It was a quick trip to Las Vegas and back this year for InterBike; I had a 12 hour turnaround from finishing my yoga teacher training until flying out, and now, I’m flying home early because I have a show in North Vancouver tomorrow.

I should be working on my lines for my trials show tomorrow, I have to ride and speak about sustainability to some college students, but instead, I’m sitting at the airport, sipping some tea, sharing what’s on my mind.

Getting away from downtown Vegas and head to bootleg canyon for Dirt Demo is always a pleasure. The trails are dusty and rocky but totally rule. I was pumped to ride, but had a rear flat on the first run, and front flat on the second run despite the fact that I had extra tire pressure; there are some sniper rocks sticking up on the trails. Got to do some uplhill pedalling with the NSMB crew which was a nice break from the bumpy shuttle ride up, and chasing Jay Hoots down the mountain is just way too much fun. I had to model some Mace gear for PinkBike, then blast back to the city for a meeting with Shimano; the senior riders on the team are involved with a secret project that is shaping up nicely.

Yoga! I had the opportunity to teach a yoga class this morning to a room of about 30 people. Fresh off my yoga teacher training with Eoin Finn, I was ready to share the good vibe. Everyone who came out, whether they were first timers, or seasoned yogis, seemed to have fun and keep the groove flowing despite our initial left curve with the yoga mats…InterBike had arranged for 30 mats to show up, but only 10 made it. Luckily, mountain bikers are so laid back they just stuck it out on the carpet! Nice! Next year we’ll have it dialed though;-)

Hi Folks!

The approach of the InterBike Trade Show and Convention in Las Vegas acts as the end of one riding season and the beginning of another. Over the past year, my goal was to lighten my load of demos and focus on other areas of my career; while that was more or less the case, I still managed to perform 58 shows, and many of those were full Trials of Life school presentations. Mix in a variety of sponsorship obligations, magazine articles, photo-shoots, advocacy work, and filming sessions, and all of a sudden a year blows by!

Some may know that playing yoga has been an important background activity of mine for the past five years, but recently it has come to the foreground through my desire to share the benefits of the practice with others. The 200 hour yoga teacher training program I embarked on finishes the day before InterBike starts, and I’ll be throwing myself in to the teaching world by offering a “Free Morning Yoga Session with Ryan Leech” on Sept. 23, starting at 7:30am in Casanova Room 602, at the Sands Convention Centre.

I leave tomorrow for Ucluelet, BC, the sister city of Tofino on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. This is the venue for the rest of my yoga teacher training. Though I won’t have my bike with me (except for my pavement bike), I may get out in the waves for some surfing…actually, it might be required by my teacher Eoin Finn who is huge in to surfing. Should be ten days of intensity and chillosity (is that word)…two things every yoga practice should have!

If you have some good ideas about a trials show demo set-up, please pass your ideas or drawing along to me at trials@ryanleech.com; after four years of shows on the same stuff, I’m excited to mix it up with a new trailer and a fresh obstacle design. I need the obstacles to have a quick set up and tear down time as one of my plans for 2010 is to launch another Canadian Trials of Life school tour, on which I’ll be visiting and performing at multiple schools everyday. Whew!

Project Blue Sky is up and running and looking good! If you’re curious about how much of an effect your carbon friendly modes of transportation have, then please sign up and start using the handy dandy kilometer counting widget. You can embed the widget in your blog (just look to the right on my side column), or link to it in facebook, it’s pretty cool. The goal of this athlete driven, student directed project is to inspire concrete action to fight climate change, that concrete goal is one billion kilometers of carbon friendly travel which incidentally would balance the amount of CO2 emitted indirectly from the Vancouver Olympic Games. It’s a big goal, so if you ride to work, or take the bus once-in-a-while, log it up at Project Blue Sky!

Happy September Everyone!

There has been an endless stream of exciting projects, adventures, and challenges this year; and that’s just what I wanted-to mix it up a bit.

Norco has their 2010 product launch next week. For most riders, this would be a drool fest, having the chance to test ride and learn about all the latest bikes and specs, but it’s reserved for only their top dealers and invited media…and factory team riders! I’ll be doing a show, leading some mountain bike rides and an urban ride, and giving a chat about the Fluid LT (my bike of choice).

I have been brainstorming with another key sponsor of mine, Shimano, about a new project that will involve five of their top team riders and one of the most talented film crews…that’s all I can say though;-)

In a couple weeks I’ll be heading up to the Yukon to film with The Ride Guide TV show. We’ll be hosted by the leading mountain bike adventure company in Whitehorse called Boreale Mountain Biking; they’ll be spoiling us with the best trails and some fine accomadation in their famous yurts…I love yurts, maybe because it’s fun to say out loud, yurt. If you live in those parts, come out to my Trials of Life presentation on July 24^th.

A couple days ago, I teamed up with two Olympic medal holders David Calder (rowing) and Stephanie Dixon (swimming) to launch ProjectBlueSky.ca. Using the internets social networking power, we hope to inspire people to use alternative modes of transportation (walk, ride, transit) instead of their car. The goal is to save 1,000,000,000 kilometers of car driving by the time the 2010 Olympics finishes. Incidentally, One billion km’s is equivalent to the 190,000 tonnes of CO2 which is being emmited indirectly from the games. VANOC has offset their direct emissions which is fantastic news, but Project Blue Sky is all about preventing and reducing emissions. Please sign up at Project Blue Sky today, we need everybody’s participation!!

Twitter twitter twitter twitter, I guess I’m a twitterer twit. Check it out if you like….

The YogaThon is this Saturday at Thunderbird Stadium (UBC). Sign up here to help raise money for children affected by HIV and give them the opportunity to go to Summer Camp. . I actually had the opportunity to visit Camp Moomba, the summer camp these kids go to, to do a trials show and teach some yoga. I had a blast, the kids loved the bike riding of course, and that gave me some cred for the yoga sessions. The kids probably won’t start doing yoga, but perhaps later in life they’ll think back to this camp and consider giving it another try. If you can’t go or don’t live nearby, please consider donating some money to the cause. I’m on a fundraising team captained by Eoin Finn called the Bliss Army, you can donate on our behalf here!

Talking about Eoin, I was only able to teach yoga to these kids because of the teacher training course I’m halfway through. I wrote an article about my experience during the first 100 hours of this course, and reflected on what the ancient practice of yoga looks like in our modern world.

After about four months of volunteer work, the Port Moody Rotary Trials Park is now open with fresh lines and challenges. The highlight is an obstacle my dad and I designed which has now been tagged the Trials of Life platform, and because of it’s four quadrants of varying height, it will appeal to all levels of riders. Fun!

If somebody asks me if I do yoga, I’m going to have to say no, I play yoga! This seemed to be one-of-many emerging themes from my recent ten day, 100 hour, yoga teacher training course.

Eoin Finn, our teacher and mentor, had a mission to turn our group of fourteen students in to “the best freaking yoga teachers in the world.” I hope he gives us a lifetime to complete that task because as he himself states, “To be a good yoga teacher, you need to understand anatomy as well as an orthopedic surgeon, be able to grasp philosophy like a university professor and become aware of the human soul like a priest.” Good thing we have another 100 hours of training coming up in September!

So what’s this yoga thing all about for me, why would I want to teach and share the experience with others? By the time I was twenty-five, and after ten years of bodily abuse on the bike, my back, wrists and shoulders had chronic pains, five years of yoga practice later, my body feels more balanced and better than ever. But I have to acknowledge that yoga can be more dangerous than mountain biking depending on the style you choose and attitude you take. Some yoga postures can torque the joints, even if you’re an expert; Eoin shared stories of older yogis that have completely worn out joints. Not good!  So an important myth to understand is that just because you’re doing yoga doesn’t mean it’s good for you. A clear goal of our teacher training was to structure a class that promotes well-being and longevity.

My wife reminded a friend of ours today that yoga is not about flexibility, saying you’re too stiff to do yoga is like saying you’re too thirsty to have a glass of water. Another concern people have is that yoga is too much like a religion; now I have been to some yoga classes where it feels like you’re taking an oath with some strange chant, maybe those are the fundamentalist yogis; of course they have their place and that’s all good, but the kind of practice that Eoin Finn preaches is an ever-evolving style for the western lifestyle, inviting to all, no new age nonsense.

One of the guest speakers we had, Mark Finch, was an expert in structural integration, that tied in to our required reading of the book Somatics. He quite effectively helped us to visually spot problem areas in body alignment; for example, he said to look not at the over extended low back, but instead at the thorax and pelvis so as to give points of reference. He applied this knowledge to yoga postures giving us a better understanding of common alignment issues.

Over the last few years, I have been on a roller coaster ride trying to educate myself about climate change. My egoic emotions on the topic have stabilized, and I am cautiously optimistic. I was so glad to see that Eoin included a seminar with Bernie Clark (the Al Gore of the yoga world) as part of the curriculum. His presentation, titled “Yoga for Our Planet”, was very well done. He emphasized following the three Big Easy’s:

1. Mindful Consuming (diet, travel, buying)
2. Mindful Voting (incredibly important)
3. Communicating Mindfully (speak up!)

I was particularly glad he acknowledged the important role our democracy can play when we actually exercise its power.

One of Eoin Finn’s hero’s is Joseph Campbell; so he shared a documentary titled “The Power of Myth”. One of the statements Campbell said struck me, especially after listening to Bernie the night before, “What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted with talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is to say goodbye to the swift pony and then hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.” (my italics). But the one reflection I had after this documentary and Bernies speech was the importance of acknowledging all perspectives, and the integral ecology slogan sums that up nicely-”things are getting worse, things are getting better, and everything is already perfect.”

One of my favorite musicians, Xavier Rudd, attempts to describe the experience of playing live as a circular cycle of energy that comes out from the audience in to him and out through his music right back to the audience and out again, a positive feedback loop of sorts. Eoin expressed a similar feeling when teaching a good flow class, and I can relate to a degree during my trials shows. The offering of the musician, or yoga teacher, or bike performer has to be authentic in order to trigger the right kind of energy or state from the group of people involved, otherwise there is no magic.

A challenge our culture faces is that we have a hard time listening to feedback from our bodies. We would much sooner push past our limits to fuel our ego rather than listen to our bodies’ somatic wisdom. This mindset of focus on the external world goes well beyond the origin of yoga injuries, the major challenges our world faces is in part due to the ignorance of this first-person person guidance, this basic wisdom from within. Sure yoga brings incredible fitness, strength, and balance to the body, but those are just side benefits, the entire yoga practice of moving through poses is simply a preparation for savasana, corpse pose, the death of the practice, which is a rare opportunity in our fast lives to just simply be, breaking for just a moment, the identification and attachment to our thoughts, allowing a connection with our true selves to form.

Yoga isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and it is just one key of many toward that leads to a healthy lifestyle.  I’m glad Eoin emphasized that yes, yoga can bring your body in to alignment, but too much of it can make you look stiff, and stiff people are boring, right So yes, go rip it up on your mountain bike, play some yoga, and then go laugh a little with the friends you make along the way.

Big thanks to Eoin and his blissology crew, and all the friends I made during course!

Peace y’All

Yesterday, after some trials shows in 100 Mile House, BC, I raced home to check out the new ‘Trials of Life Platform’ being installed in the Port Moody trials park by Mr. Jay Hoots and his mate Owen. When I arrived they were just finishing up because they had run out of materials…so they invited me on a ride! I made a quick stop at home to grab my Fluid LT and riding gear, dropped my demo trailer off, and raced to meet them at Mt. Seymour for a rip.

(Owen, Myself, Jay; on the almost complete practice platform of varying heights)

Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of shuttling. I tend to like climbs, especially technical challenging ones. I like to get a workout and earn my downhills, I like being warm at the top before I slam my saddle down for a DH, I also like the bonus that you use an extra bit of food fuel instead of fossil fuel…..BUT, when you have the chance to hang with Jay and to chase him down a trail, how can you say no! Shuttling has it’s place, and last night, racing to the trail before sundown, was one of those times. 

The ironic thing is, that Jay and I are doing a stage of the BC Bike Race together, so we really need to get some mileage in legs. So we decided to meet today nice and early, again Seymour, but we raised our saddles and with some caffein racing through our bodies, we raced on up the trail. A good three hours later, we were pretty spent. We have some (a lot of!) work to do in order to complete the 65km stage in Squamish…did I mention I’m planning to do a trials demo right after I finish that stage!

I did some yoga this afternoon too. I usually try to practice outside this time of year, but today was wet and cold, so I decided to just put on one of Eoin Finn’s DVD’s, and did a routine called Strong, Free, and Happy. I’m thoroughly tired now so I think I’ll go fall asleep to the sound of falling rain…

If you are living or working in Vancouver, especially the downtown core, go for a walk at lunch and chill in a hammock! Sounds strange, but Eoin Finn and his Bliss Army are setting up a spontaneous relaxation site by the Art Gallery between 12 and 2 today (Aug 8th). Eoin is a master yogi and is doing his part to help slow down the ever growing pace of life in Vancouver (otherwise we may turn in to Toronto); sure we have the ocean beside us, but that doesn’t guarantee the associated lifestyle. You have to make time to chill, and if you don’t, then hopefully a few minutes in one the hammocks they set up today will help make you realize this!

From one hammock fan, to hopefully another, I wish you a happy Friday!

 

Caryn and I enjoying our handmade hammock while camping

Ahhh, just finished a practice on my backyard deck with a nice long savassana in the shade from the maple trees. Like anything good, I wanted to share it with you. Eoin Finn, one of the finest yoga instructor around, has some great resources on his website, you can download a variety of sessions for free on his downloads page.

I’m just taking my time this morning getting ready for a week in Whistler; Norco has their 2009 product launch and will be hosting the top Norco dealers, distributors, and media for riding and dining.

This will be the first time riding in a bike park since VPS Fest last year at SilverStar mountain; I think it’ll be a pleasurable shock to my body and forearms. It’s actually always surprising to me that I can ride trials all day with no forearm pump, but a few minutes of blasting downhill in a bike park, and I can hardly hold on. I guess it’s a matter of what you’re used to.

I’ll figure I’ll post a few times this week with rumors of what will be in store for Norco’s ‘09 line-up. The weather looks great, so I think we’ll all be a bit spoiled this week. If you’re up in Whistler on Wednesday, I’ll be setting up for a trials show on Wednesday evening at about 7pm, come on by and say hi!

Happy Monday everyone, and all my best….

There’s nothing better then getting in to a yoga routine, mixing some classes with some solo practices at home. For me though, routine is a foreign word. I travel extensively as a professional mountain biker, and since February this year, have performed over 160 trials shows. Yoga is the last thing I’d give up because it’s the only thing that keeps me going!

I ask so much of my body doing what I do, so no matter where I go, I am sure to make time for yoga, and have never regretted waking up early to do so. I can always find space to practice while travelling, even small hotel rooms can be rearranged for the appropriate footprint. If I can open a window and turn off the air conditioner, that’s a bonus; glaring ceiling lights have to go off too. Then there is the issue of that nasty carpet, and in plank position, you get a pretty good idea of what you’re dealing with. I often grab an extra bathroom towel to lay down at the head of my mat, so that deep inhalation in to upward dog doesn’t include a bunch of dust mites, not a good visualisation!! Another thing I do is lay my mat down the same side, thus keeping a ‘clean side’ for practising on, a clever idea I thought until my wife Caryn pointed out that when I roll the mat up, the dirty carpet side always touches the practice side, there goes that theory!

In a way, mountain bike trials is like yoga; I have to put my bike and body in a variety of contorted balance positions which ideally require a clear mind. In this state of ‘no thought’ the best results seem to occur, both externally and more importantly internally. With riding these ‘clear mind’ moments are deep (my physical well being depends on this!), but at the same time are very short lived (the length of the riding challenge). With yoga, I find I can have a clear mind for longer, but perhaps not as deep (that internal dialogue always pipes up). This long lasting clear mind is of course the biggest challenge for an encultured westerner like myself (I’m lucky to have 10 seconds of this!).

Hotels often have deserted fitness rooms or outdoor decks which serve as great practice areas and if the weather is nice, it’s worth looking for a peaceful setting outside. On my recent Canadian tour (drove from coast to coast to coast), I decided to do some camping along the way, and found lakeside practice spots a couple times, and then went back to the campsite for some extended savasana in my hammock, good living!!

After a good year of solo practices where I tended to flow in to my favourite positions, I think it’s time to increase my pose database and push myself a bit, looking forward to some great Fall classes with Eoin Finn!!