Q1 Update - Mangs get ready for Spring

And just like that, the first quarter of 2015 is now part of history.  The mangs have been busy this past month although a lot of us still remain in hiatus opting to address other things in life aside from cycling - apparently there are other things in life.

Cold rides in winter can't defeat the Mangs

Early in the month, several Mangs renewed their commitment to raising funds for the American Diabetes Association through the Tour de Cure.  Last year, the team put out an awesome effort under Mang Rene's leadership and raised more than $10K for the cause.  This year's team goal is less although at the time of this writing, we've already surpassed it. Watch out for a report on my next post on how our event - a Dinner Dance Against Diabetes - went. It's scheduled for Friday, April 24 at 7PM at the Renton Community Center.  If you haven't already done so, contact one of our Mangs for tickets at $35.  That includes dinner, a dance and the satisfaction of having contributed towards finding a cure for Diabetes.

Mangs and Alings at the TdC KickOff at Chateau Ste Michelle

Mangs' inclusiveness and willingness to work with other groups was showcased again this month as several of us rode and hung out with other teams.  If you haven't already noticed, even though Mangs wear the same kits on community events, they never exclude anyone from their activities and rarely use their team-ness as an excuse to shy away from joining other groups.  This month, Team Mang Putik (mud) rode with United Mountain Bike of Washington, on several occasions - including a field trip to Orcas Island's Moran State Park, foregoing the regular Saturday road ride.  Also, on a typical training ride Saturday, you'll find Mangs riding with H2Velo and United Mountain Bike riders (on road bikes) around the area.  It's all about riding for fun and promoting the sport we all love.

It's not all about cycling, too.  Other sports are starting to creep into our team's weekend activities. For instance, our ladies, the Alings, are starting more activities not involving carbon fiber and aluminum.  On the last weekend of March, Aling Virna organized a hike up to Poo-poo point in Issaquah.  Looks like there will be more variations in activities this summer as we're talking about doing other things such as kayaking, SUP and more hiking.

As the second quarter rolls in, Mangs will begin to diverge in their cycling training efforts.  Those who are aiming for more serious goals will ride harder courses at faster paces to achieve higher fitness levels to tackle the Death Ride and RAMROD in the summer. Some are also aiming to finish community rides like the RSVP and STP and beat their records.  Others who just ride for fun and fitness and who may be aiming to do less training to address other priorities will inevitably train less. We will plan on rides where we all come together at a moderate pace on occasion. It's all good - as long as we keep a positive attitude and keep being encouragers to each other in whatever goals we're working towards.

Happy riding..or better yet, happy exercising, Mangs and Alings, whatever you're doing!

New year, new challenges for the Mangs and Alings

Whew - 6 months just blew by since my last post back in September.  With the holidays came relaxation, less time on the bikes and more time at the dinner table.  The holidays did a number on many of us (I'm talking about our waist lines).  But because the team is made up of such a variety of cyclists, we're always going to have different levels of fitness coming into the winter/Spring training season - and we're all welcome.

One of our first rides of the year
towards Marymoor Park

Cycling season is here again - it may not look like it when you walk outside and your feet sink into inch deep water due to all this rain we're having.  But make no mistake, we're gearing up for riding.  Some of the serious Mangs actually kept doing their riding through Fall and the holidays (even on Christmas day) and you can see the improvement in their performance.  Others just started their regular rides on the 1st day of the year.  Regardless, though, we all seem to hang out and keep the fun - winter is kind of the time to just get those legs moving.  We'll probably start dividing the training later on as spring approaches so that those training for the harder rides can do harder training while those who want to do just relaxed riding can do so, too.

A few Mangs with United Mtn Bike of Washington
at the Stinky Spoke in Redmond - hey, we love everybody!

Just an update on what we've been doing - a few of us teamed up with United Mountain Bike of Washington and the Grupettos to ride the Stinky Spoke Ride on January 17th.  Others opted to ride on pavement just to start off the season.  Saturday rides continue to happen departing from Renton Stadium towards the now familiar 33 mile Mercer Loop.  It does seem like the residents are starting to get to know us so we've branched out our routes and the past two weeks have seen the Mangs exploring more of the Eastside communities.  And this early in the season, some of us have already done the 164th Ave/Newcastle Golf course route and we're already riding at the 50 mile mark.  So overall, the team may just be looking stronger this year.

Many of us have signed up to do the Seattle To Portland ride, if only to have a target ride to train for. But just like a couple of years ago, some of our riders are also training to conquer the Death Ride (which happens on the same weekend in July - google it, it's not a walk in the park).  You'll probably see less of us on the organized Cascade rides as we've grown accustomed to creating rides with our own support, and really, signing up for all these organized rides does eventually hit your pocketbook - but you'll still see the orange out there on random training rides and on big events - like the Whistler Grand Fondo in September.

This year brings even more Mangs into the community and we're gearing up to do more than just cycling - we're pouring more efforts into community events that will benefit other causes such as the Tour de Cure.  We've even got representatives on a medical mission trip outside the country.  This community is indeed making an impact.

So the next time you see an orange jersey out there with the Team Mang logo - blow them a kiss for doing some good in this world - you know they'll love it. Here's a short video of sights and sounds on a team ride.

A Classic End of Season Ride at the Kitsap

The cover of the latest Team Mang
album hit - photo courtesy of
Aling Veronica

The Kitsap County Classic, a romp through the rolling hills of north Kitsap county, is the traditional end of season official ride sponsored by Cascade Bicycle Club.  More often than not, it's a rainy ride because of the time of year, but this year's event promised spectacular weather inviting quite a few more riders than usual.  This year, Team Mang and Team Aling represented again. They rode the whole 57 miles (both the Hansville loop and the Port Gamble/Poulsbo loop) in under 4.5 hours including those long winded breaks and around 3,400 feet of elevation gain.

Bike all over the ferry!

As with other rides, Mangs were instantly recognizable and we got those usual compliments and kudos for our fun but brisk (and musical) riding style. One of the riders who rode with us at last year's RSVP actually had his team ride with us while he went on ahead.   It got a little "windy" there for a while.  Yet he couldn't resist hanging with us - I guess we're just a fun group.

Cyclists all over the tarmac on the ferry causing quite a stir
among regular ferry commuters

Averaging around 20 - 21 mph on the flats, the  team members consistently worked together, swapping turns at the front of the pace line to keep the brisk pace.  Sometimes it did seem too fast, though, because the sights were just so good to see and we didn't do too much sightseeing.  Yet we still snapped our customary pictures - go figure!

Both ferry rides to and from Kingston were quite an experience - not that we haven't ridden ferries before but this was another one of those where cyclists simply overwhelmed normal commuters - walking around in spandex, helmets and shoes that clicked on the floor, laying their bikes all over the place.

Mangs at the end of the ride - on the way back to Kingston

 It's always an exercise in psychology when huge numbers of people who are different surround you.  And we saw that with the reaction of some of the commuters, a few who were visibly "terrified" of us - hello, it's not like we're going to run over you with our bikes.  We're more terrified of your cars! A group of teens was also walking around making jokes of cyclists, loud enough to get heard (trying to provoke a response). Cyclists are usually a peaceful bunch, though, and they don't stoop so low as to engage in the negativity.  Maybe it's all that triptophan flowing in their insides because of their workouts that's causing them to be so relaxed.  Thankfully, there were commuters who were just business as usual - just be careful not to run over them cyclists.  I guess someday, we'll be in a world where cyclists are a normal part of the commute where they're afforded the same respect and courtesy as motorized vehicles.  But enough commentary...

The 2014 KCC goes down in the team's books to formally close the cycling season.  Thanks to Aling Veronica and Mang Edgar for promoting the event and getting a lot more of us to join in.  I personally enjoyed the ride.  Weekend rides will still continue in the fall with the goal of just getting our legs spinning and keeping our base healthy - when the weather is good.