Healing Sands of San Luis Valley...plus; a WF Test Challenge!!!

click on pics to deepen the Chi Hit...all photos by steve ilg unless otherwise noted. please do not republish without first asking. May my effort amplify your Practice this week...

***

Prehistoric man journeyed through, lived within, and more than likely marveled at these captivating sand dunes which lay like a Devotee before the snowy summits of the Sangré de Christos...

Mt. Herard with the Sand Dunes in the foreground

The Jicarilla Apache still take pilgrimage to these Sacred Sands to gather and use these Sands for ceremonial and healing purposes...

So too, does ilg.

Some fitness warriors rush to doctors,
or to ibuprofen
or to Lord knows what else
when they become injured...

ilg?
rushes his wrecked Body Vehicle here...



So too, should thou.


at least once...

...can there possibly exist a more fun, powerful, or pranically potent place on Turtle Island for a 2 year-old Rinpoche...

...or Her M(om)...

...or, for a feeble mountain yogi like ilg to celebrate his 48th date of current incarnation?




ilg TAF's* not.

Crestone Peak (far left) and the highly sought after summit of the Crestone Needle (center spire), and the massif of Marble Mountain with Dune in front. let ilg tell you, a long meditation was required to stay put to get this shot for you! thank you Ananda and Dewa for your patience with ilg's devotion to his Sangha.

This traverse on mossy, slick granite over a very churning and snow-cold Zapata creek toward the gushing Zapata Falls made both ilg and Amma Ananda a bit nervous...looks like Dewa is a bit edgy, as well! does ilg love anything more than a hidden waterfall during spring runoff?

i TAF not much!

Dang this Rinpoche is getting heavy! photo by Ananda. on the hike into Zapata Falls. i couldn't fasten the hip belt due to my still raw and deeply bone-bruised right hip. Dunes and Crestone Peak in the background.

iDL Quiz:
is this a Ground Squirrel or Chipmunk or Alpine Gopher or...?
first alert Warrior to get the correct answer receives a FREE MEMBERSHIP** to my new WF website (c(om)ing soon)! a fantastic photo by Ananda near Zapata Falls!

"I should be content
to look at a mountain
for what it is
and not as a comment
on my life."

- David Ignatow

if you respect the artistic photographic chi of these pics,
perhaps it's time to consider a
Temple Tithe
to help support
the mission of WF:
restoring Sanctity to Sweat for All...

thank you for TAF'ing with me today...

Dharma Blessings upon thy Practice,

your feeble teacher

* TAF is a traditional WF Aphorism for: "Think And Feel"... when a WF Student says "i TAF..."
it means that he or she has not just 'thought' about something before saying, rather, he or she has run it through both sides of the brain...the Thinking Brain and the Feeling Brain...the Yin and the Yang...the analytical and the poetic...the male and female...hey, what can ilg say? WF ain't just "Kettleball training."


** or, if you are already a DL Subscriber, you receive a $15 WF Credit to use as you wish!!!

"Give Whatever It Is, Space."

click pic to enlarge the Chi Hit...do not republish without permission...thank you. photo by ilg

Give Whatever It Is, Space...


this is High Dune...
at the Great Sand Dunes National Park...about 3 hours from Durango
North America's highest Sand Dune at over 8,000'
and the venue of my World Sandshoe Championships
back in the day.

i ran/hobbled it five days after crashing in the Galisteo Road Race
in 45 minutes; car-to-summit-to car.

go fetch.

ilg will even spot you a bleeding and subluxated hip and age difference.


Coming up next on inDirect Lines:
The Healing Sands of the San Luis Valley...a photo Teaching

Off To The Sacred Sands and Ryolite of San Luis Valley

THANK YOU for all the Happy Birthday wishes from my Facebook Clan!

and you wonder why i need a couple more days away from a keyboard?
one of four of my raw fingertips from my bike crash on Sunday

Bandaged Warrior ilg and Dewachen: photo by Ananda

the last couple of days have been spent in Active Meditation as i help my girls prepare "Sweet Pea Garden." like the Spiritual Journey itself, all Sattva starts from (conscious) Rajas. in other words, take your time and put most of your effort into preparation of fertile (inner) soil. do that and the blossoming occurs without much effort. Seated, Solo Meditation and Pranayam are the WF equivalents to the 'turning of the soil' in gardening.

in a few moments:
i am taking my Clan Girls over to the world's most beautiful Sandbox; The Great Sand Dunes National Monument...which is also the race site of two my seven World Championships (Sandshoe Racing). Medano Creek should be flowing and it should be spectacular. if you haven't been; go! we'll be camping beneath the Strawberry Moon and singing Dharma Waves to all of you; thank you so much for your support of our humble, powerful Path.

my crash injuries are such that i won't be doing much sand running, however, i am bring the video camera for a much needed new video of Medium Form Flexibility; the 3 decade old bread-and-butter flexibility routine that ushered many of us into the notion of actually accepting yoga into our lives.

Be back soon,
Blessed be thy sweat...

your feeble teacher

Postcards From New Mexico...a photo journey from my last (crashed out) race...

click on pics to deepen the Chi Hit...all photos by Steve "Bleeding Fingertips" Ilg. do not republish without asking. gracias, amigos y amigas

Fossilized sea wave, a hallmark 'blue-tiful' New Mexico Father Sky and Grandmother (Moon) being seductive in Her playday garb, can you spot Her?...

"A great vision is needed, and he who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky."

- Chief Crazy Horse 1840-1877

front seat view;
Serenity arises along NM State Highway 550, connecting Durango and Bernalillo, New Mexico.

Navajo's in dust storm near Chaco Canyon. The large white container they are hauling is their water which must be fetched many miles from their home. Wind gusts approached 60 mph.

"The spiritual journey is like a post-race raffle;
you must be present to win." - steve ilg

Spanish Broom in blossom near the Rio Grande. Sandia Peak in background.



"If we keep doing what we've all-Ways done,
then we keep getting what we've always got.
What fun is that?
Screw that;
train wholistically and be brave enough
to remain an Endless Beginner like the Tree Beings!"

- steve ilg

An unbeatable technique for getting high; surround yourself in an ocean of pinyon trees and take a slow, deep Ujjayi breath, soften your face,
release your eye energy, relax your tongue, and see if ilg's Beloved Pinyon Beings start opening thy HeartSpace.




Take a chance and place an order today from the
WF Tribal Catalog...
or
make a WF Temple Tithe
and help me finish the new website upgrade!


SUPPORT THY TEMPLE
of Sacred Sweat
and
Stillness!!!

Yogi Squat Of The Week, plus: "accident..pain..great warrior of all times"

click on pics to deepen your chance of nausea...reader beware...all photo by ilg unless otherwise noted

fresh from the Medic's Tent (see photo below), coach ilg - founder and creator of Wholistic Fitness® gets the Yoga Squat of the Week Award. after crashing hard at 25 mph onto my right hip/elbow, i immediately began the reformulation of the connective tissue matrix by encouraging my subluxated right hip to begin re-aligning herself courtesy of pain-filled Yogi Squat repetitions...that and immediately going onto my "Injury Intake Dosage" of MAP Amino Acids. i have not used Ibuprofen since the crash, relying upon pranayama and the Blue Light Healing Meditation instead. photo by my NM bro, "Grammage"

***

dear coach
just read about your accident and sure noble coach will get better soon with all the love from his humble and warrior students...

not everyone can stand the pain and think writing such a long and beautiful master piece..Only a nobble blessed real warrior....it is sincere...it is honest...it is full of pain with a noble braveheart...

even that little piece of this touch show there is so much to learn from you..the more we share the pain, the less it will get... the more we share the happiness the bigger the glory gets...

your post is a great teaching for the ones who could get it...it is even more valuable than the times of glory...

our heads bowed against our noble coach..

your humble barefoot student SP
Los Angeles

***

...upon arriving at the Medic's Tent after pedaling back to the Start Line, solo, from the crash site...are you sure you want your kids to grow up racing bikes? hmmm...

...blood soaked dressings and Mala after driving back from New Mexico to Durango. the daily changing of dressings is all-Ways a deep opportunity for the Sacred Tribal Mantra, breath, and acceptance of pain. ilg uses MahaYogi Jesus Christ for inspiration during intensity of pain m(om)ents.

***

coming up next a Tribal favorite...ilgonian photography along the Way taken with bleeding fingertips:

Postcards From New Mexico...

FROM THE MEDIC'S TENT (again); CRASHED and HURTIN'...and PRACTICE THUS DEEPENS...

ilg in another new Bardo of Pain...asphalt, human skin, and speed is all-ways a very dangerous yoga

well finally Lance Armstrong and i share a commonality in cycling performance...we both just crashed out of our last race...

typing this entry is definitely deepening my love for you and testing my pain threshold: i've just lost skin from 4 of my 9 1/2 fingertips, can't sit, can barely walk, and my right elbow and hip are shredded while it hurts to breathe from being skewered at 23 mph...inDeed; typing this entry to Thee is adding more zest to the Punchbowl of Pain that is now my body...

yesterday's bike racing crash was nobody's fault; these things happen in bike races*.


at mile 5.7 however, "there was trouble," as Thomas The Train's DVD narrator (played superbly by Alec Baldwin, i might add, who also has ties to WF) would say.

the racer directly in front me suffered a rear tire blowout.
i bunny hopped over him as best as possible in the milla of a nanosecond that occurred when i saw him go down.

suspended over the fallen, skidding warrior my mind instantly calculated - without fear - the physics of my upcoming crash and how to mitigate the force of impact.

i landed 1/3 onto him, 1/3 onto his bike, and 1/3 onto the asphalt; at, remember, 23 mph.

my right hip took the brunt of the impact as well as my right elbow. the same hip and elbow that took the direct hit from my high-speed mountain bike crash when i won the Pagosa Duathlon last August (see Archives).

i felt something skewer into my lower right rib region.

i rolled toward the yellow line, jumping into yogi squat for an instant facing the crashing-into-ilg peleton before turning and flexing my lats (i'm serious!) to act as a trampoline to the racers crashing into me as i completed another Jackie Chan type of roll toward the yellow line and out of the war zone.

i was bleeding pretty go(o)d...as were 5 others.

one warrior sported a mangled, bleeding arm dangling from his gleno-humeral socket. he was calmly talking to the Race Official who had stopped in the follow up car that he thought he could ride back to the Start Line:
"How's your arm, though?"
"I can't move it."
"And you still want to ride back?"
"Yup."
"What are you, from the Military or something?"
"Yup"

Well, there i was hobbling around in heap of pain and blood thinkin',
"Awww, shit...that does it...i gotta ride back too," and eventually getting the Officials to make my twisted race bike rideable, started off back toward the Start Line..the most intense pain was and still is my right hip...it might be dislocated. it's the 4 career high impact she has shouldered and she is VERY upset with me. and that's not counting my paralyzing spine injury.

what can ilg say?
what is a Warrior supposed to do? trade in a perfectly unused, untested body at the Bardo Entry?

what can ilg say?
can one truly be on the Path of Yoga - the Path of RADICAL SELF TRANSFORMATION - and even call oneself a yogi if she or he does NOT chronically toe the Start Lines and force themselves to practice equanimity on a battlefield of life-and-limb-endangering pursuits?



during my blood-ride back, i focused on Yogic Healing already; mula bandha to preserve the Pranic Light, the HP Asana Mudra to amplify the Pranic Healing and to keep my adrenalinized, shocked body/mind/breath steady, and of course the Sacred Tribal Mantra.

after a few miles, something made me look up from this desolate solo parade among the high desert sage wind. there, on my left, stood two magnificent Pronghorn Antelope, staring intently at this curious, broken warrior. Pronghorn Medicine is 'tenderness.'

after the race, i would eventually drive, solo, back to Durango just in time to hold my daughter in my throbbing arms to watch the Narrow Gauge Choo Choo Train puff by...


may your Practice deliver precisely what is needed for your continued Ascent toward Enlightenment...

whatever it is...Embrace it.
that's WF.
that's you.

there is a lot of OM
in
OUCH!


ouch,
ilg

note to local Durango Sangha; Joy will be teaching for me tonight and Wednesday.






* i was stoked to test my cycling fitness in a race since i was coming into some form, and at Sunday's Galisteo Road Race in New Mexico, i led out the 50-something peleton into a belt of headwind on the mostly flat course. after the first mile, i did everything right:

* stayed in the top 8-10 revolution of racers
* lingered close to the yellow line instead of the ditch when the pack slowed
* aggressively encouraged a rotating pace line up front

Off To The Races...

heading down to New Mexico for the Galisteo Road Race
(since i got locked out of Iron Horse...still can't believe it!)

enjoy the Archives...

Blessed be thy Sweat,
Divine be thy Stillness...

head bowed,
the coach that still does the Do for you!

Sarvanga Sadhana; The Brutal Truth About Wholeness Training...calling only the Fearless Warriors!

What makes the Path of WF so unique is her utter devotion toward
everything that we suck at. Other athletes and many yogis focus for decades on
doing those things - including behaviors and tendencies - that they are 'good' at...

meanwhile...only the WF Yogi, the WF Athlete
cherishes that most captivating goal of all; Wholeness.
targeting weakness wherever we find it;
in our Word Choices, in our reluctant displays in overcoming dominant tendencies and patterns, and particularly and most easily in our fitness endeavors.

only the WF Warrior upholds the Ancient Yogic crowning definition of yoga:
"Sarvanga Sadhana"
or
"Wholistic Practice"

i 'channeled' the artful science of Wholistic Fitness® beginning
when i was a chi-ld, listening to and playing with my first Root Teacher, Apache,
a black wolf among the mountains and cool streams of the San Juan's where i still live
today. What kept c(om)ing through me during those early years was;
'push nothing away, embrace It All."

what keeps our Path of WF so small and humble is her fierce thicket of
chronic self-confrontation...
forcing her Practitioners to remain an Endless Beginner...

i feel Sogyal Rinpoche puts this aspect of WF very well in this quote:

"Sometimes when we see too much truth about ourselves suddenly mirrored in front of us by the teacher or the teachings, it is simply too difficult to face, too terrifying to recognize, too painful to accept as the reality about ourselves. We deny and reject it, in an absurd and desperate attempt to defend ourselves from ourselves,from the truth of who we really are. And when there are things too powerful or too difficult to accept about ourselves, we project them onto the world around us, usually onto those who help us and love us the most—our teacher, the teachings, our parent, or our closest friend."


Blessed be thy sweat today,
Divine be thy stillness today..

your feeble teacher of wholeness

Cardio Vs. Car Hours..what's your ratio so far this month?

24 hours of Cardio so far this month vs. 18 minutes of Car Driving...yeah baby! WF Lifestyle Rages Onward, Inward, and ever Upward!!!

ilg's wheels as captured by Wayne Williams

HP PROP WORKOUT taking (inner) flight among Durango's elite and not quite elite athletes!!!!

How much does ilg love the Noble HP Sangha?!?! you Durangotangs CRANKED the Sacred Sweat of HP Prop Workout in the Cave of Champions tonight!!! you inspire me sooo much! off the front as ever...

photo; ilg's torso radiant with the HP YOGA® chi after teaching another Blissed Out Sweatfest

Sergeant Swob - a genuine warrior; Airborne Combat Medic, reports in...

GRAND HIGH THANKS, Mister Steve Ilg,

Allow me to introduce myself. I am Sergeant Ben Swob and I am an Airborne Combat Medic stationed at Vilseck, Germany. In the near future, my unit will be deploying to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. After getting around to becoming un-lazy, I have completed the three phases of your wholistic fitness program in your book, TOTAL BODY TRANSFORMATION, and am moving onto the Jeweled Lotus.

For a quick history, I grew up in a little town in Kansas, and had really bad decisions on health related matters. Sure, it was kind of my fault, since I was never taught “right” and didn’t go looking to find it out for myself. Big deal. Come 2004, I joined the Army, and was stationed in Germany. There in early 2005, I bought the First Edition of your book, Total Body Transformation, and finished the Green Tara. Stuff happened, and I had to put it down, and restart. The furthest I ever got was a week into the Cosmic Yang. Then as a renewal for 2010, I decided to take my health into my own hands with great ferocity. I began a running program with a 4 lb vest. I ran 2 miles on Monday, 3 on Wednesday, and 5 on Friday. Each week, I added 2 lbs until I hit 20. Then I remembered the jewel of a book I had gotten from you.

Before I started, I decided to weigh myself, and find my body fat percent. I don’t have fancy electronic equipment, so I used AR 600-9, the Army Regulation on weight control. I stand 73 inches, weighed then 216. My neck was 16.5 inches, and waist was 36.5. This put my body fat at around 19%. Lent was near that time, so I sacrificed beef and pork, which is something that I hold very strong today. FIVE YEARS after I started the first time, I finally went on to finishing the Green Tara, Cosmic Yang and Frugal Realm one after the other. I weighed in at 201, neck 17, waist 34.5, putting my body fat at 13%. So, with the contributions of a vegetarian diet, and using Xenadrine for 45 days (don’t yell at me for cheating!), I feel that I have done well. I have only eaten beef twice and not even a single product of pork since I started my diet. I don’t miss them, either.

With all this said, I want to thank you for your great contribution in giving me the direction and purpose to a healthier lifestyle, by using Wholistic Fitness. Thank you for helping me lose 15 lbs, lose 6% body fat, and gain multiple compliments from the fairer gender.

Now I have two things to leave for you.

My hatred for you is the size of a pebble.
Something that bounces around in the bottom of your shoe before the beginning of a road march (trek), and stabs the foot. I pulled off my boot, shook it out, and kept going. Can you blame me? Your advice kind of hurt my poor body. Of course, later I found out that a little pain was necessary on this journey.

My love for what you have done for me is the size of a mountain.
Like the pebble, it is a rock, but it isn’t something that you can just throw away. You led me on a journey to this mountain, with streams, trails, woodlands, and beautiful landscapes. I have only journeyed the base of this mountain, but I believe that it will lead me on to a higher path. Just as Dante left the Forest of the Lost, and journeyed through the valley and then up the mountain to see Heaven, I have left a world that would have put me in ruin, to climb a mountain, and attain spiritual renewal, peace, and satisfaction. I have been in the Iron Temple for some time, and have picked out some of the many trails that Germany has to offer. Right now, in this month of May, the different shades of green that the trees gift to me, combined with the rolling hills, and plants colored somewhere in between green and yellow leave me breathless.

I have come far, and have much further yet to go. What! Don’t look at me like that! When I grew up, I got the 8 color crayon box. And since then I’ve lost one, and another broke in half. You really expect me to know my colors?

Very respectfully with Grand High Thanks,
Sergeant Ben Swob,
Airborne Combat Medic, US Army.

Postcards From Durango...elements

click to enlarge the Chi Hit...

Somewhere under the rainbow...
there is a humble, powerful Temple devoted toward Wholeness...

i just took this a m(om)ent ago from our front yard...
i should make a jigsaw puzzle outta this one, eh?

Exercise Profile: Touching Far Away Things With Our Minds

click pic to enlarge the Teaching

Your WF Assignment Today:

"Be more concerned about making others feel good about themselves than making them feel good about us."
- John Maxwell

Dewachen Ilg demonstrating the precise Teaching and Transmission of the Ai Imawa Posture;
Touching Far Away Things With Our Minds

photo by abba ilg, sunday, 5*16*10 via camera phone. location; Junction Creek, see yesterday's iDL.

Supreme is the voice of silence

"When people say,
'Well...it's better than nothing.'
It's usually not.
Supreme is the voice of silence."

- steve ilg

click pic for an enhanced Chi Hit for your Practice today

i took this shot from my camera phone on Friday.

this is Gudy's Rest...an altar for Durango's outdoor athletes.
to get here?
penny up with 1,450' vertical feet of the sweetest and most WF historic
self-powered single track you're likely to ever see.
hec, ilg is rolling it again tomorrow cuz its treasured sweetness is like wine upon thine Soul!

fact:
your ol' coach helped produce this section of the Colorado Trail upon which
thousands of sweat-seeking pilgrims traverse each summer.

in the photo:
Saygil.
m(om) of a 6,4, and 1.5 year-old.
ilg bows.
we sat here at Gudy's together as our lungs recovered.
our gaze easily fell upon the still snow-choked Junction Creek Canyon
up which we climbed to get Here Now.

here is what we 'did':
listened to the poetic scrape of Brother Hawk's wing across Father Sky.
rejoiced at the symphony of wind-blown pine needles, rushing whitewater,
and birdsong.

like many Durangatangs:
Saygil is not uncomfortable with long pauses between Spoken Word.
here, Durangatangs tend to share a common behavioral trait;
we are extremely fit and nearly just as lazy.
in other words; we prefer and prioritize chillin' over stressin'...
climbing inner ladders, not corporate ones.

Yes, this is Junction Creek Canyon...the same of which i've written about in my books.

The same Canyon where wildflowers churn upturned colored faces toward
an ever furtive
an ever giving Grandfather Sun...
where a circus of rapids croon beneath an ever changing procession
of pine, cottonwood, elder, oak, and aspen
all driven by the call of Heaven's Breath
and the roll of moonlight
upon their leafy skin.

if you live to love WF,
if you live to love Wholeness?
come with me
now
before long
and
chill in these hills
these streams
with
silence
as our
Teacher.


this Sacred Canyon:
of which Apaache* and i, were once Kings
when ilg was but a boy.

ilg knows each scrape of sandstone, each anthill, each ripple of a whitewater rapid in this
birthplace of Wholistic Fitness®.

look again at the crummy photo:
for this is It
when it comes to ilg/WF.

schedule your Private Intensive...
go ahead,
do not be afraid, Pilgrim of Wholeness...
for it would be my unique pleasure to sweat and, even more important:
be still with you for m(om)ent right here,
at Gudy's...
a Noble Sandstone Throne of the WF Chi.


ilg prays that your Practice this week
be strong,
still,
sincere
and
full of revere.

that,
my My Friends Along The Path...
is
All.


head bowed,
spine straight,
breath low,

your feeble teacher toward Wholeness


* if you don't know who Apache is at this point in our Sacred Journey?
read my books, study the Archives.
you will know more about il

the greatest endeavor of your life

please do not republish without consent. thank you.

coach in MahaMudra by James Q Martin

now,
click HERE
for a tremendous asset to your own Practice of Meditation and Yoga...

***

Just as a writer learns the spontaneous freedom of expression only after years of often grueling study, and just as the simple grace of a dancer is achieved only with enormous, patient effort, so when you begin to understand where meditation will lead you, you will approach it as the greatest endeavor of your life, one that demands of you the deepest perseverance, enthusiasm, intelligence, and discipline. - Sogyal Rinpoche

Yogini Cupcake...this one is for Thee

click pic to reAwaken your own Inner Chi-ild...
please do not republish without asking.


Abba and Dewa; Swing Time, photo by Ananda yesterday, WF Temple H(om)e backyard.
i've never been so quick to cut up one of my rock climbing ropes than i was yesterday to create this tire-swing which EVERY chi-ld should have! sitting on our tire swing, swinging with my head pressed against Dewa's joyfully vibrating body is ilg's most precious asana* right now!

Precious HP Yogini Cupcake,
it was ilg whose Practice and Love was fortified through our Phone Consultation this go(o)d morning.

now, get out there and own it!

Om-MAH-knee-Pahd-may-HUNG!!!!!

choo!choo!

head bowed,

your el coache endlessly in your Corner
until Enlightenment for All Beings In All Realms


* asana; means "sit"...to take a seated mind into a posture or moment...traditionally, refers to the Full Lotus and Siddhasana meditation postures...see DL Archives for reams of Teachings on those most important postures

Come Crank the HP Yoga® CHI; June 5th & 6th: Two Master Classes in Flagstaff!

Come crank the world-acclaimed Wholistic Fitness® chi
via an immersion into Sacred Sweat
in Flagstaff as Ananda and i return to our old Sacred Cave:
NORTHERN ARIZONA YOGA CENTER
for a two-day festival of HP Yoga, including a PROP workout!

Hooking Up The Dewa Dots...Student Owen gets the Teaching..

Coach,

Om - Ma - ni (breathe) Pad - me - Hung (breathe)

...turns out to be the perfect cadence of the tribal mantra for alternate breathing during a swimming session & what a great rhythm/flow that was achieved during this morning's aquatic practice!

Please kiss that daughter of yours for me!

Rando

ref: DL - THE "CORRECT WAY" TO SAY THE SACRED TRIBAL MANTRA, AND...ONE OF MY LAST BLOGS

***

Rando,

i was hoping you were gonna hook up those Dots!

well done!

kisses have been delivered en masse...

love, sweat, chant

ilg

Service Enhancement Scheduled for New Website...

WF Assignment: calculate how many times over your Week you see a similar view to this in order to make sure your on WF Par with your Cardio Commuting/Cardio Volumes...this is more than fun and helpful to yourself and Ma Earth, it's a Way of Being which elevates All Beings In All Realms. photo by ilg on my cross bike.

Most Noble WF Sangha;

going off my MAIL program for a couple of days so my computer can get upgraded to make the final headwall to finishing my new Enhanced Website ... please pay attention to InDirect Lines for info.

Online Coaching Students; follow your current training prescription until i'm back with my Mail program in a couple of days....

and EVERYONE:

Trust in the Sweat,
feed thy Heart,
still thy Mind



love,
ilg

Happy, Wholistic M(om)s Day!!! + Yogi Squat of the Week!

photo by ilg earlier this morning,
click to enlarge the Love Hit...

Ananda also wins the Yogi Squat of the Week Award for this one...

(and yes, for those Alert WF Warriors who have NOT lost their Inner Chi-ild,
that is indeed, Thomas and Percy in Dewa's hands!)

"We have all been mothers in previous lives."
- Buddha

Happy Wholesome Mother's Day To All...
especially, my Beloved Ananda...

Life After Death On the A/B Club Ride; Mayday/Breen Loop

click to enlarge the empathic pain hit...

Life after Death via the A/B Club Ride on the infamous Breen/Mayday Loop. photo earlier ago by Ananda on the WF Temple H(om)e Stoop(a).

the WF Warrior must accustom themselves to humility. Again, and again, and endlessly again. We continuously stare into the pain of both body and ego given the noble fact that we refuse to specialize in any one sport or discipline, thus a WF Warrior bravely toes Start Lines as an Endless Beginner.

did okay on the ride...got dropped from the A group on Hesperus Hill (see map on link above) along with more than a few others. after the regroup at Mayday, hung tuff until 13k to go and things got detonated as always on the three 'rollers.' eventually, i won the sprint from the Lead Chase clocking 38.3mph to win it after 44 miles and 2,425' of climbing. Thanks MAP Aminos! Thanks HP PROP!

after a ride like this, my stomach usually can't tolerate any real food. so, ilg does go against the tide of sport nutrition fashion which speaks so highly about 'refilling the glycogen window immediately' after a workout like this with all sorts of carbs.

personally, ilg prefers waiting a couple of hours after a ride like this, staying light, enjoying the feeling of emptiness, and then doing Pranayama after i recover a bit. the body deeply treasures and assimilates prana extremely deeply and effectively if one has the will power to hold off eating physical foods after a brutally go(o)d endurance workout. today, ilg even managed to recover enough without eating anything but a PowerBar (Wild Berry, of course) to go take a "Sport Yoga" class offered by a local gym.

although ilg could find not one morsel of reasoning why this was labeled a "Sport Yoga" class, the instructor did just fine and taught a safe, effective asana class. ilg remains open-mouthed agog at just how effective this 6,000 year-old science of asana remains even in America's watered-down delivery of this Ancient, Wholistic Art and Science of radical self-transformation.

when i do eat s(om)ething after a hard ride, something as simple as a PBJ and an Ilg Supreme will do me just right...and even keep pace with the ever highly charged Dewachen instead collapsing on the couch after a ride and watching Versus! kids. they'll either kill ya, or keep you younger than you ever thought possible...

May this help get you out to a Start Line soon...

in whatever way that means for thee...

Blessed be thy sweat,

abbaji

Postcards from Durango; Telegraph Hill

click to enlarge the Chi Hit...taken from my cheap ass camera phone today...

A fork in the road (5)
The steep, direct Path beckons (7)
Upward and inward (5)

WF Master Student L'gate
NYC

***

what other ever-fresh Student Dharma resides in the amazing WF SanghaLounge?
you won't know how much inspiration and knowledge you are missing
until you keep true to the WF SanghaLounge
and CONTRIBUTE YOUR TRUTH!


***

First another benefit of living the WF Life: chillin' beside my hood bro's; Justin and Dave last night beside Dave's new old sailboat (that's another story...not many sailboats in Durango)...after about 45 minutes of attempting to name Dave's sailboat* listening to Mother Animas rush by as the Dog Star and others began to peck their star-tling punctuations into Father Sky and watching Great Blue Herons soar downriver to bed, our ages came up in conversation. When Justin learned i would turn 48 this month, his jaw dropped, "Jesus, i figgered you were like 33!" WF, baby. The Path works, if you work the Path.

my MTB, "Miles" waits for me during a pee-pee break** beside one of the signature old Telegraph poles for which this ride is named. the Sacred Peak of Dibé Nitsaa lies within view of this shot of my beloved La Plata mountains. thankfully, my urination urge proved beneficial, for ilg was able to clean the anaerobic alley of a 21%, knee-crunching headwall which rears her menacing head(wall) right after this shot. it took about 30 minutes of pedaling from my house to reach this particular spot. The entire 20-mile route is crazy fun, beautiful, and features an outstanding serpentine descent through Anasazi fields of sandstone boulders, gamble oak, pinon, and alpine lupine. oh, and uh...there is about a couple thousand feet of climbing.

want more info?

check out the DURANGO VIBE Cave in the WF SanghaLounge coming soon on our new website! Members only...sorry...however, if you ain't willing to cough up a few pennies per month to help support the stalwart Mission of WF? you deserve to get lost...both on Telegraph Hill and in the Bardo!

coming soon; my new website;
Tribal Members will receive all sorts of rad, wholistic things to help all of us Higher...such as an entire WF-TV lounge filled with streaming videos of every conceivable aspect of Wholistic Fitness®, with naked ilg bouldering included! (CG, hey, you set the bar!)

Blessings be upon thy inner world
and
outer workouts...

el coache


* my suggestion which made it to Dave's short list was, "Ophir Broke" (pun on "Go For Broke"...see, Dave used to live in the nearby yet exceedingly remote (population 113) high mountain hamlet of Ophir

** hey, i am the father of a 2 year-young)

Whoa! a WF License Plate Holder! Sing your Support!

this might be a little bit waaaay too rad not to have!

order yours today; click here!

proceeds go to our fledgling WF Youth Development organization,
and THANK YOU for your Support of Spiritually-based Fitness since 1982!

Practice Stats for April

keeping the hips open while competing at podium levels in endurance sports at national levels...
not such an easy yoga is WF!
ilg in floating full lotus as captured by www.JamesQMartin.com

If WF is about anything, it's about cultivating a humble, yet practical and fiercely determined individual Personal Path which uses daily life as spiritual Practice.

note that i wrote "daily life" instead of merely fitness or sport performance...both of which are simply by-products from the intensely transformative lifestyle principles and teachings of WF.

unencumbered by fixations or attachments upon religious, political, racial, cultural, or even fitness affiliation, WF graces upon her practitioners a keen and ever-deepening sense of the Everyday Sacred. a simple click on any of our Path's precious previous posts wipes away any sense of pretense, commercialism, or attachment to body-oriented fitness schemes which is pandemic during this apex in our Kali Yuga epoch.

i loved using 'apex' and 'epoch' in the same sentence just now.

ilg winced and had to breathe deeply when using 'i' in the above sentence.

let ilg ask the far more intellectual Thee:
how does one write in public without using "I" or "me" or "mine"
when ones spiritual work is all about destroying, deconstructing, demolishing
the
"I" or "me" or "mine"
?

send your answers to me in the ever effervescent WF SanghaLounge: DL Cave.

thank you!

now:
thighs and biceps still quivering in Sacred Sweatisfaction (yes, that is another ilg word) from an evening trail run/bouldering session within the pranic punchbowl known as evening Brahmamuhurti (the hour of God) on Animas Mountain.

as Grandfather skimmed His giving Light like a fatigued skipping stone across Ponderosa pine needles and still naked Gambel Oak limbs, ilg cavorted upon the silky sandstone boulders which have been my Blessed lifelong friend.
not as nimble, nor as strong as once ilg was,
yet,
the sweatisfaction
was as serene as a forward fold after a backbend at the end of an asana session.

***

ilg does not post these often, yet, ilg figgered that his Precious Sangha might be interested in how well i was able to keep my WF Practices intact during a month whereupon the intensely complicated energetics of moving into a new home with a 2 year-young, squeaking onto a podium without much specific training at all, beginning a new yoga program in a local facility, and having serious sewage issues rampage our new home, while attempting to launch an whole new vastly enhanced website (coming soon!).

well, my life is an open-book (hopefully helping others along the Higher Way, however feebly):
let's see how ilg did:

ILG's APRIL PRACTICE STATS:
strength training hours: 9.75
cardio hours: 36.75
asana hours: 36
meditation hours: 23.75
total calories: 52604 (average of: 1,753 kcals/day)

Podiums: 5th place AG; Sqauwker Stage Race: 6th in Time Trial, 9th in Crit, 6th in Road Race

so,
how did your feeble coach stack up?
is ilg still walking his Talk after, uh, 3+ decades of going public?


if you'd enjoy having Coach in your Corner
either through Online Studies,
or a very cost-effective Coaching Retainer,
or
through a Membership at our soon to be released new Membership Only website;
you drop me an email...

and in the meanwhile: go(o)d luck keeping up with your feeble coach!

Give Me MultiDisciplined Fitness or Give Me Death!

TBT: "Never such a book so complete..." Student Sal cranks the wholeness vibe

Noble WF Warrior Student Sal P of Los Angeles;
"i had my bible "total body transformation" , almost half way thru...never such a book so complete so satisfying..and so much fits to my way of living...i am talking about it everywhere..."

***

dear noble protector of dharma

just ordered Sunrider Sunpack ...

i am already experiencing the power of Ai Imawa, daily meditation and HP Yoga DVDs...keep my inner fire on all the time and peaceful. everything i do , i do more relaxed and in a more peaceful manner...


your teachings are changing my life...

...i have not eaten any poultry or meat since 3 weeks and i dont even look for it...
...i cut the coffee from 3-4 cups to barely half cup...
...my body does not tighten up as much as usual...
... i can stand with less sleep...
...i am more calm...
...all those happened within 3-4 weeks of trying to apply your teachings ; Outdoor Athlete, total body transformation book, yoga vd and ai imawa...

...and of course, the Sunrider Herbs and the MAP Aminos!


the first time in life, i feel complete now ...i feel the most lucky, healthy, richest time in life and in the world...who needs more ?

they are all part of each other...i was feeling chirunning when i was watching ai imawa...i was feeling ai imawa when i was practicing chi running..the same goes for yoga...all comes from earth to feet , from feet to center, from center to heart and hands and into air...it just flows from one end to the other..such great feeling..i wish every body was open minded and heart to feel those joys ..

it is now for me to feel all the great tools i have...i have so much to go thru but every one of them takes me to a different deep wonderful journey..i feel like Alice in wonderworld :))

may your light and breath be with you all the time coach...thank you so much for all that deep / great wisdom with us...

salim

***

and a few days later...

***

Dear Coach,
i received my beautiful Blessed Mala from you...i was blown away with the smell of mala, your personal note, and beautiful pix of Gandhi, the scent and leaf...and if that was not enough, i watchedyour Agassiz DVD ...it is like "medicine" as you said...it is the best medicine; meditations, running steep trails, intervals, yoga, climbing and cooking-eating wholly food...i am loving Wholistic Fitness....

for a free soul like me, fridays were my wholistic mountain bike-run and ai imawa day...with my mala, i would take it to mountains and i was gonna do my zazen at the peak. the run is similar to your agassiz but not as hard..just as hard for my physical level.

namaste

sal

Owning The Beauty of Wholeness...

My Yin Prayer Today:

owning the Precious, Priceless Beauty of Practicing Wholeness... the Blessing of 10,000 lifetimes!

My Yang Prayer Today:

ilg prays for all Gulf Coast Beings...phew...until we can take Conscious Care of our own Plane(t), may each of us prioritize Inner Space Exploration over Outer Space Frivolity, Non-fiction over Fiction, InnerAttainment over Entertainment, and Conscious Sweat over Body-Oriented Narcissism. If you doubt this Prayer of mine today, go ask for a second-opinion...from a Gulf Coast Sea Turtle suffocating on an oil-gushing ocean.