Wholistic Fitness

Of Aspen Leaves and Blood Blisters; the sure signs of a WF Warrior entry into fall! The only sport-specific pain i received from racing a high altitude half-marathon mountain race last weekend was this lonely blister on my toe. With only 5, count ’em 5, practice trail runs under my belt, my steadfast practice of Wholistic Fitness enabled me to crack the top ten at the summit turn around and amazingly enough – miraculously enough – i experienced absolutely zero Lactic Acid soreness, joint pain, or any other post-running race effect from a race of this caliber! at age 44, i have NEVER experienced such a miracle before! Can you IMAGINE if this Stuff gets out?! Imagine how many people would LOVE to be able to just jump into a race like this with relatively zero running-specific training and finish not only in the top ten, but one-up EVERYONE by turning it into a DUATHLON! c’mon!!!!!! you GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!?!??!!!
“The Path works,
when YOU work the Path!”
– coach ilg

here is a graph of the Race sent into the Temple office by alert and awake DL Subscriber Brad G of Sherman Oaks, CA. The elevation at Doyle Summit is 10,800′!
Here is a shot of the summit turn around from the race in 2003. This beautiful saddle overlooks what is known as the “Inner Basin” of the Kachina Peaks Wilderness which is actually the opened gash from when Mt. Humphreys (the tallest peak in Arizona seen hovering over this group of War Dogs in this photo) blew her Crown Chakra in a volcanic explosion several million years ago and reduced her stature from nearly 17,000′ to her present height of 12,633′.

With only 5 practice runs to deviate from my usual Wholistic Fitness practices, i not only cracked the top ten at the summit turn around, i was the only mongrel to ride my mountain bike for an hour and over 1,700′ to the “start” as i ditched my mountain bike, changed into my running shoes and mingled into the War Dog runners and took off up, up, and up to the Doyle Saddle.
Here is another shot taken the day before the Race. from Left to Right, the Sacred Peaks are: Doyle, Fremont, and Agassiz. the War Dog turn-around lies in between Fremont and Agassiz. I took this photo from within the Inner Basin at a GORGEOUS spot known as Lockett Meadow.

at the start of the War Dog Race! Run goes up to Doyle Saddle and back – about half marathon in length. This informal run climbs 3000 ft. and returns back to the Trailhead. Only one trophy – the famous “true grit” award to the person in last place. No recognition for first place mens and womens division – those folks are in great shape and the race is a cakewalk for them. The standing record is 1 hour 28 minutes by Victor Todecozy. A Box of bandaids is awarded to most injured runner. The Wardog is the oldest trail race in Northern Arizona. First run in 1981, as an organized trail race with Nike and Coors as sponsors, it has gone through potential defenestration, but it still survives! Last year a record 37 people eschewed the St. George Marathon and other events to get back to trail running roots at the Wardog. This year it was BYOB – however, when the runners stopped running and were drinking their well earned brewskis, there was still one mongrel out there; a WF Warrior named ilg who still had to ride his mountain bike back to the real Start Line; my front door!

Next year; whoEVER you are,
WhaEVER you do,
mark the First Sunday of October in your calendar and GET YOUR DAWG ASS out to Flag and do this great race; don’t cost you a dime and the experience is…PRICELESS! I would say nearly half the of the War Dogs just hiked the race, so don’t think you gotta run it! a Heaven of a time will be had! and for those MONGRELS like me that want to turn the War Dog Run into the War Dog DO DU (do the DUATHLON) i will meet you at the Schultz Creek Trailhead at 8:00 am next year, okay?

here were my times – gauge your training accordingly:

MTB UP: 1 hour, 8 minutes from my house at 7,200′ to 8,852′ (final 1.6 miles are EXPERT mountain bike intensity; be ready!)

RUN UP: 1 hour, 28 minutes from 8,852′ to 10,800′. (okay, so i was slow as a snail – the up AND down run record is only 1:28! – yet, still, i hung on like a WAR DAWG!! i saw bobcat, white breasted swift, deer, bear scat, some type of hawk in the deep forest, kaibab squirrels, and zone-tailed hawk…along with the changing aspens and unfolding airplane like views as i ran the trail, i was a bit ‘distracted’ from pure racing! check out the link provided in my DL of a few days ago for more pics of this great trail!)

RUN DOWN: 41 minutes. took my time. why? see above paragraph!!!!

BIKE DOWN: 29 minutes! SO FUN! i was so fatigued that coming down Schultz Creek which some of you Intensive Students have rode with me, i was ironing out lines so fast cuz i was just too tired to care! i was just like, “Fuck it if i crash, i wanna git home and lie down!” it was crazy fast descent!

TOTAL TIME FOR THIS SACRED WORKOUT/RACE:
3 hours and 46 minutes

TOTAL VERTICAL ASCENT FOR THIS SACRED WORKOUT/RACE:
i lost count

***
COACH’s PRE RACE RITUAL:

* Puja (worship plus Rock Vinyasa as devotional movement)
* 8 BioBuilde amino acids
* SUNRIDER HERBS: 2 x MetaBalance, 4 x MetaBooster, 4 x Action Caps, 5 x Sport Caps, 3 x Dandelion Root, 3 x Wu Chia Pi, 1 x EverGreen
* one small egg white and burrito and New Mexico Green Chile salsa
* digested for two hours (had to wake up EARLY to do the above)
* did WF Early Morning Ritual including Toilet Yoga (fast flow), Neti, and At-Sink Pranayama
* total of 3 bowel movements before i started…PERFECTLY EMPTY at Start!

DURING RACE:
consumed 1 CamelBak of water & 1 large Water Bottle of water, 2 PowerGels, 1 PowerBar (could have REALLY used another PowerGel or two!)

POST RACE:
6 x BioBuilde, 1x Ilg Supreme (felt like NECTAR OF THE GODS!!!!!! IMMEDIATE CHI RETURN!), 2 x MetaBalance, and one HELLUVA tasty MOOSEHEAD beer!!!!!! YUUUUM!!!! man, i wish i could just suck down beers like most of the rest of the men my age!? LOVE the taste of beer, however, any more than one beer makes me instantly fat in the worst of ways and completely puffs out my internal organs thus interfering horribly with my Pranayama Practices. May Shiva be damned forever for taking away my beer and wine drinking capacities!!!!! aaaargh!!!!!! The Path narrows, right?
Oh well, how BAAAAD do you want it (Enlightenment), right? It’s our choice when it comes to alcohol intake; PODIUMS or POOCH! However, i swear to Lord Patanjali, next year i am gonna smash my WAR DOG DUATHLON record and have TWO DAMNED BEERS!!!!!! wanna join me?

May this entry inspire your own Efforts in your own Practice
and TRUST that a WF Warrior can Dance ALL the DANCES within the capacities of the human body and mind!

om so ti
from the season of the falling leaves,

coach ilg
the mountain yogi