Six Peeps

August 16, 2007

The Crow and the Clydsedale!

Last week I was watching David Letterman. Steve Martin was one of the guests. I have great memories of riding with my dad in his Fiat, listening to an 8-track of Steve Martin doing his 80’s stand up comedy. My dad would laugh so hard, he’d start tearing up. Natrally I loved it. On that same 8-track, Steve Martin played the banjo, and I was immediately fascinated with that intrument.

Steve actually got on stage and played a triple-banjo song with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, a bluegrass band that I have always liked, along with Tony Trischka. It was so cool. Check it out!

The more I listen to Bluegrass, the more I love it. I used to hate Bluegrass music, I would call it “hippie music”. I also can’t stand the way hippies dance, you know they sort of just jump around and put their head down so that their long hair falls in front of their face and usually they make their wrists limp so that their hands fall a bit and hop back and forth in any direction. Once I went to see Runaway Truck Ramp in Boulder and there was a guy who was dancing barefoot, kicking up all sorts of dirt. I scoffed at him at first but was soon a little envious that he felt so comfortable to dance like that with people all around him.

On another random note, and I am not thinking of any specific incident… well maybe when I was invited to a “Price is Right” party a long time ago by someone who made it onto the game show… I was invited which was interesting to me because I was a mere acquaintance to this person and hadn’t heard from her in months and months. I became suspicious that I was being invited assuming that I’d shoot the event for free. Being a photographer is sometimes like that. Kind of like people who own pick up-trucks. Suddenly you are everyone’s best friend… who just happens to be moving this weekend! It’s not something that bothers me. I think it’s funny. I will go to such events, and if I think I am trying to be had for free photos, I might just bring my G7, but not take any photos. hee hee hee!

Oh yeah, Clydesdale… I forgot. OK so lots of running and cycling races have a special category called the “Clydesdale” category. When I used to run the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon, they have this category - BIG people, over 200 lbs. Back then I was in my 190’s and happy that I wasn’t a Clydesdale. Well for the past 4 years, I have been a Clydesdale. Weighing anywhere between 205 and 220. i really start looking fat at 220. I rarely let myself get to that but it has happened. When I started my current commando diet, I was probably about 215. I weighed in this morning (after 3 1/2 weeks) at 200.5! I am almost no longer a Clydesdale! I realized that I am halfway to reaching my goal, and only 1/3 into my 12 week period. So now as long as I can just lose 1.25 lbs per week for the next 8 weeks, I will reach my goal of 185 lbs. I have been totally anal about my eating - NO CHEATING. I eat small meals every other hour, low fat low carb, high protien. I have run every Tues, Wed, Thurs and Sat (even if I have a wedding), and lift every Mon and Fri. Sundays I gorge! On top of that, I have continued to ride my bike to work, to the grocery store, to post office, to meet with people… EVERYWHERE. I guess I ride about 100 miles a week.

So it’s working! I fell off FitDay when I went to Aspen last weekend and didn’t have an internet connection and my Blackberry broke. But I am getting back into it. In fact I need to update that right now: MY FIT DAY!

Now that I am 200, it’s going to be a REAL challenge to get down to 185. I think at that weight, I will be at less than 8% body fat. That’s really hard to achieve. So as motivation, if I can reach my goal of 185 by October 13, then I am going to reward myself. I have always wanted a REALLY nice carbon-fiber road bike. In high school I used to race bikes. I had a ‘94 Schwinn Paramount, that my friend Steve Havenar is now riding. It was an OK bike at the time. But it’s 13 years old. I want a great bike that I can go on long 60-70 mile Sunday rides on, and I really want to join a cycling club that has weekly rides like that. So if I can reach my goal, here’s my reward to myself. I better use these next 8 weeks to save my pennies, too!

Don’t get me wrong, I love my fixie, I love my cross-bike, but neither of those will do for a fast, long Sunday journey through green rolling hills or colorful autumn rides through Aspen, CO. Wish me luck!

August 16, 2007 |