GALFROMDOWNUNDER UPOVER

It's been 2 years since I last loitered with intent on this coast, so I'm taking a few extra days to catch up with people. Brrr I wish I'd brought long pants and not merely capris!  First, I attended a wedding between Bike Friday customer Grant and fellow yoga teacher Karyn, who I introduced to each other via Facebook. As you can see, so far, so good: The pro photographer Chris Schmauch of GoodEyePhotography.com made even the oldies scrub up pretty nice: Coincidentally, my birthday fell on the day before the wedding. A fatal loiter into the Los Gatos Banana Republic led to this 50% OFF YOUR ENTIRE PURCHASE coupon. Oh dear, Santa Cruz will have to wait til tomorrow... We did eventually get to Santa Cruz. To the horror of my pal David I had successfully negotiated a hitch with a friendly surfie looking couple, who turned their hippie van around and rearranged bikes so we could get in. But he'd already rented a car for $40. So we sped down using carbon power to Ca...

Is my face red ... SPINNING instructor Anthony Musemici says you don't need a long and winding road to get a pretty decent hill, interval, sprint, and endurance training  on a bike. ... now add a bit of yoga to the mix and what do you get? SpinYoga! A perfectly Peaceful Warrior pose at the free  Chelsea Piers "Yoga On the Pier" classes, Aug 2010. I just completed a 9 hour Spinning Instructor Orientation at New York Sports Clubs. Now, what is a seasoned cyclist like the Galfromdownunder doing riding a bike that doesn't go anywhere? As one participant confessed in the pre-course stairwell speeches ('cos you get fitter riding the stairs than the elevator): "I was a bit cynical about it all until I tried it." Ah yes, one winter in NYC where biking through a bunch of snow isn't appealing, and I discovered, thanks to a two-month intro membership at the Equinox gym down the road and some guest passes from the stunning Chelsea Piers across the r...

" Ratting on the fat cat over the road on 21st and 10th Ave, Chelsea, Manhattan. Have you seen this large inflatable rat around town? I always thought it was a giant advertising balloon for a vermin extermination company doing their mouse-mulching in the building immediately behind. Clever! But no - it's actually the protest mascot of construction industry unions. "Come in! Take photos!" said a picketer in a hardhat plastered with a  "UNION" sticker when I stopped by with that typical "what's up with that?" expression on my face. He pointed across the road to a wooden skeleton of a building alive and crawling with the sound of hammers and hi altitude girder-walkers. "The owner is employing non-union workers at minimum wage, like five bucks, no benefits." I looked around at the apparently unionized throng languishing behind the barricade, all dressed up, iphoning, and nowhere to jackhammer. "A union member gets p...

Exciting news! http://trafficconebag.blogspot.com/2010/08/rcb-reviewed-in-roadbikeridercom.html

Photos by the Galfromdownunder - mid downdog!  Is yoga better outdoors or indoors? Beach or park? Ashram or gym? I've generally preferred indoors, finding the outdoors a bit of a distraction.  But think of the advantages: better dissipation of neighboring sweat, no one bumping into you, and the chance to gaze up at the sky and watch clouds in that boundless blue sky slide by - something we rarely do when we become "grownups" grafted to swivel chairs and tempurpedic mattresses. Last Thursday, lying flat on my back on Pier 64 with a piece of foam between me and the concrete, I felt strangely exhilarated. The occasion? The free every-other-Thursday yoga class offered by Chelsea Piers Fitness Center, the massive complex just over yonder. And yes, it really is on Pier 64. Hint: to locate the cross street, subtract 40 from the Pier number and you get 24th Street. The instructor, Paolo, was possessed of a delightful South African/British/Spanish something else accen...

At the risk of being pacifistically (is that a word?) incorrect, I discovered a really good stretch I hadn't come across in my training or any classes to date, which I've called the "Charlie's Angel Stretch". The term "Charlie's Angels Hands" refers to the hands clasped with forefingers pointed like a ... gun. I got that  nugget from my teacher trainer and anatomy nurse,  Joschi Schwarz . It's a tremendous stretch involving several muscle groups. But which? Over to Joschi ... Congrats! I hope you're having a lot of fun teaching! Answer to your question is: obliques quadratus lumborum (smaller muscle in the lower back),  latissimus dorsi (because arms are over your head) rhomboid (shoulderblades are pulled away from each other), and pretty good for the  erector spinae infraspinatus teres major and minor.  Gluteus medius I guess plays more of an activator here. Great pose to create space for the hips (lumbosacral fasci...

A snippet from my Legend in Own Lunchtime files ... THERE I stood, having just exited Eastern Mountain Sports, SOHO after my weekly shift, when a couple on two Brompton folding bikes beckoned me in the darkness. "You're the girl who wrote the book about Cuba," said the gent who identified himself as Pete DeJong of Greenwich, Sydney. "I really enjoyed it." Now that's no small praise from an actuarial professor! "He's really picky about what he reads, so consider it a compliment," chimed in Pete's partner, artist  Dana Dion (check out her cool abstract expressionist art). "It was recommended by a friend of ours, the editor of the Weekend Australian." Holy helmet, I better get cracking and write another one ... It's a fleeting but flattering experience to be recognized by total strangers, especially when they're visiting from other side of the planet. Apparently it was my "Asian face and Bike Friday" t...