Wholistic Fitness

Namaste Noble Warriors!

“The real Porsche is not under a hood. It’s under your skin.”

-coach ilg

ooooh…that feels better.

my eyes are no longer cross-eyed and the neural staccato fire emanating from my exhausted, acidic thighs has stopped. it’s been just over an hour since my effort in this morning’s 2.50-hour road bike training race.

it’s been well over a year since i’ve done this training ride that races every Sunday morning over Sepulveda Pass from the Valley to Venice Beach and back again. sometimes sixty racers show up. other times, like today, the peleton (main group of bike racers) is less than half that. but it’s always hard. that’s what makes it a great training ride.

the crowning jewels of this cardiomuscular experience are the two climbs up the Pass as well as several high speed sprint ‘primes’ (pronounced, ‘preems’) on the flats. for climbers – like me – we love to attack the steep sections as to break the legs and wills of the other racers. we consider it a duty to surge again and again until we’ve forced the heartrates of others to shatter into a haphazard, gasping affair. the more pandemonium on a climb, the better. bicycle climbers dream to dance upon pedals like angels of ascension until no other racer can match tempo.

on the other hand, sprinters live to contest the sprints, shoving elbows into each other’s ribs at 45 mph if needed to maintain their place. the handlebar to handlebar gallop makes for dangerous moments and there is much team tactics to deliver your guy to the line first. anaerobic chess played with thighs of steel and minds of zen monks.

though now long retired and light years past my cycling fitness, it’s still those lung bursting, leg searing efforts when the pavement turns uphill that trips a certain animalistic trigger deep within my aging fibers. my normal soothe and caring demeanor switches instantly into a fierce warriorism that – for better or worse – makes me think that no one can beat me up a hill. i like to be left alone, in front. i don’t care if i lose. i do care about not being brave enough to do my utter best.

i was nervous about rejoing the peleton after so long. it’s tricky stuff, bike racing. you gotta be aware. skin and asphalt are not brothers. excellent bike handling skills are needed when riding fast so close to so many other riders. each of them wants to be near the front of the peleton where it’s safest and easier overall. if you are dangling off the back, you are constantly sprinting over and over again just to stay in contact with the swooping herd of racers. you can’t win from the back of the pack.

today’s ride must have been a karmic thing. i won both hill climbs and helped my team take all the sprint primes as well. winning the second climb hill put me into huge difficulty. it’s longer the first, which is more of a power climb that i can more easily handle with 20+ years of WF strength training in my legs. but the second climb comes near the end of the ride and has an energy sapping gradual uphill of about 3 miles before a steep, decisive headwall which guards the summit. today, i had gotten myself into a four man break away up the second climb. a twenty-one year old, very fit fellow attacked just before the headwall. i accelerated onto his rear wheel, attempting to stay in his draft. which i did. for about twenty seconds. then he attacked again. i had to let him go. i hate it when that happens.

in yoga, the fifth limb of ashtanga yoga is Pratyahara. it means, ‘sense withdrawal’ that’s what i practiced in that moment. i just shut off my ego and went within. it’s what we do in yoga all the time. learn to let go. transformation of the trance of torture. the trick to winning races is the same; learn techniques to be elegant in difficulty. don’t buy into what the ego is always trying to sell you; you’re too old, you haven’t trained enough, it’s okay not to give 110%, etc., etc. the mature yogi or athlete has learned the same trick; not to listen to that crap and instead pay attention to your breath and posture.

my heartrate was probably nearing 185, which i can hold for some time. i looked up and saw that i was not closing the gap to the leader. that’s when the guy behind me passed me like i was going backwards.

let it go, ilg, i tell myself. Pratyahara. don’t worry about him, focus on what you can do right now. here. this moment. i went deeper within. the more i could ride out of myself, the more likely i could ride into my Highest Self.

at the top the headwall, the guy behind me had joined up with the young punk…errr, excuse me, the nice young man in front. they were working together. two against one with the summit less than 800 meters away and my legs feeling like wet timber.

i had them right where i wanted them.

the prana started pumping. the chi started flowing at a whole Higher level. the SUNRIDER herbs were doing their thing. i blessed my love of Wholistic Fitness and High Performance Yoga as i stood up on my pedals and stomped upon them with such a cadence as to make that damn RiverDancer dude wince with envy! i was flying uphill in a 42-15 gear as i came up and around those two guys like a Santa Ana wind…they didn’t know what hit them as i danced to the summit 40 meters in front of them. a joyful man was i as i cornered the descent feeling like a bird in full flight.

Wholistic Fitness and High Performance Yoga are no joke. neither are the SUNRIDER herbs. many men my age would like to be able to get off the ‘couch’ and pull off what i did this morning. but it’s easier to make excuses why NOT to sign up for Wholistic Fitness online training or NOT do the programs in my books or NOT eat Sunrider herbs. i watch what i eat. i stay at or around 148 lbs. i don’t let anything or anyone stand in the way of my Practice sessions. before today’s ride i was up early doing HP Yoga and breathing meditations (pranayama). i don’t know what the other guys that i beat today do for their training but i know what i do. and it feels right and obviously works as effectively today as it did twenty years ago.

podiums are few. excuses are many.

there is nothing like Wholistic Fitness. it prepares you for the podiums present in your life which come in many ways and within every moment. how beautiful and brave are YOU willing to be today? are you willing to risk? to go on the attack? to dance? to let go?

or are you content to yo yo off the back of the pack where the scenery is just other people’s rears?

i designed WF to lift people Higher by not just teaching how to workout, but by teaching them to enjoy working within.

May Your Practice Be Strong & Sincere and May Your Own Podiums Be Many,

coach ilg

{Editor’s Note; among Coach Ilg’s cycling accomplishments are a State Championship, two course records, and podiums in races from one kilo to 500 miles, with numerous victories in mountain bike, multisport, and road cycling. he has coached several national, world, and Olympic champions and remains a licensed USCF Expert Coach through the same coach as Lance Armstrong.}

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