Fitness Friday: Back in the Saddle Again, Interviewing a Real Stud

This is Fitness Friday Girl, and I am interviewing the one and only Stud Man, Jon Cooper, who just completed the Ride to Conquer Cancer. He is my guest today on the program. Mr. Cooper, it’s glad to have you…(laughing)…it’s glad to have you? (He’s so cute, he makes me all flustered)

It’s glad to be here (laughing)

Before we begin, I have to ask, your wife is quite a catch.

And many people would argue that you married up. What’s your response to that?

Uh, yes (laughing)

Are you saying that because your anniversary weekend is coming up and you don’t want to ruin it? Or is it just true?

Yes. (laughing hard)

OK, well tell me about the Ride to Conquer Cancer

The Ride to Conquer Cancer is a cycling ride, that is a two-day event. It is intended to be 75 miles each way, where the riders raise money with the intention that the money would be used in the local community to raise awareness, research dollars and care for cancer and cancer victims.

And how many riders total in Louisville this year?

I’m not sure, I never got a full count. But I think it was around 400. And this was the first event in the U.S. There were prior events put on by the same organization in Canada. But Norton Healthcare was the first organization to utilize this company to do it in the U.S.

Awesome. So, were you a cyclist prior to this event?

No, I was not.

How long you need to train?

Well, I started training in May-ish.

So, prior to this, did you pretty much just sit on the couch and do nothing?

No (laughing). No, I worked out, but not nearly as frequently or in such long intervals.

Um, what kind of cardio did you do before this?

I would typically do about 3 sessions of elliptical a week for about a half hour.

The first time you got on a bike, how did it feel?

Well, I actually first borrowed my neighbor’s bike, and put it on a trainer indoors. It was fine. I had a pretty good start because of the elliptical. But the first time on the road was a different story altogether.

Why was that?

Because I realized there are hills outdoors. We live in Kentucky.

Yes, we do. How often did you need to train to get ready? It ended up being 157 miles, right?

Yes, 82 to Lexington and 75 back.

In order to go from 30 minutes on the elliptical, to short sessions on a trainer in your basement to 157 miles round trip, you must have had to train quite a bit. So, tell me about your training.

Well, I didn’t want to just make it there and back, I wanted to be competitive. I wanted to push myself and see if I could get a better fitness level going. So, I found that there were a lot of other people riding and hooked up with some folks. I tended to ride with people that were at different levels, but ultimately bonded with some folks who were at my level and we progressed together. I ended up putting in 2 to 3 rides a week. Toward the end, I was averaging somewhere between 80 and 120 miles a week. And I think I got up to 140 or 150 one week.

(That’s Stud Man in the front on the right)

Wow. You must have had a very supportive wife through all of that!

Yes. And she’s also very hot.

Yeah, I’ve heard that.

I married up.

That’s what they say! That’s awesome. Have you seen any physical changes in your health or body?

Well, it’s subtle, because it takes time. But I guess for a lot of people who didn’t see me very frequently, it was more noticeable, because I got so many comments. But I didn’t’ start off overweight. So for me it wasn’t as noticeable. I did lose about 6 pounds. The biggest shift was just in my “distribution.”

Distribution. Sounds “industrial.”

A better way to put it is that I just became more toned. I didn’t lose a ton, but I didn’t have a lot to lose to begin with. I just shifted. What fat I had, kind of went away and was replaced by muscle. I’m just leaner than I was before.

And all the women hate you for that…

I did have several women say they couldn’t draft (ride closely) behind me because it was an insult to draft behind someone whose bottom was not as wide as theirs. (loud laughing) That was a rule they shared with me.

Drafting behind bigger bottom people was the rule, and you were disqualified.

Yes.

What was your biggest challenge of this whole experience?

Staying committed to doing it constantly. I have been kind of a feast or famine exerciser. I’ll do it episodically. I work out hard for a period of time and I give it up and stop for a period of time altogether and not do anything. But knowing I had a goal and a deadline, helped me stay focused on what I had to do. So even when I wasn’t up for it or feel like doing it, I knew if I wanted to do it well, I had to make the effort to do it.

Did you have to change your eating habits?

I didn’t have to, I just found that I did.

Like what?

I wanted to put healthier foods in my body.

But your wife cooks really healthy anyway, doesn’t she?

I’m blessed with a smokin’ hot wife who allowed me to marry up and her cooking is awesome. Her cooking helped because she’s a healthy eater. And she supported it by continuing with the organic and healthy options. I never was a bad eater, but I just tried cutting things out or eat them less frequently. At the same time, I got to indulge too. Having a burger and fries wasn’t the worst thing in the world because I knew on the weekend I was probably going to burn 6000 calories.

One of the benefits of exercising, for sure.

On a hard ride, we could burn 4000-4500 calories.

That’s amazing. So, is it true that you shaved your legs and had to put band aids on your nipples?

I refuse to answer either of those questions. And no, I never did shave my legs.

OH, OH!!!!!!! Fitness Friday Girl has visually observed less hair! (falling over in disbelief that he’s denying this)

I never shaved!

What did you do then? (Still in disbelief that he’s bold-face LYING to you all!!!)

What’s the definition of shorn? (inside joke…sorry, readers)
‘
Fine. Talk about nipples.

(laughing, shaking head) The second day of the ride was very cold and I had one thin shirt on because I thought it was going to warm up. It never did and chaffing started in. So rather than chaffing, I decided to bandage up. I heard it worked, so I tried it. And this better not make it on your website.

It’s my blog. I’m free to edit as I choose.

(Mumbles something about having access to the blog too…which isn’t true. He wouldn’t know how to get on here if his life depended on it.)

And did you ever have any encounters with viscous or deceased animals?

Actually both. It’s probably the biggest story of the whole ride. One day while riding in southern Indiana with some friends, I was riding down the road and in the oncoming lane was a dead possum and an oncoming car. At the precise moment I was passing by the dead possum, the car coming the opposite way was passing OVER the possum. And at said moment the car ran over the possum. And like a ketchup package being smashed under your feet, the car sent possum guts and blood all over me. It was nasty.

I heard there is a commemorative shirt in the possum’s honor.

Yes, the shirt was presented to me by the Executive VP and Chief Operating officer at a management meeting.

And then, we ended up stopping on the country side, and I used leaves from plants in a field to wipe the blood off me.

Ooooo, primitive.

Then about an hour later, a dog came barking and running out toward us. I thought it was behind an enclosed fence. What I realized too late was that the fence was decorative and before I knew it, the dog was around the fence and on my ankle trying to bite me.

Probably trying to eat the blood from the possum.

Needless to say, I didn’t have time to react. Just fight or flight. And I fled. And took off, and the dog chased me for about 150 yards, became exhausted, dropped off and the friends that I was with laughed the whole way because by the time they got to the dog, the dog was too tired to chase them.

Is there anything else you’d like to say to the readers of Fitness Friday?

If you have an opportunity to take on a journey like this, it’s well worth it for several reasons. One, whether it’s the Ride to Conquer Cancer or some other fundraiser, they’re for a good cause. In our case, the dollars stayed in our local community. I got the added benefit of getting in better shape and have a love for a sport I had never been active in. And it allowed me to build some friendships that I think will last a long time. Some friends that I otherwise wouldn’t have known and memories that I’ll always have trying to get in shape and having a good time. Two riders in particular, Junior and David, I rode with a lot in training and then we road to and from our destination. We had a great time.

Speaking of your ride to and from, word has that you had quite a finish on your ride to Lexington.

Our goal was to push it hard on the first day and enjoy the ride and the stops on the second day. So on the way there, we got there pretty fast….(pausing here to be modest)

Go on….

We ended up finishing 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th in the event. So we did OK. But it wasn’t a race. But for us old guys, we decided to push it. And we got beat by 2 20-something guys with only about 4 miles to go.

So now that you are all studly and tone and lean and famous, what do you do to ward off the other hot women who want to meet with you and be with you?

I share the story about the possum blood. That pretty much does it.

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I love you, Jon!!!!!

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CHECK OUT THESE OTHER FITNESS FRIDAY POSTS FROM MY PARTNERS IN FITNESS!

Alyce at Pot’s On the Stove has an amazing and healthy recipe to share. Roasted Spicy Mayo Chicken with Spinach. You’ll want to try this one!

Sarah at All Pain No Gain shares her experience of recovering after and injury and the effects of “detraining” on the body. Good stuff!