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.