Wholistic Fitness

Winter Park, CO – Friday, March 6th, 2026 – Travel Day

(pic; Byers Canyon, near Hot Sulphur Springs, Colorado) 

 

 

 

“winter drive…over 7 high mountain passes, 250 miles, much of which was only ilg and the snowplows… visibility limited to 10m… loved it…”

 

 

detail; accumulated Snow Beings disengaged from White Thunder after arriving in Winter Park… 

 

 
Strange, nearly ambivalent feelings historically flow as feeble ilg melts expensive race wax onto, feels it saturated into, then ironically enough scrapes, brushes, and fiberlenes it off the ski base down to what seasoned, passioned nordic ski racers find perhaps on the podium of sexiest things ever;  a well waxed race ski.

There. Said it. Okay. Perhaps it was a run on sentence.  Fuck it.  It’s ok by now.   Written my peer reviewed books eons ago; this Blog perseveres for US;  OUR TRIBE… we need not the guardrails now long disdained anyway regarding EB White’s structural grammar.

Got both my SK and CL skis waxed choosing a super high warm wax given the pathetically dismal “winter” across Colorado, New Mexico, and even U-friggin-TAH!!??!?   TBH;  been navigating intense personal relationship terrain ever since Dewa left for College.  So used to waxing Dewa’s skis and thinking about and providing for all financial and racing tactics/lodging logistics over the past several years with Her!?

Without Her!?

A whole range of emotions hit.  hard.  so, with race skis chosen, waxed with Dewa’s Blessed Mantra… time to travel several hours north to Winter Park, Colorado…in a Winter Storm Warning…turned out to be an EPIC
winter drive…over 7 high mountain passes, several of which it was only ilg and the snowplows… visibility limited to 10m… loved it… every friggin’ moment… the nearly 8 hours passed like an Early Morning Pranayama whereupon hours felt like minutes… price pointed outta the hotels ilg once stayed in with Dewa during our Glory Years…defaulted to the $139/night at LittleTree Inn in Grandby, Colorado just 13 minutes from Race Venue.  Went into Monk Mode;  focused on the Two Day Sacred Suffering  about to Begin Again at the 42nd Annual Snow Mountain Stampede… felt like fitness was there…mentally, spiritually ready to suffer…was eager to dive deep into the Pain Cave… why doth ilg hate himself so much!?!?   lol!

 

Race Day 1/2:   Freestyle 25k

Due to low snow,  the RD (Race Director) and gro(om)ing crew worked a miracle to pull off a 9.5k loop that we would race x2…shorter than the traditional 25k course, yet?  Made up for it by starting us up Cranmer … so, Cranmer is, well, here,  take a look at the race profile…a graph is worth a thousand words…

 

 

Day one was skate skiing, ilgs weakest of the two Nordic ski disciplines.  On the Start Line,  us old guys immediately id’d each other…offered pleasantryies before trying to murder each other out on the brutal course…

no longer caring for anyone else yet for ilgself this year,  was struggling with being an #emptynester dad returning to a sport where once ilg was sponsored by such icons as Nike, Fischer, and UniPro…the motel room felt lonely…no daughter…no complicated eating logistics, just… well, Monk Mode after 2 decades… weird.

warm up felt solid;  had waxed okay from 250 miles south…turnout was ok given the paltry winter…138 racers toed the 25k start line… gun goes off, we start… went out conservatively knowing by experience the loooong brutal uphill … latched into my daughters Blessed Mantra as I along with the other racers chipped our insides edges up the largely unglide-able steep Cranmer climb…kept my AG Rivals within zip code of my effort and was stoked to be on the tail of Clay Moseley as we crested this brutal climb…only needed to do it one more time…

the rest of the race was a beautiful serpentine flow of climbs and scintillating if not sketch high speed descents… though, if your heart rate was 175 you are perched upon precariously narrow skis without edges and free heel?  perhaps even a bunny hill descent would be epic… these descents were NOT bunny hills and the course kept COMING at you…hill after hill, technical descent after technical descent;  as your neurological/neuromuscular fatigue increases?  So too, does the challenge of the course…

finished without falling and without any huge mental collapse for a 39th Overall (OA) and 4th Age Group (AG) in a solid but not fantastic time of 1 hours 20 minutes.

into Monk Mode at my “cheap” motel… hot bath, eat early, meditate, sleep.

 

Race Day 2/2:   Classic 25k

When ilg was in ilg’s unmatched glory days (7 world championships across 5 different sports) sometimes, when you have set up the dominoes correctly (my term for doing the rituals and practices of race management) you just wake up on Race Morning and anxiety, fear, and doubt?  have been wholistically replaced by a seemingly Divine Intervention of…

of…

well, it feels cellularly like?

FUCK YEAH!  LETS DO THIS SHIT!!!.

gun goes off, we start… went out more aggressively than on the stupid skate day cuz any dumcluck can skate ski yet only genuine Nordic skiers know the myriad nuances of waxing, fitness, and technique to classic ski fast…

with the field whittled down to 1/3 of the day before?   ilg latched onto the divined Blessed Mantra of my daughter immediately…telegraphing off of Russ Bollig – iconic Colorado mountain athlete from my era and John Griffith – same caliber… felt as high as my 173 bpm heart rate going up Cranmer for the first of two laps..

I chose skin skis… not kick wax.. given the 0-degree Celsius temp range,  just knew that skiing upon well worn carpets under my kick pocket would fare better on this track…it wasn’t pretty, it certainly wasn’t poetic as ilg hammered hard EVERY uphill and kept John and Russ within sight on lap one… sooo hard, sooo technical on the descents… yet, ilgs brain was clear, mind unobstructed, and spirit charging even if triceps and legs felt heavy… NO MATTER…NO MATTER…SPIRIT OVER MATTER!!!

Lap 2

literally one of ilgs best 12 racing k’s ever… like a ghost in the machine,  felt my double pole come online…reflected on the hours and kilometers ilg put in on the SKI ERG, an indoor
wall mounted torture chamber that simulates double poling…with 10k to do,  John, Russ, and ilg had coalased into a group of elite old guys and were hammering hard…
the course highlighted both our physical and waxing strengths and weaknesses…each of us with so many decades of race experience knew intuitively our best arrows remaining in our quiver after an hour of racing…
with 5k to go,  Russ and ilg dropped John – surprising yet afterward, John revealed that his kick wax had worn off and was slipping badly on the uphills.

that’s why ilg chose skins… here’s what they look like:

I know, weird, right?  tiny little synthetic carpets (that ilg had also waxed…a technique learned from racing the Grand Traverse)
under my feet to give grip…

yet, still had to beat Russ with wh(om) ilg has in a virtual TIE with to win the Grand Mesa Nordic Race Series which would culminate one weekend after this race!  Russ was a WAY BETTER skate skier than ilg…
yet today,

this m(om)ent?  was not skate;  it was the real deal:  Classic, kick and glide,  diagonal striding… the sport from which ALL WINTER SLIDING SPORTS began..

and ilg knew? only one final uphill to attack Russ… and ilg KNEW from Lap One?  could do it IF ilg turned ilg self INSIDE OUT and FULL SENT the double on the 1k 6% uphill before the final twisting slight descent/flat into the gradual uphill finish…

so,

ilg INVOKED my own tenent:

RACE CONFIDENCE IS BORN FROM THE CONFIDENCE WE HAVE IN OUR TRAINING!
TRAINING HARD = RACING HARD!

the time was NOW and 1/3 up the final uphill,  ilg channeled ALL OF ILG
and went berserk on my double pole and changed tracks to accelerate past Russ and made a
full sale attack knowing quite well he could match ilgs best efforts and ilg could blow up…yet?

Race to WIN… BE BRAVE I told myself…
hammering hard,
the pain…
just get to the top of the hill and skate turn INTO the descent…

by the time ilg dropped into a nordic tuck and threw every cell of myself into the final few turns before the
roaring crowd at the finish?

ilg knew…

ilg DID what it TOOK…

and once again?

at age 63… regained this precious Title of Snow Mountain Ranch 50k Boss…

it felt…

GO(O)D…

GET OUT AND DO…
so as to…

BE!

stay tuned for next weekend’s final GRAND MESA NORDIC RACE SERIES where
ilg gotta filet myself wide hard and open again for 20k freestyle …
I know Russ is waiting for ilg…
and THAT?
is what True Warrior Brotherhood is ALL ABOUT:

Challenging each other to Rise Higher together inwardly!

Blessed Be Thy Practice…