Monday, December 9, 2013

Team Mang Rides for 2014

The team's been growing over the past year and with growth in number is the inevitable divergence of cycling goals. Although we all share in our love of cycling, different folks have different priorities in life and where cycling falls in that hierarchy is different for different people. In order to keep everyone on the same page as far as Team Mang rides, we've chosen to rate the rides so people know what to expect when they come out and decide for themselves if they're up for that particular challenge.   Here are the simple ratings:
 
EASY Lang, Mama' ride:
This is the kind of ride that is slightly slower than our normal brisk pace.  Timangs and Alings rarely ride at a very leisurely pace unless it's a family ride.  They typically ride at a brisk pace and usually wait for everyone.  However, there are times in the year when not everyone is quite up to the challenge yet.  Maybe they're recovering from an injury or the holiday hiatus.  So there's a need for them to ride at a slightly slower pace than the others for a few weeks - and that's perfectly okay.  Hopefully, as riders do this type of ride a few times, they will be able to build up the strength to keep up with the jackrabbits.  There's nothing wrong, too, if folks choose to always ride at that level - just don't expect those at the faster pace to always wait for them.

TIMANGAN ride:
This is our most common type of ride - there's a fun atmosphere at a brisk pace; the occasional sprint and an attack on the hills every now and then - still, we like to wait for everyone who's attempting the ride.  This would be the 1-day STP training kind of pace so it's not always a walk in the park. Some of our riders ride all year and want to maintain a certain level of fitness so when they lead a ride at this pace, expect to have a good workout.  Organizers will post their expectations of a ride and if riders don't think they're ready for that type of pace, they can coordinate with the ride leader to have an alternative route - or get familiar with the route and ride it at their own easy lang, mama' pace. Inevitably others will join that alternative.

We don't want to make this too technical or difficult but we do want to recognize that some rides are easy, others are hard and it's up to each rider to recognize their fitness level and whether the ride suits them.  

If you haven't noticed, we don't have "official" ride leaders. That's because anyone can organize a ride at their desired pace so others can join him/her at that pace. We don't encourage anyone who's not at a specific fitness level to attempt to participate in a ride that's way above what they can achieve.  Just as we don't want folks getting left behind, we also don't want to weigh down a fast ride.

 As 2014 rolls around, we're expecting that more Mangers and Alings will organize rides at their desired pace and folks will ride at the level and effort they want  in order to reach their own individual fitness goals.