The BUPA Fitness Assessment with Mo Farah
I was invited to a BUPA centre this week to check out their new BUPA Fitness Assessment. This assessment, which has previously only been available to elite athletes in high class sports science centres, tests pretty much every facet of your physical fitness. You’re then provided with your results and a consultation with a BUPA health advisor who can use the stats to tell you how to train more effectively. The difference is though, that I got to watch Mo Farah take the test.
You know Mo Farah, he of 2010 double gold medal winning 5000m and 10,000m at the European Track and Field Championships fame. He of first British man to run a 5K in under 13 minutes fame. Yeah, that guy. It was pretty fascinating to see how an elite athlete’s body works. I came away from it convinced that Mr Farah is half man, half machine. They didn’t administer the full hour long test on him (in the full test, the treadmill portion lasts about 12 minutes), but they had Mo running fairly quickly (or what may even be classed as ‘pretty fast’ to us mere mortals) flat out for around seven minutes and I kid you not when I say he wasn’t even remotely out of breath when he finished.
Note me trying to get my head around Mo's superhuman results
I’ll be having the test myself in the coming weeks so will go into more detail about it then, but to give you a general idea, it covers your blood pressure/pulse, body composition, lung function, cardio fitness, VO2max score, anaerobic threshold, metabolic efficiency and more. In terms of understanding how your body works and how to best utilise your assets and work on your weaknesses, this test covers it all.
When the test was over, I had a chance to ask Mo a few questions.
He tells me he was always competitive. ‘I hate losing’ he says. Good job he doesn’t really make a habit of it then. He made the decision to go pro in 2005 and had a chance to live and train with the Kenyans (who dominate distance running) and took careful note of their ‘eat, sleep, train’ regime. ‘If I wanna beat these guys,’ he thought, ‘this is what I have to do.’
What do you think about when you run?
It’s hard to say. When I go for a long run, certain things pop into your head. You think about your next race and what you have to do to prepare. Or I’ll wonder what my wife’s cooking for dinner, just things like that really. But on race day, I’m totally focused. I’m nervous, it’s hard to eat anything, you’re just thinking about what you need to do. Then when the race starts, it’s like a release ’cause you can just think about that.
Do you train with music?
Yeah. I like Tinie Tempah, Devlin, Kano – I like anything that has a good beat, that gets me fired up. Definitely when I’m warming up too.
You recently moved out to Portland, Oregon. How has that helped your training?
So far it’s going really well. I seem to be happier in terms of starting a new life and stuff. I think it’s a good decision that I went out there, ’cause I can just do that little bit more, improve that little bit more. 2010 was a great year for me, so if I wanted to improve on that, something needed to change. I’m really enjoying it.
What’s your favourite distance to run?
I’d say my favourite is the 3000m. I like the 5000m too, but I like 3000m ’cause it’s short and I like the prep for it – it’s a lot of short speed work, as opposed to the 5000m or 10000m where you have to do longer distances in training.
When a run isn’t going according to plan, how do you get back on track?
You just have to stay positive and motivate yourself to turn it around. Talk to yourself, tell yourself what you have to do and just stay positive.
This year I’m doing two half marathons and my first full marathon in the space of three weeks. What advice can you give me as I step up to the full marathon distance?
When you start training, don’t think you have to run every day. Just try to run as easy and comfortably as you can. Build up to the longer distances and work tempo runs into your training (run for 10 minutes fast, then 10 minutes slow). The more mileage you get into your legs, the more you’ll be able to cope with the marathon distance. The more training you can do, the better.
[Insert me gushing about my Team Bangs on the Run ladies] Do you have any advice for new runners taking on the half marathon distance?
Yeah, just don’t go off too hard at the start or you’ll pay for it further into your run. Try to take the first half of the race easy and do the second half faster to save energy. And of course, stay hydrated and eat well the night before.
The BUPA Fitness Assessment is available at BUPA centres in London from this month and across the country from July. For more information, go to www.bupa.com
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Tags: BUPA, BUPA Fitness Assessment, Mo Farah, running
