Even digitally, the truth looks pretty damn mean: 126.3 kilos live weight and that in the morning, sober, not even a coffee in his stomach. Christian Spiekermann can hardly believe it and slowly steps off the scales. He grimaces and touches his damaged knee. Then he looks in the mirror: too fat, knee broken and no motivation for training. Christian feels like a major construction site. Rewind button, nine years earlier: Christian runs his ten-kilometre lap - at a relaxed five minutes per kilometre. Afterwards, he gets on his bike to burn off a 36 kilometre pace on the tarmac. Triathlete, iron man - that was Christian's passion. The two-metre giant weighed 94 kilos back then.
At first it was just the knee that pinched
In August 2014, one knee operation and one degree later, Christian is no longer running ten-kilometre laps. He sits in his company car with a Big Mac box draped across his stomach. The inspector bites into the burger and doesn't quite understand why: "I don't know how it happened either. First my knee tweaked, then I did less sport, then I ate the round-and-healthy patty during my studies. Well, then you have two children, even less time and suddenly you're no longer at the top of the food chain but at the bottom. That has to change now," he chats and bites into the burger as if it were his last meal.
And the burger kind of is, because the next day Christian starts working with Clemens Hesse. The sports scientist from Cologne, who normally trains Markus Kaufmann to become an uphill machine, takes on the colossus. "It's an exciting project, as Christian hardly has any time and also has a slight discipline and motivation problem. When he comes back from the night shift and has spent the whole evening fretting about the crime on our streets, he likes to reach for sweets. But hey, who can blame him?" Hesse's plan includes individual steps: more sport. Get his knees in order. And finally, nutrition.
The three construction sites at a glance
The knee Knee surgery on a bursa bag put the Oberhausen native out of his sporting career. Although the routine operation was not serious, Christian became accustomed to taking it easy.
The weight Christian weighed 126.3 kilos, which is too much even for a two-metre man. A change in diet should solve the problem.
The time As an inspector, Christian has a stressful job with lots of night shifts. With two children, a wife and a dog, there is hardly any time for sport. A special minimal programme provided the solution.
Training and nutrition tips from experts
You can read in BIKE how sports scientist Hesse structures the training for Christian, what nutrition tips he gets and how it all works. You can find the full story in BIKE 2/2015 on newsstands from 3 January.
Interview with "BIKE help me" candidate Christian Spiekermann
How can that be: not even ten years ago you were ultra-fit, then everything changed?
The problem was mainly due to my knee operation. I realised at some point when I was running that it hurt and went to the doctor. He said straight away: stop, running at your size is madness. Then came the operation, and here too I was told never to jog again. I was then completely blocked in my head because I was always afraid of breaking something. Basically the wrong way. I only lost muscle mass and put on fat.
Why didn't you pull the ripcord earlier?
I tried it myself again and again: I had, for example the story of Oliver Soulas who rode the BIKE Transalp without having done much sport beforehand. He was also fat and had zero time. When I read his story and that he had mastered the Transalp, I was hooked. I ate like him, but I kept having setbacks. I couldn't do it under my own steam.
What happens next?
Initially, I only wanted to do the middle distance in Willingen, but now I can do more. I'm still being coached and my training is geared towards something bigger. I have my eyes on the BIKE Four Peaks.
