Wholistic Fitness

ON ANY GIVEN WEEKEND; OF SNOW AND BIKES AND THE SPIRIT WHICH LINKS THEM

Most Noble Sangha,

yesterday; High Intensity Run/Snowshoe/Run duathlon. took a new Direct Line from Ski Basin to SW Spur of Agazzi Peak and back. 1 hour and 45 minutes. if i am gaining an amount of yogic siddhis, such powers are delivered to me in High Mountains, this much, i know to be True. That is a LOT of steep,difficult terrain to cover…yet i did with the full Pranic Hookup and it felt like a dream…

Tracked a medium-sized bobcat before startling a mama deer with four young ones feasting upon the remaining autumn grasses in hurried manner. Deer know Winter like no man can. Soon Elk tracks. I bring my Mind to touch Noble Student Wide Wapiti and feel his sincere efforts along the Path assist my own (see Wide Wapiti’s words in his Blog…today’s entry is FANTASTIC: http://www.warriorsamoht.blogspot.com/ ). at 11,400′ i leave all tracks, including the sole human one behind me as i start chipping the front teeth of my sport snowshoes into 28% gradient of ice crusted snow. This verglass sheath of steep snow is speckled and fractured by tips of granite and sometime igneous rock. i am on all fours in a type of downward facing dog except i moving upward in ape like fashion on terrain as slippery as your bathtub after a soapy shower. i’ve held my heartrate at high zone 3 for the past 40 minutes. at this altitude, effort becomes accumulative. i feel light and strong. i work my dog tilt and allow the frozen pranic ocean around me to move inside of me; relaxing my side guts where unconscious breathing results in cramps and poor performance. breathing now moves me, i am not the one breathing. the very lungs of the UniVerse breathe me. i empty into a syllabic/breath rhythm of OM MA NI PAD ME HUNG so as to numb my egoic mind and reduce fear, doubt, and pain. The chanting purifies me as over and over again my cleats tatter away, drum like, upon this tightly stretched hide of steep ice and snow. only thrice while climbing this monstrous, ancient wave of steep rock and ice do i dare look down. one moment of unconscious technique, one moment of paltry focus at the sake of suffering and i would become a lycra clad cannonball, hurtling down this rocky, icy ampitheatre in a horrible collection of limbs and screams until my body hit the less steep snow, or perhaps, that clump of pines waaaaay down there. back to punching fists into the snow, clinging here and there onto rockbergs which poke through the glossy snow like shark fins. OM MA NI PAD ME HUNG…more climbing brings me over 6″ dog tracks, traversing back and forth, amazingly enough, across this colouir. Coyote? No way. Too large and too uncharacteristic of the Trickster. Some other mountaineer’s dog? Perhaps, not likely. I have had the only human presence up here this winter. A Sasquatch having Shape Shifted into a Wolf? Bingo! This is, after all, Yeti country! i top out at 12,2some feet, above the clouds. Ravens, dozens of them, auspiciously swirl the uncommonly calm, pranically packed air. their callnotes are quaint; unlike their talk down low. here i am most at h(om)e. it was within these rarefied ethers that Wholistic Fitness was borne. when i interact with the energetics of high terrain using high breath and heart-rates, my biologic beating breaks down the barrier between the microcosm of intensity of Self (purusha) and the macrocosm of intensity of nature (prakriti). thus, i find my Highest Yoga; my richest Source of Union through sweat induced Pranic Purity. I linger in my meditation and pranayama on this throne of the Mountain Gods too long and feel a chill build behind my sweat soaked clothes. i start chipping and controlled slipping down the icy slope, focusing upon my navel and mula bandha to keep my weight centered correctly. I descend rapidly, mountain goat like…Sensei Kishiyama’s words always ring Clearest to me when doing this extremely dangerous stuff, “Move with the spirit of wild animals.” These words calm me, as do these which becomes my descending chant; “Sabbe Dhamma Nalam Abhinivesha”…Nothing Whatsoever Should Be Clung To As “I” Or “Mine.” It’s a Tibetan way of the Native American’s “It is a Good Day To Die.” Fortunately, for DL Readers, i will not die on this descent; i will however, make one wrong move and pay for it. on a side traverse to get to more snow, i slip. i fall 25′ in a flicker of an instant and gouge my right shin with my left snowshoe crampon…, yet before the Abyss sucks me down and turns me into Hamburger Helper, i instinctively roll into a Self Arrest and come to a heart-thumping stall, teetering on the edge of a stoic boulder. This shit ain’t friggin’ golf. thank Brahman there are still places like the Kachina Wilderness where one man can disappear into the wilds, and not be found till the next spring if his Warrior Day comes to an end up here.

“To those of aberrant minds, the place
is just earth, stone, water, and trees.

To mistaken intellects, it appears as
solid, inanimate objects.

To Practitioners, appearances have no
intrinsic nature.

Those of Pure Vision, it is a celestial
palace full of deities.

To those with Realization, it is the radiant
luminosity of innate awareness.”

– Kanyu

*

This morning and my body is registering yesterday’s noble efforts in a painful way, particularly in my spinal extensors. yet, to continue to win the favor of the local mountain bikers, i am up by 6:00am for an Ujjayi saturated dosage of Toilet Yoga�. By the time i finish my At-Sink Pranayama�, my body has shifted from being painful, cold and acidy to being pain-free, warm and fluid. The WF Path works, when you work the Path! By 8:00am, i roll out and meet Tattoo Bob and Chris Hull (yep Hockey Fans! Bobby and Brett Hull are his relatives and NO you CANNOT get an autographed something!). We ride up Schultz Creek, frosty pine needles chinking beneath our tires like champagne glasses kissing in a toast. Right on Little Gnarly then…i knew these mofo’s would do this…Left and UP, UP, UP the “Weenie Walk”…a fiercely steep and technical climb so named because if you are a Weenie, you will be walking it. i weenie out on four sections of the 600′ snakelike climb and am well off the back from my two skilled partners. i sound the alarm for more muscle glycogen for my climbing muscles, still deflated from yesterday’s excellent effort. my bro’s are waiting for me at the top of the ridge then we scream down the 5 mile descent of Little Bear…if you fall during the top half of this local 5-Star Singletrack, dude, you’re going into the Bardo like a Boeing…it’s a 2,500′ drop off on your downslope side! i manage to stay upright and start to dial in my Slither Medicine and manage to keep Bob and Chris in sight; a rarity for me on descents. Another Left, suffer up a 3-mile singletrack slice of heaven to retrieve some lost altitude and we arrive at the top of Schultzy again. On this 3.5 mile descent, i find yoga. No bike, No Me, Just Breath and Ski Like Fun! Swerving, cutting and dicing, and railin’ this beautiful creekside singletrack like three deer in full flight. We roll to a stop in a collective shudder of joy and appreciation for being
alive,
fit,
and
brave enough to get out and just DO!

i pity those who have yet to Awaken to the Go(o)dness of Daily Sweat and non-measurable Energy. The lack of sweat purchases only a stronger belief in the validity of worldly things. Such miserable limitation brings only a sense of false stability, not spiritual stability. The stronger our belief in Worldly objects and pleasures, the longer that world lasts. To me, it is the cultivation of the limitless Inner World that cannot be measured, judged, or manipulated which is most vital to a human beings short time on this Plane.

If your own Weekend Workouts have delivered to you, just a fraction of the momentous and Sacred Joy that mine have, then, you, Oh Noble WF Warrior,
are like me in this very moment;
smiling with spine straight Knowing that
all there is
is
Love.

Love Is Greater Than Fear.

Get out, today.

And Love It All…

In Fitness and Nature,
In Softness and Strength,

i bow to you in Namaste,

Coach Ilg