So I last wrote
nine days ago, and I happened to mention that I was in Colorado and loving it.
That’s before the weather went shit on me. I still love it, I guess it’s just
more frustrating than anything knowing all of the pleasant, fun riding that
I COULD be doing if the weather cooperated a teeny little bit…and if it was
summer…oooohweee.

In fact, the weather
got me to researching dirt roads in the mountains here – I find em on 4-wheeling
sites and they look oh so nice. I don’t know when I’ll ever actually get to
do any of these climbs, since it seems like I’m only ever here over Christmastime
– maybe I’ll get a couple week break at some point during the season. Anyhow,
one of my favorite climbs here, Guanella Pass, is a half dirt/half paved climb
that goes up to about 12000ish feet. I just found an even sicker climb to Argentine
Pass that veers off of Guanella Pass Road about halfway up and heads up to 13,200
– all dirt. The highest marked road pass you can get in Colorado. From there,
I can meander over to McClellan Mountain for another big time dirt climb – in
something like 30 miles I can do something near 10,000 feet of climbing over
three climbs: Guanella, Argentine, and McClellan…if I had the balls and the
bike to handle it. That sounds alright to me, especially with my cross bike…or
maybe a mountain bike would be better. I don’t care. I just want to ride it.
Check it out HERE
and then look at the Slideshow. I’m excited just looking at the pictures. The
possibilities are near endless just west of me – tons and tons of old mining
roads litter the mountains all over here, especially just east of the Divide
it seems – which is my area.

Unfortunately,
there’s probably a good 10 feet of snow on that road and I don’t want to imagine
how cold it is. We had a high of like 15 yesterday here. The day before wasn’t
much better. I’ve been doing a kind of combo workout for the past few days –
1.5-2 hours on the trainer and then ride as long as possible outside before
I freeze. The freezing doesn’t take too long – 1.5-2 hours as well. I didn’t
quite get it right the first time, and my hands froze badly. I had one of those
thawing moments and it hurt something fierce. Yesterday was close to right and
only my feet got cold – but I guess that’s fair when it’s 10 degrees. I capped
yesterday’s 4.5 hours of riding with an hour of cross-country hiking – Vati
went cross country skiing with Josef and I jogged along behind them. We’ve got
a great loop for it. I almost wish I had some x-country skis. cross-country
skiing is hard though. I have a hard enough time just walking or riding a bike.
I’ll leave my arms out of it thank you very much.

It’s a good fun
time riding on the roads right now. They’re all snowy and icy. I can get between
2-3, 20 minute climbs in before I get super cold. Going up is just fine – I’m
warm and I’m going uphill so no real problems with slick. Coming down is sheer
pleasure. I might be extraordinarily dumb for even riding out on the roads like
this, but I’m getting ok at skating a little bit on certain parts and trying
to keep the front and rear wheel drift to a minimum. I haven’t fallen yet, and
whenever I do fall down, which I figure will happen at some point, hopefully
I’ve got the speed in check enough so that it’s not that bad. Hopefully.

I’m really glad
I’ve got my Crosstop brakes. Even when my hands freeze, I can still grab the
brakes with ease, and it’s a good position to keep things steady on the slick.
Seriously. I love that second set of brakes.

I’m getting really
well acquainted with two specific climbs here…I ride up and down every single
day. I like the familiarity of the climbs though. I haven’t grown weary of my
limited road access in the bad weather, if anything, I take solace in it, because
I know every foot of the road. The one climb gains about 1000 feet and takes
about 18 minutes if I’m riding steady, but not too hard. If the roads clear
a little, I can do the final bit and eke out and extra 6-7 minutes of steepness.
From the top top of the climb I can see down to Denver – almost 4000 feet below
me. It’s a beautiful view into the openness out East.

The temperature
should be a LITTLE warmer today (not right now though…it’s 8 at 9:30 am)…I’m
going to watch some kind of movie on the trainer again (I watched Transformers
yesterday), and then head outside…I’m hoping I can get in 2 hours outside.
That would make me very happy. If I’m lucky, my bottles won’t freeze within
the first 30 minutes either. I was pretty happy about that yesterday.

I’m getting in
a ton more riding than I did this time last year. When it snowed, I called it
quits and went hiking. I’m doing my best to try and keep some modicum of continuity
in my training while I’m here, and I think I’m doing ok for the moment – I got
in almost 18 hours last week, and should get at least 16 in this week – if I
don’t have any kind of drastic come aparts, 18 seems feasible again. Next week
should be better weather-wise, and I might be able to haul off and nail a couple
of bigger rides in the 5 hour range. Speaking of 5 hour rides – I did my FIRST
five hour ride of the season last weekend – I did 3:40 in Boulder on their fun
dirt roads along with a climb of a very snowy and slick and cold Flagstaff…then
came home and finished the day off with 90 minutes on the trainer.

It’s an adventure.
I can embrace it for another week, but the more I ride the trainer and try to
fit in outdoor riding, the more respect I gain for people that have to suffer
through like this all winter. I’m just not that tuff.

So I’m in Colorado
now and it’s pretty cold and the elevation still hasn’t changed a bit. At least
it hasn’t snowed yet. Emphasis on yet, because it’s supposed to snow tomorrow.

Never fear, my
trainer is coming today, so I’ve got three words for snow: SUCK IT.

I did my first
ride yesterday, it was pretty hard, it was probably harder because I did a climb
that took me (I’m not exaggerating) one hour and three minutes. Yeah, I grew
a beard by the time I got to the top.

I haven’t ridden
that specific climb in years. I remember doing it once or twice a few years
back and swearing that I’d never do it again…something about it being too
hard. I don’t know what I was thinking, but that is one sweet climb. I absolutely
love it. The whole hour of climbing is a bit contentious for me though – I like
the road and I enjoy climbing, but an hour is getting pretty close to my natural
limit before I turn around and go downhill just because it’s due time to go
downhill.

I’ve got a sweet
ride planned for today…something like 7000 feet of climbing crammed into 50
miles…straight to Oma and Opa’s (my grandparents) for dinner. That’s how I
roll. Ride to dinner.

It’s awesome being
at home again – I haven’t seen my family in exactly a year, so this is nice.
Josef and Hannelore do in fact seem to get bigger every time I see them, but
I figure I give em plenty of time to grow with my 365 days of absence per year.

I’m trying to figure
a way to have them come out and visit me sometime this year. That would be super
cool.

Our Scottie, Dhuie,
seems to like me. She kinda follows me around and lies down wherever I happen
to settle. I like her. She’s cool.

I told Jamila about
teacup pigs yesterday and now I have a for certain future pet. Check out the
little things HERE.
Holy moly that’s amazing…

I think I’ll go
ride bikes now.

k bye.

I’ve had a busy
last week. Last time I wrote, I was all happy about the weekend and all the
good riding, and now seven days later, I’m bummed cuz I didn’t do barely any
riding.

I might be able
to strike this one up as evidence of a wee bit of maturity, at least that’s
what I’m hoping for. I did a lot of work last week that had to be done quickly,
so it didn’t take long before that took precedent over riding, and instead of
really stressing about the riding I couldn’t do, I opted for a rest week. I
don’t think I’ve ever done that before. Ah well. I guess if I keep telling myself
it’s not a big deal I might believe myself in a few more weeks.

I’m leaving for
Colorado on Tuesday and I’m pretty jazzed about that. I heard some tale about
the airlines charging 150 dollars to fly your bike now! I might be able to get
my bike THERE, but I don’t know about getting it back to Georgia when the time
comes. Jesus, that’s a month’s rent just to fly my bike…I’m not jazzed about
THAT. I’m bummed.

I am going to fix
this dumb bike flying predicament for the future though. At some point in the
next few months I’m going to build up my old cross bike and ship it to Colorado.
That’ll cost me tops 50 bucks and I will forever have a bike in Colorado to
ride. No more flying, no more packing, no more big money spending just to have
my bike. I think this is genius. Hopefully I can get Jacob to help me building
this plan, because I cannot for the life of me figure out cantilever brakes,
or whatever the cross brakes are called. Ha.

This is where Jamie
Bennett would roll his eyes and look at me with disdain…you can’t build your
own bike? Are you kidding me?

Nope.

I also have a plan
for the unpredictable Colorado winter – there will be no more wiped out days
of training…because I bought a trainer and it’s being shipped to Colorado.
I’ve ridden a trainer a grand total of about 3 hours my whole life…hopefully
I don’t have to do much on it, but at least I’ll have SOME way to ride my bike
if the weather goes shitty.

I like plans. Plans
make me feel good, make me feel comfortable; like I’ve got a plan or something.

I also like going
to bed early. It’s an instant stress reliever because I know I can wake up early
the next day and be refreshed and ready to go. It’s truly amazing. For me.

Alright, that’s
all I’ve got.

Also, if you or
anyone you know is looking for some cheap, high-quality race wheels – hit me
up with an email: jered311@hotmail.com. I’ll be selling last year’s team race
wheels on eBay sometime in January for 300 – so if you’re interested in that,
holler at me. They’re great wheels at a great price and still in mighty fine
condition. They’re Rolf Prima Vigors. Look em up on the internet…

Back in Winston…again.
I was up in Brevard for the weekend for some bikin. Jamila and I went up there
along Chris and Andy too. The riding up there is ok I guess. Big mountains,
low traffic, nice weather, good roads, yeah it’s alright.

I did the biggest
two rides of my year so far, haha, 4:30 and 4:45. I don’t know how much more
I’d have wanted to do though. I was pretty worked by the end of both days. We
did some great climbing – on Sunday, we did a climb that took us almost an hour
and a quarter. It wasn’t all uphill till the last 40 minutes, but still, the
trend was in the upward direction for a long, long time.

There’s not too
much to say except for two stories:

1.) On Saturday
we were riding up somewhere near Saluda almost two hours into the ride and a
black cat crosses the road. I like black cats, one of my favorite cats in the
whole world is Jamie’s black cat, Sydney, anyways, so this kid that was riding
with us freaks out. "Oh shit, forget this, I’m going home."

And he just flipped
it right there in the middle of the road, didn’t look back, nothing, no bye,
no see ya, no I’m half crazy on both my mom and my dad’s side, nothing, just
FLLLLIPPPPP and GONE. For all I know, I’ll never see the dude again, and that
was one helluva final impression.

2.) It rained for
most of yesterday’s ride. I don’t ride in the rain much. I think I’m allergic
to it. Anyway, so it was kinda cold, but kinda not. We were soaked through towards
the end of the ride and then BAM, Andy breaks one of his 16 spokes in his Vigor
rear wheel, so of course the wheel goes just about floppy. He tries to ride
it a little further, BAM, there goes the tire. Damn boys, we’re in a tight spot.

I tried to call
Jamila…no service. So Andy is riding his butchered wheel and tire down the
remainder of this false flat descent, nearly falling over when the road takes
on a little camber, cuz his tire just slides right over, and finally we get
down to the main road, get some service, and Andy heads into the Pizza Hut to
wait on Jamila. Chris and I ride home.

There was no point
to that story…oh yeah, I got cold. That’s where it all started, I was wet
and cold. Thanks Andy.

I had a good time
riding up there, and hope I can do a lot more of that. I figure if I suck at
climbing maybe I should do some more of it. I had a few other smart thoughts
during these rides, but I don’t remember them anymore.

I’m headed to Colorado
in just over a week. There had better not be any double snowstorm weeks this
time around. I will say with certainty that I had my decade’s worth of snow
last Christmas.

I’m back in Winston.
Wait, I don’t think I ever mentioned that I left Winston. Whatever, little 280
mile details.

It’s Friday, it’s
cold, and I just finished my PEZ work and I’m looking for an excuse not to go
outside and get colder than I am looking out the window. I think it’s colder
feeling today because tomorrow is going to be so sweetly warm – almost 70.

Speaking of cold.
I rode in Greenville yesterday and it was cold. I haven’t been that cold in
a long while. I did get to do a fun ride with some climbs that I’ve only read
about up to this point, Caesars Head and Paris Mountain. We drove up and down
Caesars Head a lot last year for the Greenville Series since we were staying
in Brevard, but riding up it is another matter entirely. Dear lord. It took
forever to get to the damn climb since I got lost, it took forever to get to
the top of the damn thing, and and when I got there, it was so very very cold.
I turned around and got colder.

I got to the bottom
and I was still cold, so I went and had a Mountain Dew and gloated over my coldness.
Maybe more clothes would be appropriate when it’s 35 degrees. Maybe.

I rode back to
Furman just plain miserable, but somehow got it together enough to go ride up
Paris Mountain for the first time. I hope I’ll get to ride up it next September
in the race…and I hope even more that if I DO, that I don’t get dropped on
the first lap. Yeah. Considering that I rode up it in the very pedestrian time
of 13 minutes my first time, I think I’ll need a motorcycle not to get dropped
at this point, but hey, that’s why the race isn’t this week and it’s in SEPTEMBER.
Rock on.

I feel like I had
a story to tell, but nothing is coming to me, so instead of talking about bla
bla training, I’m just going to shut this down before it gets out of hand. k
bye.