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

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

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!

September whizzed by, and Fall, is well, already fall’ing away, in a great way though. The leaves are starting to turn, the air is clean and crisp, the weather is unpredictable, and the light is shining through in ways that make photographers and nature lovers really excited.

Caryn went off with the family to the apple barn, I took the day to get some work done, and thought I’d pause to write a quick blog post. I have a lovely cup of cream earl gray tea, and I hope to post this blurb by the time it’s done.

A few projects on the go right now. One is some preparatory work on another Canadian Trials-of-Life school tour in the Spring of 2010. It’s the kind of thing to get on top of right way, because 2010 will be here before we know it. I really can’t seem to come up with any project that feels ‘as-right’ as doing another school tour. I have a limited amount of time where I can engage students through the skills I have on the bike, so I better take advantage of that with some skillful words of advice and of course have some fun along the way.

I am taking a coaching course that starts in November through Integral Coaching Canada. I’m really excited about it, and so I have been doing some pre-course homework and reading.

Then there is yoga, I’m trying to arrange as many yoga classes as I can to build experience, it’s a long an exciting journey of learning that will never end, I think that’s why I’m so drawn to it. Today though, I took 90 minutes outside on my back deck to practice solo. Just me, the fresh air, the sunshine, the falling helicopter maple tree seeds, and a glorious savasana with a well worked body. The feeling is hard to convey, but it is precisely the one I want to share by becoming a yoga instructor.

I rode to the store today as we’re having a friend and some family over for dinner; picked up some corn, some BC wine, and some beautiful looking fresh BC spring salmon. Yummy.

Hmm, my tea is already getting low, probably something to do with me gulping it down

I hope the weekend is treating you well. Have fun!

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…