Wholistic Fitness

Coach Ilg racing for his new team; Red Rock Racers, manufactured a scintillating victory in hellishly hot conditions at the 26-mile, 5,800′ Bill McLain Memorial Sandia Crest HillClimb last weekend in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Coach, captured here by Heidi Snell/Visual Escapes Photography, exchanged his usually kind and giving nature for the look and performance of a modern day Warrior taking no prisoners. Here is Coach’s account accompanied by stunning photos by Heidi. Click on photos to enlarge and be inspired by the Coach That Walks His Talk!

Only on DL; The Tribal Newspaper Rock of Wholistic Fitness®

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COACH ILG NAILS FIRST VICTORY OF SEASON FOR HIS NEW TEAM and does it in true “Mountain Yogi”Fashion!

At the Start Line, i wore a face that mirrored my Game Plan for the day; ATTACK!! See where i am looking?
See where my competitors are looking?
Focus, baby.
Winning is all mental.

I was on a Mission. I had awoken with that ‘special feeling’ that i get every now and then. It was the feeling that, well, if i don’t win, whoever beats me today is gonna have to really, really, really hurt to pass me. I ain’t going down without a helluva Warrior Fight! If you ever see me with the face you see on me above? Get ready, pardner…cuz you and i are going to Dance a Warrior’s Dance…

photo by: by Heidi Snell/Visual Escapes Photography
“While cranking up the long hot climb and knowing the entire peleton was right behind me, i kept recalling my training efforts on Snowbowl Road and my favorite long mountain bike climbs in Flag like “Weenie Walk,” “Waterline,” and “Little Bear.” In a sense, I took myself out of the current moment, and replaced it with Confidence borne from Training rides. This is why i say, “You don’t get a second chance at your off season.” If you plan on attacking an entire peleton, you BETTER have confidence in your Training…fortunately, i KNOW that NO ONE trains like a Wholistic Fitness® Warrior…so, i wanted to lay down the Law on the first hill, baby…i wanted to send out an Invitation to the entire Peleton…

“COME JOIN COACH ILG IN A PARTY OF PAIN YOU MOFOS!
LET’S LET THE SUFFERING BEGIN NOW!!!!!!”

I knew i had to do my best to dismantle the legs and lungs of the peleton before the real steep climbing began, so, i did my best to launch a Lance Armstrong like attack on the very first hill of the course!…It was a 9%, 1/4 mile Roller that i just fucking put my head down gathering up all the AS STILL YET TO BE PROCESSED INNER HELL THAT I HAVE WITHIN ME and PURGED THAT SHIT FROM ME AS I CHARGED UP THAT VERY FIRST HILL LIKE AN ENRAGED BULL! FUCK ‘EM! COME AND GET ME YOU MOFOS!

that was about as elegant as my self talk was as i rocketed up the hill like a grenade gone off…at the top of it, i had drawn from the deck of racers one young lad from Gerolsteiner with me who was a climbing specialist.

“You’ve made a helluva gap, bro…let’s work this sonofabitch,”

was all he said as he motored through, taking his first of what would be a seemingly endless chain of him, then me pulling into the wind and over the hills. When i looked behind me on that first pull through, i saw what i had done to the peleton..they were already 40 seconds behind us and fading fast…a New Mexican Balloon Fiesta of colored lycra that I had taken the air out of (literally) on the first fucking hill!…i smiled inwardly…

“WELCOME TO THE PARTY…
THE PARTY OF PAIN HAS JUST BEGUN…YOU LIKE IT SO FAR YOU MOFOS?”
– coach looks around for the peleton on a short downhill before beginning the long ascent up the Ski Road. Note the flat spine from High Performance Yoga® practice and the discipline to keep the elbows bent, dog tilt at the sacrum, and the breath as metronome.

Then, it was back to work….out of our two man breakaway, it was i that pulled the hardest and kept our average speed high over the 11 mile “lead up climbs” of Tijeras Canyon” to the Ski Road proper. i was motivated…i wanted to get to the steep hill section at least a minute or so ahead of the peleton. I know how long switchback climbs can demoralize even more stronger riders than i, and i wanted to make my Great Escape on those upper slopes. Like in my personal life, i would rather die high up on the mountain, alone and exhausted from the effort of climbing, then to die like a sheep in the verdant pastures of Sense Addiction so common to the masses. Fuck that shit; i’m going UP! So catch me…if you can!

Our breakaway was continuously flogged by typically brutal New Mexican stuff; wind roaring in your face, road debris,…and the heat! Jesus!! The peleton was only about 1 minute, 10 seconds down from our two man break when we took the left hand turn onto the Ski Road. From this left hand turn, it’s relentless; 15-miles of narrow road climbing up to the summit…classic, classic climbing! Once the really steep climbing began, i could not handle the pace of my breakaway companion, so i wished him luck and went within myself. I used yogic breathing and meditations to just do my best to keep racing and not just surviving. I used a sit and stand style of climbing that i use to keep my average speed as high as possible. When i use a standing climbing style, i used the swaying rhythm of my Blessed Mala Beads to aid my cadence of confidence and pedal strokes.

I was able to get to within 6 miles of the Finish Line before i was finally caught and dropped like a wounded gazelle on the Serenghetti…my capture came all too easily by a young kid that flew up to me from the energy saving speed of the peleton. There was no way i could handle his pace, either. He was too fresh and i too worked from my long breakaway efforts in the wind. Less than 5 minutes later, i heard a heaving behind me. “Oh shit,” i thought. Sure enough..i turned around and saw yet another skinny kid who probably did not even have pubes yet, had bridged to my wheel from the peleton chomping its way up the mountain behind me like a Pac Man game gone awry.

I was getting really hot, tired, and pissed off by now;

“Are you a Cat 4?” I growled at him through the sting of my sweat soaked eyes…

Breathing, gasping, gasping…then, “Uhhh, yeah…” followed by more breathing, breathing, gasping…

“Can you take a pull then, please?” I asked rather politely, I thought.

Not what he wanted to hear. I guess I had been the carrot dangling in front of him this whole race and now he figured he would just take his Easy Boy Recliner position and suck my draft for a few miles.

I could have told him what he could suck on me, however, my rear wheel would not be it.

So, I did a little out of the saddle squirt away from him, making him chase me down. In the 100 degree heat, it felt like a slap across his face.

He evidently got the point,
“Okay, okay…let’s work together,” was all he gasped.

PART TWO COMING TOMORROW IN DL! STAY TUNED!!!