A few weeks ago I wrote about preparing for the Marathon Training Program in my post The Longest Run I’ve Ever Done. Now I wanted to tell you a little bit about where that training got me.

When the Marathon Training Program started on March 5, I realized it had been a long time since I had done any sort of competitive sport. Over the last seven or eight years I have tried to maintain a basic level of fitness through yoga, swimming, light weight training and the occasional run. But for the most part I’ve been a slave to my work desk and any losses or gains I’ve made over the years have gone largely unmeasured.

I decided a great way to start my training would be with a fitness test. I wanted to have a baseline that I could compare myself to as I progressed through the program and completing an evaluation with a certified personal trainer is one of the best ways to do that. Luckily, one of the marathon program co-ordinators, the lovely and talented Ashley Fox, is also one of the University of Calgary’s Personal Trainers.

When Ashley coached me through the fitness evaluation on March 12, I had already made it through my pre-program training, which helped dust off the cobwebs from my previous months of inactivity, but hadn’t been enough to build up a lot of endurance.

ScaleWe started off with some simple measurements (the easy part!).

Height: 165cm

Weight: 57.8kg

Resting Blood Pressure: 110/64 mmHg

Resting Heart Rate: 60 bpm

Waist Circumference: 76cm

 

 

Then came the hard work. We began with the dreaded beep test. For those of you who may be BeepTestunfamiliar with this, the concept is that you listen to a recording that beeps at increasingly faster intervals. When you hear the first beep you begin to run a measured distance. The goal is to get to the end of that distance before the next beep. When you hear the next beep you run back. And you do so as long as you can while having to run faster and faster as time goes on. You only stop when you start missing the beeps and cannot complete the distance fast enough. This is a test that definitely pushes you to your limit. Having Ashley there to coach me through it was a big reason I made it as far as I did (have I mentioned how awesome she is?!).

The result was that I reached Stage 6, which gave me a predicted VOmax of 38.6 ml/kg/min.

Next we completed a series of physical tests. Here are the results:

Bridge

Modified push ups done in a row: 16

Length I could hold a high plank: 1:26 min

Sit and reach (to test flexibility): 40.5 cm ( which apparently ranges in the Excellent category, thank-you yoga!).

The last test sounds simple but it was hilariously, by far the hardest test. Ashley timed how long I could balance on each leg. The twist is that you have to do it with your eyes closed. While I thought I had pretty good balance I was amazed at how much harder it is to balance on one foot with your eyes closed! Seriously if you don’t believe it me try it, right now. See? So hard!

The result was that standing on a mat I held a single leg balance with my eyes closed for… 18 seconds on my left foot and 14 seconds on my right.

We plan on doing another fitness test halfway through the running season and one after I finish my marathon. I am really looking forward to seeing how the training I’ve done will change the results. After just a few months I already feel like I could crush a few of these benchmarks!

If you are starting out on your own fitness journey and are interested in completing a fitness assessment like the one I did you can find more information on the University of Calgary website.