Background information

Project Half Marathon: within reach of the starting line

16/9/2024

In German, there’s a saying: «Anticipation is the greatest joy of all.» And with just a few days to go before the Greifensee Half Marathon on 21 September, I really am feeling that joy. That said, I think I’ll feel even better when I cross the finish line.

The Greifensee Run is now so close that I can practically see the starting line. On Saturday 21 September, in less than a week, Claudio and I will be running our first ever half marathon. We’ve spent the last six months preparing for it.

Honestly, if you’d told me seven months ago that I’d be looking forward to jogging 21 kilometres in a little over two hours, I definitely wouldn’t have taken you seriously. But here I am, writing about my experiences, changes and progress over the last six months one last time before the big day – and looking forward to my half marathon debut. I guess miracles really do happen.

Looking back

When I look back now and reread my articles on what I’ve done, thought, changed and achieved over these last six months, I don’t think things have gone too badly. When I started out, I was running a kilometre in eight minutes, giving me a 10K time of 1 hour and 20 minutes. My heartrate would be low, but my body would be tired and my joints would ache from time to time. I can now run 13–15 kilometres in that time, and still feel fresh afterwards.

The power of building habits

While I had to force myself to go jogging during those first few weeks, I now miss it if I skip a run for two or three days. The studies do say it takes 66 days for new habits to stick. In my case, this would’ve been pretty much the halfway point of the project, some time in late June or early July. It was also right around the time I switched from a leisurely, fat-busting jog to a much faster half-marathon jog with the help of Garmin coach Greg. With him, I was initially better at completing my fourth training session of each week than I have been in the last three or four weeks. Lately, I’ve been missing that last run of the week on occasion. Work and family (a new school year bringing about lots of changes) have been taking precedence over some interval training sessions.

Even so, Coach Greg’s still confident that I’ll achieve my goal.

Bon appétit!

Claudio wasn’t the only one to bump diet down the priority list in those first few months of training. This despite the fact we’d set ourselves the goal, not just of running a half marathon, but of adopting a healthier lifestyle in general. A healthy lifestyle, naturally, is highly connected to our eating habits.

Mostly thanks to my wife’s support and encouragement, I – we – have managed to adapt some elements of our diet without agonising over things we’re giving up or feeling restricted in choosing what to eat. We eat some things less often, others more often, and have swapped some foods out. We haven’t given up meat, dairy products, fat or carbs (even ones that come in the form of sugar). At most, we’ve shifted the percentage of nutrients we’re getting, and their sources. This German book influenced our decisions most:

Reference books

Der Ernährungskompass

German, Bas Chest, 2022

Reference books

Der Ernährungskompass

German, Bas Chest, 2022

Looking forward

On Saturday 21 September at about 1 pm, I’ll be crossing that finish line in Uster. That is, if nothing goes wrong in the meantime (fingers crossed!). With that, Project Half Marathon will come to an end. But it’ll really just be the end of the beginning. After all, the goal Claudio and I share goes far beyond these six months of running training and this one half marathon. It’s supposed to usher in the start of a healthier, more active lifestyle for years and (hopefully) decades to come. Will I succeed in that? Who knows what’ll happen in one, two, five or 20 years’ time? However, today, in the here and now, I’m convinced I’ve chosen the right path and set the right course for myself. It’s a path I feel comfortable following; one where I don’t allow the occasional obstacle to blow me off course.

Time for some new workout motivation

In the past, I’ve allowed the cold and rain to prevent me from jogging, and done exactly the same during a little heat or blazing sun (exceptions prove the rule in both directions). But in winter, when it’s snowy and freezing cold (which, after all, is supposed to happen from time to time), it might take even more effort to spend an hour or more running through dark streets.

Besides, you’ve got to have a bit of variety. New incentives are also key to staying motivated in the long term. Maybe I’ll give a gym membership a try. There are three to choose from around the corner from me. And doing a few months of Crossfit to mix things up a bit doesn’t sound too bad, does it?

Or I could dust off the home gym machine I bought in lockdown and start using it regularly again: