Wholistic Fitness

click on the photos to enjoy deeper Chi Hits!
all action photos by myself

i was on active coaching duties this weekend at a Mountain Biking Association of Arizona race right here in my backyard of Kinlani…it was such fun taking a break from my usual “Online Coaching Duties” and be out on the Race Course and at our Red Rock Racing Team tent giving pre-race pep talks to our girls and boys, ladies and gents, and then heading out onto the brutal Race Course to do what i do best; bring the CHI to the fatiguing racers and cheer them onward and upward toward the podium! Even Ananda and Dewa, my other members of my “Can Do Clan” showed up to cheer on the racers. Note the HP YOGA logo gracing our Team’s race banner!

…i guess being a Rookie Dad endeared me more than ever to the Start of the Kids Race…

…and THEY’RE OFF!!!…

…and, well, they’re down…hate it when that happens!

in the Men’s Semi-Pro/Expert Division, i was utterly relieved not to be racing on this day! having no where NEAR the volume of training required to compete safely at this Level, i made sure i rode out on the Course to some of the pivotal “emotional meltdown” and tactically important spots to cheer on our racers. Above, one of my training partners, Chris Hull (Shampa) hits the hole shot of the first techy singletrack after a kilometer mass starting sprint across a flat meadow…in MTB racing, it’s ALL ABOUT getting the “hole shot” which means being one of the first racers to enter the narrow, often technically difficult and dangerous sections. Here, “Hully” hits the “hole shot” and flies over menacing boulders and roots as if on a flying carpet…

…while Corey from my Team, who is still positioned fairly well toward the front runners has to deal with riders in front and behind him which makes focusing on sheer speed and technique a bit more of a Mind Game…

…while the other racers who don’t have a fast Starting Sprint?…well…
welcome to Rush Hour…Flagstaff Style! compare the environment of Hully with this shot and you will soon understand just how absolutely vital it is to be able to red-line your Starting Sprint to get the hole shot in MTB racing…

…here are my two HP YOGA trained Warriors: Gary on the left and Ben “Patki Dass” on the right. These two warriors did the 33-mile Marathon Course which had like 16 bijillion feet of climbing including elevations over 9,500′! they BOTH finished in thtop ten even on a Course that was utterly mis-managed and had racers sprinkled like salt molecules all over the Kachina Peak Wilderness…i think some of the less fit ones are still out there!

as the Race wore on, i rode most of the Race Course backwards, cheering on the injured and bonked racers as much as the Podium Winners. i was astonished at how many of these modern day ‘racers’ wore iPods! they couldn’t even hear my world-class efforts at coaching and cheering for them! hours later, i rode home, content with the fact that at my new Fatherhood stage of life, coaching and representing was more Appropriate Action for me than racing. besides, as i saw first-hand the attrition and suffering along this Trail of Tears and Blood and Sweat, i was well…relieved that only a sore throat from yelling all morning was my only ‘injury.’

from my “Can Do Clan” to yours,
we wish you a strong week of Practice and Politeness…

head bowed,
coach ilg