Wholistic Fitness

“Many athletes trains train their entire lives in their own sweat and their addiction to it only bogs them deep into an imbalanced hole in the ground of their being. in WF, we race to keep ourselves spiritually whole.”
– coach ilg

Three weeks ago, i visited my h(om)etown of Durango, Colorado to test drive my asthmatic lungs in a revival of a once great and thanks to my bro Dave, still a CLASSIC mountain bike race; The Hermosa Creek Classic. Any yogic warrior worth his or her flyin’ snot knowledge will immediately recognize the utter Classic-ness of this race by two mere facts;
1) it’s in Durango,
and

2) just check out the cool Race Poster!

Awlrighty then. so ilg goes up to his Sacred Portal Of Everything that is still go(o)d to test his lungs, right? well, lemme tell you; it was a scientific experience of Dorothy of Wizard of OZ proportions.

excuse me?

what ilg means is that, well, during the 19-mile 3,000′ techy freaky race that tops out at 9,300’+ and is outrageously beautiful yet heinously gnarly, there were more than a few times, ilg admits, that even my steel trap of a mind broke, snapped, and downright combusted whereupon my only thought was,

“i want to go home
i want to go home
i want to go home.”

instead,
ilg went OM…

this rather unflatering self-portrait is of an aging, asthmatic WF Warrior down,
yet not broken.
actually quite thrilled ilg was at this m(om)ent.
why?
not because ilg won.
not even close.
in fact, a voluminous half hour separated ilg from the winner of 40+ Expert Division;
the flying Scotsman; Andrew Ferguson at whose beautiful College Heights home
i stayed the night before the race.

no, as ilg has written in DL so many times before:

“Start and Finish Lines come in many different ways.”

ilg was thrilled because not only did ilg finish this helluva muckfest grind (7th place), ilg also did not stop at the Finish Line and instead rode the 38 miles back up and out of Hermosa Creek Valley (see above photo) to turn this 19 mile race into a
57 mile WF Warrior OH HELL YEAH BABY!!!!! throw down!

the only other Warrior to ride back to the Start with ilg?
dat’s right, baby; Andrew! (see my Race Report on Memorial Day’s IRON HORSE BICYCLE CLASSIC to see a photo and more Andrew love!)

so, anyway,
all’s ilg is sayin’ here is that, yup, my lungs are still fried from winning wire-to-wire the World’s Highest Nordic Ski Race in Telluride last March,
and my baby is ’bout ready to pop out my own baby girl, and well,
tomorrow, ilg is toeing the Start Line of another Mountain Bike that isolates every known weakness in ilg’s feeble arsenal of Mountain Bike Racing artillery…
and
that,
My Noble Sangha,
is precisely why
your coach that you trust and love
must once again
step up and DO the DO…

oh, ilg ain’t gonna go crazy tomorrow;
ilg knows he has new responsibilities now as a daddy
whose Beloved Partner is about to pop…
however,
that is noooooooooooo excuse whatsoever
to stop living
that
sweetass
Flagstaff
livin’
baby!

my baby girl-to-be picked ilg and Ananda for our chi…
obviously not our smarts or our bank account!
so
you tell me,
Oh Noble Student of the Steep and Direct Path;
why would ilg ever stop doing that which brings the Dharma
in the most fiercest,
sweatiest,
and
inwardly poignant
Warrior Ways?!?!?

dat’s right…
he wouldn’t stop
doing that which he Loves…
or taking pilgrimage to that which brings ilg toward Love
for nothing…
for nobody…
especially my own daughter!

neither,
friend,
should you.

wish me go(o)dspeed tomorrow (Saturday)…
it’s gonna be a Bardo Realm for ilg, that much is fer sure, dude!

May your Practice be riddled with ferocious sweat and sacred spirit in wholistic dimension…

om so ti,

the mountain yogi

* all photos and chi by ilg