Getting old...it brings some thoughts to mind.

In a couple of days I'll be 39 years old. I share a birthday with professional cycling's legendary masher Jan Ulrich. That's kinda cool, I'm a bit of a masher myself, and if I were to ever line up at the start of a race, I'm sure the announcers would proclaim me overweight.

That brings up one point. I am currently measuring at 27% body fat according to my scale, which puts me in the "obese" category. This is not something I am happy with, though at 194 lbs. I am a solid 10 lbs. lighter than I was 6 months ago. I am hereby setting a goal, in public. I desire to be in better shape at 40 than I was at 20, and I want to drop (let's make it even) 10% body fat.

Now I have to say that at 20, I was certainly not in the best shape of my life. I had been in the Air Force for 6 months, and had gained probably close to 15 lbs. from the very light 150 or so I was when I graduated from high school in 1986. My cardio-vascular fitness was nowhere near what it had been before, and the extra weight came from eating 2 minute meals in basic training followed by double cheeseburgers in tech school. Then there was recreational beer drinking and entry into an adult world where you spend most of your time at work, where physical exertion is to be avoided as much as possible. It all added up to put on weight I didn't need, and at the time didn't care about. I was under my max, after all.

Now I am stronger than I ever was in high school, with more upper body strength, and I'd say that for someone that wasn't an athlete I was pretty strong then. This makes it hard to set a weight goal. The one time I've been below 150 since 1986, it wasn't a healthy weight for me at the time, and I've gained some upper body and leg mass since then. As a result, I can only guess what a healthy weight for me is going to be, but I'm guessing that at 17% body fat it'll fall somewhere between 165-170 lbs..

So what am I going to do about it? Well the most simple thing I've found is that if I am riding my bike consistently, I lose 1 lb. for every 100 miles I ride. So my mileage goal for the period of Dec. 2, 2006, and Dec. 2, 2007 is 2500 miles. I will count trainer time at 14.5 miles per hour spent on the trainer, which is close to my current average speed for 2006. Trainer time will come into play from December to about March, and I'll use this time, following Chris Carmichael's concepts, to increase my cardio-vascular capacity. Additionally, I'll continue to use my Total Gym with the goal of muscle toning, not building. I don't want to be 60 and have to pump iron to keep from going all to flab. Then of course there's the dietary considerations. I'm going to increase my vegetable intake and decrease my carbohydrates, allowing my body to create the sugars it needs like it was intended to do. I will keep you posted on my progress.

On a more profound note, I also share a birthday with Britney Spears. She seems to be partying it up here lately, so maybe if I get in touch with Jan, we can get Paris to throw us all a kegger.

In the spirit of Sam's Christmas List post, I'll do the same, sorta. I don't want pants; I'm planning to lose some weight. Shirts would be OK in a L or XL size, I don't generally do well with long sleeves or turtle necks. Cycling clothing is always great. I generally wear an XL size jersey and M size shorts. There's tons of cool jerseys available, and for the love of God stay with black shorts, with chamois. In other cycling gear I could use some Shimano SPD-SL cleats, the yellow ones, not the red. Spare tubes with presta valve to fit a 700 x 23 tire are always appreciated. Away from cycling, some of you may be vaguely aware that I appreciate good knives, and feel that a dull knife is dangerous. I've been wanting a Lansky Deluxe sharpening kit for years. It's about $40 and available at most sporting goods stores, I just haven't ever gotten around to buying one, so buy me one and I'll sharpern your kitchen knives forever! I've also become quite fond of my Blade CP R/C helicopter, and could use a set of stock rotor blades for it and maybe even a machined aluminum swashplate kit. The rotor blades are something I need from time to time, the swashplate is a really cool accessory. Hobbytown is your friend, and mine! Other than those items I'm pretty clueless when it comes to a Christmas list.

With that, I'm going to call it a night. I'm supposed to ride with Mark and Chris tomorrow, so there should be an abundance of pain and suffering.