Wholistic Fitness

THE TURQUOISE MOUNTAIN CHRONICLES: Part III

photo by ilg

Running in the snow (5)
Ice clinging to bearded chin (7)
Breath stops thought within (5)

– Love and Good Luck On The Sacred Mountain,
Online WF Student Featherman (Haku Clan)

after receiving the electronic ‘baton’ from Haku, coach ilg is nordic ski racing through a full on blizzard.
Elevation; 10, 400′
Place; halfway up the infamous, 32% “HeartBreak Hill” on Mt.Taylor.
Heart rate: 189 bpm (an ozone level of intensity quite capable of killing untrained men his age, he has held this HR for the past twenty minutes. he will sustain the same level of intensity for another forty minutes).
we now pick up his account:

***
Swirling snow…
Calm thoughts…
Intensity of effort has now delivered me my Heart Rate Yoga. My uptake and assimilation of data and Insight arises through each cell of my body as does an echo register unmistakable clarity. i am experiencing what the yogi’s call, Citi-shakti or Powerful Awareness. i written about this in DL, yet now i am Vibrating with it! i am at a Higher Level of body/mind functioning, i have no choronologic age, i have no history, i am breathing myself into a snowy Sartori. All cylinders, spiritual and physical, are firing…

I erase any doubt, any tamasic quality of mind by way of my Breath and Posture Awareness; this first WF Lifestyle Principle is just as valid up here, pushing myself up his arctic mountain as it is when i am back in LA at my computer. Breath and Posture IS Awakening!

Mental posture is, to me, just as important as physical posture.
In yoga, our physical postures are only as elegant as is the elegance of our mind.
In endurance racing, the podiums are gained by those athletes who have learned to tame the circling vultures of doubt which feast upon the undisciplined minds of mediocre men, addicted to entertainment and comfort and sensual gratification. Here is what the UnAwakened Man does not realize; Comfort kills.

Endurance training is a temple.
A High Temple, of this make no mistake.
Endurance Racing, is the Highest Temple where you will find the Highest Priests of Perspiration, the spiritual juice of which a human is made; water. in WF, i call Sweat by her native name; Holy Water.

In the Endurance Temple, prayers can only be offered in the truest of religious action; effort not excuses, sweat not ceremony, perseverance not perfumed altars.
Hours and hours of being alone, face to face with the moment by moment confrontation of soul intention verses ego doubt.
“I am too tired today,”
“I don’t have time today, i need to work…”
“I will do more cardio next workout, today i am too busy…”
“I can’t finish this loop, i will take the shortcut home,”
“My knee hurts…my back hurts…i stayed up too late last night…”

When the endurance athlete gives into such ego thoughts two consequences occur;
1) podiums are not reached, and
2) spirit is smothered.

Being present to witness the ongoing Dance between Intent and Action signifies, as Sogyal Rinpoche says, “the linking of absolute and relative, sky and ground, heaven and earth, like two wings of a bird.”

My tricked out combination of tiny racing nordic skate skis with custom cut climbing skins are working for me
like a gem…i am ‘clatchety-clacking’ up this insanely steep ski course like a stick insect waltzing up
your bedroom wall while you lie in bed wondering,
“How the hell does that Stick Insect do that!?”
Well,
that might well have been the surprised thoughts from the dozens of my
frozen competitors, as i tap dance
my way around their zombie-like apparitions, moving ever higher into the freezing white cold.
on HeartBreak,
it was not my sea level heart that was breaking,
it was all these mountain athletes that don’t do YOGA, that don’t do PRANAYAMA!
you don’t need to live at high altitude to compete in those rarefied airs,
you just need to do Pranayama; The Pranic Tool of the Divine Air
screw all that textbook bullshit you hear about sea level athletes can’t compete with high altitude natives,
here was Valley Boy, toxifed and withered by LA ‘smuck’ (that is what i call it; SMog + yUCK = SMUCK)
putting the Big Ol’ Hurt on these mountain boyz!

one thing about living and training in LA smuck; it makes you tough like cockroach!
and here,
in this blizzard
on this mountain
i was a snowroach,
indestrucible
flitting upwards
snot frozen
eyelids sewn nearly shut by the freezing my eyelashes together…
i have pushed myself frequently to such a place…
because i use my life as training for the Bardo…

useless it was for me to scream at people to get out of my way,
the roaring wind was like felt stuffed into ice-caked ears.
more times than not, i was forced to pass other racers by taking an energy sapping
side trip through the softer snow off the race course.
i did not care.
there is only one thing more powerful to an athlete than Confidence Born From Training
and that is
CHI!

My passion for the summit blew me up HeartBreak Hill in top ten time.
Into and out from the SnowShoe Transition in 2 minutes then i was on my Atlas Dual Trac snowshoes,
running through the blizzard toward the 11,301′ summit which
hovered 800 vertical feet above. Up the rising traverse sucking in
the perfume of pines and mesa ions elevating me into a Native American Dreamstate…
i love this country, i love my precious life, i love WARRIORS who do not abuse their bodies through
ignorance yet elevate their bodies into purushic vehicles, elegant Gifts wrapped with Gratitude for God!
“I” was gone…
only “The Witness” remained
Only my heartrate was beating faster than was the wind beating down upon the athletes turned mountaineers
in this ocean of cold.
Honestly,
i did not fucking care if i keeled over and died from my effort,
this was a far better way to leave the Stage
than dying stuffed into some pleated fucking sheets in some hospital bed with tubes sticking outta me…
fuck that shit!
As Chief Seattle said, ‘It is a good day to die.”

i deepened my resolve…i’m gonna race my GUTS OUT!!!
Tis better to burn out than to die apologetically like sheep, untouched and unmoved by the life they live.
i turn the corner onto the Summit Headwall affectionally named, “The Edge”
punching through a 14″ snowdrift that was not there five minutes earlier.
onto the Summit Headwall:
Screaming Velocity
Wind punches and kicks at you, this was no longer a snowshoe race it was boxing match, and
suddenly the deep fiber fitness from years of strength training in the gym, another WF intradiscipline,
starting paying off again; i was passing non-strength trained endurance athletes right and left…
my glutes, fashioned from years of Jump Squats and Back Squats, motoring me up this near vertical ice patch
in the southwestern sky! THANK YOU, IRON TEMPLE!!!
i cannot see more than 4 feet..i hucker down low,
grateful for all i have learned about energy saving aerodynamics during cycling…
i am chasing pigment
i merge into the motion of my hips
gasping for air

this is not Elegant Stuff…
this is BARDO TRAINING!
this opaque, indomitable, confused intensity…
such are Divine Gates To The Next Life

35mph winds at the Summit…
i get a positive nod from the brave Paramedics who look and move like snowmen stationed there,
and then…
i nearly cry…tears from a little boy remembering his Wolf…memories cascade from my mental
chambers as i myself start cascading downward through the bleak freeze…
ectasy falls from my lips
sacred skies above
Southwestern love within…
the edge of what i know…
i am flying down from the Summit
snowshoes a whirling blur of chi, arms flying about to control my speed..
i am a Sufi Master! … a Whirling Derivish drunk on the Divine Vibration…
i feel compassion for all those who do not compete, never race, never truly TEST their faith in
who they really are!

Hell hath no fury like feeble ilg on a descent from a high alpine peak.
i take a public moment now to apologize to all those
racers i used as breakaway slalom gates as i made my madman descent,
shouldering past them at high speed down the steep Summit Headwall…
sorry bros.

into the Ski Transition;
“Go Mr. PowerBar!’ i hear…
one of the Norwegians that i must beat
is right there, next to me in the Transition…
i am a flurry of movement,
“Not today, mofo, not on this mountain…” i pushed out of the Transition and
into the Ski descent at warp speed, “Engage, Number One…”
the highly technical, hurly burly roller coaster descent
through blowing fields of white poetry, my ski’s the pen, my focus the art.
i held off the Norwegian and had passed another somewhere else,
for i had moved our Team into third overall and first in our category.

my business had been taken care of,
yet two events still remained; Haku’s Run Down, and Gram Man’s Bike Down.

Into the cheering crowd at the Run Down Transition…i see
my Beloved Senior Teacher of WF Online Training was right there,
Braveheart was waiting for me…
i collapsed at his fleet feet in an anaerobic pile of snot, sweat, and God-induced glee…
“Go!” was all i could muster…

and he went..
but then, that is his story…

****

SCENE:
Haku Waits For Ilg at the Ski Down/Run Down Transition after hammering his Run Up in national caliber time:

Haku writes:

Bardo time…Go within, listen, cultivate awareness, dry layers off by the fire, hydrate, restore, feel… I feel him coming, no matter if the watch says he should be or not. I prepare.

Very soon I see Ilg coming down the slope thru the trees, totally tucked like he is approaching the lip of a ski jump ramp.

My �layers come off, chip exchanged, Steve has moved ahead two to three more places with a most elegant effort.

At this point spirit transcends safety. No brakes, come what may. Arms drive the legs. Lead with the heart. Hit the turns like a running a banked indoor track. Be light, let mother earth reel me down the mountain. Its play time.

Rolling hills the last mile or so..up hill against a headwind..this is where sincerity is tested. Legs are gooey yet pran is plenty…

ahead lays the transition as our brother Grammage prepares for the final decent into desert valley. It has been a most wonder-full day.

We are so blessed to breath upon the place, to challenge spirit with sweat. I bow to my team-mates, the organizers, this mountain. On this day it is the axis mundi.
��������
-haku

***

SCENE:
The Bike Down Transition, lower slopes of Mt. Taylor. Rain pelts Mother Earth. Up higher on the mountain, it is snow. Loudpeakers buzz the pinon air with ongoing updates of the hundreds of racers strung out along the course like a human Mala…

Gram Man writes:

Now this is where the guessing game begins.

How
long will it take for my teammates to complete their
disciplines, and when should I start warming up?

I had done this Quad with a another team in 2000 and was
left to freeze as I waited for a very long period of
time (many hours). Keeping in mind that there is no
form of communication at any of the transitions I was
left to estimate my transition time. After hearing
the treacherous weather ahead toward the peak, I had
severely underestimated my teammates’ God given
abilities, skills and perseverance.

This is where I
made this interesting.

I had eaten and rehydrated and
tried to gather info from race volunteers with no
avail. I decided to setup my bike for a warm up and
dress-up. I was about 3/4 dressed when one of my
competitors had alerted me that Haku was waiting for
me at the transition. I quickly jumped out of the car
zippered up my skinsuit, pulled my bike off the
trainer, changed the my rear wheel, put on my aero
helmet and raced to the transition forgetting my
waterbottle. At this point Haku had been waiting
several minutes. He helped me with the chip and raced
downhill.

At this point the weather had taken a turn for the
worst. The slight breeze on the ascent now had turned
into a nasty headwind with violent crosswinds which
almost caused me to lose control of the bike a few
times. I managed to keep the bike upright and
continue chasing down my opponents with great strength
and determination. For I had let my teammates down
and had time to makeup.

I passed many of my rivals
along the way picking them up and dropping them. One
managed to catch my draft and I asked him to take a
pull. His response was “I am an old man”. When I
asked him how old he was he responded “42”. Then he
asked how old I was and I replied “47”. At this point
I put down the hammer again attacking on a ascent that
had come upon us and dropped him like a bad habit.

{Gram Man made up for a lack of concentration in the Transition
by absolutely hammering the Bike Down}
I raced to the finish as hard as my body and MY GOD
would allow and managed to save the day for my
teammates. All I can say is that my teammates were
beyond awesome!

I imagined that my teammates were going to be very
irate with me, and distant for I had let them down,
but instead I was met with congratulatory hugs and
smiles. They had forgiven my miscues for we had taken
3rd overall and FIRST in our age group only to be
beaten by the youth of the race. Praise God!

{Gram Man, ends with this note to me:}
Hope this works for you Steve.
Thanks again for inviting me. I had a great time and
I also enjoyed meeting and socializing with the
wonderful WF families.
You guys were awesome with your disciplines. If you
wish to try and retain the title and if you dare to
have me again it would be my honor to race with you
again! This time I will be waiting on the bike!!!!

God Bless!
Grammage

Team Mountain Yogi, embellishing “war stories” after their championship effort at
Coach Ilg’s HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS “suite”! photos by Ananda

{At the Race Award Ceremony, Coach Ilg, shown here with Haku, offering a moment of silence
and gratitude for what Coach called, “The Most Important and Sacred Player Of The Day…
Mt. Taylor!}

{Back on the sun dried mesa of New Mexico, Coach points to where he is visualizing
his next event..to the top of the next podium!…
“Onward, Upward, Ever Inward!”
– Coach Ilg’s WF Training Mantra

****
TEAM MOUNTAIN YOGI
Mt. Taylor Race Splits, Comparisons and Photos available at:
www.mttaylorquad.org
(on the overall, you will see the name of Gram Man (VERDERAME) in 8th place overall; that is Team Mountain Yogi.)

****
a signed Training Poster, an 8×10 glossy image of Coach Ilg’s Ski Down (see DL; Mt. Taylor Chronicles; Part II) will be made available
for your Training Room on the WF Tribal Catalog soon. Watch for it and enjoy the CHI HIT everyday from the Sacred Mountain of Tsidool!

***
And now…

The Top Ten Reasons For YOU To Race Mt. Taylor Next Winter:

10. Haven’t thrown up in a while

9. Read somewhere by some crazy mountain yogi that sweat is an karmic purification agent

8. Got life, so why not?

7. Have never actually raced while hypothermic

6. Like being humiliated where nobody knows who the hell i am or cares!

5. Lactic acid makes me loopy

4. Shaved legs for the Bike Portion makes cross-dressing easier to explain

3. Good excuse to visit the Cibola County Mining Museum and Auto Repair

2. Cheap way to fuel PowerBar addiction

1. Pure Pran – just can’t get enough of it!

***
TRIBAL CHEEERS:
STOP SEARCHING and PRACTICE/GOOD LUCK AT MT. TAYLOR!

“We all have the karma to take one spiritual path or another, and I would encourage you, from the bottom of my heart, to follow with complete sincerity the path that inspires you most.

If you go on searching all the time, the searching itself becomes an obsession and takes you over. You become a spiritual tourist, bustling about and never getting anywhere. Following one teaching is not a way of confining you or jealously monopolizing you. It�s a compassionate and practical way of keeping you centered and always on your path, despite all the obstacles that you, and the world, will inevitably present.”
– Sogyal Rinpoche

***
Coach-
Namaste! �I send you and the Mountain Yogi team much love and chi as you prepare to scale the sacred mountain.
Student Ludgate

***
Fucking Bro!� Read DL�s course report today�MY GOD!� Friggin� Haku�s run is fucking brutal!� I�ll send my FEEBLE chi which pales in the face of such brave warriors.� How in the hell will he �run� down icy golf balls?!!!!!!!!� Track spikes hell�feeble rj is contemplating baseball cleats for 2006!� Ooof!� Allow me to leave you with a favorite quote in view of the circumstances (and YES I KNOW you WF warriors WILL adapt and be flexible/yin while other �force� and in vain try to �defeat� Mother Nature):

“In warfare, there are no constant conditions.�
He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent will succeed and win.”
–Sun-Tzu

Rock those mofos!

Humbled, rj

***
Dear TFO and Haku,
�
today i devote my Practice, which will include a chilly hour of trail running into�a sweaty session of HP Inspired Yoga, to you and your teammates.� sending Chi and Love your Way.� in-joy and Kick Ass!
�
below is a Haiku,�that was�written and given to me by John Singleton.� may it�Inspire you during your Journey tomorrow.
�
Gather Yogis Dance (5)
Snow Falls Gently, Still We Dance (7)
Heat�On�The Mat, Dance (5)
�
Love,
ko�

***

My Dear Coach Haku,
�In meditation last night I was provided with visions of you and your team mates smoothly hammering Mt. Taylor.� Flute music came to me as well.� In your honor, I will meditate and play my flute as Mindfully as possible�at the start of the race.� You will all�remain in my heart until the race finishes.
�
You must be focusing on the race, so don’t feel rushed to complete my next cycle.� I can keep myself engaged until your return.
�
Watch for Ravens during the race.
�
Namaste.
�
WF Online Student Michael

***

Dear Coach,
����Forgot to mention it in my last email — kick some tail this weekend!� Warrior Chi — no doubt�all that contact with your team will feel its power! No need for me to wish you luck when you have WF!
Look forward to following the results this weekend.
�
With love,
�
WF Online Student Cerame (Coach Ilg Clan)

***