Wholistic Fitness

Tonight,
like most New Years Eve nights,
i will celebrate via sweat and stillness
the outgoing year and welcome the new one.

Historically, some of my most intense workouts have occurred on my
New Years Eve Workout Rituals…including ascents of some of the most
difficult peaks, ice climbs, and ski traverses available on Turtle Island.
Often, i would combine doing Repetitions of Snowshoe Intervals or Nordic Ski Intervals; one for each year passing and another for each year upcoming…
each interval celebrated with a sip of champagne or beer…until the libation
froze solid in the night-time cold!

that was then.
this is now.

I have planned for tonight a milder version of my now infamous New Years Eve Workout
Ritual. Nordic ski intervals on my private nordic loop; a flat interval of about 2 minutes will be my 2008 Reflection Ritual Interval, followed immediately by an uphill interval for my 2009 Welcome Ritual Interval, which will take about the same time. You can do the math: 2 minutes per last year month + 2 minutes per future month x 24 months total…even this relatively ‘tame version’ of my Ritual is not a Workout to pass off lightly!

After each 2009 Welcome Ritual Interval, i’ll stop by the 3-Chi Ski Firepit which i’ll have roaring beneath the shock of shimmering stars up here at 7,535′. Taking a well earned breather, i’ll then toast to each month of past and upcoming years with either beer or bubbly…trust me, by the time i reach December? my skiing becomes quite brazen as i fly through the trees on the descent! Look out trees, here comes ilg!

Ananda will join me. Dewa will be fast asleep from tobbaganing. This is a fantastic Workout Ritual to share or fly solo. Ananda will do a much more brief version and keep the Dewachen Radio Monitor within listening distance.

Out there tonight, beneath the dazzling wash of electric night sky,
with the 12,633′ Shivalingam of Doko Oosliid watching my sweat-soaked Ritual,
i can promise you this much;
my reflections of this past year will bring up much emotion
which i will do my best to purify into pure, unadulterated motion.

it’s been quite the year for feeble ilg…
it’s like these years are passing at the speed of (en)Light(ment).

which they are.
for us all.

allow me to in-Courage you to do something Special tonight;
just make sure no Resolutions are made independent from the

Two Things Which Matter Most:
1) Sweat
and
2) Stillness.

See you next year, and thank you for your travels along this humble,
powerful Path.

your loving coach

photos:
1) Ananda and Dewa, snowshoe training for tonight’s New Years Eve Ritual Workout on our private Snowshoe Loop. photo by ilg

2) 2008 Tour de Ski, above Durango, CO. photo by Mary Brown.

3) Reflection is always enhanced, upside down! photo by www.JamesQMartin.com

4) the A & D Team…smiling after their training loop…photo by ilg