Julie Lewis-Sroka

I’ve had to stop posting on this blog because I’m getting too much spam and it’s driving me CRAZY.

Thanks everyone. I will be posting elsewehere.

BYE

A great race for those who like watching, but who never want to ride in, the Tour de France. The race is based on a very challenging 8.5 mile loop that includes 2 climbs, chip and seal roads, some tight corners and some fast downhills. The race was well organized with some of the best course marshalling I’ve seen. We had only 3 women competing, which I admit was optimal because it was only my second time on my road bike in 3 months. And I have a broken hammate bone in my left hand – it’s one of those cluster carpal bones in the palm. [See inset for sample hand bones]. Climbing is very difficult with a broken hand. The chip and seal made me cry for mercy. But all in all, it was a good race for me. My mountain biking has kept me in good shape and I really can’t say that I had a bad race – I was just distracted by the pain and adjusted my ride accordingly. I go for an MRI on Monday to determine if I need surgery or just a cast. Either way, I get a cast for 4 to 6 weeks. Not that it will stop me. I’ll be out on the trails – cast and all. Maybe even on the road.

The race had the following categories and Team Lake Effect was well represented in each: Cat 2/3, Cat 4/5, Women and Juniors. In the Cat 2/3, Matt won (yeah!), Shawn was 4th, Rudy was 8th, and we had Brian, Todd & Jeff too. In the Cat 4/5 we had Scott. In the Juniors we had Trace who got first, and Austin Diffenbacher (age 10) who was second.

Can’t wait until next year to participate in this difficult and great race. Hat’s off to the promoter, volunteers, town and sponsors (especially the pasta people)!!

4 minutes and 19 seconds slower than last year.

IMG’s team, “The Insiders”, placed 4th in the corporate challenge division out of 50 relay teams. Our swimmer, Margie Peddler, was the 1st corporate relay swimmer into transition and was an amazing 14th overall – out of 2000 – beating many of the pros! I was next, I was 7th overall in the corporate relay bike that was VERY difficult. Hills, very strong wind, screaming descents. I handed off our timing chip to our runner, Steve Tseng, who lives in the Bay Area. He had a screaming run through the sand and wind with a 5th place in the corporate relay. It was a great team effort! So proud to be part of The Insiders.

Sometimes it’s fun to be a spectator, take some pictures, encourage the riders, and do some casual riding. That’s what Robert and I did on Saturday, May 31st while we supported Rudy during his first 100K MTB race. Of course, he did great. 1st master and 6th overall. So cool. Lots of spectators as you can see. OMBC ran both a 100K and a 100 miler, with the 100 miler being a 2008 NUE Series calendar race. Read the rest of this entry »

...I cannot cross over,
And neither have I wings to fly,
Give me a boat that can carry two,
And both shall row – my love and I.”

To: Rude. xo me.

I went to the O&EC mountain goat trails again [see inset for O&EC trailhead] – but this time right after work. What a rush. Jump out of rush hour traffic, hop on the trails, and I’m stress free and lovin’ life. I know that many of you have done this before, but I’ve never been at work at 5:00, and then riding at 5:10. Makes me think I could squeeze in a ride at lunch time too… Hmmmm. After 3 laps, I went back to pick up some flat-inducing debris.

Along the way I saw this guy just lounging around…

quite of few of these dangerous looking fellas…

this character…

and – wait a minute – AAAAHHH. It’s the Smamp Thing!

Aaaahhhh. I can’t take it. Someone please make this rain STOP! We’re going to need a hospital for the MTB deprived/insane if we don’t get to MTB ride on the local trails soon!! [See inset for sample picture of me this morning upon learning of the morning storm approaching…] Photo credit: Rudy. (Heal quickly Rude!). Oh, just kidding. Just a few axe scrapes here and there. He’s supposed to make a full recovery. I hope. (Just kidding again).

So, okay. Back to being a mature adult. [please stop laughing]. Instead of our planned trip to the Mohican SP MTB trails (which SpokeJunkies reports as being dry), we heeded the thunderstorm warning and stayed close to home. With the local trails still wet, together with the short storm this morning, Rudy and I decided to ride our TowPath-Hike & Bike-connecting road loop in and around the CVNP. A great ride – Rudy even added some miles from Station Road trailhead to home. Robert rode on the road in the morning with his mom and had some stuff at home to take care of so he didn’t ride with us today. It’s not the most exciting ride, but we were outside and enjoying not only the warm weather, but our day off too!

Robert, Rudy and I rode the new Ohio & Erie Canal MTB trails today (Sat, May 24). Having put in hours and hours of back breaking trail benching, finishing, trash pick-up, and other trail building tasks at the O&EC location, I was ready to see a different view of the trails – from the saddle of my Cannondale instead of from my muddy hiking boots. I’ve got to say that the trails were in perfect shape and dry as a bone and really, really fun to ride. One interesting feature is that the narrow side slopes give you a feeling that you are a mountain goat on a MTB bike [See inset for sample mountain goat MTB rider]. I like being a mountain goat on a MTB bike. What a blast.

But here’s the best part. Robert led us out on the 1st of 3 laps. He went out fast and road technically sound and led us down an extremely smooth flowing line that I felt so inspired. I would not have gone out that fast these days – my confidence has been at an all time low. But it was fun and I was riding with such passion, that I led on laps 2 and 3. Kudos to the kid for showing me again what an exhilerating and outrageous fun sport MTB is…

Muchas gracias Roberto…

Last weekend Rudy and I rode our road bikes (with fenders) when the rain, thunderstorms, lightening and HAIL STORM had subsided in North Royalton. Imagine our surprise when we rode about a 1/4 mile south on State Road to find dry roads and mostly sunny skies. We looked back and realized that the black clouds were stalled over our city. Ugh. So, we kept rolling and had a great ride even with the very strong wind. So our new motto is – “ride where the rain ain’t…”

Rudy and I participated in the National River Clean-up this morning in the CVNP. There were 3 clean-ups going on nearby but this clean-up effort is actually a national event [hence the “National River Clean-Up Day” slogan]. We met at Howe Meadow (formerly the ‘Special Events’ site) in Bath. 12 of us were assigned to clean Stump Basin area off the Tow Path where the canal boats, way back when, used to turn around. [see inset for sample canal boat horse tow reenactment] To be honest, it wasn’t as polluted as many other sites I’ve seen and cleaned. I guess that’s a good thing!

Rudy and I wanted to get in some training, but all of the MTB trails were very wet, so our plans to ride at Mohican State Park or West Branch SP went the way of the Dodo Bird. [See inset for sample Dodo]. Rudy had a great idea to ride a loop that he rides for cyclocross training. Team Lake Effect actually used this loop for cross training many years ago, but like many things, we just stopped doing it for some reason (or no reason!).

We parked at Boston Store in the CVNP. In the CVNP, we rode only on the Tow Path and the surrounding roads, and jumped onto the Summit Hike & Bike to connect the loop. We left the Boston Store parking lot and headed up the Tow Path then diverted down another (legal) path that led to the Youth Hostel. Interestingly, we had a National Park Ranger following behind us, but we didn’t know it at that point – not that it mattered – we weren’t doing anything illegal. [see inset for sample ranger]. When we got to the top of the long climb of the road we were riding (I can’t tell you the name) and headed toward an old beat-up road (maybe an old farmer’s road?), the Ranger passed us in his vehicle in a very cavalier way, likely disappointed that he didn’t catch us trying to jump onto the hiking and horse trails. We remarked that it was a little overkill to tail us like a private eye, but then I remembered that my license plates include “MTB” on them. We were marked riders. But we just shrugged it off and kept riding. The first 3 miles or so of the loop are uphill, and one old road was pretty torn up, so that portion of the ride was annoyingly difficult. The jogs onto the Hike and Bike were a nice break to revive the legs. The downhill flyer on another torn up road (maybe mile 5) into Peninsula was the best – glad I don’t have an speedometer on my Cannondale Rush – I don’t think I want to know how fast I was going! [see inset for sample Rush] Loving the speed – but in control.

We did the loop twice – once in mostly dry conditions into a little light rain, and the second loop in rain that just got harder with every peddle stroke – until we got to the car that is – where the rain had stopped completely! We were soaked and cold, but we did beat the really hard rain that started at noon.

This is a great alternative training ride when the trails are wet. And best of all, you’re in the park, and it’s legal!

I haven’t ridden my road bike in a while. Here are a couple of photos from my training rides this week. How’s my form looking? Pretty technical turn, don’t you think? I’m still working on my aerodynamics.

May 10, 2008 is the last Race at the Lake for 2008. I will report the [lack of] action (on my part) afterward…

May 10th post-script: New Blog Post Header: “RATL #4 – Never”

Well, I accidentally got my dress caught in the chain during warm-up and took a nasty fall, but my large arse [egad, did I just write that?] saved me from serious harm. Actually, I had to bail on the race much earlier than that – wasn’t feeling good again today. But I did get in some MTB riding this afternoon – made me feel much better about missing the race.

Rudy had an AWESOME day with a 14 lap solo win. 15 more seconds and he would have lapped the field! Hats off to the man.

The juniors again had a wide range of racers of different ages which led to an early split in the field. Austin D. and Robert S. had good rides, but the tall older guys took the prizes. Not to worry. Our kids will have their day in due time…

38 years ago today, during a Vietnam War protest at Kent State University, hundreds of people, mostly students, were confronted by the Ohio National Guard. 4 of the students were shot dead and 9 other protesters were shot and injured under circumstances that are still being disputed and debated to this day. Did the commander of the National Guard give the order to shoot? Why? Did the Guardsmen aim to kill? Why 60 rounds? Did the students throw rocks so big and at such a velocity that they really could have killed or maimed the Guardsmen, thereby giving the Guardsmen the right to defend themselves? In the end, 4 young lives were gone, 9 young bodies were shot, and the world was in shock. It was a worldwide news event, and in the context of 1970, worldwide coverage was rare – so you know the story was huge. I know the picture that I attached says ‘1970-2006’, but I thought it was the best one I found to capture the spirit of what happened – 38 years later.