Background information
Project Half Marathon: from 0 to 21 kilometres in 6 months
by Oliver Fischer
Project Half Marathon: fitness test causes cramp
1.4.2024
The idea is born. But what next? In six months’ time, we, Oliver Fischer and Claudio Candinas, want to complete a half marathon at the Greifensee Run. As a first step, we want to understand where our bodies are at. That’s why we signed up up for a fitness, performance and metabolic analysis.
But let’s rewind.
Nothing will work unless you do
To do this, we used the services provided by the experts at Medathletik.
It’ll be the only time during our challenge that professionals give us at least a few pointers on how realistic our plan is and where we should start. We won’t be given any diet or training plans, and will only meet them again at the very end of our challenge to see which changes we’ve implemented in the past six months.
What we had tested:
- Metabolic analysis. This involves lying on a couch for 30 minutes and breathing slowly and regularly into a mask attached to a computer. The computer program measures the composition of your breath and tells you how much fat, carbohydrates and protein your body’s burning.
- Functional Movement Screen (FMS). This requires performing numerous flexibility, coordination, balance and strength exercises with your arms and legs. The aim is to analyse how strong and, above all, how evenly your muscles are developed and whether you have significant deficits or left-right deviations.
Are you curious about performance diagnostics and nutrition in connection with exercise? For further info, check out Siri Schubert’s articles on the subject:
How fit is Claudio?
First up, I’d like to set a few things straight. My ID’s lying and my scales are plain mean. How dare my ID card tell me I’m 173 centimetres tall when I’m actually 3 centimetres taller?! I can’t believe the passport office let it get away with these lies. But the cheek of the ID card’s
outdone by my scales. They mercilessly confront me with the brutal reality and an unforgiving display: 82.9 kilos and a body fat percentage of roughly 30 per cent. Bit harsh, scales! In other words, I’m one-third fat. A human chip, so to speak. I doubt I have what it takes to complete a half marathon at this fighting weight.
The performance tests at Medathletik were anything but a walk in the park. I was bending, stretching, contorting and mainly exerting myself in slow motion. Yup, the exercises – especially those for the core muscles – were tough. I can still feel the after-effects three days later. But this also means that something’s happening in my body. And that’s a great feeling.
I’m now deep diving into all the results of the analyses and trying to put together a workout plan and, above all, a nutrition plan I can easily integrate into my everyday life. Most importantly, it should be one I won’t get sick of two weeks into starting. That’s because Oliver and I promised each other to go through with it together. Come what may. I miss my nightly trips to the fridge already.
For motivational purposes I gifted myself an Apple Watch before going on this fitness quest. I’ll have to track all my activity, after all. What’s more, I’m just a big gadget fan.
How fit is Oliver?
I’m just under 1.77 metres tall and weigh 84 kilogrammes. With a BMI of 26.9 and a body fat percentage of 27.7 per cent, I’m definitely carrying around a few kilos of belly fat too much. At least that’s what Medathletik’s Dimi Evangelidis, who’s carrying out the tests, tells me matter-of-factly. And I agree that losing three to four kilos would be a good idea. Seems like a doable goal if I start doing regular endurance sports.
But apparently my metabolism doesn’t agree. The analysis showed that my body apparently gets two thirds of its energy from carbs; with fat accounting for just under 20 per cent of the energy used. Great. So first, I have to teach my muscles how to get their energy from my generous fat stores.
Thanks to the spiroergometry results, I now know at what heart rate I need to cycle or jog for the best fat-burning results. The good news is that this value (142 bpm) is also the range in which I train my basic aerobic endurance most efficiently (134–150 bpm). If I’ve understood correctly, I need to lay this foundation first in order to have a chance of running 21 kilometres in September.
Sounds like we have a win-win situation.
At least in theory. As I mentioned above, I can only dream of jogging at the moment. I can’t even take two steps through my home office without a walking aid.
Stay tuned.
And follow Claudio and Oliver.
Project Half Marathon – how it all started:
Oliver Fischer
Teamleader Editorial
Oliver.Fischer@digitecgalaxus.chGlobetrotter, hiker, wok world champion (not in the ice channel), word acrobat and photo enthusiast.
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