Wholistic Fitness

pic:  ilg racing toward another podium during the Chama Ski Classic.
the past two weekends have been amazing: 12 podiums across 3 different sports weekend upon the sacred snows!

The Path Works, if YOU work the Path:

updated results:  Winter Race Season; 2013/14
all races done on a Grade II MCL knee injury:

•    1st place; Snowshoe; Vertical Hour, December 14, Hesperus, CO
•    1st place; 7.5k Classic;  World’s Highest Nordic Biathlon, December 15, Wolf Creek Pass, CO
•    1st place, 50+ Mens;  Coke Race #1, 8k Classic,  December 28, Purgatory, CO
•    2nd place Overall, 1st Place Mens, Vertical Hour #2 Snowshoe; January 5th, Hesperus, CO
•    3rd place AG, 6th Overall;  Coke Race #2, 10k Freestyle, January 11, Purgatory, CO
•    1st place Overall; Chama Chile Ski Classic, 7.5 Freestyle, January 18th, Chama, NM
•    2nd place Overall; Chama Chile Ski Classic, 10k Classic, January 19th, Chama, NM
•    1st place AG, 11th Overall; Chama Chile Ski  Classic, 5k Snowshoe, January 19th, Chama, NM
•    2nd place Overall; Chama Chile Ski  Classic, King of the Mountain (10k Classic into 5k Snowshoe), January 19th, Chama, NM
•    2nd place Overall, 1st place AG;  Low O2, 10k Classic, January, 25, Red River, NM
•    1st place AG, 3rd place Overall; Low O2, 10k Skate, January, 26, Red River, NM
•    1st place Overall;  Low O2, 5k Snowshoe, January, 26, Red River, NM  

these updated current results for coach ilg are only here because of YOU!   ilg is 100% Student Sponsored and i NEED your financial help to keep racing this winter!  click HERE to contribute!
special Gratitude to Devotees Padma, KenDo, and Fit Fit for their assistance!

***

The Buddha taught, “The trouble is, we think we have time.”   One of the myriad Blessings of being paralyzed and having several near-death encounters is that, well, that particular Dharma Arrow shot by the Buddha really sticks…as in,  it sticks in every spiritual morsel of my makeup everyday in ways perhaps unfelt by others.

One of the myriad Blessings of a competitive lifestyle is that, well, that particular Dharma Arrow shot by the Buddha really bec(om)es a racing tactic.  Over the past two weekends, i toed the Start Lines of 8 different races which required unique skill and physiologic sets.  Each race was performed at a minimum of 9,800′ which means each hard surge, attack, answer must be CAREFULLY measured because racing within these lofty ethers is a dance  within recovery abilities.

i paid dearly for an ambitious start this past Saturday during the first race of the long weekend;  a 10k Classic ski race which pitted me against my younger rival;  National  Cycling TT Champion, Clay Moseley.   having rich (and losing history) with Clay?  my Game Plan was to warm up thoroughly and go HARD from the start to at least give the younger, stronger man something to think about… the Gun went off and along with it went ilg.  hard.  my Swix ski wax prep was working beautifully and on the first hill i was in the lead with Clay on my tail…he and i immediately separated from the pack and i was in the Zone;  mantra, breath, mantra, breath…

Let it be known that Clay – from relatively nearby Los Alamos – trains (as does the entire UNM Nordic Ski Team) on these trails.  i hadn’t been on these trails since a pup…usually opting to race the historic Langlauf in my hometown of Durango.   after the first killer hill,  there is a long section of double poling before the 2nd hill,  a 50-meter knee-popper that will send your already soaring heart rate into the stratosphere if you are not careful.   i was careful and still led Clay going into the third short headwall before the long grinder climb up Sherwood.   it was here that i made a high-altitude mistake.

I could hear that i had gapped Clay ever so slightly,  perhaps only a few meters…yet, in nordic ski racing,  such a gap can become significant if pressed out…so,  i stepped on the inner throttle a bit more and threw in a high tempo, Zone 4 effort…

then?

yup?  thinking that “i had more time” to recover on the upcoming downhill section, i went into oxygen debt by the slightest of margins…and…Clay passed me as my body simply could not keep up the tempo and fell off the pace i had set.   i practiced all the recovery breathing techniques i knew on the gradual descent before the intimidating climb up Sherwood (250′ vert in 800 meters).   Clay was ‘right there’ like dancing mirage just ahead of me…yet The Gap remained and now matter how hard i tried to catch up to him?  No dice.

As i drilled the descent through the Stadium for Lap Two,  Clay had 20 seconds on me…by the end?  Well,  i ‘thought i had time,”  to make up the snow-covered real estate on Lap 2 to bridge up to him and challenge him for a sprint finish yet that turned out to be fantasy against such a veteran champion like Clay.

Same thing in spiritual training;  we THINK we have more years ahead of us to meditate,  to begin to formulate and fortify the filaments of consciousness which propel us into our next incarnation ‘when we have more time,”  yet?  that is a fallacy.  there is no more time coming…we could each die tomorrow and the volume and intensity of our Meditation Efforts accumulated into the one mOMent of our passing into The Next is precisely what sets the astral stage for our Bardo Race toward Enlightenment….

you ready?

set?

to Go?!??!