Wholistic Fitness

WF JERSEYS HAVE EGO BUTTONS OR CHI OR BOTH!?! WF Online Student JIM JOHNSTON

WF Online Student Jim Johnston, a devoted Cardio Commuter from Chicago, will be attending our Red Mountain Spa,
Wholistic Fitness Immersion this August…we would love to see you there as well! Only a couple more openings!

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Coach Ilg,
I received the WF bike jersey last week and broke it in this weekend at a Mountain Bike race.

My pre-race preparation was ideal for a father of four children. I bought my mountain bike two weeks ago and had ridden it once. I spent the night before the race entertaining 8 year olds until midnight (my daughter was having a slumber party) and then got up at 5:30 AM to prepare for the race and to tell the slumber party to go back to bed.

I met my brother at the race. He had injured his back and was my support crew. We really have not had much chance to visit, so we spent most of the pre-race talking. I think I rode the bike once to make sure I remembered how the gears worked.

Okay, so it was race time and I have a big ego. I got in right behind the leaders and figured that I had a good chance to place. I cardio commute on my commute bike everyday, have my WF training going for me and was entered in the Citizen�s class which was entry level for this race. I was looking to kick some serious but.

Do you have an ego detector on the jersey? It was a sloppy day and we started on an uphill climb. I think the jersey could read my ego and it face planted me directly in the mud. Hey, no problem! I ran my bike up the hill and kept pace. Kaboom! Another face plant. Perhaps I should have practiced more with those toe clips. Kaboom! Down again, that mud was really slippery. You know there is probably some skill involved in this sport!

Now I felt really bad. I was dead last by about 30 seconds and wearing your jersey. Not only did I look like a complete doofus, but I was showing WF badly. It was only about 1 minute into the race, and I was already getting cheers like �Keep it up buddy!� Aaaaaarrrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh! I was reconsidering the sport.

I rode on and wound up in some serious single track hill climbing. I started to pass people back and gain confidence. WF was paying off big time. I was urging the guy ahead of me to go faster up a climb and he yelled back �I got to get my heart rate under 200 first.� I almost said �Dude, my heart rate hasn�t even ticked over yet � so out of the way!� I was gaining confidence by the minute.

It was a two lap course and I was much more skilled on the second lap. You know some of these people actually ride the course the day before! I was coaching my children�s soccer teams and could not. The highpoint of the second lap was when everyone told me to get off my bike and walk up a climb. I merely yelled and attacked the hill. This is one of the advantages of not practicing sufficiently with toe clips, you really don�t want to get out of them. Everybody was quite impressed with the climb and the WF jersey looked good going up the hill.

I ultimately finished 4th in my age group, a little less than two minutes behind 2 and 3. I return to the question of hidden ego detectors in the WF jersey. Is there one? Had I placed in my age group, I might have missed the central point of the day. I made the podium when I got out of bed at 5:30 AM and went to participate in my first ever mountain bike race. Psyche!

Jim Johnston