Hey Folks,

Happy to announce that I’ll be offering two free yoga classes in Whistler during Crankworx!

Thursday: 7pm at Lost Lake (ride your bikes along the valley trail to get there!)

Saturday: 8am outside the Lulu Lemon Store in Whistler Village

Both classes are free!

Mats are provided by Lulu Lemon, just bring your friends!

No experience necessary, everyone welcome, all levels all good!

Style of class is Vinyasa Flow

Length of class is 1 hour

Hope to see you there!! Spread the word!!

It’s snowing! I’m in Wolseley Saskatchewan staying at the Banbury House Inn, a 105 year old mansion with quant old rooms. Did a quick yoga on arrival to stretch out my stiff and cranky driving body. Making quick progress toward Winnipeg where I have two school presentation on Monday followed by a poster signing at Bikes and Beyond at 4pm.

Stayed with a friend last night in Eastend Saskatchewan. He is a multi talented dude, trials is one of them, and another one of his passions is building and playing the didgeridoo. I’m traveling with one that he made, and so we got to have a little jam last night…well at least he jammed and I made a bunch of disconnected noises that would scare a dog away (as one person on FB commented). I did  have fun and learn a few things though! Many thanks Kevin!!

For any yogi’s, coincidentally, this uber small town, of like of a few hundred people, is the home of Dr. Georg Feuerstein; and my buddy Kevin is taking yoga classes with his wife Brenda. So cool!! Both are brilliant brilliant human beings as far as I can tell. Here’s a quote by them.

“Tread lightly on this Earth.
Be kind to all creatures.
Live simply.
Consume less.
Avoid air travel.
Find alternatives to car travel.
Delight in a vegetarian diet.
Grow your own food if possible.
Use water sparingly.
Lobby for a saner, healthier world.”

My road trip candy is dried mango. I bought a $45 bag of it. It is so sweet and yummy…to bad I made a mistake and it is instead papaya, lame.

Did I mention it’s snowing and is very very flat here.

Still on the yoga thing….I’m teaching yoga in Fredericton next week. Here’s a blurb from the studio owner Stephanie:

As you may remember, I mentioned earlier this winter that we were having a guest Yoga teacher from BC arrive in Fredericton to perform a Bike Stunt show at Officer Square, and it just happens to be next weekend!  Ryan Leech will be landing with all his tricks in Fredericton for May 8th, to perform a crazy wild stunt show that simply must be seen on Saturday, May 8th at 4pm in Officer Square, free for all to come and enjoy!  Then, once he’s rested up, Ryan will be leading us through a Vinyasa Yoga class on Sunday, May 9th from 6:00-7:30pm here at the Satori studio.  As you know, space is limited, so sign up as soon as possible to join in on this one time opportunity!  Ryan doesn’t come to town very often, but hopefully Satori and Savages Bicycle Shop can be a home away from home for him when he does make it!   To sign up for Ryan’s class, email me at enlighten.satori@gmail.com

Seeya’ll!

Knocked off a short 4 1/2 hours of driving today, the first warm up drive of my cross Canada tour. I’m in Penticton, BC right now, I have two school shows tomorrow, plus a yoga class in Kelowna in the evening—busy first day! (Yoga is at OranjDance starting at 6:45pm and is a fundraiser that benefits Pediatric Cancer Research-check out my fundraising page-more to come on that)

So I pulled up to what looked like a clean cozy hotel, it was pretty late so I didn’t want to be too picky. First odd sign was that the attendant at the front desk didn’t know how to swipe my credit card. Hmmm. Anyway, got my key, grabbed my things from the truck, walked in the smelly room and looked at the caved in bed, hmmm, pulled the sheets up and spotted a bed bug, eeeee. Caryn and I had done our research from previous encounters, there was no doubt. Not good. I booked it out of there and put myself up somewhere decent. Might do some camping this tour!

I’m just downloading a couple new songs right now to add to my yoga playlist for tomorrow nights class. It’ll be a 75 minute long session, I think it might be a hard class, I have to go over my routine after writing this blog. I always like to mix my yoga classes up a bit, different each time, some spontaneity.

Well, I’ll sign off for now. More soon….and hey, don’t let the bed bugs bite…

Ryan

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 Campground B in the Meeting Building

Google Map:

Venue Map:

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. 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!