Tired, my eyes are heavy, but I’m feeling good. Life is a good pace right now, a good mix of stuff, not too busy, not too quiet. Spending a lot of time on the computer, booking demos for the year. My Canadian Tour is coming along nicely, schools are starting to confirm, and there is a bike shop show almost every weekend. It sounds like I might be performing at the Toronto Ride to Conquer Cancer event too, which should be amazing.

I just taught a yoga class tonight. A one hour long vinyasa flow for the locals in our townhouse community. Teaching yoga feels right, it is so challenging, there is so much to learn, I am so exciting to keep progressing so I can offer more and more to the classes I am in front of.

Sitting next to my lovely wife in the office at our home. She is blasting a brand new Xavier Rudd song on her computer, can’t wait for the new album to come out. The song is called Time to Smile, check it out!

Tomorrow is busy, so I have to keep this post brief, and un-edited. I have a meeting in Vancouver first thing in the morning for which I’ll be riding my bike most of the way, then I have a Trials of Life performance at a local school that I have to race back for. I am pumped on school presentation this year, and want to give it my all and start adjusting and modifying my message as my Canadian Tour approaches. After the presentation I have to drop my trailer off and get ready to teach another yoga class at Trailside Physio for some friends and their running group. Should be home by 10pm. A full day, and a challenging day. I’m looking forward to it.

Much gratitude and love,

Ryan

I had a fair bit of work to do today; but the main task was to have a good outline of things to say tomorrow evening for the VIMFF, but still, nothing inspiring was coming through. Something to do with talking about myself perhaps. It all just came out boring and heavy, and almost preachy. I want my component of the evening tomorrow to be fun and light.

So the new plan is to have Mr. I mean Dr. Robin Coope to tag team comments with between film clips, sharing some thoughts about the progression of my film segments from the past 12 years. Robin got my career going way back 14 years ago and has been a mentor ever since. Hmmm, Robin talks well, so it might be hard to keep my demo/film/talk to under 30 minutes! Sorry in advance if the evening is late because of us

I have an interview on CBC Radio tomorrow (Wed) at 3:50 to talk about the festival, I think it is a 10 minute chat.

So I started to feel a little sick last night, though I didn’t get ’sick’. I think it may have been something I ate, or a mild touch of the flu, maybe a 24 hour thing. I’m starting to feel better now. I taught a yoga class from 8:30 to 9:30 this evening, that got me feeling better and feeling alive again. Didn’t eat much during the day, but when I got home Caryn made me some scrambled eggs with avocado, and that topped me off for the day. No complaints. Tired now, sleep is good, I think I can commit to a good eight hours tonight, so fortunate!

Be well folks,

Ryan

Hey Vancouver Folks,

The mountain bike evening of the VIMFF is this Wednesday, January 27th, in North Vancouver. Here is the promo poster…

VIMFF2010_Jan-27_Mtn-Biking

Hope to see you there!

I was just out practicing today in the rain. Feeling pretty good for January. I think I’ll try to set up my entire demo course on the stage and pack in as many lines as I can in the 10 minutes or so I have to ride. Then I have to change modes and start talking about and showing video clips from all the various films I have been in throughout the last 12 years. Trying to figure out exactly what I’m going to say right now…trying to come up with something intelligent to say, but it seems slow to come Sometimes ad-libbing works better for me

Bjorn Enga from Radical Films will be there sharing some wisdom from his perspective as one of the worlds leading mountain bike film producers. Throw in some of the other carefully selected films from those that entered the festival, and I think it should be a pretty entertaining and interesting evening.

Hmmm, best I go get a haircut now, Caryn said I can’t show up that night with the crazy hair I have going right now

Cheers!

Ryan

Hi Everyone!

The 2010 Sea Otter Classic is coming up April 15-18!

My focus at this world renowned cycling festival will be to perform trials shows in the pit area (see schedule below); but as a side bonus, I’m happy to announce that I’ll be offering free morning yoga classes for anyone that is interested.

So this blog post will serve as a reference for all those riders who might be interested.

Whether you’re racing, watching, working, exhibiting, or performing, the goal of this class is to charge you up so you’re feeling amazing for the day ahead—loose body, primed muscles, and a clean and clear mind. Nothing too serious, just playing yoga!

Instructor: Ryan Leech

When: April 16, 17, 18

Time: 7am – 8am

Where: Chapparel Building in Campground B (here is a map, the building is at the north west part of the loop)

Style: Vinyasa Flow

Level: All levels All good

For Who: Everyone welcome

If you have your own yoga mat, please be sure to bring it. But I’ll have a few extra just in case.

For an interview with Ryan about how mountain biking and yoga fit together, check out NSMB.com.

Feel free to ask questions in the comments feild below, I’ll do my best to answer!

If you’d like to check out a trials show, I’ll be at booth 755 with a brand new demo obstacle set to ride on. Come on by for daily shows:

Thursday: 1 and 3

Friday: 10:30, 1 and 3

Saturday: 10:30, 1 and 3

Sunday: 10:30 and 1

(photo-Harookz, chain line from CRUX)

Looking forward to see you there!

All the best,

Ryan

PS-If you’re looking for a mountain biking and yoga holiday, check out the one I’m hosting with Boreale Mountain Biking in Whitehorse, Yukon Territories, Canada

How are you this Sunday? Just thought I’d type a few words about my day instead of being a productive elf and making Christmas gifts. Only a few more days left for doing woodwork in the woodshop, I have to make a toy for my nephew, a shelf for my other nephew, and a few other little tidbits for my family. Time is tight, but yet, the computer sucked me in.

I was up early today, had some granola (home made from my Mum) wtih some pomagranite and bee pollen, and then put my super wet day riding clothes on and rode to Trailside Physio to instruct a morning yoga class from 8-9:30. I think I made them work too hard especially for a Sunday morning. My buddy Francisco took some time after class to assess an injury I’ve been nursing for the past week. Seems I have either a sprained rhomboid or a tweaked rib; it’s been causing me an ongoing aching pain, even when I’m sitting here typing. No good. We’ll see how it is in a week.

Rode home in the pouring rain, loved every minute of it, and it gave me time to think about and prepare mentally for a meeting I had at lunchtime which is part of a course I’m taking. Made a quick vita-mix lunch of almonds, cocoa, dates, hemp seed, rice milk, and banana, and was off again feeling powered up.

After my meeting I stopped by the grocery store and picked up some food, and listened to Xavier, loudly, on the rest of the drive home.

Had a glorious cup of tea with Caryn, a little chocolate to go with it. Warm cuppa on a wet day, good stuff. Off tonight to a family get together, and then we’re in to the flow of Monday. I think the week will be a busy one…Christmas Day will ‘present’ itself before we know it.

I hope you are having some joyous moments this Holiday Season. I hope the busiesness of it all isn’t carrying you along without time to catch your breath. I hope you can find time to get out in the fresh air and in the rain for a hike, or a ride, or a walk and to have  a warm cup of tea with a loved one.

Many blessing to you all, and much Peace,

Ryan

There has been a bit of a green theme to my week.

First off, I did some filming for a Norco Lifestyle video where I talked about riding my bike around town to do errends. It was pretty funny, at the grocery store parking lot, a fellow came up to me and asked about my Norco VFR bike, the typical questions like “ooh, is that an aluminum frame?”, then “how many gears does that have?” Anyway, as he was walking away, he looked back and said, “right on, I’ve gone green too”. I had a chuckle, I love this trend…Reminded me of this funny and somewhat truthful video:

Then I filmed a TV interview and segment showing me riding my bike to go teach yoga and to talk about project blue sky.

Alos, I’ve been grossing out Caryn by making green vegetable drinks, well experimenting with making them, I guess she was justified in her green gruesome feeling …I’m figuring it out though…

Then to cap it off, and this is the best part, I just watched my nephew’s school Christmas Play and it was titled “Santa Goes Green”, haaa! Awesome. Good positive ideas presented in a fun way. Children will be living with a whole new set of green standards and bringing their parents along with them.

Cheers Folks,

Ryan

Was up fairly early this morning, listening to the cold wind blow outside; decided I’d flow some words out on my neglected blog before I dug in to the days ‘to-do’ list.

My new demo trailer should be arriving shortly, but I don’t have anything to fill it with yet—though last week I was with my Dad and as usual, he came up with an incredibly unique demo obstacle design. See if I can describe it in words…Kind of like spokes in a wheel, I’d have a centre hub with six arms radiating outward, each about 8 feet long and at slightly different heights. Then my platforms and beams and railings would attach between each of the arms. Easy to set up, just open the arms outward and plonk platforms on top, and it would have a unique look. Whether it will work in real life and be stable, we’ll see, but  I’m pretty pumped on the possibilities.

Yoga has been a theme lately, as it has for much of the year. I am teaching three times a week. Twice at Norco’s head office during lunch, and once on Sunday morning at Trailside Physio. Teaching yoga has been more challenging than I anticipated, and I think that is part of the draw for me and why I’m having so much fun with it. I usually pratice personally three or four times a week, so the amount of personal practice seems to have gone down since teaching frequency went up; I guess partly that is because I still teach mostly from the mat while doing the practice instead of walking around just using words to teach. Starting to mix it up a bit, but I really like to connect with how it feels personally in order to express an accurate description of each posture. I recently got a little deeper in to the why’s of teaching yoga during an interview with NSMB.com, that should be posted shortly.

I got a vita-mix recently. That was exciting. The thing has a 2hp motor, same company that makes the blenders at juice and smoothie bars.

Been riding my Norco VFR a lot recently, I love the riding lifestyle. Nothing beats having to whip down to the store on a bike to get dinner ingredients while passing all the rush hour traffic. I just starting shooting a little online video with Alex Lavigne about the riding lifestyle. While the trials bike may lay idle this time of year, my commuter bike is getting loads of action.

Well, best I get to doing some work. Have an awesome Monday folks!

After close to 1000 shows over the past five years in front of close to a quarter million people, it looks like I will be upgrading my demonstration obstacles over the winter. The goals are pretty simple; they need to provide a new challenge, be lighter, and be quicker to set up. They need to look professional, and be innovative in some way. I am just in the brainstorming phase right now. I recently checked out this high quality scaffolding system of which many elements make a lot of sense for a trials set up. Check out the photo. These things fold up flat in seconds, so moving obstacles through doorways at schools or theatres will be no problem. They are lightweight and surprisingly stable. The appearance can be worked on, perhaps removing the ladder part and adding sponsor banners. They could even be anodized. The only drawback is that there is some play in the pivot joints, but nothing a few modifications can’t fix. The thing is that I set a very high standard with my current demo obstacles; so to top that will be a challenge!

Next year is shaping up to be a busy one for me. I’m scheduling a two month long school tour through Canada (let me know if you have a school that would be interested), various mini school tours through BC, performances at major events such as The Sea Otter Classic, Seattle Bike Show, and Crankworx, I’ll be leading a mountain bike and yoga retreat in Whitehorse with Boreal Mountain Biking (more details to come on that soon), a couple different video projects, and of course mix in a few longer term sides projects, and I think the year 2010 will blow past in a flash!

My sponsorship roster is looking strong. Norco bikes is continuing their rock solid support in all I do, I don’t imagine I’d still be doing what I do at the level I do it at if it wasn’t for their encouragement and support; my relationship with Shimano is growing, and I look forward to visiting their Canadian office in Peterborough, Ontairo in the Spring during my Trials of Life tour, their head office in Japan also has some ideas for me next season; Marzocchi has been a long time partner and I am excited about their product developments for 2010, it trumps their ’09 offering; I have some projects developing with the good folks at Ryders Eyewear (based in North Vancouver); and my trusty clothing sponsor Mace seems to be progressing their vision and embracing the entire cycling scene instead of just the hard-core. This suits my lifestyle perfectly, I live in cycling clothes for the most part, I haven’t had to go clothes shopping for 13 years now , so using a brand that is developing commuter friendly gear that is still stylish and also worthy of the demand I put on them during a season of shows is a great fit for me (sorry for the pun).

Have a great Fall folks!

A nice video about Norco’s involvement in the last VACC bike to work week.

Perhaps it is a little inspiration for that projectbluesky.ca challenge I keep talking about!

Ride ON!

Ryan