Inside the Mind of Mr. Mayhem

I have not been able of late to attend Mr. Mayhem’s class but I have been talking him up a storm to anyone and everyone with ears.  They all seem to echo the same sentiment that he is distinctly different and almost to an individual they cannot really describe what it is that Tripp does for them in his classes.  I would hesitate to pigeon hole it into any one category as well.  He for me is more than anyone a psychic journey into my past and into an outer world where there is no gravity but the air is thick with visceral etchings that change throughout his hour.  What I mean to say is that like a dream I cannot hold onto the image as pleasant as it is I must leg go of because the next feeling is filled to the brim with another of his unmistakable incantations. Almost as if he is a magician without props. 

He has a mythical boyish aura about him and he is filled with silent agreement when your eyes meet his.  There is a knowing is the only way I can describe it that fetches your attention and then rivets you to the effort you have always been seeking. Even this post is writing itself because Mr. Fantastic is ethereal but as real as you or I. And yet there is also something else, he possesses elements I can’t yet describe, but like creativity it arrives on it’s own time schedule.  

Coney Island

As a wide-eyed kid growing up in the 1950’s I experienced the awe and wonder of Coney Island. I also know that the rides of today might claim to be more thrilling but nothing in the 21^st century even comes close to the heart pounding fear I felt back then riding Coney’s Thunderbolt Roller Coaster, Parachute Jump and Steeplechase Ride.   However, that same exhilaration is recaptured and is playing several times a week @ Equinox.  It runs on Tuesdays and Fridays and the ringmaster is Tripp Doherty.

This was the vision that struck my mind of heart as we saddled up in Tripp’s afternoon class today.  Just like a barker in a side show Mr. Mayhem had me wondering where to put my quarter so I could gain admission to his personal amusement park.  It was a foregone conclusion that the performance would be filled with his singular brand of ebullience and my concern was just how was I going to keep up with Mr. Astroland’s musical incantations filled with alternating speed, resistance and outer world charm as only he can conjure up. 

The one ride I am thinking about in particular was called The Steeplechase. Essentially it was a simulated horse race where one rode on a wooden horse suspended 30 feet in the air and as you sped down a steel track at 60 mph it gave you the thrill of a roller coaster.  And the power of what it might be like to be a jockey on a thoroughbred at Belmont. This was the imagery I felt today with the incandescent one.  Like a demonic cheerleader Tripp used his physiology on and off that stationary bike like it was part of his anatomy.

I love spinning as some of you might have guessed but today I was back in my childhood when Coney Island was the place to be every summer growing up. 

Shelter Island Ride: Sunday May 23

DIRECTIONS TO SHELTER ISLAND  - Sunset Beach Hotel on Crescent Beach

                                             Travel time approximately 2 hours 15 minutes

                                                      Start time  9:30 AM

                                                      Riding time 2 to 3 hours depending.

                                                      Maps and road directions will be given out

I suggest you do not use your navigation system and follow these directions until you get onto the island.

Take the LONG ISLAND EXPRESSWAY eastbound

Take EXIT 71 – Calverton and Hampton Bays

At Stop sign go LEFT to go North.   You will stay on Edwards Avenue to the second traffic light (@ 10 minutes): to SOUND AVENUE (Route 48).   Make a RIGHT  - you will be going east.

Stay on SOUND AVENUE (@ 30minutes).  You will see the Soundview Motel on your left and then you will make your first RIGHT – a small street, not well lit on your right called CHAPEL LANE.  Go to your first stop sign and make a LEFT- you will be on Route 25. 

Continue and follow the signs on your right for the Shelter Island Ferry (Route 114).  You will be making a RIGHT turn and then the first LEFT.   Stay to your right and follow the ferry line as it loops back around. Buy a road trip ticket on the ferry.

ONCE ON SHELTER ISLAND- Do not move your car until the ferry guy points to you!  Continue off the ferry straight and then bear to the right and then straight again as the road loops around.  You will see the Chequit Hotel ahead of you.  Continue past it and stay straight onto New York Avenue.   There is a strict 25mph speed limit along here.  You will go past the golf course on your right.  At the stop sign make a RIGHT onto West Neck Road.   You will be driving along the golf course and continue on this road first up the hill and then down the hill to Crescent beach. As you go around the curve you will see the Sunset Beach hotel on your left.

Look for a parking space along this road that IS NOT marked 24/7. These are only for Islanders and you will be given a $100 ticket if you park there. The first spots are diagonal then you will find parallel parking spots further down.

For those of you who want to relax after the ride we can have lunch on the beach. So bring a cooler to leave in your car.

Mr. Mayhem's Mad Mix

Today I avoided the scrutiny of Interpol at Roslyn and decided to make an unscheduled trip with Tripp.  Well I unscrewed my head and brain at the glass doors and left it on the back window shelf of the CS.  Every once in awhile I would check back and take a look seeing the eyes rolled back in my head and my mouth was moving but the words were indiscernible. I had decided that I would let the “Terminator” in me conduct the spin with Tripp today and by the end of the session I was so glad I did.

The music he chose today had me out of my mind in a good way because if he was a DJ he didn’t go to any Ivy League school I knew about. The musical mix seemed like crashing cars but it all seemed to work in a rhythmic fashion as only Mr. Mayhem could deliver. When he jumps off and on the bike and he raises his arms seemingly praising the Almighty he makes me crazy as I see the whites of his eyes signaling another ferocious attack on the pedal stroke.   When he played “Stomp” near the end of the session I needed both hands to keep my heart from leaping out of my chest.  The adrenaline rush was something I had not experienced since my last experience with Mr. Mayhem and before that leaping off the top step at Metro when Disco was King.  Anyway Tripp put me back on my heels when he followed “Stomp” with Doris Day and “Que Sera, Sera” in the cool down. Who does that? NO ONE!  He blew my mind.  The energy again was palpable in this class and I found myself shouting and doing the Mayhem salute right hand in a fist, slammed to chest and then flexed forward. 

On that note I thought I would add something to our blog if it were all right with all of you. I will add a YouTube link to some of the tunes we hear each day as it might get us revved up for our next session. As if we needed more incentive.

Debbie in #12 with the Nadia Comaneci physiology provided me with enough incentive when the shoes I was wearing were giving me a bit of discomfort.  Debbie dontcha know is in phenomenal shape and because she had her well-defined left calf exposed to my line of sight it provided me with the focus to get over “My Bridge Over Troubled Waters”. 

My spin shoes turned up missing today and I knew they had to be here because I don’t go fetch bagels or cream cheese with them on, and so I was sentenced to my running shoes and those awkward toe box cages. I made do lamenting about my lost shoes but as I headed for the showers I started a confab with a member named Mike and because of that conversation I spied my shoes under the bench where I had left them after Carolyn’s (TBS) class on Sunday.  I thanked Mike.  I will never again take my shoes for granted because the freedom of movement they provide is unmistakable. My sneakers kept hitting the pedal flange putting me off Mr. Mayhem’s rhythm. 

Mr. Mayhem has a mantra:  “Infinity On All Sides” 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBUIGCMAf3w Stomp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZbKHDPPrrc   Que Sera, Sera

Body Surfing (Originally Aired March 2010)

I took my spin class today; with someone else at the helm his name was Tripp. Absent were the well choreographed scientific dance incantations that Kristen animates for me each week, but it was clear from the first few moments Tripp was and dare I say it going to be a trip.

Right out of the time tunnel of my past this angular man with a disheveled hairdo soon had me pounding my chest bringing me quickly to the anaerobic world KG had re-introduced me to. His chant “infinity on all sides” was one I had not heard before, but it resonated with me like a bell chime perfectly pitched and I was off yet again. As Tripp bounded on and off his bike dancing rhythmically nothing like Gene Kelly but nonetheless just as energetically, I knew I had found an alternative drumbeat I could cling to.

Body surfing was what came to my mind as I listened to Tripp barely audible above the music from my own adolescence. You might be familiar with this gearless beach sport in which you wade out waist deep and try to launch yourself on one of natures own thrill rides. What usually happens is you catch the wave, swallow a mouthful of salt water or get flipped over from the sheer force of the wave and end up on your back scraping the sand dazed and confused.

At the end of this ride I experienced all three. And by the time this ride was done, I was drenched in my own salt water, gasping for air and not wanting any more, at least not until next time.

Structure vs. Chaos

As I look backward from the end of a session atop my Schwinn I feel like there is really no discernible difference between a cadence filled class or one that is put together like Jambalaya. What I mean to say is that at the end of each version of the ride I am soaking wet, my left hand and foot have lost some circulation and I am of course gasping to regain my normal heart rate. 

Both entertain me and both move me closer to some elusive fitness level that escapes definition at least to this point anyway.  What is the difference then?  If you would ask each instructor they would say quite a lot.  But is there?  Order is never a bad thing unless I am lacking the discipline at that particular hour.  I don’t think it’s about being lazy, as I have already told you I am exhausted with both regimens.  The structured class that I love to participate in fascinates me and inspires me each and every time and challenges me and keeps me focused.  The unvarnished version is unusually extemporaneous and moves me viscerally, which results in an inspiration where writing is a stream of consciousness rather than reporting with finely chiseled narratives that only KSC* brings me to. 

So where am I?  Split I guess if you were to push me for my personal preference. In KSC there is an unparalleled dedication to craft and in Svengali’s class the passion he exudes lifts me like an anti-gravity machine.  It’s all good from here and the variety keeps me from the jelly donuts I so used to crave.

*KSC- Kristen’s Spin Class kristensspinclass.blogspot.com

Pinball Wizard

In every lifetime you meet a person that defies gravity and gives off an energy that is unmistakably authentic and Ivory Soap pure.  I am so taken aback after my second trip with Tripp.  And after talking to several of his devotees I am so glad that the inspiration to start this blog chose me to write it. 

Even though our bikes are stationary it felt like I had E.T.’s tricycle and only Tripp knew my flight plan.  It was as if my legs had secret instruction from my autonomic nervous system, as I never seemed to be in conscious contact with the structure if there was any to this 45-minute jaunt in the presence of Mr. Mayhem. He rarely makes direct eye contact but you can feel his ubiquitous energy especially when his eyes look to the ceiling and with outstretched palms says: “I can hear it”.

Those looking for order and choreography might be a little disappointed in Tripp’s class but who doesn’t want a little organized chaos in their lives once in awhile. I could get addicted to this form of spinning in short order.  As I looked to my right the group fitness manager from Roslyn, Pam was there taking the class and she was beaming; as this was one of her protégé’s she had hired. Whatever possessed her to take him on made me want to thank her the next time I see her.

Today I felt just like a pinball being bounced from bumper to bumper and I had complete trust that the man at the flippers was in complete control and I could just enjoy the ride and leave all my cares outside those glass doors.