Wholistic Fitness

ON ANY GIVEN SUNDAY; Coach’s Elegant Effort in Futility

“Better to fail in originality than to succeed in mediocrity.” – Melville. Coach Ilg attacks the entire peleton (squint to see far left of photo) on the first of four separate attacks in an attempt to draw one or two brave warriors from the comfort of the peleton. No one came. This, and all photos by my superb support team; Ananda.

Namaste my Noble WF Sangha!
i trust your weekend was wrung with much spiritual insight from your physical workouts and lifestyle practices.
i know mine was.
again.
what a Blessed life, a WF life is!
guess you all heard the WF Race Wire Reports…i jumped into local 2-Day gnarly ass bicycle race here in Flag. my main focus was to prepare and get Ananda to test her yogic and WF skills onto a Start Line of her first bicycle race…which she did with superb Warrioress chi! more on that later. Saturday was a hill climb, and Sunday was a road race that actually had double the amount of climbing than the hillclimb. i came into Sunday in a surprise 4th place…i say surprise because i was just gunning for a top ten given the fact this was my first high altitude race against the well conditioned local boyz (the finish line was at 9,600′ !) To heighten my anxiousness; i had no chance to do any sort of a warm up before the start…coaching duties presided. thank GOD i did my HP Toilet Yoga into my At-Sink Pranayama in the early morning. the combo effect of those two exclusively WF Practices evidently Served admirably well in lieu of a cycling warm up.

Day Two; the Road Race. Coming into this 45-mile road race in 4th place, i had to do something drastic to reach the podium which lingered about 35 seconds away. Each of the three racers in front me had strong teams to protect them. i had none.

Pre-Race Bardo; knowing the tremendous amount suffering to come, on top of knowing that i had to attack the entire peleton solo on a long course with over 2,600′ of climbing on it really pushes some deep Fear buttons before the Start Gun goes off. I used Pranayam and Mantra to anchor my Fear-enscounced ego during such pre-race Bardos. my Game Plan was to attack on a steep hill located about 18 miles from the finish line and hopefully draw another solo warrior or two from the peleton to at least make a noble effort at escaping the four large teams that would control the pace of the race. i did not have such a luxury as a team, thus, as my ultra racing bro, Ron Jones told me before this race, “Dude, fuck the peleton and fuck the teams! they are a bunch of pussies hiding away from the real gut-effort…just attack them and when it hurts the most, just stand up and hammer!” Gotta love RJ-wisdom. It’s one thing to have a brave Game Plan in the comfort of your home before the race, it is another to actually DO it during the race when you are already hurting like a mofo. I stayed True, though to my plan…on the middle of the hill i planned to attack, i reached way deep down, thought of my Sangha and with a heart rate already in the 180’s, i “just stood up and hammered,” for about 45 seconds. When i looked around, i had a several second gap. Then, i screwed on my “Zone 3 Blue Collar Work Ethic,” found Mula Bandha, put my head down and time trialed away from the peleton. I must say, life is exciting, scary, and horribly hurtful when you are off the front of a peleton that is already averaging 18mph..uphill! Yet, for me, i have grown to view Peletons as a metaphor of UnAwakened Society; they stay huddled close together for their addiction to comfort is thus pacified. No one wants to pull into the headwind (or ‘swim upstream’ as i say in WF philosophy). There is nit-picky gossip in peletons and quite frankly, i would rather launch away from these aerobic gossip mongers and die solo, out front, at least being brave, quiet, and trying to make a difference.

Cinder Hill Summit; 2 miles from the finish. You can tell which one i am; i’ve got the lowest, yoga-produced form on the bike. When Ananda took this shot, i was shot. i had stayed out in front of the peleton for 40 minutes, at one point easing my effort so the peleton came to within 10 seconds of capturing me! i did this because i was dying and desperately needed a teammate to help me, so i thought if i drifted back to with a few seconds of the peleton, CERTAINLY ONE of those 60 ‘racers’ would want to be brave enough to come up to me and work together for the win. No one came, so i launched again, and then again. well the peleton captured me about 4 miles from where this shot was taken, i managed to hold onto the top 15 guys, then, started to crack. i drifted back from this group by nearly 15 seconds before reorganizing with some other shattered poor bastards and then i attacked them to finally make contact with these guys. about a mile after this shot was taken, a super steep little roller, i attacked hard, got a gap…thinking again that one of the four guys would come up to me and increase our chances of a higher placing…i knew that at least one of the guys that beat me yesterday was up the road and i was selling my soul to get up there. unfortunately, again, futility reigned supreme. in the final uphill sprint, i was so gassed that each of these guys who ‘hid’ in the peleton for the whole race, beat me in the uphill sprint finish. i was pissed and confused at why so few cyclists are willing to attack mediocrity! why hide in the peleton and waste your entry fee without even TRYING to be brave? i mean shit, at least go for a good Training Effect!

The best part about racing, is not about winning; it’s about yourself and your friends. This is “Tattoo Bob”…one of the few Warriors who attempted to bridge up to me when he saw me up the road suffering like a dog off the front. He and i shared our collective anger at the peleton for a few fun chi minutes then, among the volcanic wonder of Wupatki National Monument…certainly one of the most Pranically Charged pristine portals of the UniVerse, we just felt Blessed to be able to have the fitness to do such fun things like attacking an entire peleton! WAAAAY too much fun!

Post Race Bardo; the after effects of being brave and all alone into the wind for 15+ miles at over 18 mph uphill.

This week is chock full of amazing, inspirational WF Sangha input, stories, training and Practice insights…all for free, all still utterly exclusively WF since 1982!

i bow to your own sense of Warrior Bravery; be it holding your posture with elegance throughout the day, or looking with Compassion into the eyes of the yet to Awaken to what you know; Wholistic Fitness! The Way of Peaceful Warriors in a Chaotic, Confused Era.

namaste,
the mountain yogi

ps; i don’t know my overall finish placing…i’ll let you know if i made the podium in the two-day event. yet remember, the REAL podium lies inside. all that matters is testing your faith in yourself, developing self-reliance, and…being brave in your own moccasins! Go, and be brave today, Noble Warrior Of The Inner Workout!