Wholistic Fitness

Steve,

I just read your chapter 2 race report of the TOUR de SKI CHRONICLES.

“After the first drop of 1,500′ feet (can you say, EARNING YOUR TURNING?), there was a, get this, 8-minute tuck section! That’s right, bucko! Chair Pose for a solid 8 minutes on 3-hour pre-fatigued legs? And you wonder why i teach HP Yoga in the manner i do?!”

Yowza! Now that hits home with me. I can only imagine the lactic acid joy coursing through your quads and lower back at this point!

You’re da man!

love,

hak”

click to enlarge. this and the other race photo by wwww.myracepics.com

New daddio ilgo attempting to break the spirit of our first chase group at last Sunday’s USSSA National Qualifier. right on my snowshoe tails is the ever smiling WF Devotee and Bronze-medalist at the World Championships, Laurie Lambert of Red River, New Mexico. Laurie and i both switched snowshoe sponsors from Atlas to Flag’s local and very tragically hip, www.kahtoola.com. just WAIT till you see what ilg + Kahtoola (Tibetan; means “directly”) are working on!

by this point in the race, Sly Coons, the defending champion (and 8th place finisher in the 2007 World’s) had already launched an insane pace from the Start Gun. as our Chase Group entered the singletrack, i knew i had about 8 minutes of rolling terrain before i could attack on the first climb which was about 1k in length and 300′ of climbing. so, here, before the first climb i tried to maintain a hard enough pace to discourage passing. In snowshoe racing, unlike other endurance arts, it is almost all-Ways an advantage to run from the front. it is really hard to pass in snowshoeing, even on wide, groomed courses, because you have to accelerate off an an already red-lined heart rate and you do NOT want to go into oxygen debt. Sport Snowshoe racing is, in my opinion, the most difficult of all endurance sports because your bodyweight works against your forward momentum due to downward/outward distribution of mass and, well, there is no glide, no recovery anywhere on any Snowshoe Race. your heart rate will often increase on downhills due to necessary and intensified and hip/torso involvement. running from the front forces a passing racer to accelerate through often slower snow conditions. here; my heart rate here is 188. at the end of my 1:01:36 race, my average heart rate was 184. i have no idea why more endurance athletes do not race snowshoes in the winter. nothing increases Threshold Capacities like a USSSA Sanctioned SnowShoe Race!

Coaching Notes:

1) steady gaze is on the terrain ahead, looking for possible mini-attacks and/or mini-recoveries.

2) toes are pushing off to help inspire effective hip flexion as fatigue mounts.

3) arms are driving my legs

4) Higher Mind is already latched with my Mantra.

5) heart is full of you, my Sangha’s fighting warrior spirit

6) and my Soul?

well,

my Soul was and has been for four months now,

captivated

by the image of:

My Beloved Dewachen, whose amazing M(om) brought Her up to the Race to watch me finish. This race is a big deal for the Ilg Clan. See, last year, Ananda raced to a podium in the 5k version of this race with…Dewa in Her Belly…though we did not know it at the time! COACHING NOTE:Look closely at this photo. Dewa is in a VERY IMPORTANT Pranic Mudra. Any WF Yogi that can tell me the NAME of this MUDRA and its energetic function, within 12 hours of this posting, receives a gift from the WF Temple.

***

my spine/pelvis injury, which allWays produces searing neural compression pain throughout my right leg and completely negates my hip power and leg coordination during all running type of sports, actually did not appear until about 30 minutes into my race…which meant that i felt nearly ‘normal’ for the first lap of two which i ran in 28 minutes…my lifelong chronic pain is being erased – without drugs or surgery – but only at the speed of a pre-global warming glacier. tiny, tiny increments of freedom with each passing year. daily yoga and pranayama and meditation is not a luxury for me. it is necessity.

Snowshoe races get strung out quickly if there is a good percentage of technical single track, which on our Course here at Flag at over 8,000′ in altitude, compromises 75%. by the end of the first lap, three guys passed me and Laurie dropped me like a bad habit on a stretch of off camber traverse. see my

nearing the finish. my back/hip pain has dismantled my knee lift. my upliftment through my thoracic spine; nearly gone. hat is gone. gloves are gone. about the only things remaining with me at this point are my snot and spirit. this is what i live for; purity of tenacity. it’s all just training for the surreal intensities of my own Bardo Entry. how strong is my consciousness? unless we force ourselves to develop our consciousness fibers regularly beyond our person-all limits in super-high intensities in this Human Realm, we stand not a nanosecond in our Bardo Realm navigations.

New Daddio Ilg managed a 4th Overall in the Men’s. i must say, from nordic ski racing a 40k marathon one weekend into a 10k snowshoe race the next? why, i reckon even the fine folks over at Crossfit would crack smile at the ever persevering antics of the ol’ coach who still does the do…this type of wide-physiologic capacity is precisely what WF is all about! rarely does a devotee of WF win a specific event; however, you start lining up the various sports representing a broad, versatile demand of physiology and mental control? we’ll be on the Podium easily. remember, Noble Yogis of the WF Path; specialization is best left to insects; not Humans targeting Enlightenment!

keep on the SUNRIDER Herbs,
keep on “MAP” Aminos,
and
keep on the WF Path…

cuz,

“The Path works,
when YOU work the Path!”

head bowed in winter sweat,
and thank you for your support of DL!

your loving, trying hard coach