Callin' it like I see it

2009-12-30T09:00:00.001-05:00

I now have my own website, jimcamut.com, so check it out! This is going to be the new and permanent home of my blog as well as a lot of other things that are in the works.

Movin' on

2009-10-28T11:22:00.002-04:00

I haven't had time the past few months to sit down and write long drawn out posts on my blogspot. Tumblr.com realized a lot of people are in the same position and that is why they are genius. I will be switching over to micro-blogging.. In short, more short posts, pictures, video, audio; instead of a few big posts.

Here is my new tumblr site: http://jimcamut.tumblr.com/ (Not much content yet, but I will be posting more often than blogger.)

If you are following me on twitter, my tumblr posts will also be linked from my twitter updates. Social media is progressing so fast, I can't believe Blogger is getting outdated. But here we go. I'm also working on a getting jimcamut.com. I have a few plans in progress for after I graduate in December, so bare with me. Maybe jimcamut.com wil be up and running soon.

If I'm taking time to blog..

2009-09-22T18:25:00.003-04:00

..It means I'm not doing my school work.

Here is a funny video thanks to Joe:

Some people deserve credit just for being damn good at what they do..

2009-08-03T14:16:00.001-04:00

Ken Block is one of them..

.. you're welcome!

Camera Phone Part 2

2009-07-29T21:31:00.022-04:00

I need a real camera. I get to see some cool things. Here's another round from the camera phone, You can click on them to see them larger:

(Would you fall into this picture and land in the water? Roman did. This is the view from the top of the bridge where he jumped off several times.)

(The road to the top of Mt. Larch)

(The sun starting to set in British Colombia)

(Welcome to home Amurricans. The sign coming back from Candada)

(More BC)

(On the way to Boise, Idaho)

(Near Bend, Oregon.. my future home)

(I didn't take this one, but here is another picture of Bend)

(One of the stages of The Cascade Classic ended close to the top of Mt. Bachelor)

(On the way to Boulder)

(Podunk gas stop, complete with a lazy and friendly gas station dog. Almost seems cliche)

(Still driving)

(Finally in Boulder!)

(Going through campus brought back too many memories from my one and only semester here at CU my freshman year)

(This campus is so beautiful. This is the new law building.)

(If you watch the "Best Places to Pig Out" tv show on the travel chanel, you will see Eric trying to eat a huge pizza in St. Louis. He was on national TV and I caught him)

(My mechanic can eat more than half of a galiath pizza, what can your mechanic do?)

Guess where I am?

2009-07-18T13:45:00.005-04:00

I'll give you a hint: Potatoes!

I'm in Boise Idaho. There is a big money crit here tonight at 8:30pm mountain time. This means more waiting around all day. I'm not complaining though. Its fun traveling and seeing new places. Its supposed to hit 102 degrees today, so I'm guessing its not going to be too cool tonight.

next race is the Cascade Classic in Bend, Oregon. Thats going to be a five-day stage race with some good climbing. I'm excited for that one.

Morning thought

2009-07-16T13:30:00.005-04:00

Why do I keep having dreams about Mexico?

weeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrddddddddddd

Roll Call!

2009-07-14T13:37:00.002-04:00

If you read this blog say "I"

A picture says 1000 words.. A camera phone is good for maybe 600

2009-07-11T12:50:00.001-04:00

I'm going to take this opportunity to woo you with some pictures courtesy of all 2 megapixels of my elaborate camera phone. Captions are below. I actually created this post a few weeks ago but didn't have enough internet to upload all the pictures. I'm at Tour de Delta in B.C. now and our host family has internet (yeeehaw). Its a bit random but here are some photos from my library.

This is how every blog begins...

(My ibook G4. They don't even make the G4 anymore. This thing is old for a computer. I'm surprised it hasn't died after 4 years of college, and all of the traveling its seen)

(Behold this sunrise of the mornin' in suburban Vancouver, Washington)

(Cuisine du Camut chez Paul le host magnifique)

(I watched this TV once or twice.. maybe more than that)

(This is where I fall peacefully away into a gentle slumber each night. Some say I resemble George Washington when I sleep)

(My closet.. What shall I wear today? I know! Banana-yellow spandex sounds good!)

(Bikes are inanimate objects, they don't get beds to sleep in)

(The riding around here is awesome)

(There's a deer in this one if you look closely. I decided to spare his life)

(Michael Jordan's reserved parking spot at the Nike campus)

(The bike Lance Armstrong won his first Tour de France on. This was also at the Nike campus)

(We got in the Rover and drove to Larch Mountain for a hard hell of a day training. It just so happens that we parked next to a sweet waterfall. Nobody thought it was a big deal but me.)

(Stage racing food. Dave made it, and it was damn good despite its vomit-like appearance)

(View from the hotel at Philly)

(I guarantee you that I was way over threshold here.)

(This is the part after the wall where you have to start sprinting. Fun huh!)

(My 2-person fan club. Its good enough for me.)

(Might be hard to see, but there are the two snakes we caught at the river)

(Had to throw this in. It took place in late April. Roomate Regis is exemplifying proper collegiate couch exposure technique. Nice job Regis.. thats great form! Of course I couch surfed the whole way down the alley. THought I was gonna die but its okay.)

(Winter training in Pennsylvania. Aren't you jealous?)

(Willie visited me at school for a week. Don't tell the landlords, it was an illegal meneuver by contract standards.. That means I could have gotten in trouble.)

(Who's that hottie?)

(Classy Regis, very classy!)

(Whoa.. Bad flashback!)

(I realize by this point there is no real organization to this slide-show. But thats all folks!)

Nature Valley Grand Prix Video

2009-07-10T00:20:00.006-04:00

I didn't know this existed until my teammate Josh pointed it out. Jump to 32 minutes into the video:

http://www.universalsports.com/mediaPlayer/media.dbml?db_oem_id=23000&sid=13044&catid=-1&id=426754

2009-07-02T22:27:00.009-04:00

My laptop has this funky new habit where it shuts down randomly while I'm working on it. Its about 4 years old, and I think its about to die soon. I only get a weak internet signal I happen to be stealing form one of the neighbors standing in the right place in the house I'm at. So bare with me, because I can't be on the ball with email and blogging.

One more thought on MJ

2009-06-26T19:16:00.003-04:00

Michael,

I know that you rejoined your nose up in heaven. I just know it.

Rest in peace brother.

A new blog post is on the way..

2009-06-26T18:59:00.003-04:00

I'm feeling like I'm going to have to blog out all of my pent up memories from the past few weeks. I can't hold my whole life to myself without blogging it to the world. That would just be selfish. I tweet sometimes, but Twitter is like the mini-me of blogging, the diet coke of blogging. So my friends, followers, secret admirers, haters, and random interned browsers who just so happen to come across my blog for some reason unbeknownst.. I owe you an update.

That update will be in the next few days. So mark your calendar (for some time in the next few days. Oh Hell, mark all of the days. I'm gonna bust out a huge mofo blog post soon.)

P.S. Michael Jackson, I know you're reading my blog from up in heaven somewhere. WHEEEEW oWW OWW! I was tempted to wear one cycling glove today on my ride in memory of all your yelping and years of faint voiced music. I didn't, do it but I was thinking about it. One of my teammates was wearing one cycling glove yesterday, so I know you have at least two fans still.

What is Jim Camut doing right this moment?

2009-06-11T12:33:00.005-04:00

I know some of you are dying to hear about what happens to me at every second of the day, but when I don't have the time or motivation to blog, I usually just update my twitter. They're just short updates located on right side of the page.

And in case you really want to know what I'm doing right now, I'm wondering if my fingernails need to be clipped. Next, on the agenda is scratching my ass, followed by a manacure. Perhaps I will brush my teeth and write an antedote about celery. Time will tell.

Until then.. Truly yours!

-Jimmy

Feeling like a kid

2009-06-03T12:52:00.003-04:00

This summer has been a blast so far. I can say that the racing and training has been hard, but its also been a lot of fun. When you are racing and training hard, you also have to recover hard too. The same approach applies psychologically. After you live, breathe, eat, sleep, and do everything in order to go fast on a bike, you need to hang up the bike one day out of the week and take a breather so you can go full tilt the next week.

Behold the rest day: The day you forget about your bike and do non-bike things. The most serious cyclists take this day the most seriously.

So with the weather being utterly beautiful, we went to Molten Falls to jump off cliffs into a river and enjoy the sunshine. Of course Roman took things a step further and jumped off the 70 foot bridge (3 times!!). It was high enough to leave bruises on the back of his legs.

We only jumped into the river a few times. Even though the temperature was in the mid-eighties, the river water is straight from the mountains. So non of us felt compelled to spend a lot of time in the 40 degree water.

Of course no cliff jumping trip is complete without catching snakes and tadpoles. We spent about an hour catching snakes with sticks before we left. We were able to get two gardener snakes, which are sitting in a plastic container on the front porch of the team house. Bobby and Josh also got a jar full of tadpoles that may or may not be lunch for our two gracious reptiles.

Saturday's Race

2009-05-31T12:40:00.002-04:00

Because I'm a little pressed for time..

HERE'S A LINK

Weekend Plans

2009-05-29T13:22:00.002-04:00

This weekend we will be doing an 80 mile road race on Saturday at the same place we raced last weekend. Then Sunday we have a 45km team time trial. It will be the Kiwi's vs. the Yankees on Sunday. There is a lot of trash talking going on right now because the Kiwi's know they don't stand a chance.

I love U. S. and A!

*Cultural note: New Zealanders are called Kiwi's because of the bird, not the fruit. Kiwi fruit are more properly referred to as Chinese Gooseberries in New Zealand. And in New Zealand, they love to put shrimp on the Barby!

Back by popular demand

2009-05-28T12:04:00.007-04:00

A few people requested have wanted me to keep my wonderful web-journal going. So this is for you.

I better start off with a brief update. I have 3 new piercings, 2 new tattoos, and an adorable poodle named Zoey-doodles. Just kidding, but don't underestimate me.

I'm actually living in Vancouver, Washington in a host house with teammate Bobby Sweeting and our host Paul with his two German shepherds.

(The Germans guarding the front door)

Vancouver is just across the river from Portland, Oregon. I've found out that Portland is all sorts of trouble. For one, there is a place called VooDoo doughnuts. This is a famous doughnut shop thats been featured on lots of TV shows. They are known for their Maple Bacon Bars, their odd phallic-shaped doughnuts, and their voodoo doll doughnut of course. I avoid this place as much as possible.

(A picture says a thousand calories)

Portland also has a steak place called Saylers Old Country Kitchen. They have a 72oz steak challenge. If you eat a few vegetables, french fries or baked potato, a salad, and the 72oz steak (steak is 4.5 pounds) in an hour - then you get the whole meal free. Well Bobby, Paul, and teamate Roman all attempted the challenge. Bobby and Paul put it down in 56 and 55 minutes respectively. Roman unfortunately is human and couldn't put down the ridiculous hunk of meat. It was a lot of fun to watch. Right now Bobby is giving birth to a Baby cow in the bathroom. I hope he's okay in there.

(The picture doesn't do justice, but look at the fork in relation to the steak)

(Bobby chewing his way to a free t-shirt. He said eating orange sherbet with the steak helped chase away the sickening blood flavor in his mouth towards the end. It was humors at first, but hard to watch the pain in their faces towards the end.)

(Tums - Just incase)

(Roman with a mouth full of cow)

But food isn't the focus here. We've all been putting a lot of good miles on the bike. We are getting ready race 156 miles at the Philadelphia International Cycling Classic on June 7th. Then two days later we will be doing the Nature Valley Grand Prix stage race in Minnesota.

I'll try to keep the blog updated a couple times a week, so keep checking back. Otherwise, I'm in the process of writing a book right now. I've been working on it a little bit every day. I want to try to finish it by the end of the summer. Thats all I'm going to say about the book. I'll tell you more once it gets closer to being done.

Now its time for me to dial in the tt bike and get my workout in today.. After I watch the Giro of course.

Later Alligators!

2009-04-09T22:43:00.001-04:00

Here's a tribute to my one blog reader from Macedonia. I don't know where that is, but thanks!

Laugh Damnit!

2009-03-21T11:04:00.004-04:00

Things are going alright here in sunny southern California. If you want to get the nitty gritty details, you should twitter me. And if you don't want to get that intimate with my daily doings, I forgive you, you must have a life.

Anyways, here is a joke. Why? Because laughing is good for your health. I like to keep my few blog readers happy and healthy.

A doctor was having an affair with his nurse. Shortly afterward, she told him she was pregnant. Not wanting his wife to know, he gave the nurse a sum of money and asked her to go to Italy and have the baby there.

''But how will I let you know the baby is born?'' she asked. He replied, ''Just send me a postcard and write 'spaghetti' on the back. I'll take care of expenses.''

Not knowing what else to do, the nurse took the money and flew to Italy.
Six months went by and then one day the doctor's wife called him at the office and explained, ''Dear, you received a very strange postcard in the mail today from Europe, and I don't understand what it means.''

The doctor said, ''Just wait until I get home and I will explain it to you.'' Later that evening, the doctor came home, read the postcard, fell to the floor with a heart attack. Paramedics rushed him to the ER. The lead medic stayed back to comfort the wife. He asked what trauma had precipitated the cardiac arrest.

So the wife picked up the card and read, ''Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti - Two with sausage and meatballs, two without.'''

from: (http://www.jokes.com/funny/health/an-order-of-spaghetti)

Race report

2009-03-16T09:03:00.003-04:00

Before the race: I said before the race, "I'm either going to win or get 11th."

I got 11th.

I was right.

Next stop..

Racin' Season

2009-03-08T21:23:00.004-04:00

I can't believe its right around the corner. I'm going to try to catch a local race on the 14th. Then I'm flying to california on the 18th for a couple stage races. I feel like the snow just melted and I just got off the trainer.

Special visitor

2009-03-02T09:57:00.004-05:00

This is the last week of classes before spring break and I have a special guest staying with me. He was born with 4 legs and a furry face. He enjoys fetch, gourmet food, and long walks in the morning in which he takes the opportunity to defecate. He responds to the name WIlly, and by golly he loves to mark his territory. Ladies (canine ladies) he's available.

This is Willy's 3rd day at my apartment. I'm pretty sure we aren't allowed to have pets in our complex, so I trying to hide him from the management. So shhhhh don't tell anyone. He will be staying with me because my mom just got massive surgery on her foot and can't take care of him for a while. So if you see my mom, wish her a speedy recovery.

Economy anyone?

2009-02-18T09:56:00.005-05:00

The economy is not fairing very well, The unemployment rate is 7.6 percent I believe, and Congress just threw another multi-hundred billion dollar stimulus package at big banks and businesses that probably won't do anything (sorry to be pessimistic). Not to mention, Jim Cramer (in above video)seems to have lost his stress ball.

Among other things, there have been several big bike races that have been cancelled because the promoters can't hedge the funds to run them. If bike racing is in the most recent stimulus package, then it is probably the last item.

The early 1990s had a similar recession going on. What turned the economy around you might ask? Well, just thank home-boy Al Gore for inventing the World Wide Web. He also is saving the Earf from getting too warm.

Below he is pictured shooting his documentary "An Inconvenniant Truth," a documentary that won him a Nobel Prize.

The invention of the internet shot the economy out of its downward spiral and everybody lived happily ever after until now.
So who is going to save the economy in these troubling times? We need something as monumental and innovative as the Web. We need an even bigger Web.

I hereby nominate this guy to save the economy, and in turn, bike racing:

If Al Gore can save the Earf from Global warming and the economy, I bet Spiderman can do wonders!

2009-02-07T10:56:00.000-05:00

Did you catch the Superbowl?

2009-02-04T09:26:00.004-05:00

But more interestingly, did you catch this?

(CNN) -- Super Bowl fans in Tucson, Arizona, caught a different kind of show during Sunday's big game.

Just as Cardinals' superstar Larry Fitzgerald watched himself sprint into the end zone on the stadium's Jumbotron during Sunday's Super Bowl, 10 seconds of eye-popping pornographic imagery "flashed" across the screens of those watching at home.

First Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction, then this! Whats going to be next? I thought Bruce Springsteen's crotch slide at the camera during halftime was too explicit.

Twitter

2009-02-01T08:02:00.002-05:00

I'm on twitter now. That means you get to know what I'm doing all the time now. Just what you wanted! For example, if I scratch my ass, all I have to to is send a text message from my phone that says, "I just scratched my ass," and everybody will know. How awesome is that?

http://twitter.com/jimcamut

The Group Ride

2009-01-27T20:00:00.000-05:00

I have been on many group rides around many parts of the country. No matter where you go, you will always find these people on your ride... (No need to hate any of them, you have a little bit of each of them in yourself.)

The Tech Expert:
He always has the latest news on the newest components. He can tell you how much the timing is affected on the triple action dual-pull electro-magnetic lever in every temperature to the half degree. He usually knows about the latest gear 12 years before it comes out. He doesn't want to talk about about anything else, and he never shuts up about bike parts. If you ask him a simple personable question like, "How was your holiday?" he will somehow manage to start telling you about Sram Red.

The Newby:
We were all in this guy's shoes at one point. He is usually nervous to be in a big group ride. He's probably a little sketchy too. He will be the one who isn't wearing any leg warmers on a 30 degree day, just because he doesn't know any better and doesn't have and cold weather gear. If there is a crash in the group ride, he will be the one to cause it and not go down. Or you will look back and notice he has been missing because he crashed himself 10 minutes ago, got a flat, and doesn't have a spare tube to fix it.

The Chic:

No, she is not on the back of some fat guy's motorcycle, she's riding her own two wheels. Even though group rides aren't for racing particularly, she is a constant threat to every male on the ride because nobody wants to be beaten by a girl. Be careful, she might be fast!

The Half-Wheeler:
No matter what pace the ride is at, this guy always has his wheel half a length ahead. He is always the one trying to make a race out of every ride and get a "good workout." Recovery day is not in his vocabulary. If he isn't pushing the pace of the ride, then he is getting a drink from his waterbottle and winding up for an attack for the town sign that nobody even knows about.

The Hippie
This is the guy who will show up on the single speed and is probably high. He won't ride more than 2 hours because he has to smoke again. When a politically charged event is in the national spotlight, he will be the loudest voice talking about how much this country sucks.

The Meteorologist
This guy watches the weather channel constantly. He knows the hourly forecast and can tell you what the chances are for precipitation at every moment of the day. On a good day, he knows the dewpoint, the ceiling, and last year's total accumulation in February. On a bad day, he is just making intelligent guesses based on recent weather patterns and jet-streams. When it starts raining, he always has his rain jacket ready in his back pocket.

The Car Hater:
This guy has internal anger problems and may have some repressed anger against his father. When a car passes too close, like within 10 feet, his middle finger automatically points like a beacon straight to the heavens and words you have never heard before resonate from his vocal chords. In rare occurrences when the driver gets out of his vehicle to convers with the car hater, this guy will be swinging fisticuffs and foaming at the mouth.

The Engineer:
This guy loves numbers. He has a some kind of power-meter so he can analyze his wattage at every second of the ride. It is also hard to have a conversation with this guy because he speaks some kind of strange mathematical language. If he has a blog, then he goes in depth to every interval and wattage he does for training.

The Mountainbiker:
He can't muster enough tight-ass-ness to ride a road bike. Instead of wearing bibs, he will wear those shorts that have a a shammy in them. The furtherst he will get to riding a road-bike is a cyclo-cross bike. Be careful if he leads the way, because the group ride might find themselves on single-track in the woods. If you are ever hiking in the woods and you see a pile of cyclists with broken bones and mangled road bikes at the bottom of a ravine, It is because this guy was leading a group ride. And he loves Fat Tire Amber Ale.

The Old Guy:
He is usually the one in bright neon lycra from 1982. No one knows how old he is, but they wish they were still riding when they are his age.

The World Champion Master:
He is always on a $10,000 bike and wears CSC's latest kit. Otherwise he proudly sports world championship stripes and a beer gut. He watches every second of every Tour de France and would quit his job and dis-own his family if he could spend a week with Lance Armstrong. He only gets out for rides on weekends. He resembles a kid playing "dress-up" in the persona of that years hottest cycling star.

The Rotten Tomato:

He has memorized every line of every movie you have ever heard of and all the movies you haven't heard of. You can ask this person a question and they will respond with a movie line. If there are several of these people on the ride, be aware. They will theatrically rehearse an entire movie with the wrong accents. You might hear something like, "Hey, and remember that part where he was like.... HAHAHAHA yeah!! That was awesome. That moment of the movie was just so rad man. It was just so totally fabulous that we should repeat it 90 times." Movie quotes typically beaten to a bitter pulp include Borat, Napoleon Dynamite, and Superbad amongst many more.

The Ghost

There is not much to say about this person because you hardly see him (or her). He typically sits at the very last wheel and doesn't say anything to anyone. If you want a really awkward one-sided conversation, drift to the back and say hi.

My memory is fuzzy, I can't remember everyone on the group ride. If you recognize anyone else, put them in the comments section. I know there is more...

He's a keeper... for four years at least

2009-01-20T17:19:00.001-05:00

Today was the inauguration of Obama into his presidency incase you were hiding in a cave or something (like Osama).

[I just noticed that the above picture has little KKK guys. I do not in any way, shape, or form support the KKK. However, if you are into that sort of thing, you can buy their official uniform on the Home Shopping Network. Its called THE SNUGGIE and it comes in all your favorite colors. Conical hat not included.]

My professor let us out of class early so that we could watch it on TV. I thought that was a very classy move from my prof. I went to the central "Hub" of the campus where hundreds of students were gathered around a four-screed TV. There was a lot of energy around the event. There were lots of pictures being taken of the crowd and of the TV. Here is one I took.

Obama's speech was very good. Not a surprise from someone has been giving good speeches for a while. At the same time there was a sense that "this was actually happening." After eight years of God knows what was in office, there does seem to be a lot of hope surrounding Obama's presidency.

There was lots of applause during Obama's speech. I just hope that he can deliver what he promised to the level he made it appear was going to happen. I'll be clapping when these promises get delivered. Its not that I don't believe Obama, I think the world is just a more complex place than people realize. But least there is hope.

I think everyone wants to believe that the world is going to be a better place. I do too. But it doesn't change over night, and there is one hell of a mess to clean up. It think it will take multiple presidents to make things better.

Anyways, thats about all I have to say about politics. If I was president, I would move Pennsylvania to Florida and make green eggs and ham the national breakfast. But thats just me.

Special Thanks

2009-01-18T11:10:00.000-05:00

Here is a special thanks to one of my few and loyal readers. He acknowledged my trainer agony and sent me a trainer care package to make that device a little more tolerable.

Some helpful tips for riding the trainer he included were:

1. Taking a 5-10 minute break at least every hour. (one that gets your mind off the fact you are riding a trainer)
2. Listening to music that mixes up your cadence and has a rhythm that works with cycling.
3. Making sure you are in a comfortable environment in the first place.

And a tip I discovered that works works just as well for your trainer...

The Trainer

2009-01-10T09:47:00.000-05:00

Foreward
If you don't know what a "trainer" is in cycling terms, consider yourself lucky, stop reading this, and google "puppy" to warm your heart with fuzzy images. If you do know what a trainer is, I would also recommend you to google "puppy." This blog post is intended for mature audiences only and I don't want to tarnish innocent beings with such a harsh discussion of trainer reality.

The nature of a trainer
I'm assuming if you have read this far, then you already know what a trainer is. I must say that I have already surpassed my tolerance for riding such a stationary device indoors. Bikes are meant to be outside and in motion, not shackled to the floor with an ugly noisy hunk of metal. A trainer is like a jail for you and your bike. No good person deserves to find themselves on a trainer, NO ONE DAMNIT!

"Time" on the trainer
Something weird happens when you ride a trainer. While you are sitting on your seat looking at your watch or bike computer, you don't have much to do but stare at the time. The funny thing is.. time seems to stand still. No matter how long you ride the trainer, the clock does not tick over.

However, on a whole other quantum level, time is accelerated. Time on a trainer is like doggy-time. They say dogs age about 7 years for every human year. This is alse true with a trainer. Although time seems to stand still, you feel like you have ridden on the trainer 7 hours for every one hour on the trainer. This is one aspect that makes riding on a trainer so intolerable. Even top scientists can't explain this doggy-year phenomena on the trainer. But there is definately proof that it is a real occurence. Take your rear tire for example. Why do you think it wears out so fast when you ride the trainer?

The inventor
Truth be told, I despise whoever invented the trainer. If I invented the trainer, I would not be very proud for making so many cyclists miserable. The trainer is also a threat to your sanity. I heard one guy got off his trainer one day and threw it at a baby. I'm sure the man who invented the trainer has received many death threats. Rumor has it that he has to walk around with 30 body-guards to assure his own safety.

Jim Frank
Riding the trainer reminds me of Ann Frank during WWII. While I'm riding the trainer I begin think thoughts such as:
"I dream of a day when I will be able to go outside again." (and ride my bike like a normal person)
"I must ration my food." (riding food)
"The white army(snowflakes) won't go away. They are a constant threat and they have invaded the streets."
"I feel compelled to write in my diary (my blog) to keep my sanity while I am trapped here."

"Oh what lengths!"
The reason a cyclist such as myself needs to ride the trainer is because conditions outside make riding not possible. Likewise, the cyclist needs to maintain fitness and ride. BUT AT WHAT PRICE??? Riding the trainer is always the last thing you want to do. So you find yourself constantly pushing the envelope to avoid the trainer. I'll be honest, if it rained cat's and dog's feces from the sky, I might go ride in it to avoid the trainer.

The watter bottle shuffle - (Term coined by Vince Roberge)
Yesterday I went for a long ride outside when I really shouldn't have. It was ridiculously cold outside. It was so cold that your waterbottles freeze before you have the time to think about them. I found myself doing the waterbottle shuffle: keeping a waterbottle in your back pocket, underneath your jersey, against your skin - to thaw out frozen bottles. You swap a bottle when it gets frozen and drink the one that provides water from its precious plastic teat.

Crack-head?
I only realized after my ride that I probably looked like a crack head people who saw me. I had a ring of white powder on my face from all of the salty muck that spit up from the road. I was also wearing outrageous tights that look like an american flag in sub-arctic conditions. I was probably shaking because it was so cold, and to top it off- I was riding a bike outside. People were starring at me as If I was a flying elephant wearing a red thong and doing the moon-walk to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."

Toaster Intervals
There are only two things that allowed me to complete my ride yesterday. The first one is toaster intervals. These are repeat intervals you do when you get cold. They are simple. When you get cold, you ride really hard for x-amount of time until you get warm. The other thing that allowed me to complete my ride was knowing that I wasn't on the trainer.

Taking Action
To sum this all up: I hate the trainer. I have only owned one trainer in my entire cycling career. When that thing breaks, I don't think I am going to buy another one. As a matter of fact, I am writing my politician to pass legislation in order to make trainers illegal in all 50 states. You have to stick up for what you believe in!

Ipod Touch popped a cap in the back side of the radio star

2009-01-05T11:57:00.000-05:00

So I was on a ride yesterday listening to my mp3 player. I enjoy a good tune just as much as the next guy. However, I gave my mp3 player an internal make-over the day before. I deleted every song and put in new music I never listened to. I was sick of all my music.

All of the sudden, Johnny Cash came on with the song "A Boy named Sue." This is a song about how a father names his kid Sue and the son sets out to find his father because he hates his name. Holy guacamole, it made my day.

I then wondered why I got so much enjoyment out or this song and I realized a few things:

1. Today's music lacks quality.

2. Teeny boppers secretly are allied to control "today's hit" music stations.

3. Country music wears out the same old boring themes (as outlined by Larry Seyer and David W.):
a. The man is a beer-drinking redneck who revels in the simple, often self-destructive pleasures of a country boy;
b. The woman is his more-intelligent sidekick who puts up with his childish BS but likes to complain about it;
c. The man ultimately defers to her, acknowledges she is a lot smarter and more mature, but resents his sense of lost masculinity in the process;
d. He supplies her endless new dramas along the way, including alcoholism and infidelity, perpetuating their cycle of unhappiness.

4. I also realized that rap songs are creative for about 1.2 seconds, then they wear out the same repeated loop about 30,0000,00,0,000 times in the course of three minutes. (this is truly a miracle in its own right).

5. Even worse, rap music themes aren't that much better: "I'm gonna shoot your bi**-a$$ in the face.. silly," or "That B**** has some big knockers and a scantily-clad rotisserie buttocks to compliment it. Having said so, I would very much like to make love to such a woman and then refuse to call her on my cellular device.. yeah take that ho," and, "My hyper-accentuated jewelry is terribly shiny to the point that It surely must mesmerize you." Thats about it.

So essentially there is not a lot of quality music being produced.

So here is the BIG question:

WHY IS INTOLERABLE SENSELESS MUSIC BEING PRODUCED???

Well someone once said that, "Video killed the radio star." Therefore I would assume the cause of death for Johnny Cash was indeed Video.

Furthermore, the iPod touch and the modern iPod finish the job. You don't just listen to music on your iPod anymore, you watch the music video. I guess thats why intolerable music becomes enjoyable. I'm not gonna lie, Jessica Simpson is visually appealing, but thats about it. So if you are watching a Jessica Simpson video, you probably don't care too much what noise is in the back ground.

Lest do a test... look at the picture.

Did you pay attention to what you were hearing? Probably not. Thats your genetic hardwiring. Females, replace that image with some meat-head muscle dude holding a teddy-bear and you have the same effect.

Conclusion: Pretty people kill music.

Hi Blog

2009-01-05T11:49:00.000-05:00

Hi Blog,

It's me again. Your father. I just want to say that I am sorry for neglecting you for the past year. I just want to let you know that I want to be part of your life again. I hope you forgive me.

Much love,

Dad

P.S. maybe you and I can go fishing together like I promised.

I was kidnapped

2008-07-25T15:40:00.000-04:00

As you can see, I haven't posted on my blog for a month. As it turns out, I was kidnapped and held in captivity against my will for a month. There is a direct correlation between myself not posting for a month, and myself being a kidnap victim for a month. How could this correlation exist?.. you might ask.. Well, it turns out that I didn't have a computer to make a post with. I begged my captor to please let me write a post on my blog and he wouldn't let me. What an asshole.

Anyways, I'm free now and this is my latest post:

Dear blog readers,

I was kidnapped. I fell for the "do you want some candy" - trick, by a complete and total stranger. Its unfortunate that I am a sucker gummy bears because I ended up getting kidnapped. If it was Tootsie Rolls, then it might have been a different story because Tootsie Rolls suck. Screw Tootsie Rolls, they taste like chocolate flavored wax. Anyways, I was captured and thrown into a white van and nobody saw me for a month. It sucked hard core, but at least I got some gummy bears out of it. You always have to look on the bright side. Anyways, I am delighted to be reunited with day light. And I am especially excited to be reunited with Gummie bears sans consequences. From this whole ordeal, I have learned that if someone coaxes you into a big white van via Gummie bear persuasion, you will get the Gummie bears but forfeit your basic human rights for a month of even longer. I just have to learn how to get the Gummie bears next time and not be kidnapped. Well, thats all folks. Until next time, be careful with strangers offering candy.

(*note: This post is entirely fictional. The author of this blog owed his readers a post and suddenly found himself on a random tangent. The author doesn't like gummy bears either. However, this could have possibly been a real scenario if it involved Reese's pieces. Tootsie Rolls still suck.)

back to the states

2008-06-21T16:27:00.001-04:00

For those who it concerns: Im flying back for the tour of pa. My cell phone is broken. I will try to have it on, but don't be surprised if it goes straight to my voicemail.

For those who it does not concern: I like apples.

Volta a Galicia

2008-06-11T12:32:00.000-04:00

This past week our team did the Volta a Galicia. It was the tour of the northern provence of spain called Galicia. We went there not knowing what to expect, but we came back with several top ten finishes and two jerseys. It was very successful and everyone raced together as a solid team. You can check out voltagalicia.com if you want more details, or the JBCA website (cyclingcenter.com). But I will leave you with a few pictures, because some of the views were breathtaking, even when your heart-rate was pinned to the ceiling over the climbs with Speedy Gonzalez Spaniard pushing the pace... Behind the king of the mountains Steven Van Voren himself.

Evan Hyde, Vince Roberge, Ian Holt, Aaron Pool, David Nelson , Steven Van Vooren are bike racing machines.

No classes it is!

2008-05-26T11:57:00.000-04:00

No summer classes for me. I don't think it would have been possible to do that. Next week I go to spain, then on the 16th of June I fly to Pennsylvania for the Innagural Tour of PA (http://www.tourofpa.com/)

Anyways, I am going to leave you with a picture that Evan Hyde took.

This picture was taken not too far from the cycling center. This is where I train. It's a lot different than the hills of Pennsylvania that I am used to.

Okay

2008-05-20T15:03:00.000-04:00

So here it goes...

I flew into Belgium, got pick-pocketed, lost my credit cards, bank card, racing liscence, cash, etc. Then I raced a kermesse, then I raced the hardest three-day stage race there is. Now I am sitting in the kitchen in Hertsberge, Belgium on my computer. My computer has something loose inside of it that I can hear when I shake it. And my phone mysteriously broke two days ago.

Belgium is a money pit.

On a different note, the first day of online classes was yesterday. I have about a week to figure out if I should take classes online this summer. I need a few votes. Please put them in the comment section. The first vote comes from me. I vote no classes. Classes cost money anyways. I'm not made of money. I don't feel like im made of academia either. At least not right now.

More posts to come... unless im bogged down with online classes.

2008-05-10T07:36:00.000-04:00

I am officially back in Belgium now. I also have time to keep the blog updated now that the spring semester is over. So check back because the posts are gonna start rollin.

Something related...

2008-03-02T19:39:00.000-05:00

Did you know that I eat coral reef sauteed in olive oil and garlic. Yeah. Then I was it down with a nice tall glass of sunscreen.

Here is the clincher: It makes your urine glow in the dark.

My source: www.jimcamut.blogspot.com

-----------------------

In other news. My first race of the year is next week. I'm excited.

Something totally unrelated...

2008-02-29T21:54:00.000-05:00

...but in a way, it affects everyone's lives.

Did you know that 6,000 tons of sunscreen washes off of people's skin and goes into the ocean every year. That sounds pretty significant, but I would assume its no big deal in the large scheme of things. Its just a few tons of sunscreen in billions upon billions of gallons of ocean water, right?

Here is the clincher: Four common chemicals that are found in sunscreen activate dormit viruses on coral reefs. That means that you and millions of other people- rubbing in Banana Boat sunscreen and going skinny-dipping - are essentially threating the lives of the coral reefs. This might be a one of many reasons that the reefs are dying off.

My source: http://realitysandwich.com/sunscreen_chemicals_threaten_coral_reefs

Here is the other clincher: No Reefs + circle of life (loss of natural ecosystems) = Death

I'm not particularly a tree hugger, or a reef hugger for that mater, but I just thought I would throw that out there.

SOS

2008-02-19T19:52:00.000-05:00

Saturday Feb. 9th, 2008:

There is a little something I call anger. Anger is when you wake up, eat breakfast, and start getting ready for a good day of training. Then you look out the window and momma nature decided to blanket the road your taxes paid for with a big white blanket (made out of trillions of small particals of chrystalized water), snow. At this moment, several thoughts may cross your mind.

1. Darn-it, I can't get out my chalk and make a new hop-skotch pattern on the road to frolic about in dainty bliss like a jolly school-boy.
2. Since i can't play hop-skotch today, I want to go for a bike ride.
3. Come to think of it, my road bike didn't go anywhere in 4 inches of snow, last time I tried.
4. Does this mean...? oh no...! Say it ain't so!
5. Indoor Trainer/rollers!
6. #$%^&%$#%^&%$#@$%^&%$#%^.
7. #$#$%$#% @#@#$#@.
8. I wish I had a cross-bike.
9. Screw the cross bike, i wish I lived on the equator where I could sweat until my internal organs seeped out of my poors, and I would turn my head sideways with a puzzled look on my face, like a dog, whenever someone said the word "snow."
10. Will my state senator help pass a resolution in congress to move pennsylvania south about 900 miles.

Sunday Februray 10, 2008

The snow is still coming down heavy. The thought of Hopskotch is still a distant memory. But I have learned in desperate times to never give up hope. I have resorted to eating one of my roommates. That means there is only 3 of us now. God bless poor Matthew. I looked out the window and vomited to the sight of snow. It makes me sick having to live like this. That (the snow), and the fact that I pulled the short straw, and was rationed to eating my roommate's feet. It didn't settle in my stomach very nicely. I just want to say, If anyone finds this journal, please tell my family I love them. Little Johnny, my auntie beth, the pups..

Monday February 11, 2008

I got a faint internet signal. If anyone is out there... anyone.. please send help. I opened the front door today. I lost my left arm due to frostbite from opening the door. I'm hallucinating now. I'm seeing little green lepricons and flowers that shoot nerf guns. Please send help.

I didn't want to say anything prematurely..

2008-02-05T18:27:00.001-05:00

(Photo from cyclingnews.com)

Check out my new rider diary on Cyclingnews.com

Jim Camut "click it! I dare you!"

I will have a new post about every two weeks. But don't worry, I am still going keep posting on jimcamut.blogspot.com.

And for the person who left a comment on about who's shoe I peed on... the name begins with an S and ends with a teven. Thats just a hint. By the way, it was completely accidental. I don't do that sort of thing for fun.

I'm alive

2008-01-29T23:13:00.000-05:00

Make no mistake. The absence of a new post does not mean my fate. I am in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the conjoint Astana/Johan Bruyneel Cycling Academy training camp. All I have to say right now is that I've been really busy and I will have an interesting and detailed post coming soon when I have more time.

I will leave you with one small detail. Contador is not very tall, and I peed on my teamate's shoe today.

I almost got abducted

2008-01-23T14:24:00.001-05:00

All my life I have been waiting to see my UFO. So today when I was on my ride and I looked up into the sky and saw a metallic object, I got kind of excited. I was listening to my radio at that time. Then all of a sudden my radio got all static and it got those weird beeps like when you put your cell phone next to stereo speakers. Maybe the aliens were trying to jam my phone so I couldn't call 911 when they tried to abduct me...

911 center - "hello 911 center how can I help you?"

Me - "Yea.. umm.. E.T. is pointing a laser gun at me. Could you send some Police or rent-a-cops or something to save me."

911 center - "Sure thing. We will send the Dukes of Hazard. Just remember, the aliens are more afraid of you, than you are of them."

Me- "Ma'm, I don't know about that. I'm pretty f***ing scared. They have the Nebakanezar and laser guns. I'm all alone in my spandex with some cereal bars and a multi-tool."

...

Anyways, the object was either hovering or moving really slow but it was coming towards me. I was watching and anticipating it to dart across the sky, or shoot off into the galaxy.

I was ready for anything. It was probably a ship full of slimy nasty alien mo'fo's that wanted to do all kinds of experiments on me. They were probably scheming to somehow extract semen from my left ear and implant tiny sea-men into my right ear. They were probably going to transplant my arms to where my legs are, and then transplant my legs to where my arms should be. Who knows what those sick bastards were planning. I was ready for anything. So I got my multi-tool ready and prepared for intergalactic battle. What those aliens don't know is that I took Tang Soo Do for 5 years and got my black belt. If they got up in my grill I was going to dice their slimy asses up like Benihana.

As the object got closer to me, it looked more and more like an airplane. As a matter of fact, it wasn't soon before I realized it was an airplane.

So much for seeing my UFO. Maybe tomorrow.

Despite my disappointment about the UFO. I learned a valuable lesson this week from the news:

Lesson #486 - Never take pills without pants.

This may seem like an odd lesson. But it is absolutely vital. I found out yesterday that Heath Ledger died. They found him in an apartment naked (without pants) and pills everywhere. Wouldn't you know that Elvis Presley died taking pills on the toilet. If you put 2 and 2 together, it doesn't take a genius to realize that you can't successfully take a shit with your pants on. For all I know, Anna Nicole smith probably wasn't wearing pants when she died.

Taking pills without pants is treading on dangerous ground.

So I suggest you wear pants firm and proudly when you take your Fred Flintstone multi-flavor vitamin in the morning. I know I will!

Brown Bean Juice

2008-01-19T17:18:00.000-05:00

I once said, "I would never become a coffee drinker." -Direct Quote- However my circumstances make it inevitable for me to stand next to my past declaration. Checks me out: I'm a cyclist and a college student. Its like the javanati sequence: college, cycling, coffee. I can't escape this pyramid of "C". So I will say it: Camut is a cyclist and college student who is becoming a coffee drinker. Bam!

It hit me today when I was on a ride actually. I took a sip of my water bottle and wished it was a nice warm cup of coffee. But what I got was a mouthful of icey gatorade. Thats right, my Gatorade got slushisized. Don't be confused, slushisized is a word I made up. I am writing my own dictionary as a matter of fact. Because one of my passions is spelling, I love spelling things.

This brings me back to a not so distant memory of The Spandex Invitational Spelling Bee I attended last year...
This was an epic moment that was well-photographed by every paparazi in New Mexico. An online forum brought up the following comments. I had to explain the dynamics of the situation in the last comment listed below.

Yes it was a sad moment in my spelling bee career. It actually ruined me for months. I would wake up at night and stutter those letters in a cold sweat. But after I dropped a few "G's" at the psychologist. I overcame my post-traumatic spelling disorder. Bam!

So anyways, back to my ride. I was chugging along, and all the sudden I saw a deer about 5-10 feet away from me. This brought back flashbacks of the time I hit a deer on my bike going about 40 mph. But thats another story. So anyways, It turned out to be a fake deer. Yes, it was a lawn ornament deer.

I just want to say to whoever put that there. Ha... Ha... REAAAAAALLL FUNNY!

Hold up everybody

2008-01-11T11:47:00.000-05:00

Im sitting here on this friday morning and I am whitnessing a revelation for humanity.

DREW CAREY IS NOW THE HOST OF "THE PRICE IS RIGHT"
Beautiful women, money flying everywhere, and elderly people getting so excited they wet themselves. Its glorious!!!

Are you serious!

2008-01-03T22:44:00.000-05:00

Alright... seriously... Chuck Norris. Common Mike Huckabee, you couldn't have picked a cheesier symbol of American media stupidity complex. What does Chuck Norris have to do with any ideals whatsoever that represents America or the ideals that any political candidate should have?! Think about it.... President, Chuck Norris, President, Chuck Norris? President... Chuck Norris? NO!!!! It doesn't make any sense. Its like running for president of your high school, and campaigning with a ninja turtle. This is so rediculous I don't even want to make a
Chuck Norris joke about it.

Take a look of a picture that the New York Times website posted of the Huckabee supporters at an Iowa caucus. I get the feeling that most Huckabee supporters have the same mind frame. And I can't make a judgement from a picture, but sometimes you can just tell by looking at someone that they aren't the brightest crayon in the box.

Can you see the excitement in that woman's eyes. I've seen similar expressions in people with down syndrome (No offense). She probably thinks Huckabee just won the election. All I have to say is great job Iowa Republicans, you sure know how to pick a winner. I pray to God that there are not more people like this voting Huckabee into Presidency.

The roads are snowy, But so is the skiing!

2008-01-03T17:04:00.001-05:00

I woke up early Thursday morning for a long bike ride. However, I took a look outside and realized this wasn't gonna happen. I looked at Willie (the furball that lives in my house) and he knew exactly what time it was.

...Time to hop on the XC skis and get lost for a few hours at 2,762 feet about sea level (Johnstown, Pennsylvania's Mt. Everest). Over a foot of fresh snow on the mountain made our day.

EAT MY PANTS TRAINER!!

In reference to angry farm dogs...

2007-12-30T18:38:00.000-05:00

Please see this post to get an international perspective about dogs.

My feet are worth millions.. maybe billions.. muhahah

2007-12-29T17:04:00.000-05:00

As I was riding today with thick wool socks, windproof toe covers over my shoes, and two layers of neoprene booties over my shoes in only 38 degree weather, I began to wonder... Why are my feet always so cold? I pondered as I passed a German Sheppard that began sprinting at me at full speed before the steel chain he was attached to almost snapped his neck in half. That suddenly raised another idea in my head- "If I had a dime for every time that neglected beast charged at me like that... I probably would not have enough money for the corrective surgery I would need for my face for the time that dog finally does snaps his chain."

But anyways, back to my feet. After I realized I was safe from being mangled by Saton's canine, and my heart rate went down again, my cold feet popped back into my mind. I realized that sometimes people are born with wierd features. Some people are born with two heads, some people are born albinos, some are born with elephantitus of the left pinky toe. But me, I must have been born with some strange chemical makeup in the skin of my feet. This chemical enables my feet to instantly get cold and stay cold. You could use my feet to chill your beer on a hot summer's day. As a matter of fact, my feet are the envy of any tailgaiter. I would probably just have to touch your beverage with my feet and it would instantly be chilled. And I mean Ice-effing-cold.

Dictionary definition of Ice-effing-cold: So cold, it would freeze over hell and even sends a chilly draft to heaven, and the Bahamas too.

There isn't just a lack of blood flow in my feet. There is some chemical that is worth millions if you can identify it and put a patent on it.

Therefore, I am now currently accepting money offers for rights to my feet when I die. Thats right, I will take the name of the winning bidder and contact my lawyer to put your name on my will so that you have the unrestricted righs to my feet. The morgue will cut those suckers off and give them to you so that you can cash them in to the nearest scientist.

I accept paypal too.

Ummm yeahhhh..

2007-12-20T23:46:00.000-05:00

If you missed that last post (I deleted it), you definately missed some good entertainment. I wrote that post (the one I deleted )in the insanity of studying for finals. I read that post after I came back to my sanity, and laughed in a hearty "WTF" type of way.

Story behind that: My mind went off on a tangent while I was in cramming mode (for finals). What I said made sense at the time, and my thoughts about it still make sense. But it was completely out of context for anyone else to make sense of.

So if you ever want to talk philosophy, shoot me an email and we can go at it.

And just for the record.. I'm still that same person I've always been (for the most part) and I haven't gone insane. So no need to worry.

And just for the record (part 2) - I'm not tripping on acid either. Drugs are bad.

How long did take to make this post... 5 seconds

2007-11-29T22:58:00.000-05:00

Its been a while since my last post. Finals are coming up fast and things have been a bit busy. I had to delay some new posts, but I have to keep the GPA up (thats the compromise) So here is something genuinely entertaining until I get back some of my blog time.

[my opinion- some dogs don't give that much affection to their owners, therefore my next pet will be a python]

My readers are awesome, keep sending comments, it makes me post more.

China- Date Rapist?

2007-11-07T21:38:00.000-05:00

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/11/07/australia.toys/index.html

I'm apologize in advance for a random blog, but this is the last straw. First China gets all up in kids toys with lead. We thought that was an accident right?

Now they are putting date rape drugs in the littles Ralphy's legos, tinker toys, and whatever they play with now days.

Sirry Chinese!

Cyclingnews.com did a feature on Steven

2007-10-29T13:07:00.000-04:00

Read the article:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/2007/interviews/?id=steven_van_vooren_oct07

Its awkward but funny

2007-10-18T16:42:00.000-04:00

Background: I am currently taking a news writing class. One of our assignments was to write our own obituaries. It was probably the weirdest assignment I ever did. So to make it a little less awkward, I tried to make it a little outrageous. It got the approval of my professor (A- wooooooooot!) so i figured i might as well share it with you. Bare with me...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Feline visionary takes last breath

By Jimmy A. Camut
Reincarnation Newspapers
SIOUX CITY – Jim Camut, owner of the world’s largest cat farm, a former Tour de France cyclist, died on his farm Tuesday. He was 56.

Camut, seeing to more than 1000 purebred Siamese cats, tripped on a litter box and inhaled lethal amounts of cat dander. Camut had severe cat dander allergies and died as a result.

Camut’s brother and sister, Gabe and Alex Camut, were visiting him when the accident occurred. “It’s a shame,” Gabe Camut said “But he died doing what he loved.”

“Tripping on Liter-boxes?” Alex Camut said.

“No,” Gabe Camut said, “Tending to his flock like his role model, Jesus Christ,” he said looking out over the horizon of the cat farm that Jim Camut is leaving behind.

Camut was a very prominent professional cyclist in the early 2010’s. In his third year racing professionally, he had a life changing moment in his first and only Tour de France.

Camut was racing down a road in the French Alps on stage 14 of the 2012 Tour de France. Camut was in a position to take the leader’s jersey, and was favored to win over-all that year. But expectations changed when a log rolled out in front of Camut while screaming down the alpine decent.

Camut flew over his handlebars and crashed. Spectators rushed over to him, who they said appeared to be dead. However, when Camut was picked up, they found a lifeless Siamese cat lying under his head. Camut regained consciousness shortly after being moved to the side of the road.

“That cat sacrificed all nine of its lives just to save mine,” Camut said in an interview with USA Today, “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t land on that Siamese guardian fur-angel.”

Some speculate that “Camut may have hit his head too hard,” as a Velonews.com reporter said in coverage of the accident. Camut abandoned the Tour de France that year, along with his cycling career. He then went on to start a newfound passion in South Dakota, cat farming.

In 2016, when New York Times reporter, Diana Henriques, asked what sparked his passion for cat farming, a career that turned Camut into a millionaire, he said, “I had a dream when I was laying there unconscious on that little French road.

I dreamed a man named Pierre, wearing a black beret and a red scarf, came up to me offering nine pieces of cheese. I ate the cheese,” Camut said, “All of it.”

Camut said the man told him, “It was spiritual cheese, as an offering from the teat of a Siamese cat, made to save his life.” Camut then went on to say that it was an omen for him to start a cat farm in the rolling hills of South Dakota, where the climate for cat farming is ideal.

At a time when most said they thought Camut might not make it in the cat farming industry, Camut made millions of dollars by starting a Siamese cat craze with his Feline Farms Foundation, more commonly known as Triple-F.

Some say life wasn’t always as spontaneous for Camut. He was born in Philadelphia. Camut and his two siblings spent most of their adolescences with their parents, James and Cathie Camut, in Johnstown, Pa.

Camut had a fairly normal childhood according to his brother. But he also had a passion for road bike racing. He signed a professional cycling contract during his fourth year of college. Camut graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 2009 with a public relations degree, but went on to pursue his cycling career as he had always dreamed until his life-altering crash in the Tour de France of 2013.

After establishing his cat farm business, Camut lived a peaceful life in South Dakota. Camut suffered from cat dander allergies but was able to keep up with his passion by the use of allergy medication. Camut had not taken his allergy medication on the day of his fatal accident.

“I hate to see him go out this way,” Greg Price, his childhood friend said, “He and his cats inspired all of us.”

Camut will leave his multi-million dollar cat farm, and most prized possession, a 30- pound genetically altered Siamese cat, to his adopted son, Trevor-Bob Camut.

Jim Camut is survived by his brother, Gabe and wife Cindy Camut, of Houston, and their four children, Phil, Jill, Lill, and Bill Camut; his sister, Alex Camut, of Atlanta; and by his adopted son, Trevor -Bob of Sioux City.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday, at the First Farmer’s Church of Siemetics in Sioux Falls.

You are so gullible!

2007-10-11T23:23:00.002-04:00

(regarding the previous post) Haha I'm just kidding, that might happen someday, hopefully many years from now. But not this year.

In all actuality, I'm in State College right now doing the whole school thing. I didn't realize how many were reading my blog until people started telling me that they were reading it. So I think I am about due for a post every once in a while now.

I've got some good stuff to talk about too. So let there be blog.

Hi Mom!

P.S. (that stands for post script- thats the college education talking, thankyou) This post is for Smolko who inspired me to start blogging again.

HOW IS MY BLOGGING?
CALL 1-800- leave a comment and i will cherish you

I quit

2007-10-11T23:23:00.001-04:00

I'm done with cycling and I'm fed up with all of it.

Tomorrow...

2007-08-20T15:44:00.000-04:00

UCI Race at Wervik

We go over the Kemmel twice.

http://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/12043.0.html

Then I pack my bike up and fly home the next morniing. I will post the details when I'm back state-side.

RULE OF THUMB

2007-08-20T10:11:00.000-04:00

Just because it's on my iPod doesn't mean that I jam out to it.

Getting our feet wet in the social scene

2007-08-18T11:30:00.000-04:00

Uncle Heert is a really cool guy. He decided to take us all to a Club Brugge Footbal game. That is a professional European soccer game for those who might be confused. This was an opportunity to get out of the cycling center for an event that didn't have to do anything with cycling. It was an opportunity to be "out," and opportunity to be in a social scene. We were all very excited to go see the soccer game. But at the same time, it was a warm up for most of us who are soon about to fly back to the states for a real social setting.

We ventured out of the cycling center in the evening hours of a friday night destined for the stadium. After a hectic drive we got to our box seats in the stadium. It was an amazing experience. The crowd was crazy. Sometimes riots break out in the stands because the fans get so crazy. There were no riots during the game, but we were safe from any riots because we were in our high-class seats. I've never been in box seats at any sporting event so it was definitely a first for me.

Club Brugge won 3-2 in a very exciting game. But the biggest victory was surviving in a social setting. You see, as you live in a house of all guys for several months... things start to change. For one, your hygiene slowly gets worse. Also, your manners become nonexistent as well. Freedom of belching and flatulence are just a regular part of life here at the CC. It also becomes difficult to talk to people who don't have anything to do with cycling. Not that we talk about cycling 24/7 at the cycling center. Believe me, we get sick of hearing the word bike sometimes. But we get used to talking to the same kind of people. So being "out" on a friday evening with people was a huge deal.

Overall it was a good opportunity and we all did well back in the social scene. For me, the big test of my social skills will be going back to State College. Uh Ohh

Well well

2007-08-14T11:31:00.001-04:00

Well things here at the CC are winding down as the majority of the guys start to leave. Its making the house feel kinda wierd since it used to be so active. I only have two more races here. I will race a kermesse on Thursday and then a big UCI race on the 21st. Then I fly home for school. The cycling center got an invite to Univest, so if it will work out for Bernard to send a team there, that will be my last race of the season.

The last race I did was the Tour of Namur in the hilly part of Belgium. It was five days of racing and we all held our own. Despite the entire team getting sick, we still managed to get Steven into the top 10.

Wait a second... do you feel that? is it a feeling of sadness? well don't worry, you are feeling a little sad because you miss me. But lament not. For I will be flying the wings of airplanes back to the united states on either the 22nd or 24th of August. But i will only come back if you do the truffle shuffle. Here is what i mean by the truffle shuffle

Do it or i won't come back! i know you miss me!
If you need detailed instructions email me at jimcamut@gmail.com

update

2007-08-11T04:04:00.000-04:00

I need to make a blog about the Tour de Namur. It went well for the team... I'll get on that

UPDATE

2007-08-11T04:02:00.001-04:00

I almost done with 6 more credits. Wish me luck as I finish my final papers.

UPDATE

2007-08-10T10:59:00.000-04:00

I am racing in Europe.

So I layed down for a little after my ride...

2007-07-29T10:38:00.000-04:00

...then I unintentionally fell asleep.

Let it be known that when you fall asleep unintentionally, you sometimes wake up not knowing what day it is or what you did in the past 12 hours. It takes about 60 seconds untill you remember everything again.

Trippy!

Lets get caught up

2007-07-25T14:08:00.001-04:00

Well things certainly will not calm down. I have a UCI 1.2 race tomorrow with Unibet, chocolate Jaques, and some other pro teams. Its gonna be a hard race, I don't know if I'm rested well enough after the Tour of Liege. After that, I am headed down to the Ardennes (the hills) for a training camp before the Tour of Namur which is coming up.

UH OH... FLASHBACK: what happened while I was in the united states?
Answer: Lemme give you the run down. NUTSHEL STYLE

Got a couple needle pricks, found some allergies. Changed the diet a little bit. Got some cool stuff to squeeze up my nose (Its USADA legal). Only bad news is that I can't eat bread anymore. I have to eliminate yeast from my diet.

Anyways, Nationals happend too right before I flew back to Belgium. My two teamates Dave Nelson, and Peter Horn raced awsome. Dave Nelson broke away with another guy and it looked like they were going to hold off the feild for a while, until everyone got jealous and got a little antsy. They all wanted to bridge up to dave and eventually a series of attacks brought dave back. A few short lived attacks later, a breakaway started to establish itself. I saw that it was a legitimate group so I bridged up to it early to get in the action. It was fairly well represented except for slipstream who really messed this one up. We all worked together well. On the last lap, Max Jenkins picked up the pace on the last lap, a couple of us tried to match his tempo but he was clearly the strongest. I began nipping at his heals on the last climb and really threw in a huge effort. at this point the break was shattered and apparently the feild was shattered too. I was so close to a podium finish, that I could smell it. BUt I let a group of three slip away at the top of the last climb. I was then solo in 5th place untill the finish where a chase group passed me about 100 meters to the line. I finished up 11th. I can almost swear that I would be wearing the stars and bars right now if I was peaking for nationals. Now I know how to stay healthy and I have big plans for next year.

Time trial- mediocre result for me.But USADA almost wanted me to pee in a cup. They held me for 20 minutes and gave me gatorade, then they said shoe fly shoe, gave me a pink peice of paper, and told me to scram. So i didn't get to grace them with my awsome urine. Sucks for them.

Anyways, I think that catches everything up on the blog.

Isn't that cool though, Urine is 95 percent water. You could probably drink it you really wanted to.

Off the plane, on the bike... so much to say

2007-07-23T15:37:00.000-04:00

Almost as soon as I got off the airplane I was right back on the bike racing. I barely had any time to move back into the cycling center before I was in a car going to the Tour of Liege, the hardest ameature stage race in Belgium. I would give you a full run down but you probably only want to hear some of the exciting parts.

The first stage, I barely got any sleep the night before thanks to jet lag. I got dropped from the pelaton and lost 25 minutes on the day. There was a huge crash on a downhill involving 40 + riders on the fourth stage. My teamate was too injured to continue and I never bled so much in my entire life. I had one deep cut in my arm that bled everywhere. My bike and my entire right side of my body had blood everywhere. The crash was bad enough that they race commisars decided to neutralize the race. So everyone stopped racing for a half hour while the medics cleaned up the carnage. Then for the next 50 kilometer the riders all agreed to not race and it was like a bike group ride. I don't know why but that is what happened. So we only ended up racing the last 40 or so kilometers. The sixth and final stage was by far the hardest. My teamate Steven Van Vooren was in 4th place overall and could potentially have won. Going into the last lap on the finishing circuit he got a flat tire. I gave him my wheel so he could get back fast. Unfortunately it was too late, and bad luck for the team. But overall it was great conditioning for the Tour of Namur which is coming in a week and a half where we will race for good results.

You can read more about The Tour of Liege on the cycling center website http://www.cyclingcenter.com/default.asp

Here is a picture of La Redout. We had to climb this on the last stage. This is one of the famous climbs in Liege-Bastogne-Liege. My legs didn't like me very much.

There has been a lot that has happened since my last few posts. I will fill you in blog by blog. Things are really busy for me lately. I just turning in three late assignments for my online classes. (its hard being a student and traveling so much) But I won't forget about my readers and supporters. I wouldn't be here without your help and its important to keep you updated. I'll be postin!

I'm back

2007-07-14T14:49:00.000-04:00

Please excuse the brief hiatus this blog had to endure (That sounds like something a PR person would write doesn't it.) Anyways, I've spent 3 weeks back home in the states, and tomorrow I am flying back to Belgium. This past month has been very eventful and I will tell you all about it. Look for me to git-my-blog-on in the next few days.

But for now, I will leave you with a picture of a coconut

enjoy

Exploding birds

2007-06-14T03:43:00.000-04:00

I am writing this blog as I am pounding Organized and industrial psychology to my face. I decided that I needed a little break from the "books" aka, endless PDF files of text.

Anyways, I was just thinking about one of my races. And I thought I would share a story with you. A couple races ago, I was riding in the pack and I see all these white feathers everywhere. Then I saw a couple guys swurve in front of me and almost crash. Then a squawking rolling bird is inches away from my tire being run over by countless people. HAHAHA the damn bird exploded and feathers went everywhere. It made me laugh. You don't see that type of thing every race. But animals getting killed by bike racers is not a completely uncommon thing. Call me shameless for laughing but I guess you had to be there.

There was an Eye whitness account of the bird just hours before the explosion. Someone was lucky to capture this photograph:

I am on my last week here at the cycling center before I fly home for Fitchburg and Nationals. My father came to visit me for a few days and got to see what the cycling center was all about. He even got to ride in the team car for an entire UCI race. I think he really enjoyed that. Not a lot of people get the opportunity to have a front row seat for an entire 175km road race. It was nice seeing a familiar face too. I fly back to the states in a week and I will see many more familiar faces. I'm not sure what the rest of the racing season holds. There are a lot of uncertainties right now.

On a random note, we have 2 cyclists from Bahrain at the cycling center. One of them saw a picture of a guy on velo-news with a gopher costume and was dead set on getting one for himself. Well the other day he came back from the store with a gopher costume. I don't know where I was going with this one, but the two Bahrainians are flying home tomorrow and we are gonna miss them. They may kick our asses at monopoly, but we will not have the comic relieve of their random outbursts, sexy-time jokes, and gopher obsessions. As I was walking down the hall this morning, I noticed the going away message they left. With plenty Dirka Dirka's and Muhammed Jihaads written on the board (an inside joke we share with the Bahrainians about the movie "Team America")... I think they are going to miss us too. (http://mansoor87.blogspot.com/ - Mansoor's Blog)

THis is Bahrain. I didn't know where it was either.

Yes, Umpa Lumpas

2007-05-31T15:45:00.000-04:00

It's been a little while since my last post. I have just recently added an activity that takes away my blogging time. I just started an online class on industrial and organizational psychology. I know.. its just as fun as the name. But its getting me three more credits. I will also start another online course on July 3rd.

For a second I got really confused and thought that the course started on June 3. It literally just took me 10 minutes to check to make sure I wasn't starting this course in three days before I continued writing this post. Otherwise I would have been screwed. I don't have my book for my second class yet.

When you are taking classes online, then online becomes your classroom so now everytime im on the internet, I am basically in the classroom. However, Today was a snowday, I couldn't connect to the internet earlier. Thank God for snow days!

In other news, I just found out that the Arch Roman Catholic Church says that Purgatory doesn't exist anymore. My question is.. Who made up the idea of purgatory in the first place and why did the ARCC (arch roman catholic church) acknowledge it? I am officially going to make up a new place to take the place of purgatory. I haven't found a name for it yet, but I would describe It kinda like Willy Wonka's Chocolate land but in the clouds, and with umpa lumpas.. the old ones, not the new ones. I'm pretty sure that ARCC with acknowledge it if I give it a good name. Purgatory just wasn't a good enough name so ARCC had to scrap it. If you can think of any cool names, leave a comment and lets get it acknoledged.

I also forgot to mention that I did a kermesse on Sunday and i think my eyes were bleeding after the race. But at least I made some money.

I will be flying back State-side on the 21st of June. I only have a couple weeks and 2 more races here.

...and how does Wumpalumapatory sound?

Reasons to hold on to the handlebars when bike racing:

2007-05-22T12:58:00.000-04:00

1. There are pot-holes that you cannot see.
2. You might hit a pot-hole that you cannot see.
3. You might hit a pot-hole that you cannot see and flip over the bars like an idiot who didn't hold on tight enough.
4. You might do all of the above and have to chase back to the pelaton through the caravan.
5. You might do all of the above and then crash again as soon as you get back to the pelaton.
6. You might be me and do all of the above in the first 30 km of a 172 kilometer race.

We all have our moments of glory, and the beggining of my last UCI race was definately the opposite of a moment of glory. I managed to crash twice in the first 30 k. That race was called Laarna and it had some of the famous cobbled climbs in it. It rained for an hour and a half during that race. It was a true Belgian bike race. With rain, cobbles, crashes, and lots of drama; it was the epidimy of Bike racing in Europe. At the end of the day, I got my head together and got back in the race, and Steiven got third. So there are no complaints.

Here are some more pictures from the The Tour de la Manche

Tour de la Manche Part 2: For real

2007-05-19T08:54:00.000-04:00

Alright so I have been getting the shit raced out of me. 6 races in the past 10 days and they have all been about 4 hours long. I haven't had time to keep up with my blog let alone telling how the races went.

Anyways,

Tour de la Manche was a huge success for the team. We got our Belgian Teamate, Steiven, into 5th place overall. So all the hard work the team did over the 5 stages paid off.

The first stage was 160 km. and it went along Utah beach in Normandy. Supposedly there were lots of WWII bunkers along the coast, but some of us did not see any. At that point in the race, the winds were so hard that everyone was fighting to get into an echelon as the race was being shattered.

The second stage, I found myself in an early break that went from kilometer 30. It was a break of 10 guys and we had a maximum of 3 minutes on the field. Towards the last kilometers of the stage it was a game of cat and mouse. 3 guys got away. Then another guy had a solid attack, then I tried to bridge up to him and couldn't do it. Before I knew it, the field caught me with 300-400 meters to the line. I would have had 5th on the day if the feild wouldn't have closed in so fast. It was alittle heart breaking, but thats bike racing. Nate, who was working as our mechanic said it was really enertaining driving behind the break and watching the break attack itself at the end. And with the rain that was pouring down the last 10 km, he said it was an epic day.

Here is a picture of me in the break.

The third stage was the time trial. I believe I rode the slowest TT ever to be done on Lance's bike. But for an ameature UCI race in france, it was decent enough to get me 19th.

Stage 4 was later that afternoon. For me it was a hard day because I was exausted from the day before.

Stage 5 was a little more dramatic. My job was to cover early breaks. I was riding at the front trying to cover moves when someone touched wheels in front of me and took a couple guys down, me being one of them. I was fortunate enought to land in the grass so I wasn't hurt. I checked my wheels and hopped on my bike. I found out I couldn't shift because my deraillure housing was smashed. So I got a bike change and got rolling again. The officials were still back at the crash. So Nate, leaned out the window pretending to fix my rear brakes as I had a push going 70km/h. After a few minutes of that, I made it back to the caravan, then it was another 10 minutes of working my way through the caravan to get back to the pelaton. I caught the pelaton right at the start of the first KOM. So immediately I had to dig deep again to stay with the pack and make it over the first climb without getting dropped. After I had enough time to recover. I was feeling really good. We entered the local laps of the race and I was right were I needed to be. Then my chain broke. So I had yet another bike change. I rode into the finish slightly behind the caravan. But Steiven got 5th on that stage and secured his 5th place overall.

I am not gonna lie, on the way home, we all stopped and ate at a french McDonald's. You are allowed to do that after you finish a stage race.

Well the Giro d'Italia is on live right now and I have a race tomorrow with some of the famoust cobbled climbs. So I better be going. But next week looks like things might simmer down a little more so I will make sure the blog gets its lovin.

And don't look at that Zombie below if its creeping you out as much as its creeping me out.

Tour de la Manche: Part 1 (I am a Zombie)

2007-05-15T15:46:00.000-04:00

This post is long overdue. The reason it has taken me so long is because I actually reall busy and tired on Monday. By the time I had time to sit down and write a post, It was already bed time. And today my excuse is that I am extremely tired.

As a matter of fact, I feel like a zomibe. Zombies walk really slow and are kinda scary. I'm not scary, at least I think I'm not. But I've been moving around pretty slow. Today is my first rest day since the stage race, and I really needed it.

Anyways, It's just about bed time for me right now but I am squeezing a little bit of effort out of myself to post something.

The stage race I did was called Tour de la Manche. It was in the Normandy region of France. It was about a 7 hour drive from the cycling center to the place we stayed at. We all stayed in little two bedroom houses that were a few sand doones away from the ocean....

TO BE CONTINUED... TOMORROW... WHEN ITS NOT INVADING MY SLEEPING TIME.... WHEN I DON'T HAVE TO TYPE AT ZOMBIE SPEED AND THINK ABOUT MY PILLOW...

Parlez-vous Francais?

2007-05-08T11:00:00.000-04:00

hmmm hmmm croissant croissant

I am packing my bags for France. I will head there with the team on Wednesday morning for a stage race. FRENCH BAGUETTES. Unfortunately for my loyal readers, this means that I will not be able to post anything new until Monday or Tuesday of next week. EIFFEL TOWER. And I am sure to have at least one good story because something completely un-called-for always happens at stage races.

The race starts Thursday and the fifth and final stage will be over on Sunday. NAPOLEON BUENEPARTE. I will be using Lance Armstrong's time trial bike for the time trial so thats pretty exciting. I have it dialed into my fit pretty close. CROISSANT. So wish me luck! STINKY CHEESE

Rain!! I'm almost happy about it.

2007-05-07T02:23:00.000-04:00

Mark this day in history, the 7th of May, 2007. I woke up and it was raining.

2007-05-05T14:26:00.000-04:00

So everything they say about it raining all the time in Belgium... Its a lie. They just don't want anyone to come to Belgium and experiance the good weather. Well now I am letting the world know that it has been a cover-up. The weather in Belgium is gorgeous. So far, it has not rained a single day in April, or any of May yet either.

Hertz

2007-05-02T12:31:00.000-04:00

Ok so quote of the day goes out to Fraser, refering to himself as we were discussing the rapper life style:

"When you are married, and you live in Taiwan, its hard to be down with bling and hoes."

commentary: Priceless. Fraser is a Canadian who lives with his wife in Taiwan and is living at the cycling center right now. Fraser is also on my cool list. He got me some chocolate mousse for my birthday... I mean, I didn't eat any chocolate mousse.

Kitchen talk of the day is in reference to Starbucks:

"Starbucks, the most expensive cup of ice and whipped cream you will ever buy"

Commentary: At least it tastes good.

In other news, I had another UCI race race yesterday. It is called 1 MEIPRIJS - EREPRIJS VICTOR DE BRUYNE. The startlist included only 9 amateur teams and the rest were pro teams. We roll into the parking lot and see the Predictor Lotto continental team, Gerolsteiner continental team, and Landbouwkrediet-Tönissteiner just to name a few. It was one of those races where you realize that there will be no room for mistakes. The race was 183.7 Kilometers total which comes out to about 110 miles I believe. It was windy so there were a bunch of sections in the race where it was strung out single file. I was able to hold really good position the entire race which helped me out alot, especially when the race went monkey. In the local laps at the end of the race there was a big section of cobbles that was a 180 degree turn with three railroad crossings. It was probably one of the craziest cobble sections I've seen. My hands are mildly blistered from the cobbles, but overall it ended up to be a good race. It was a 4 and a half hour race, so I was pretty tired afterwards.

In other other news, this guy turned the big 21 on the final day of April. This means that in the united states I will legally be allowed to rent cars. You better watch out Hertz, here I come!

Race Report.. kinda

2007-04-28T14:28:00.000-04:00

About that previous post.. Don't worry im not crazy.

Anyways, I raced my second UCI race today. I am so cooked. I didn't get a great result or a bad one either. Midway through the race I thought I was going to have to drop out because my stomach wasn't feeling too hot. Fortunately it calmed down enough to allow me to finish the race. Tonight I'll put my feet up and relax. I will race again on Tuesday which is probably just a Kermesse. Sorry for such a short report but I'm a little out of it right now. I'm still pretty tired.

OHHHH!! I almost forgot. I will be using Lance Armstrongs old TT bike for time trials.. I think. It was being fit and setup for me the other day. Its a bike he has won Tour de France time trials on. So now for time trials, I will have no excuse to be slow. Thats worth mentioning, right?

Science, or Science Fiction?

2007-04-27T02:58:00.000-04:00

I woke up at 5:34am last night/early morning, and I came to a realization. I read an article about solar flares peaking sometime in 2011 and 2012. http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/04/26/solar.cycle.ap/index.html I also just read a book recently called "2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl," by Daniel Pinchbeck. Pinchbeck noted that the Mayan calendar for all of time ends on Dec 21th, 2012. He is not suggesting the end of the world, rather than a change to a new epoch of time. I also recalled from a book I read about Atlantis called "The Fog: A Never Before Published Theory of the Bermuda Triangle Phenomenon," by Rob MacGregor and Bruce Gernon. These are both really good reads by the way. One of the theories in The Fog is that there are large crystals that the Atlanteans used in their society. They used the crystals as a way to channel energy. The reason time-space gets skewed over the bermuda triangle is because these crystals get activated from the sun every once in a while when the light hits them just right. The crystals are supposedly under the ocean in the bermuda triangle and they begin to work again every once in a while. I also remembered from a book I am reading now, that there is a type of energy that is undiscovered to humanity thus far. It is the energy that light travels through. It is also the reason that light has a wave as opposed to straight beam. The energy is a field that the light has to travel through. Just like how sound energy moves in waves as it crosses the air. Then I thought, "what if the solar flares in 2011/12 are going to activate the chrystals of atlantis in the bermuda triangle, which will lead to their discovery, which will lead to the discovery of a the unknown energy force, and change humanity forever to a new epoch? Far out huh?

Or maybe the second coming of Christ will occur with Jesus surfing a solar flare on a solar panel surf board into the earth in 2012. While hanging 10 the entire way of course.

Either way, this thought was enough to interrupt my beautiful slumber and wake my sleeping-self up at 5:30 in the morning. But I think I need to read something other than futuristic science philosophy books.

Don't get me wrong.. I'm not on vacation here.

2007-04-26T14:15:00.000-04:00

This past Tuesday I went to Dr. Dag's office and did lactate threshold testing. Basically you get on a torcher device that somewhat resembles a bicycle. You start at 100 watts resistance, and every 3 minutes the machine kicks the resistance up 50 watts, and the doctor squeezes blood out of your ear to see how much lactic acid is in your blood. You have to hold a cadence between 90-100 revolutions per minute the entire time. At some point during the test you pretty much just blow up and can't push over the wattage anymore. At that moment they cut the resistance and the first part of the test is over.

THE DEATH MACHINE

Then you spin really easy on the machine for 5 minutes before starting the second test. In the second test, you watch the counter tick down from 5 minutes, and at 1 second to go, you go as hard as you can in an all-out sprint. So as you are frantically trying to push out your maximum explosive wattage, the machine bites down and adds more resistance the harder you push. So you end up sprinting for about 30 seconds. At this point you are ready to throw in the towel. You have given every ounce of strength you could put in your legs as explosively as you could. However, this test is 3 minutes long. So you have to keep on going as hard as you can for the entire three minutes. You end up just grinding on the pedals and all the blood goes to your legs. You are not supposed to sustain the highest power you think you can hold for three minutes... You are supposed to sprint for everything you have, and then keep going as hard as you can for the three minutes. In other words, you are not pacing yourself at all, you just go as hard as you can regardless of the fact you have to go for three minutes.

I recall looking at the screen after 30 seconds and thinking I had honestly done a minute. By the time I had gone a full minute, it felt like I had been going for three minutes. When it was finally over, my vision was all blurry and I was completely cooked. It was the longest three minutes of my entire life. I didn't know I could put myself in that much pain. You make those kind of efforts in races, but its easier because you are accomplishing something when you are pushing that hard, as opposed to staring at a screen with numbers. I had seen six guys do this test before me, so I knew what to expect. There aren't any pictures of me doing this test, but here is a picture of Scott when he did this test a few weeks earlier. I think his face tells the whole story. Ladies and Gentlemen, I hereby present Scott Action Jackson.

Sorry Scott, this photo is classic.

You don't even have to bake them!

2007-04-26T14:01:00.000-04:00

Today my teamate, chris, made no-bakes. He happened to give me one of his no-bakes while I was on my computer. I suddenly realized that no-bakes are really good and that you should send me a whole box of them. Yes I am talking to you. My address is:

Jim Camut
Cycling Center
Kasteeldreef 4
8020 Hertsberge (OOstkamp)
Belgium

I would greatly appreciate it. The best part is.. You don't even have to bake them.

The Belgian Dog Phenomenon

2007-04-22T13:32:00.000-04:00

There is a little something I have noticed while in Belgium that I have coined the Belgian Dog Phenomenon. Let me explain this. I go out for a bike ride in Pennsylvania. I try to avoid traffic, and in order to do so, I ride on the farm roads. The only problem with farm roads is that you run into unchained, farm dogs that don't see very many cyclists and take you for some kind of prey. I have often gone out on rides and done sprint workouts just to get away from them. And when you can't get away, you have to do you best goo goo ga ga talk to make the dog think of yourself as less of a meal.

Ok, so you are still wondering what the Belgian Dog Phenomenon is. Well in the land of Belgium, it is predominantly farms with small towns that barely even count as towns as all. You would think that the landscape would be plagued with blood thirsty farm dogs that want to chase you down on your bike and eat you alive. This surprisingly is not the case at all. The dogs here are so chilled out its unbelievable. You can look a rottweiler right in the eye and he will want to love you like a teddy-bear.

Let me show your this phenomenon in pictoral form:

AMERICAN FARM DOG

BELGIAN FARM DOGS

Another Kermesse

2007-04-19T05:19:00.000-04:00

I raced again on Wednesday. It was a kermesse on a coast town in Belgium. Our team plan was to work on getting to the front of the peleton and staying there. We entered 7 guys in the race and we were all at the front doing our job and covering every attack. It was only a matter of time before the race started shattering into groups as all Kermesses do. When the race started breaking up, I fortunate enough to get into the 3rd group with another teamate, and we got to race until about two or three laps to go. I was feeling really good during the race and was able to break away solo from my group on the last lap they let us race. Overall it was a good day because we got a teamate in the final. I came out of the race with a lot more confidence knowing I got a little bit closer to getting into the race final and that I was able to be a teamate and actually race at the front as opposed to being pack meat and just sitting in the pack helplessly. We definately have a solid team and we ride like it too. We are all expecting good things for the team in the next few races.

Here are some pictures of the town we raced in.

This world never ceases to surprise all of us

2007-04-17T14:05:00.000-04:00

I sat down to check the news yesterday after my ride. Immediatly I saw the developing story of the Virginia Tech tragedy. I was completly shocked as I watched the online news reports and read the story. There is a girl that I graduated highschool with that is attending Virginia Tech. I thought of her as I was seeing what had happened and I got really scared. I found out a few minutes later that she was alright.

Its really hard to imagine that something like that could happen. I can't believe that anyone has the capacity to carry out a killing spree like the Virginia Tech Student did. I honestly do not think that you can have a sane mind and do something like that. I think its impossible for any mentally healthy individual to come to terms to kill another person out of their own will. In reality, this incident is not much different than what happened at Columbine. But it is just as shocking everytime something like this happens because in your mind you think it is too horrible for something like it to happen again. Yet in this day and age we see airplanes flying into skyscrapers and mass genocides in Africa, and unfortunately this is probably not the last school shooting we will see in the next 5 years.

This world is no different. But an all american college campus like Virginia Tech will bring a tragedy like this a little bit closer to home, because it could have been any college campus. I could just as easily see this happening at my campus at Penn State. As a matter of fact, I had a Korean roomate last year who kept to himself alot and in some ways seemed similar to the student at Virginia Tech. Its just a coincidence that he was Korean and not very outgoing, but it makes you think how many people are like that student at Virginia Tech?

At the end of the day you can only say a prayer and expect that the sun will come up in the morning.

Brugge.. the picture book

2007-04-13T14:14:00.000-04:00

Remember when you were just a lil fella and you could only read picture books? Well here is my picture book of Brugge.

Entitled:
"A is for apple, B is for Brugge, C is for the letter after B, and the rest just follow in alphabetical order"

By Jim Camut

Once upon a time in a land bound with bikes, chocolate, waffles, frites, and old men who like to wear neon short shorts, there stould a city unlike other cities, they called this city Brugge.

One day, after many hard days of bike racing, four young lads decided to venture this city in surch of something that they did not know what they were looking for. There is only 3 in this picture because the fourth lad is taking the picture with a mythical device that freezes time and sticks it to a sheet of paper.

These brave men searched the streets and the cafes for this thing which they thus looked for.

They searched the windows with scary chocolate sculptings of things of which they had never known be madste of chocolate.. like big eyeballs with pointy retinas.

They searched the canaals.

...and the streets.

And still they had not found this thing they did so yearn to find.

Scott and Aron didn't know what to do.

And Jim just stould there with monkey arms.

But still, they came up empty handed. So they kept walking.

Then Elliot suggested they stop their journey and brainstorm over a cup of tea.. or beverage of choice.

No, honestly, I did have a cup of tea. They did have a good Belgian beer menu though.

After a few hours of hard-core brain storm action. They decided that what they were really looking for was Jesus (music clip: "Haleyuhah")

So they searched the ancient cathedrals of Brugge.

They even searched behind the Michelangelo sculpture. (note to citizens of johnstown. A replica of this statue is in the Our Mother of Sorrow Church)

But there was one church strewn with gold that stould apart from all the rest.

This church was said to have the Blood of Jesus in it.

Then they found Jesus and went home.

THE END

Poetry is in the air

2007-04-13T13:47:00.000-04:00

Ok, so we were riding back from a Kermesse the other day and nature inspired me to write this poem.
entitled:
"Sweet Summer Night"

It smells like
a sweet summer night.

by Jim Camut

...Believe me, there is plenty more where that came from.

The swing of things around here

2007-04-11T15:29:00.000-04:00

So many of you want to know what exactly we do here all day. None of us have jobs in belgium, and our responsibilities are to train and race. So let me give you a run down of the typical day:

04:00- Wake up to alarm and begin chanting the cycling center theme song.
04:01- Assemble in formation for attendance and lecture
04:02- lecture on the meaning of bike racing
05:00- Lecture ends and we return to mess hall a meal of 100 grams of raw broccoli and 300ml of ice water, aka breakfast
06:00- Breakfast is digested and we are suited up for training ride after a daily morning lactate threshold test.
06:15- Training ride for 8 hours with 100 x 50 second all out sprints with 4 seconds of recovery in between
14:15- Training ride is over and bikes get cleaned by licking the dirt off with our own tongues
15:00- At this time we are showered, massaged, and can begin to eat our evening meal- 150 grams of raw broccoli and 300 ml of ice water
15:30- We start group meditation followed by lecture on how to achieve sprinting at 2500 watts.
17:45- Dinner 50 grams of raw brocolli and 300ml of ice water
19:00- We begin socialization hour where we are allowed to talk to eachother and play with legos. Yes legos.
19:30- Socialization hour is over. Its not a whole hour but it is called that for psychological purposes. We now take attendance again and get ready for sleep
20:00- Lights out and it is expected to be in bed sleeping
24:00- Wake up for midnight injection of 80 grams of protein to insure proper recovery.
04:00- Start daily training all over again.

As you can see, it is a full day every day at the cycling center.

Not Really!

I hope you didn't take that daily schedule seriously. Thats not what really goes on here. But daily life isn't too complicated. Our jobs here are to become the best bike racers we can. So we do what we can to take advantage of the time we spend here. On non-race days, we are all eating breakfast by 8am. No one really stays up much later than llpm. What you make of your day is up to you. You can spend it any way you want within certain guidllines. For example, there are designated times to cook meals. Everybody is doing their own thing in the early part of the day. We train in the morning/noon and relax in the afternoon. On a rest day we will usually take the bus into Brugge and forget about cycling. Why? because its healthy to not touch your bike for a day when your whole life revolves around it. We are bike racers but its important to keep a balanced life. We all have some kind of hobby or interest outside of cycling that helps us keep our mental health. You wake up thinking you have alot of time in the day, but somedays seem like they are completely busy.

We are a different breed of people that unsurprisingly have alot of things in common. I remember one conversation at dinner time about how cyclists have such messed up metabolisms. We consume way more calories in a day than the average athlete and therefore have huge appetites. But the ideal physik of a cyclist is skinny and lean. So we have to eat alot, but we have to eat alot of the right foods. The huge appetite thing is always a problem, especially when you have a weak moment. To us, our weak moments are eating a little bit of peanut butter, or having an extra peice of bread with honey. We always talk about all the foods we wish we could be eating. Food is almost an obsession because of our huge appetites. But we love race days when we can make a stack of crepes in the morning and eat them all with jam or maybe 1 or 2 with a little peanutbutter. Because on race days you consume so many calories that you need to load your body with lots of calories to begin with. You will never find an anorexic cyclist though so don't worry. You can't maintain your fitness and health if you don't eat. So we eat alot, but we eat healthy. Its a lifestyle. Once in a while we will eat a bowl of meusli at 8pm and feel guilty about it. But even when that happens its really not a big deal.

We are living the lifestyle of professional bike racers. Its a great opportunity being here in Belgium. I want so badly to become a professional bike racer. Not just any professional, I want to be a great one. I want to race on a pro-tour team and be able to hold my own. If I can't do that, then I will have an education to fall back on. But if you were to talk to me, I wouldn't talk your head off about bike racing. Bike racing is a huge part of my life right now. I love bike racing or else I wouldn't succomb to this sort of lifestyle. Its the reason I'm postponing an education that I have already invested thousands of dollars into. Its the reason I am across the sea learning how to fight in the war they call bike racing over here. But I won't ramble on about bike racing if we had a normal conversation. I like to put it aside and talk about other things. My life has lots of other important things that don't include bike racing and they are just as important. By the way, I promised i would say when I had my first waffle. I had a weak moment and had to get a waffle while i was in Brugge. Pat says, "a waffle a day keeps the podium away." Thats true, but this is the only waffle I've had here and it was inevitable.

Notice the smirk on my face while I hold my waffle. I'm telling you, that thing didn't know what was coming.
By the way, Brugge is super cool and I will post some pictures in my next post.

So keep in mind that the purpose of this blog is to let everyone who really cars, stay connected with my happenings over here. I will try my best to let you know how every race goes. However, I'm not going to solely talk about bike racing because afterall... this is the wafflementary. I'm in Belgium, I'm learning a new way of life, I'm having new experiances, I am thousands of miles away from the people that mean the most to me, and there is alot more to my life than solely bike racing. Anyone who knows me really well, know I will pop a totally random comment out of nowhere in a situation where you would never expected. I think that sort of thing slips out onto my blog every once in a while. I looked back at some of my entries and wondered why I was talking about flux capacitors in one of my entries. WHo really knows. I don't really know what goes through my brain half the time.

Anyways, if you have made it this far, I congradualte you because this is a long post and you get a blue ribbon. Yes, you are now officially a blue ribbon VIP blog reader of the Waffumentary.

My first UCI

2007-04-08T03:49:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was my first UCI race. It was a really crazy race; 167.2 kilometers in the hills of northern France. Supposedly it was the only UCI race in France for the entire month of April so everybody was racing hard. The top six guys in this race last year all had pro-tour contracts this year from what I understand. Stieven, my Belgian teamate made the comment that it was like a mini world championship. There were quite a few national teams there including the Polish national team, Russian, Ukrainian, French and some continental teams as well. It was pretty cool because before the race we got to go up on a stage and they took our team picture after we signed in.

I tried not to get too caught up in the hype of the whole thing because I had a job to do. At the end of the day, its just another bike race and I'm still a bike racer. So I did my best to maintain focus the entire race. There was 203 guys starting the race, so it was a huge feild size. I got a crappy start position and couldn't manage to get to the front. It was incredibly hard to move up in that field.

The race went haywire through the second feedzone where the field actually split. Me and a few teamates were stuck in the second group. Somehow, out of pure chance, we got organized enough to start rotating and eventually cought the peleton. So as soon as we caught the peleton, we needed to move up through the feild because the first big climb was coming up. I started weisling my way through the pack and was getting pretty close to the front when all the sudden there was a crash. I didn't go down, but I had to unclip and chase. Unfortunately my teamate went down and broke his collar bone. After the crash, it was a hard chase to the bottom of the climb. The climb was extremely narrow. People were litterally getting off their bikes and running up the climb because there was a car in the middle that was holding things up. I had to track stand about 5 times to avoid unclipping.

From that point, there was no hope of getting back to the peleton which was narrowed down to what looked like about 70 guys at that point. But that doesn't mean you stop racing. I was in a chase group and we were flying. We could see the back of the peleton almost the entire time, but we couldn't reach it. I think I raced my smartest from this point on. I didn't cook myself trying to chase and I made it to the finishing circuit with a group of 30 or so. Of that group, only four of us survived. I beleive we were the last 4 to finish the race. I placed 78th overall ( http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2007/apr07/boucleartois07 ). I was just glad to finish my first UCI race. It was a hard day in the saddle and I was thrilled to see the race staff waiting for me at the finish with a cold coke, and a couple sandwiches.

I had a hard time believing that everyone tries to race full throttle for that long. But some of these guys are littlerally racing for their dinner. The Russian team that was there makes more money in a race like this than they will make in a month working at home. So the mentality of racing is extremely hard. The peleton barely ever sits up for a few moments. Its constantly going full kilt for the entire time.

The pics you see are from the race yesterday.

Did I feel a rain drop?...... Nope

2007-04-05T15:30:00.000-04:00

The weather has been quite unusual lately. There has been no rain for almost a week. This is unheard of in Belgium. It was kinda rainy when I first got here, but now that I mentioned this dry spell, I jinxed the weather. So now its gonna rain for the next two months straight.

I forgot to say. I had another race on Wednesday. It was another Kermis and I finished it. It wasn't nearly as hard as the first Kermis I did. I even had the legs to go off the front once or twice. However I can't forget to mention that before my warm up, I crashed going less than 1 mph. I was coming down off a curb and my front wheel got stuck in a rain gutter that I didn't see and I went over the handlebars. I probably looked like an idiot but what can I say.

Anyways, I have my first UCI race on saturday that I'm pretty excited for. Its gonna be a long point to point road race in France. We'll see how that goes.

Guess what????

2007-04-05T15:27:00.000-04:00

CHICKEN BUTT!!!!

April Fools

2007-04-03T08:56:00.000-04:00

Ok, I completely forgot that I did my last post on April fools. I forgot to make up something completely rediculous, yet believable and then say APRIL FOOLS! I could have said that I was racing and all of the sudden, the guy next to me spontaniously combusted into flames and crashed. I am going to have to wait until next year now. How could I forget??? AHHHHHH!!!! I will get you all next year, just wait!

First Race

2007-04-01T15:18:00.000-04:00

Today was my first race. Its late and I'm pretty tired but I promised a posting. Anyways, I won. So goodnite.

Just kidding, I didn't really win, but if anyone asks you can tell them I did. So today's race was a Kermesse. A Kermesse is just another term for a race that goes ape-shit fast from the start and shatters the field untill there are small groups. They eventually pull each group of racers at the back and let the lead group and chase group race the entire race until the end. Or something along those lines. Anyways, 4 of us rode to the race today. We warmed up a little then got to the start line. At the start line there was a guy talking in freaky deaky dutch. I don't know what he said, but the race started before I knew it and he must have convinced everyone to start riding really really fast, because thats exactly what happened.

Long story short- I didn't win.

Long Story short but not as short- I raced half of the race before getting pulled. So I was racing for about an hour and a half. Being my first race of the entire year, and my first European race, I certainly learned alot. I burnt some matches early in the race trying to get better positioning, but I got the hang of it after about 30 minutes. You have to race a lot smarter in Europe. You have to know where the wind is coming from before every turn so that you can hide and not get stuck in the gutter. I'm sorry for those of you who are not familiar with some of those terms, but I am essentially saying that it is very important not waste any unnecessary energy.

I will talk more about the whole experiance when I have more time tomorrow because I really need to get to bed. There is no sleeping in here. So check back again tomorrow.

Speed control on your local highways

2007-03-28T15:28:00.000-04:00

As Scott and I were riding the other day, Scott brought up a very important point as we passed a speed control sign. When you see "speed enforced by air," you better watch out for attack helicopters popping up from behind the treeline and firing missiles. Don't say I didn't warn you.

P.S. Brian, I am trying with all my might to avoid the waffles.

P.P.S. Coach K, is it ok to maybe have 1 waffle?

P.P.P.S. Mom, I will not be too distracted by waffles and maybe a little bike racing and eating healthy to remember to bring back Belgian chocolate when I fly home.

P.P.P.P.S. Don't worry dad I am well fed. But I am extremely malnurished if we are talking about waffles.

Wow this post is getting really out of hand, Im gonna end it here. I am racing this weekend so If I don't have anything good to say before then, I will surely have a good story to tell about my first race here.

No Waffles

2007-03-25T10:08:00.000-04:00

Just for the record: I have not had a Belgian waffle yet. Apparently if you go into the city of Brugge (not too far from here), they are sold on every street corner. Finding the ever covited Belgian waffle is something that I will do eventually, and my blog will be the first to get word this glorius event. But for the moment, I am still waffleless.

In other exciting news, we went to the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling team's base in Belgium. We got a tour of the base and saw some pretty cool stuff. As soon as you walk into the mechanics's two or three warehouses, there are hundreds of thousands of dollars of wheelsets hanging over your head. At the time, the mechanics were putting together the team's bikes for Paris Roubaix. At the fascility they also had a few of the team cars and one of the min-buses. They also keep the team's touring bus there too but it was gone because the racing season is starting to get in full swing. Probably the most interesting thing was seeing where the team ages its tires a minimum of two years before they put them on their wheels. They took us to this musty old room where there were stackes of tires labeled with the year they were made. It was really cool. Of course we were there for a tour, but Bernard, our director was talking business with them the whole time. I'm not sure what they are planning but all I know is that we have to clean the cycling center inside and out tomorrow because someone from Discovery is touring our house in a couple days.

Also, I got my new frame the other day. Here is a picture of it. Consensus: Awesome!

And just to mention, incase you were concerned, I am feeling a lot better. I finished my antibiotic and I am almost fully healthy now.

Scoreboard:
Jim- 2
Bacteria- 0

Magnitude

2007-03-21T12:03:00.000-04:00

Alot has been going on here at the CC since my last post. I'm about due for an update. Magnus is still here. We went for a ride with him the other day and It was probably some of the worst conditions you could ride in. With a mix of slushy snow and cow shit in 32 degree temperatures, we were all a little bit uncomfortably to say the least. Even Magnus knew we shouldn't be riding long. So we only rode an hour and then headed to the steam room to warm up.

Magnus isn't the only guest staying at the CC, Cycling.tv (the largest internet brodcasting company in the world) is at the CC filming Magnus and also doing a documentary on the Cycling Center. Since Magnus is here, he is teaching us everything he knows. He is one of the worlds most respected cyclists and he knows how to handle himself in the media like the very best. So he has given us some media training on how to handle interviews and keep composure.

I think its also important to mention that Magnus is one of the coolest guys around. He will talk to anyone like a human being and doesn't have a stuck up ego despite his superstar status. He is very humble and is delighted to have a conversation with anyone willing to talk to him. I even had the opportunity to have a little one on one conversation with magnus myself. I almost forgot that I was talking to a superstar racing machine that won the most prestegious spring classic in cycling.

As of yesterday, Magnus and a bunch of the CC guys went to the Ardenburg forest and around that area to ride the cobbles of Paris Roubaix. They all came back with stories of how Magnus just floats on cobbles as they bounce around and struggle to keep up. Its pretty amazing what they call "roads" around here. As a bunch of the guys went to train with Magnus, myself and a couple of my teamates went ot visit Dr. Dag (pronounced "Dah"). Dr. Dag is the team doctor for Discovery Channel Pro Cycling team who we saw in the team car as we watched Contador from Discovery win Overall in Paris Nice. Dr. Dag is also our team doctor as well. We worked with him in Albuquerque during our training camp and he is working with us here in Belgium too.

We went to Dr. Dag's office because about 4 of us were supposed to get fitness testing, but I went there because I was sick. Dr. Dag checked me out and put me on antibiotics. The back of my throat is swollen and I have been unhealthy for about a week. The other guys at the office did some test protocols for Lactic Threshold, Anerobic Threshold, and percent body body-fat testing. I will get to do that too, but I will wait until I am healthy again.

Anyways,Visiting Dr. Dag's office was pretty cool. He has Contador's white jersery from Paris nice in his office. He actually has alot of cycling things. He has the race numbers of all the Discovery guys from the tour de france haning on his wall. He even has a Sherryl Crow concert ticket hanging on display as well. I know... Its a little ironic.

I know this was a long post, so I will leave it at that.

There's just a hint of pro tour essence around here

2007-03-18T15:51:00.000-04:00

Well I went to a race today to see what racing was like here. Its still too early for me to race although I might do a small race next week. I got to go in the follow car and watch an amateur UCI top category race get shattered by the wind and just about all four seasons in one day of racing. It looked pretty gnarly.

We get back to the cycling center after the race and Magnus Backstedt just got in shortly after dinner. Incase you don't know who he is, he is a huge superstar in cycling. He is the winner of the infamous Paris Roubaix spring classic. He is staying here for a few days and tomorrow morning we are going riding with him.

Also, we are using alot of US Postal's old gear. We have their old bike racks on our team cars. We have their water bottles in our waterbottle cages for races. We even have a few of their old time trial bikes. Actually Lance Armstrong's bike from the 2001 Tour de France is actually being used by one of the riders here. (exact bike in image below)

Well anyways, This jetlag hit me hard. I immediatly got a chest cold the day I arrived, and now I feel the onset of a sinus infection. Its kinda bumming me out but hopefully this won't turn into another 2 month plague like the last time I had a sinus infection. But I will be alright.

I live here but I'm feeling like a tourist

2007-03-16T14:55:00.000-04:00

Today I rode into Brugge with Scott, Scott, and Elliot. I was a really cool ride. I will leave you with some pictures curteosy of Scott. These Pictures will tell the story better.

Scott's webshots are at this link if you want to see anymore http://good-times.webshots.com/album/558201738oEWXjP

And just for the record: It hasn't rained yet, and the weather has been in the 50's. But its only been two days, and thats about to change.

Alot goin down

2007-03-16T05:48:00.000-04:00

Well I've spent two nights here at the Cycling Center and I am still fighting an uphill battle against jet lag. I go to bed at about 9pm exhausted and sleep well till about 2:30am. Then I fall back asleep after 20-30 minutes. Then I wake up at 5:30am ready to get up but I just lay there untill 7:30 when I actually am supposed to get up. Its going to take about 4 more days to get into a normal sleeping rythym again. Thats just the way it goes.

So getting here was a little hectic too. I flew from Pittsburgh to Newark alright. Then at Newark when I was checking in for my overseas plane ticket, they wouldn't let me get a ticket if i didn't have a return flight. So It was a pain to work a way around it by getting a refoundable round trip ticket. The rest of the trip was just typical plane and train rides.

So I finally got to the CC and got my room and woke up the next day with a chest cold. My immune system doesn't handle traveling and not sleeping too well. So now I am actually in a quarentine room so I don't make anyone else sick untill I start feeling better. I volunteered to sleep in a separate room tho so Its not a cruel punishment or anything.

Yesterday morning I got a fit from the same guy that fit Eddy Merckx, his son Axel Merckx, and countless other pros. It was my first professionaly done fit, so my position actually changed alot. I also went for my first ride yesterday through the Belgian countryside which is actually really beautiful. It was awesome passiong through little towns and seeing a whole new scene.

Thats about all thats happened so far. I am getting ready to go for a ride now. Maybe next post I will put up some pictures of the Cycling Center and some other things I've seen here.

Sleep Deprivation

2007-03-14T13:50:00.000-04:00

Im going on about 36 hours now without sleep. Traveling was a little rough but I finally made it, and I can't wait to get some sleep. I will write more when I can function normally. The whole not sleeping thing kinda sucks.