But when you're hurting and you hear on the radio that you've got 10 seconds on your biggest rival, and now it's 20 seconds, or in 2001 two minutes on Ullrich - that's a true sporting high.

But that stuff I'm talking about - I'm not talking about doing that for 20 years; I'm talking about taking a year or however long I need to just step back from the sport, decompress, download, figure out where I am in my life, where my children are in their lives.

But no, I'm a person who needs projects and needs to work and needs to be building something or trying to create something. Otherwise I'll go crazy.

I guess I was pretty hard headed. I mean, I was an athlete, I would always have little aches and pains, little colds, little problems that would come and go... so I thought if I coughed up a little blood and if I don't do it tomorrow, then it must not have been any big deal!

I drove Sheryl by the governor's mansion last night on the way home from dinner. It's a nice mansion. Nice place, nice house - I hate the word mansion, but it's a nice house.

I don't want to lose. At all.

But there are also 40 million yellow bands in the world. That outweighs the negative publicity.

Beyond that, I guess there's no real ranking, but my commitment in the cancer community will increase significantly.

Celebrity and fame, those words make me uncomfortable. Some athletes are addicted to fame, but that's not what gets me off.