bath instead of the shower (made my day:) That costed me 45-50 mins that I had to catch up later on.
I packed the rest of my food, a couple of water bottles, an extra charger (which I never needed), and since the weather was back to normal, I was ready for part #2.
I was on the right track, despite few inconvenient traffic lights on the way, when it started raining again (1:10 - 1:40 p.m.). I got wet and lost time when I made a decision to continue walking towards the mall to have a bite and dry myself. Had 1 bottle of isotonic drink and a Burger King Caesar Roll at the mall.
Control points:
2:06 p.m. - 55.000 steps
2:52 p.m. - 60.000 steps
3:40 p.m. - 65.000 steps
Reaching my breaking point: it got really hard to walk, my feet and legs were already killing me, and all I wanted to do is to sit for a bit or better lie...preferably until tomorrow:)
Control point: 4:40 p.m. - 70.000 steps.
I want to tell you more about my emotions at 75.000 steps as it was my breaking point. Once my brain realized that I still had to make 25.000 steps, my daily average goal, the only thought I had was to stop. How on Earth I was supposed to walk another 25K after all I'd been through?! I wanted to give up, my motivation dropped, and I was close to bursting out of tears like a little girl, calling my wife for picking me up or whatever - as long as this was all over!
I sat on the bench, massaging my exhausted calves, and thought what to do next. I knew I had gone so far, but the worst part was just about to begin. In few minutes the shock was gone, I pulled myself together and started figuring out the route. Since each curb or stairs made me suffer more, I had to rethink my initial path. So I made a decision to get back to the stadium, run until roughly 90K and then take a longer walking route back home.
Control point: 6:05 p.m. - 80.000 steps, third gel gone.
So I arrived at the stadium, determined to run. Running my ass! Great idea, man! No comment... - 7:30 mins per 1 km (0.62 mi)!
Ok, no more runnig for me then. Just a long-long walk back home.
Oh, those traffic lights! I loathe you! Each stop on the way was a challenge because it made even harder to keep going. Stairs and curbs, "a plague on both your houses" !
Control points:
7:29 p.m. - 90.000 steps.
8:14 p.m. - 95.000 steps.
8.59 p.m. - 100.000 steps.
9:04 p.m. - BINGO!!!
To sum up, I did get behind my optimistic plan by an hour. But I also finished sooner than I thought I realistically would (*proud face*;)
Where there was a dark gray cloud once, a sun was setting - I made it to the sunset! All I had to do now was to take those 5 last stairsteps to my building, a corridor and finally I'm home.
Overall time: 15 hours
Active time: 13 hours 8 minutes.
Completing 100.000 steps in one day is an incredibly hard task. But even though I would probably never do it again, I'm glad I accomplished this goal and didn't give up on the way. However, please remember that meeting 100K can put your wellbeing in jeopardy - it took my body almost a week to recover. It doesn't matter how big is your goal, as long as reaching it makes you healthier and happier:)
Have something to add? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Photo Credit: Maxim Morzhov and Bigstockphoto
