Things are getting
better I think. I’ve been riding 1.5 to 2 hours everyday really easy, and I
feel like I’m getting back to normal. The feelings are better in the legs, but
I feel like I get tired pretty quickly – instead of a long time, it’s not a
very long time. I’m going to try for some goodness tomorrow, but it’s completely
up in the air. If I can get between 3 and 6 hours in at a good clip, I’ll be
pretty happy. Between 3 and 6 hours, that’s funny.

I’m so tired. I
think I’ve been sleeping too much. Jacob tells me I have. He’s probably right.
I still haven’t run into a time when he was wrong unfortunately. I’ve gone into
complete sleep long and hard mode, cuz I figure maybe that’ll help the process
of feeling better quicker. Then there’s sleeping too much though, when I feel
just crappy and lethargic all day, and start to think that I’m sick, but I’m
really just being lazy and my body has just shut completely down.

I think I’m a hypochondriac.

Whatever. No more
bikey talk. It’ll be good when it’s time. I’ll be rarin to go when the time
comes.

Jacob’s familia
has been in town for the past few days. That has been good fun. I’ve been helping
Mr. Fetty get his mp3 player up and running, he’s pretty stoked on that. It
has been quite the process going from cd to mp3, but it’s cool. He’ll probably
get more use out of his mp3 player than I do.

There have been
some cool changes to the house that coincided with their visit – we now have
a super cool piece of art glass hanging in one of the windows, Jacob has a new
bed, the living room has two lovely new chairs (I know they’re not chairs…I
don’t know what they’re really called), and the garage has a futon that has
been exiled from the living room, and a lovely row of hooks for hanging bikes
and wheels. It’s hot. Like seriously.

Most importantly,
Jacob’s mom made me my very own toboggan. You probably know a toboggan as a
HAT, but whatever, minor details. Anyways, so everyone went to the store a couple
of days ago and picked out their favorite color yarn, and now we all have amazing
new hots. Mine is dark red, soft, beautiful, and has a tassel/pom pom thing
at the top. Straight hotness.

I don’t have any
other clever stories at the moment.

My sister has decided
that she is going to be my Pen Pal, so I pretty much have to get rolling on
that, or she’s going to hate me forever and ever, and that would be crappy.
It’s so funny getting her little notes in the mail. She sent me one the other
day – it was a thank you card: Thank you for coming to visit us. Love, Hannelore.

I’d put a picture
of my sister up right now, but I’m tired and EuroTrash has to be written. Pictures
in articles are the coolest thing ever, but it’s an incredible pain in the butt.
I probably just don’t do it right, but that’s no surprise.

Jamila and I went
downtown yesterday. We walked on campus for awhile, and I decided pretty much
that if I go back to school to get a Masters in German, it will only be because
I want to go back to Germany for an extended period again. At least I know WHY
I want to now, I was never really sure before. I just figured it would be cool
to learn more German.

Haha.

Jamila is studying
for a test right now, but she’s really not. She’s passed out on the bed.

I’m going to have
almost 100 hours on the bike this month when the end of the month rolls around.
That’s pretty cool. I’m going to take that to my nearest K-Roger and cash it
in for some Diet Citrus Drop.

Generic carbonate
flavored drinks with no calories and lots of caffeine – so hot right now.

Team camp is over.
It was a good time. Well, it was a good time meeting people and riding and stuff
like that, but generally I was pretty much miserable and mean. I started sick
and stayed sick and it just made things a little less fun, but I started getting
over it, and that helped things.

We got in some
good rides, rode some good roads, flatted a lot, and most importantly I got
sick. Or at least I think I’m pretty solidly sick. You know, those tell-tale
signs of extreme weakness on the bike, or maybe I’m just regressing. Either
way, I think I’ll be taking some long, hard, quality time off and practicing
my sleeping and hoping that whatever the f*ck I have goes away VERY quickly.
I don’t like this crap.

I got my new bike.
It’s nice. Ten speed is nice, the new bars are nice, so are the new shoes, hell
everything is nice, but I just want all of my old stuff back. I want my old
shoes, my old bike, my old everything. I never thought I’d be such a whiner
when it comes to new things. I also guess I didn’t realize that I’ve basically
been on the same stuff for the past three years. This is all a big sting to
the system. I’m not saying the new stuff isn’t perfect, that might be the problem,
it’s all just so nice and perfect and precise. My old stuff was scratched, dented,
barely worked, but it was mine, and it was loved. It was like an extension of
me. Whatever. I’ll get over it.

Yeah, it’s really
tough sometimes.

I’m such a reject.

I’m going to head
to bed here in a minute. I’m tired. I’m tired all the time these days. I hate
being sick and not feeling like there’s anything wrong with me. It’s frustrating.

One good thing
did come of all of this…I finally broke down and got health insurance. I would
have liked to have gone to the doctor a little while ago, like last week, but
I couldn’t. Now I can…I think. I don’t have any numbers or anything, so I
guess I really can’t, I think my coverage starts Feb 1 too, so that doesn’t
help me too much. 60 dollars a month for 3000 deductible and 40 dollar co-pay.
I wish I lived in Germany.

I went to the bank
today and bout had a come apart. I went to deposit a whole bunch o checks, namely
one from Canada, that was a US Dollar Account, and these fools tried to tell
me they were going to have to convert the funds, meaning I was going to lose
EIGHTY EIGHT dollars from Canadian to American Dollars. I just about lost it.
The check is for 500 dollars, it’s in American funds, I’ve done this at least
four times since I opened an account and you’re telling me that you’re going
to steal EIGHTY EIGHT dollars from me? Give me my check back. I’d rather frame
it and put it on the wall than let you steal my money.

I dug some holes
today. That was fun. I helped Jacob fix some disasters caused by Emma and Tucker.
It ended up helping the whole deal out a lot. Now there’s a nice brick area
around one entrance, and another beautifully ginormous rock at the other. It
felt good to have something to show for at least a little efffort. I even swept.

I can go to bed
now, knowing that I did something today besides make Jamila really mad at me,
sleep, and eat.

I didn’t mean to
not post for such a long time, but things have gotten a bit hectic and I’ve
gotten a bit sick, so I’ve been trying to practice and sleep. Sleep has not
come very well of late though, I’ve been sleeping crappy, riding ok, and generally
feeling pretty miserable off of the bike. Thankfully, I feel at least ok on
the bike, which means I just keep on truckin.

I might have written
something else yesterday if the internet hadn’t slowed to slower than dial-up.
I had some PEZ work to do and I came pretty close to throwing my computer through
the window. No wait, I wouldn’t do that, but I did come close to punching the
wall. I might have done that. Probably not though.

We’re having our
team camp for Abercrombie/Inferno right now in Athens. It has been pretty cool
so far. It’s been fun getting to know my teammates for next season and getting
a lot of cool stuff. I know a lot of people say getting new team stuff for the
year whenever it is, is like Christmas in bla bla…well…it’s true, so I guess
it’s ok to say it, even if it’s trite and annoying. I’ve never received so much
cool bike stuff ever. I like to think that that’s not a big deal, but when all
of this stuff just lands in your lap…it’s pretty alright. Definitely makes
me want to keep working hard, cuz I’d feel pretty shitty to get treated right
and not be able to return with at least some decent bike racing. It’s funny,
because I just realized that I’m on the same gruppo as I was when I started
riding a bike 4 years ago. I guess it was time to get some new stuff.

We had a solid
ride today with lots of quality roads, but um, to say that we were hit by the
flat bug would be an understatement. I think the final tally came to seven.
It was funny at times, but towards the end when Shawn got his fourth flat and
then broke his chain, it was pretty close to falling on the ground funny. Thankfully
Shawn is a calm dude for the most part. I think I would have given up and walked
off into the woods to cry.

It’s late, I’m
still getting my ass kicked by whatever the hell head cold I have, so I think
I’m going to stop now and investigate my eyelids some. Hopefully. If I sleep
like I did last night, I’ll wake up every half hour to blow my nose and then
grunt and groan and wake up mean.

I’m going on a
two-day vacation to Atlanta. Yeah boy. I just have to get enough energy together
to actually stand up and do some…things? I don’t really know what I need to
do, but I know whatever it is numbers aplenty.

No bike talk or
anything, but I’m tired. I did this tempo thing today to finish up the week
and I think I damn near died. I was all cross-eyed and delirious. I guess that’s
when I know I’m at about the end of whatever length of whatever I might have
available. Here comes bike dork man – I did bla bla bla bla bla bla…bla bla
bla bla hours in bla bla bla bla China is big bla bla bla bla I’m still average
bla bla bla bla.

I came home and
slept for the past three hours or something like that. I’m worthless, or maybe
I’m smart. Nahhhh.

Speaking of worthless…so
I wrote an article
for PEZ about Dirtbean up in West Virginia
and somewhere in the article I mentioned that finding wireless internet in West
Virginia is like having a money tree sprout in your backyard. I don’t know,
I don’t remember. Anyways, some former West Virginian, now Ohioan , decides
he didn’t like this comment and took "umbrage" to me perpetuating
misconceptions about poor old West Virginia.

Dear Sirs:

I very much enjoy your website. If such behavior/writing continues I will have
no choice but to disregard your product.

So I wrote arguably
the first cycling article on West Virginia in god knows how long and all the
guy can think to say is – I take great umbrage in your remarks regarding wireless
internet?
Wow. I think it’s kind of funny, that if I keep up this
behavior, he’ll have no choice but to disregard the PEZ product, he’ll have
to throw it away, return it and get his full refund, he might even have to fill
out a comment card. Gosh darnit Jered, if this behavior continues, I’m going
to have to send you to the principal’s office!

That’s awesome.
And I only told the truth. I bet it’s pretty easy to find wireless in the populated
areas, but COME ON, good luck finding it anywhere else.

I hope no one important
reads this.

Happy weekend,
I’m gonna be eating salad and chillin with Jamila.

Ain’t West Virginia
pretty? Damn straight it is. The area around Marlinton is smokin…or maybe
it was the perfect January weather.

We took a look-see
at the Scenic Highway. Jacob had said there would be lots of snow on it, but
I didn’t believe him, because there was no snow elsewhere, but alas, he was
right, I was wrong. I’m always wrong.

Then, we tried
to get cute and take a back way to Buckhannon from Marlinton, but this little
road was not very receptive to our efforts, and it was leanin towards dark,
so for once, a u-turn was made, but only cuz it was getting dark. That was the
only reason.

We saw this crazy
sign riding today. It was all bright from the sun, so I had to go back and trace
the letters, but I traced them accurately, that’s what the sign looks like and
says, I shit you not.

So, we were driving
and Jacob was telling me how the bear is like the state animal of West Virginia,
then a few minutes later I look to the right and good lord, were those bears?
We turned around to get a better look, and this is what we saw:

Damn.

I need to go to
bed. Riding in the mownin.

I’m still hanging
out in West Virginia at the moment…seems the weather has turned to Spring-like
in the last half-day. We went out this evening to get a little bit of dessert
and it was 59 degrees at 9 pm. Weird. We’re in Buckhannon for the evening and
then Sissonville for a couple of days after that, and then it’s back to GA on
Wednesday when it’s supposed to rain. The weather rules my life. If it’s sunny
and happy, I’m there. When it’s nasty, it’s drive time or sleep time.

The training clinic
was really a good experience this weekend. I had a good time, but unfortunately
I convinced myself that I wanted to test as well. So I did. I did a ramp test
and to say the least I’m pretty disappointed. I don’t know what happened, I
don’t know why I rode so poorly, but at least I know now that I have a lot of
work to do, and thankfully, there’s still a lot of time to get a lot of work
done. I guess it’s good to have moments like this to bring you down a bit and
re-focus and not get too up in the clouds. I guess I just thought I’d be farther
along. I’m not going to make excuses.

Anyways, so after
I had a little mental come apart after the test, I got on with having fun and
learning more about coaching. The more I see Jacob coach and see the process,
the more it becomes clear to me how it needs to be done – what the right and
wrong ways to go about things are, etc. It’s good. I can do this. I might never
be a brilliant bike racer, though I hope I can get fast, but I’d hope that I
could at least be a good coach.

This is way too
somber. We drove on some cool roads today. I’m going to put some pics up quick
snap. Wait a lil bit.

So I’ve been in West Virginia
one whole day now, and the life is good. We went for a ride today after doing
some testing…as we were rolling in, we saw this sexy piece of machinery:

The front of the car was
held together with duct tape and line. That’s bad ass.

That’s a West Virginia right
hand turn?

Inside the Dirt Bean Hale…it
combos as a coffee shop, bike shop, testing center, exercise center, swimming
pool, and bed and breakfast (well, that’s around the corner).

I actually did a wee bit
of work administering the tests. That’s Bruce on the CompuTrainer, he rode to
a pretty nice number and he makes the best salsa on the planet. We like Bruce.
Go Bruce.

We went riding after the
tests and it was pretty warm…I think it was 20 degrees. It snowed some. I
felt tough.

Don’t I look tough? Maybe
not. Definitely not.

I’m testing American Classic’s
Hurricane wheels for PEZ right now. They’re pretty bomb-proof and light – and
they’ve got more spokes than, um, a lot of other wheels.

That’s all I’ve got right
now.

Oh wait, somebody
doesn’t like me – scroll down to the sentence:

Happy New Year to the 2-3
people that read this. I am going to get better about updating this weekly,
so long as it never turns into a this kind of thing.

Yeah, that link – this kind
of thing – goes straight to me.

Ouch.

I even thought I was getting
away from bike dorkville, and maybe not being as irritating as I used to be,
but I guess I’m still just as irritating. There’s no hope.

2 hours of riding
and 8 hours of driving later, I’m in Marlinton, West Virginia. This part of
WV is super cool, and the bike shop here where the clinic is, Dirt
Bean, is AWESOME. I really like it. It’s a combo bike shop, coffee shop,
swimming pool, training area, bar, it’s bad ass. I wouldn’t mind finding my
way up here at some point to do a little bike practice. I could do a little
Tour of WV maybe. West Virginia is cool. Literally, it’s cool. It’s snowing
outside.

WV story time…

So we stopped for
some ‘petrol’ in Hillsboro, West Virginia, which is interesting in itself, cuz
I was born in Hillsboro…Oregon. Anyways, so we stop and this guy says – hey,
you’re from Georgia? Yep.

The guy: "I’m
from Alabama."

How’d you get up
here?

Oh, it’s a long
story…actually, my wife is in the federal penitentiary here, so we moved up
here – gotta keep the family together.

WOW.

See, I swear, that
type stuff only happens in West Virginia.

I think that’s
all I’ve got right now…except for the fact that I’m on wireless in the middle
of nowhere. I guess Marlinton isn’t nowhere, but you know, it was a pleasant
surprise.

More updates to
follow over the weekend hopefully. Maybe even a picture of me sledding. That
would be a sweet way to spend the weekend.

I wrote a story
on PEZ today about the Mortirolo…it was a bit rushed, but I was still plenty
happy to show off my pics from the Mortirolo and make the climb sound worst
than Everest. It’s hard as hell, but it’s doable…anything is doable with a
sherpa though.

Once again, it’s
late and I’m getting ready to leave for another little trip. This time, it’s
once again back up to West Virginia, but for a different purpose – a training
clinic – not quite as big as the Ohio excursion, but should still be pretty
cool, and another opportunity for me to learn some more. It’ll be cool. I’ve
gotten six straight solid days of bike practice in, so I’m due for some easiness
this weekend, why not go for a little drive into a raging snowstorm to the north?
Sounds good.

Jacob flicked horse
shit on me yesterday. It was ridiculous. He’s always kicking/flicking crap at
me while we ride. I would do it, but I can’t flick without dying. I’ve tried,
but the results are embarrassing, so I just take the punishment. This time though…dear
lord. So we’re riding down some road near Nowhereville and there’s horse crap
all over the place, so of course it’s jackpot and he flicks it at me – hits
my rear wheel spokes then sprays all over my water bottle. It was probably the
funniest thing ever.

The only thing
funnier than that was watching Bad Santa last night. That’s one of the funniest
movies I’ve seen since ever.

I just got a whole
bunch of stuff in the mail from PEZ…it was like a late Christmas bike-style.
I did a little Irish jig when I saw all of the stuff: jacket, booties, gloves,
2005 Paris-Roubaix and Flanders DVD’s, socks, and some other stuff. That’s pretty
awesome. I watched the Flanders DVD during nap time today. I was pretty mad
when the teacher told me it was time for nap, but I eventually laid down and
fell asleep for THREE freaking hours. I was actually kind of tired I guess.
I had an awesome practice today – lift and long ride, and it was a good day.
Seriously, you know how there are some days when you’re outside and there’s
not a single other thing that you can think of that you’d rather be doing? Everything
feels good, the weather is pleasant, you’re not hungry or uncomfortable, and
it’s just the coolest thing ever to be riding your bike? Maybe? No. Ok, whatever.

So anyway…that
Flanders DVD…Tom Boonen is a bad bad man. He stuck it to those fools. How
cool is it, that he knew he could win the sprint, which it looked like it was
going to be, but he attacked anyway and rode away to take it solo. That was
the only part of the movie I saw, cuz that’s about when I woke up.

I should quit writing
right now and go to bed. I think I’ll have a Clementine first. I’m in love with
clementines. I got a box yesterday and I think I’ve eaten 2/3 of them already.
I’m going to eat more fruit in 2006. It’s easy to set goals for yourself when
you have the worst eating habits of any person that has ever lived. I could
eat one piece of fruit per week and that would be a tenfold improvement over
2005.

Speaking of eating
better…we had fish last night for dinner as well…and vegetables too…my
body is probably freaking out with all of these nutrients. Alright, no more
talkie, I’ve got some business to tend to, and then I’ve got some sleeping to
take care of.

I want to try and
see if I can insert pictures into my posts…that would be cool, so this is
me trying.

The following pictures
were from my trail riding attempt today. Jamila played the part of pro photographer.