120 000 steps challenge

The first 120 000 steps attempt aka ughhhhhh!

Led by the idea that I am able to reach the total of 120 000 steps by doing 100 000 steps a year ago, I was continuously trying to find the date to do that. A month ago I gave it a shot, extremely enthusiastic to depart the house at some ungodly hour. Every item packed in the bag was calculated and supposed to help me reach 120 000 steps – they had their own special place and purpose, every piece of food was there to perform at its finest, every clothing item was chosen for its comfort and weather protection, there was an extra pair of shoes for later during the day when feet become swollen… the list is was made with a lot of love and intentionality.

The weather itself was perfect – from 5 days before the date I was following the forecast which showed no rain and it was supposed to be sunny/cloudy-ish and a bit windy. I can work with that, I concluded and sealed the date.

I went out at 3AM, ready for the battle versus myself. The pace was steady, the food was eaten in stable intervals, the socks changed, my body was reacting properly to this challenge.

Unfortunately, the attempt was a massive failure.

6 hours after I left the house the rain started to drizzle. I was in the middle of nowhere, on an entirely open road. The rain was unannounced and even invisible on the weather app while the raindrops were persistently pounding my patience anvil. I continued to walk, despite not knowing if it would stop, would it continue, would it increase or decrease. I aimed for a 20h long walk and would have very gladly wanted to know if I should just go home. Still, I just persisted. I can work with rain, I said to myself, you are outside, you are in Norway, you cannot assume you’ll have the weather on your side. Somehow it stopped after 45 min. It became humid and warm. And it became worse later when the sun started to heat the humidity up and made me sweat like a hooker on a Sunday mass.

The blisters were screaming blue murder from the shoes in which I reached 100 000 steps beforehand. Changing socks was not helpful at all at this point. The worst part was pulling the shoes over deep bloody blisters. A true fullblown nightmare.

At around 2PM the rain started once again, decided to play the on/off game, and I simply decided to call it a day so I ordered my ride or die homie to pick me up and deliver me home. I came home pissed off worse than a hornet after you shake its nest, disappointed and upset. I am supposed to do what now? Sit down? But I don’t want to. My mind wanted to be outside, reaching the number; I was not stopped because of the lack of motivation, back pain, leg pain, metal parts in the leg, retrograde Mercury or whichever arcane mystical crap – what stopped me were the plain old blisters.

I sat down, pulled out the data gathered during the walk, and reassessed the reached numbers (steps, km/h, ingested food, water intake… as this helps tremendously for the next attempt) and decided to find another date ASAP. Mostly for the sanity of the rest of the people in the house, of course.

The recent second attempt aka DONE & DUSTED

Bearing in mind all that I have gathered about long walks and experienced on my own I left my house at 3 AM, fully prepared and ready for the goal.

The route was spread along 100 km across Østfold, Eastern Norway. It is the same route I used before, as reaching such massive step counts demands a straight and a well known path with no surprises (such as sudden and unexpected uphill segments when you reach 75 km for example). The path is relatively flat and leads me through a large forest and a few villages.

The weather was cold and fresh; it was raining the night before. I took an extra fleece layer to keep me warm until the sun comes fully out. In July, we have long days and short nights; the sun almost does not set, it looks like dusk at midnight. The steady pace through the forest filled me almost instantly with a good feeling and optimism. This is the only thing you need on such days.

After a few hours I could start gathering the data about the pace. I noticed that a 3h walk brings 20 000 steps, so I could assume that the walk will end around 10PM. Due to unexpected consistency in step count during the day, even at later stages, I ended the walk at 120 000 steps literally 19 hours after I started walking.

The sun came out and warmed up the path. Norwegian forests are gorgeous in every part of the year as every season has its beauty; all this rich greenery is a true feast for the eyes. It’s a pure joy to walk through this.

The total of 19h straight seems like a neverending nightmare. For me, it was extremely relaxing despite the steady military cadence for most of the walk, and as always, it left me wanting more.

Here are some ways in which the walk was improved, ended up being doable and in the end opened the doors to even higher step counts.

Stinson 7

My persistent issue with long trail walks are the blisters. After years of figuring out which hiking shoes could support long walks, and being disappointed massively, I chose HOKA’s Stinson 7. It took a while to find the model which does not look like a parrot during the mating season as they are known to be flamboyant in design.

Here are some first impressions:

• After purchasing the shoes I wore them for a week every minute I was not asleep, in order to break them in and make them available for the 120k walk as soon as I am free to do it
• They are visually very challenging for my eyes (I am not used to chunky footwear) but exceptionally comfortable
• They are very light and airy
• The membrane on the upper part of the shoes is a mesh which keeps the feet breathing during such walks – no one needs soggy feet, especially because this can speed up the blisterization process

And here are some during/post walk impressions:

• That one week I wore them all the time was enough to make them ready for the 120k walk – they broke in extremely fast
• During the 19h walk, the laces did not untie, NOT ONE SINGLE TIME
• The blisters did appear but incredibly different in terms of time compared with any other shoe I wore – at around 90 000 steps (usually they start creeping in at around 50 000 steps)
• The blisters were on a very different and unexpected places (somehow on the feet’s outer sides, I have no clue what on Earth happened there)
• Due to their strange width, they keep the feet stable on the terrain of the norwegian forests which is important when you are 80km deep and your feet and legs start to feel the challenging part

Stinson 7 is celebrated for being the HOKA’s most cushioned model. This is what I needed, knowing that each foot will slam the ground 60 000 times during the day. The shock absorption works like a charm.

Conclusion: within my knowledge, I could not find better shoes for such activity.

Leukotape & moisture wicking socks

One of the pieces of advice I got for blisters was buying leukotape. I did my research, tried them on several occasions during the working days and weeks, and ended up feeling off. If something, anything, feels off and demands that I get used to it I am forced to reconsider its usage. I felt leukotape on my heels and noticed that perceiving them and trying to ignore them makes me shift my focus from the main task.

Besides leukotape, I also gave a chance to several pairs of moisture wicking socks. They are something I am not a fan of using by default as they feel very “off” due to the fabric choice, so I went against the instinct. I tried them beforehand first, of course, 120k challenges are not the occasion to try out anything new. But the result was a bit disappointing – my feet were still very overheated and extremely wet, despite the socks and HOKA’s mesh top side. I liked the slight compression factor, though, the feet felt comfortable with that tightness.

Conclusion: not gonna use them anymore for this purpose.

120 000 steps – a vegan’s nightmare from hell

One of the crucial aspects of planning was the food choice.

It had to be able to:

• Give me fuel (give me fire, give me that which I desire)
• Not easily spoil or change texture after the temperatures rise to 20+ degrees after 11AM
• Be easily digestible and not heavy by any means as I cannot afford feeling sleepy while pushing the limits
• Be easily user friendly while walking – all has to be precut, prepared and ready to eat on such walks
• Act as a high protein source which will support the recovery of the inevitable muscle damage as I walk

The only food which fits this description are: eggs, cottage cheese, edamame, beef with reduced amount of fat and skinkeost. I filled several shakers with these goodies and prayed for the best. Everything was perfect and I cannot be any happier.

At around 60 000 steps I was passing through a nearby city, with a particular milestone – to nail down several ice creams as loading myself with sugar was very convenient and of grave importance at that point.

Conclusion: no need to avoid sugar when you are extremely depleted of it; ingesting over 200g of protein during such a day allows a bit of nutritionally poor but tasty treats.

How to work around fatigue?

At around 85 000 steps a weird feeling creeped in. It made me really uncomfortable and worried. It was a combination of sudden tiredness, drowsiness, legs feeling off, sugar probably dropping to absolute zero and a crippling self doubt. This was the moment when I started thinking about the exit strategies, as I did not feel safe anymore.

Being aware that I am going through something immensely demanding for the entire body, something that not one single person I know did, I just slowed down. I shut the music off and walked in silence.

I thought, while walking slowly, that my step count dropped by -50% at least. I was very wrong. Later the numbers showed that slowing down shaved off barely 10% of the steps at full speed.

Conclusion: numbers don’t lie. Human perception is faulty and subjective. Allow yourself the slower pace, you are getting to the end anyway. Or simply stop. No shame in giving up. There are better days, better weather, better shoes.

Recovery

I expect such feats to carry way more consequences on my body during the walk and afterwards. This is the most common question I hear after massive walks – how are you doing after the walk?

Besides minor stiffness in my lower back and sore thighs and hip joints, which stopped entirely after I woke up the next morning, there is nothing to report. I only slept quite a lot afterwards, as the night before the walk I slept barely 3 hrs.

The Stinsons reduced the amount, depth and duration of blisters afterwards. The largest and bloodthirsty hound has a massive muzzle on its snout; all is well and I hope it stays like that.

Conclusion: still puzzled about how I survived this challenge without being beaten up by the step count, and being able to walk the next day normally.

Extra tips – imma just gonna leave them here

The tiniest chafing or an irritation at 5 000 steps becomes a volcano at 50 000 steps. If you continue to walk with this nuisance and somehow are able to reach 100 000 steps, you will hate it, yourself and the entire universe because of it. Not to mention the damage it causes as well. Terminate it with extreme prejudice and don’t ignore whatever appears. It cannot go away by itself.

I avoid stopping entirely. I would rather slow down and walk, than to stop for any reason which is not extremely necessary. The entirety of the food was eaten while walking; I stopped only to change the socks.

I cannot keep myself offline in such scenarios, but I reduce messaging and similar stuff to a minimum. My goal is to keep the pace steady and undisturbed. I do send an occasional photo or an update, but will not enter messaging debates of any sort.

Such challenges are advertised as elite ultra whatever stuff, which gives them the edge and makes them sound intimidating. I am not an extreme athlete; I just like walking. If I can do it, anyone can. If you can walk 30 000 steps, you can reach 50 000. With time you will reach 75 000 and go beyond over 100 000. This is just the matter of repeating this, noticing what goes wrong and adjusting that, and following the lead your body and experience provide to you.

We, humans, are designed to overestimate our emotions and especially our perception of pain. I assume it’s our bodies’ way of protecting us and keeping us alive. The feeling of pain is not a red trumpet moment commanding you to stop immediately. There is a strange force which arises while working around pain and getting used to it. Acknowledging it, but still choosing to proceed. I was exposed to this during the rehab after the leg fracture and it showed extreme results. This formula works in many ways beyond training a dead leg.

Being able to walk beyond 50 000 steps in a day you are going to feel very lonely. While you are trying to assess how to execute the 120 000 steps plan, the people around you brag about reaching 20 000 steps once in 6 months. The resources are absolute shit as not a lot of people even consider such walks. Reddit and ChatGPT provide some info – but you, doing walks and increasing the final goal each time, are creating a highly tailored database. Use the stats to crunch your way to success out and try to learn directly from your data.