Wholistic Fitness

Durango, Colorado –

your “Endless Beginner” of a Tribal Chief made yet another noble – yet unspectacular – effort tonight beneath

Sister Rain Clouds and Hanuman Wind Clouds closing in as fast as an October sunset should be

over the La Plata Mountains.

finished 2nd in the C race among the Durango Sage and the “extremely rough, wet, and rutted” singletrack in this backyard training arena of

world-class mountain bikers since the 1980’s.

especially for New Daddies everywhere – combating an in-casa illness for five days and a

near-complete lack of specific mountain bike race training – i reckon my effort tonight scored a B on the WF Noble Meter.

Maybe a B+.

Start Line:

electronic count down (fancy!)

Steve Ilg…5 Seconds to Start…4…3…2…1… (how long has it been, since you’ve been at this mOMent?)

i rage out of the Start Line to the encouraging cheers of my Durangatang bro’s and sis’s…and fly out on the Meadow Loop at Low Zone 3…

i’m executing discipline not to go anaerobic before the upcoming technical uphills.

spiritually felt strong*;  did my HP Yoga™ shoulder opening sequence (coming soon to the website catalog) to

open my heart, lungs, and shoulders before the race.  i’ve found that opening my heart and shoulders before mountain bike racing

REALLY helps to dial my neuro-hormonal/kinethestic system to the technical-adrenalin-spiking necessities of mountain bike racing in Durango.

i really TAF that this pre-race kinesthetic softening of the shoulder blades (especially the medial border) to relax toward thoracic vertebra

9-12 will help your endurance sport performance.   this bio-mechanical release of the scapulas toward the posterior Heart Center amplifies several pyschospiritual qualities which i shall

elaborate in this Teaching Area in the future.

Tactic for This Evening:

my tactic for this evening’s first race in a 4-race Championship was the yogic tenet of Abhyasa.   i’ll leave it to your willingness to research in my

Archives that term, for i have Taught it to you repeatedly since the mid-90’s about the potency of Abhyasa.  i’ll say this much tonight as my thigh quiver

like flute strings after my Race Effort...if any one yogic quality defines WF?   it’s Abhyasa.

make certain before you leave this life that you know it.

and know it WELL.

i mean; know it DEEP.

so…having went out relatively easy on the Meadow Loop,

i really focused on spinning my legs fast (biomechanical meditation) then,  stayed glued

to the Tribal Mantra (spiritual meditation).   i also really did my best to default to my breathing rhythm whenever my biomechanical and spiritual meditations

wavered.   (Online Student Fidel:  re-read this paragraph 3x at least to prepare for your Ruta!)

must have worked.

i never saw my “30 second guy” (the racer that left the Start Line exactly 30 seconds after me….you NEVER want to be caught by your 30 Second Guy)

which is great…

until i crashed.

yup.

my whole-stic Game Plan down the drain – which was; ILG? DON’T FALL!

simple Game Plan.

not so simple when racing through wet, rutted, technical terrain at Race Pace.

it happened at the exact place i’ve tried to visualize NOT FALLING…

(note to Tribe:  sometimes, ilg is not convinced about this whole Visualization thing….it’s kinda like obsessing on something sooooo much that

when you finally arrive at the visualized terrain you just experience this kinda pre-burdened magnitude crushing upon you to live UP to the Visualization

that you freak).

which is what i did, i guess.  i mean, i was CALM going into this super steep triple-rutted descent the size of 3-triple diamond ski slopes carrying the appropriate amount of speed, when suddenly

my front  (tire) just drifting like a Wandering Jew into the 12″ rain-gutted gully on the left and threw me into a headlong highspeed turmoil…

into a…

Durango Sage…

how spiritually ironic is THAT?

i controlled enough my crash which was thankfully upon my Left Hip (see my former Teachings from my road race crash which has decimated my right hip all year).

super-sadly, my crash was at the bottom of a 10-second middle chainring uphill and i dropped my chain which resulted in a 30-second fuck up.

if i would have cleaned it like i did in training one day prior?

i would have finished in first place.

seconds mean everything; Just Test The Bardo’s In Your Current Life To Prove This.

Thanks for reading and send me some MUCH NEEDED CHI for the Time Trial on the road this Thursday evening.

Om Mani Padme Hung,

we are One,

your feeble yet still trying teacher

* reverend ilg devoted my race effort to the mother and my precious yoga student and friend; Celicia Frost who is suffering from giving birth to Most Noble Warrior Asa Carter Frost

born 3 months pre-mature in Kinlani, AZ